The Scandinavian invasion and its effect on English

By the end of the 8-th cent Britain was often invaded by Vikings (Danes from Denmark and Northmen from Scandinavia). England was invaded by Danes, Scotland and Ireland by Northmen. At first they came in small groups, than in large bands conquering territories one after another. Wessex kingdom under Alfred the Great began to struggle. But still Scandinavian invasion had made some effect on English:

1. words beginning on “sk” (sky, skirt, skin)

2. the system of personal pronouns (they, them, their)

3. the form ‘are’ of the verb “to be”

4. the ending –s- for Present Simple, 3-rd person singular (in verbs) (he makes, she gives).

5. the system of personal names ending on –son-: Davidson, Richardson, Jefferson.

6. there are more then 1500 words of Scandinavian origin in NE: sister, bad, fog, cake, get, again etc.

The influence was felt in 2 spheres

§ vocabulary – law, husband, loose, root, sky, smile, want;

§ morphology – the verb system was expanding.

The Norman Conquest and its effect on English.

The last of the invaders to come to Britain were the Normans from France. In 14 October 1066 Duke William of Normandy defeated the English at the battle of Hastings and established his rule in the country as King of England. He is known as William the Conqueror. They started a new period in England, which is known as Norman period. The Normans settled in the country and the French language became the official language of the ruling class. This explains the great number of French words in English (80%) – boots, pearl, beef, biscuit, home, sir, council, tax.

Originally they were also Germanic tribes, but having won the territory of France, they practically assimilated with the people of France and took its high culture and language.

1. French is the lang. of upper classes & some French borrowings replaced the native words (very, river, easy)

2. Many synonyms appeared: E.g.: language (Fr) – tongue (Eng);desire (Fr) – wish (Eng)

large, huge (Fr) – great (Eng)

3. French effected all aspects of life:

a. Government and administration: eg.: nation, people.

b. Legislation: e.g.: judge, court.

c. Military term: navy, war.

d. Literature and arts: music

e. Education: ink, college.

f. Fashion: dress.

g. Trade, profession: tailor, grocer.

h. Religion: pray.

i. Cooking: roast, fry, boil.

4. Some French affixes were contributed into English (com-, sub-, dis-, -ment, -ish, -able)

5. Digraphs used in French borrowings were adopted in the ME texts: |ou – u:| |ie – e:| | ch – t∫|

6. The introduction of the letters j, k, q, v

7. Two possible variants of pronunciation of G & C.

75% of borrowings have survived in NE.