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J. JOHN SEKAR
THE AMERICAN COLLEGE

Characteristics of Old English

The earliest inhabitants of England were Britons. They spoke a form of Celtic. It had
close affinities with the language spoken in some districts of northern France. The Britons
regarded the Romans (55 BC – 410 AD) not so much as conquerors but rather as protects.
Soon after the Romans have left, the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes, tribes from North
Germany descended with their hordes and the Celtic supremacy came to an end. Many of the
Britons fled to the hills of Wales, Cornwall and Scotland. The term ‘Old English’ is preferred
to Anglo-Saxon now since it stresses the essential continuity of Modern English with its early
form. The chief objection to this is that it is not as precise as Anglo-Saxon which calls up
definite historical associations.
Old English was not a single homogeneous language. It had dialectal differences,
since the language was spoken differently in seven kingdoms into which the country was
divided. The seven kingdoms were Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Kent, Essex, Sussex
and Wessex. The four dialects were Northumbrian, Mercian, West-Saxon and Kentish. Of all
the dialects, the West-Saxon became the most important because Wessex was the most highly
civilized and was the first that attained a political unity with a fairly ordered system of
government. Secondly, most of the literature of the period was written in the dialect of
Wessex. The early epic Beowulf written in the late 9th c or early 10th c, a number of
translations of religious works, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a historical record started by
King Alfred the Great are the main works written in the dialect of West-Saxon.
Though the English of today is descended mainly from the West-Saxon traces of other
dialects still remain. Their chief legacy to the English is to be found in the existence of
doublets—two words—originally were dialectal variants of the same word. For instance,
whole (free from disease) and hale are preserved in “hale and hearty/healthy”, “Dent and
dint”, “raid”, another form of road.
General Characteristics of the Anglo-Saxon
1. Vocabulary
The Saxon words in English came very near English daily life and concern some of the
most common and essential things of existence as well as the most elementary occupations
and the more obvious natural phenomena. There were only a few Latin words and some Old
Norse ones borrowed into English during the Old English period. Of these, the Old Norse

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words were so closely related to the native Anglo-Saxon ones that they could hardly be
recognized as foreign words.
i. Words for the closer family relationship: father, mother, brother…
ii. Names of most of their staple foods: bread, butter, milk, meat..
iii. Names of most of the typical English trees and widely spread forms of vegetation
iv. The Rose, the national emblem of England owes its name to the Anglo-Saxons,
home and house
The Saxons lived a fairly simple life. Fight was frequent between neighbouring tribes as well
as against the Norse invaders. They have a rudimentary kind of civilization of their own and
peaceful pursuits occupied a fair amount of their time.
v. Names of the simple kinds of weapons: sword, spear, bow, shield.
Their word for tool was loma which has taken a specialized meaning in the word
loom.
vi. Natural features such as the sun, the moon, the stars.
The word ‘star’ (steor) is of particular interest. The early mariners guided their ships at
night by the help of the stars. Hence, they formed a verb steorjan to express the action. By
way of the mutated form stieran, the verb to steer came into existence.
vii. Large division of time: day, night, week, month, year, and fortnight but smaller
units—hour, minute and second come from French.
viii. Stock alliterative phrases: might and main; fair or foul, kith and kin.
ix. Commonest suffixes and prefixes: -dom, -hood, -ing, -ship, forth-, with-(against)
Old English vocabulary was abounded in synonyms and had its grammatical relations
expressed by inflectional endings. It was extremely resourceful. It fashioned its own
compound words and derivatives to express new ideas in Old English. For instance,
Mod - heart, mind, spirit--→ boldness, courage, pride, haughtiness
modig(adj) - spirited,bold, high-minded, arrogant, stiff-necked
modiglic (adj) - magnanimous
modiglice (adv) - boldly, proudly
modigenes (n) - magnanimity, pride
modigian (v) - to bear oneself proudly, to rage, to be indignant
gemoded - disposed, minded
moderaeft - intelligence
modcraaeftig - intelligent

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Old English was rich in vivid expressions and poetic paraphrases. For instance, ship = the
foamy necked floater of the sea.
2. Pronunciation
Old English was roughly phonetic in its spelling.
stan --→ stone fot --→ foot
halig --→ holy fyr --→ fire
ban --→ bone sawol --→ sou
3. Spelling
i) two characters to represent the sound of “th” = p and θ
wip = with; baeθ = bath; paet = that
ii) ae --→ a as in hat
iii) sc --→ sh as in sceap = sheep; scip = ship
iv) c ---→ k as in baec = back
4. Grammar
Anglo-Saxon had a very complicated grammar. There were two declensions of the adjective –
strong and weak. Its nouns had three gender system like modern German. It was fixed very
arbitrarily. The words girl and wife were neuter while stan and mona were masculine, sunne
was feminine. Wifmann (woman) was masculine. Nouns have four cases: Nominative,
Genitive, Dative and Accusative and have two numbers
Singular Plural
(N) stan stan-as
(G) stan-es stan-a
(D) stan-e stan-um
(A) stan stan-as
The conjugation of a verb in Old English gave 16 forms. The subjunctive mood occupied a
prominent place.
5. Old English was a highly inflected language
Through out the period, a process of leveling out took place so that by AD 1000, some of the
inflections were disappearing and paving the way for considerable simplification in the
Middle English period. Inflection means a morphological process that modifies a word’s
form in order to mark the grammatical sub-class to which it belongs.
6. Syntax
Its word-order was not fixed like that of present day English. This was one of the
consequences of the full inflectional system in which relations between words in a sentence

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could be expressed with the help of the inflectional endings. The verb often came at the very
end of the sentence.
7. Gradual change of meaning
A number of words that have come to the present day English have their meanings
changed now. Lord and Lady were originally hlaford and hlaefdige respectively meaning
‘bread-keeper’ and ‘bread-kneedeer.’ Hlaf was the ordinary Anglo-Saxon word for bread (it
becomes loaf now).
The surnames Smith and Wright are two of the commonest words in the language.
Smith was originally an occupational name and is connected etymologically with the verb to
smite, while a Wright was a workman (wrought of to work). So anyone bearing either of
these surnames whatever social eminence he now occupies cannot hide the fact that he is
descended ultimately from humble stock that has risen in the world.
A similar elevation is seen in the case of steward, which originally meant one who
attended to pigs/cattle. The first syllable is no other than the modern sty. The Anglo-Saxon
tun, a small collection of houses have come to signify a rather a bigger collection by 1000
with the coming of a new term village of the Normans.
A number of words that have come to the present day English have their meanings
changed now. For instance,
knave (OE) --→ youth feond --→ enemy silly --→ happy
The third class of change is due to ‘association of ideas.’ For instance, the word bead
in OE meant a prayer but the word became attached to objects rather than to the idea of
prayer. Unkempt which meant un-combed has taken on the more general connotation of
personal untidiness. Uncouth which meant ‘unknown’ gradually came to mean ‘strange’ and
then ‘barbaric.’ Bridal has developed from bryd-ealu (bride-ale), an ale-drinking to celebrate
a marriage. The AS gydig was derived by mutation from god and meant ‘possessed by god.’
The idea of a divine frenzy gave way to that of craziness, which, in turn, yiedled to that
‘light-headed.’ But when we speak of leading a giddy life, there is a kind of reversion to the
original significance.
The ending –shire is cognate with the verb to shear (to clip/to cut) and to share (to
divide out). It was one of the divisions into which the Kingdom was cut up. One of them was
Yorkshire which had three ‘Readings’? It was a thriding or a third part of the country. It is by
a process of elision in hasty speech, West, East and North Thriding became W, E, N Reading
respectively.

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8. Importance of Ablaut or Vowel Gradation

Ablaut literally meant ‘off sound.’ Grimm used the term to indicate the system by
which the Primitive Germanic community, who spoke the Teutonic Language, enriched their
vocabulary threefold by dint of opacing the vowel sound in their words. It indicates a certain
distancing of vowel sounds by which simple words have been provided with a ready change
of form and it qualifies them to express a difference in significance. The English vocabulary
contains many instances of this method of change in vowel sounds.
The Ablaut has found its permanent place in the conjugations of verbs. The Ablaut
has become the chief means of expressing the distinctions of time. The very best examples of
vowel gradation in English are to be found in verbs which had their chief distinctions of time
indicated by the vowel series i, a, u /i, ae, ʌ / as in sing, sang, sung.
Though this ancient system of vowel gradation has become decayed in Modern
English, its traces are to be found in plenty. With some changes, many existing words can be
brought back to the original form. For instance,
ring rang rung swel swal swul
run ran run
Though the working of analogy has upset the vowel gradations in many verbs by making
the vowel of the past to be modelled on that of the participle, it is not uncommon for a child
to use the form ‘dag’ instead of ‘dug’ for the past.
The strong verbs (irregular verbs) in English in which the ablaut is clearly seen, have
been gradually dropping out of use. They now present a broken and decayed order of words.
The system shows a remarkable tenacity of life. For a thousand years, there has been a slow,
continual tendency to make the irregular verbs to merge into the regular verbs, which easily
outnumber them.
By general consent, the conjugation of the irregular verbs is considered a striking
phenomenon. Grimm regards the irregular past as constituting one of the chief beauties of
the Teutonic family of languages.
9. Umlaut or Mutation
The study of the history of any language convinces us that the language never
remains static and uniform. It is in a state of growth and development all the time. Though
changes often apparently capricious, analysis of historical changes shows that each
language follows certain patterns of development. Assimilation is one type of historical
changes. It means the modification of a preceding sound through the influence of following
one or the vice versa. We come across certain vowel changes in OE commonly known as

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Umlaut or Mutation. This indicates a regressive kind of assimilation in which a preceding

vowel changes its quality because of the vowel which follows it.
In OE, there were two kinds of Mutation. The first is known as front mutation or i or
j Mutation. Vowels in accented syllables were modified through the influence of an i or j in
the next syllable and the i or the j subsequently disappeared. The vowels affected were all
back vowels or diphthongs in which one of the elements was a back vowel. The back
vowels were a, o, u and the front vowels e, i, y. The second is known as back mutation or u-
mutation. It affects front vowels.
One might ask what living interest they have for us? They have a good deal. How
many of us have wondered why the plural of foot should be feet and not foots? Why do we
speak of a strong man, but a man’s strength, not strongeth? Why are there two different
forms of the camparative and superlative degrees of the adjective old – older – oldest beside
elder and eldest? Which is the correct plural of brother, the modern brothers or the Biblical
brethren? All these apparent anomalies and many others are explained by i- mutation. The
results of the process, as they are seen in the presentday English can be classified under five
main heads.
i. Mutated plurals
A number of nouns in OE formed their plurals by the addition of the inflection –iz. In
certain combinations, i-mutation would become operative.
a) to0 --→ to0iz ---- i- m --→ te0
b) mus --→ musiz ---- i-m --→ mys
In this way, we can explain the mutated plurals feet, geese, men, etc., Many nouns
dropped their mutated plurals in the Middle English period and conformed to the growing
tendency to add an s to the singular.
The word brother has distinguished itself not only by acquiring two plurals but by
contriving that one of them should be something of a freak.
c) bre0er in dative case took –en in the ME period and an s by the normal method.
If the word had developed along strictly historical lines, it would have have an
uninflected plural like sheep, deer.
In the case of children, the principle of double plural is seen, though there is no
mutation. The original cildru (c=ch) was pluralized as childer and then by the addition of
the –en suffix.
ii. Mutated abstract nouns derived from adjective

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The AS added –iðu ending to an adjective to form an abstract noun and later dropped the
unaccented final u and then became –ið
lang(OE) long --→ langiðu – i-m--→ lengð --→ length
hal (hale) --→ haliðu –i-m--→ haelð --→ health
ful (dirty) --→ fuliðu – i-m--→ fylð --→ filth
iii. Verbs derived by mutation from cognate nouns
The AS formed certain verbal infinitives by the addition of –jan to a noun.
dom (judgment) --→ domjan – i-m --→ deman --→ to deem
fod/brod --→ brodjan – i-m --→ bredan --→ to breed
mot (meeting) --→ motjan – i-m --→ metan --→ to meet
Mot was used of the Saxon parliament named the Witenagmot (the meeting of the wise
men) and is preserved today in the moot-hall (town-hall). From ‘dole’ we get ‘to deal’ (to
share) --→ to dole out, and gold --→ gild (by i-mutation, o --→ e --→ i ).
iv. Verbs derived from adjectives
The ending –jan was added to certain adjectives to make verbs.
hal (whole) --→ haljan --→ haelan --→ to heal
ful --→ fulljan ---→ fyllan --→ to fill.
v. Mutated comparative and superlative degrees of adjectives
The early AS suffixes for comparative and superlative were –ire and –ist.
eal (old) – i-m --→ elder --- i-m --→ eldst
Alternatives have also been formed on the analogy of the positive degree. Elder and eldest
are used only of persons and never of inanimate objects – “the eldest inhabitant Vs the
oldest inhabitant.”
Foreign influences on OE
Old English was not merely the product of the dialects brought to England by the Jutes,
Saxons, and Angles. These formed its basis, the sole basis of its grammar and the source of
the largest part of its vocabulary. In the course of the first seven hundred years of its
existence in England, it was brought into contact with three other languages, the languages
of the Celts, the Romans, and the Scandinavians. An AS disctionary contains about 20,000
words, while the Oxford Dictionary has recorded 4,00,000 words. The greater part of these
words were described as ‘native words’ – words which belonged to the Angles and Saxons
who brought from their German homes. But even at the early period, signs of foreign
elements and influences were visible and the OE spoken about AD.1000 was not a 100%
pure language.

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Indo-European parent language

Certain words have been inherited direct from the Indo-European parent tongue. They were
words for the common family relationships, cardinal numbers from 1 to10, the word for
man, words for the more striking features of nature- day, night, the sun, the moon, the stars,
the wind, thunder, earth, fire and water. The names of the commoner animals such as the
mouse cow, goose, wolf are of Indo-Euro. origin. The Indo-Euro tribes seem to have known
little about agriculture. The AS erian (to plough) can be traced back to the parent tongue and
has cognate forms in all Germanic languages and in Greek, Latin and Welsh. Another rather
remarkable fact is that while the Indo-Euro has given English the words for red and yellow,
it seems to have no term for the commonest colour – green.
Celtic
Celtic, being the original language of Britons, was expected to have influenced OE
considerably, though they are almost negligible. The invasion was so complete that its
contribution was almost nil as a result of absorption and assimilation into the existing
language. Large numbers of the defeated fled to the west. Here, it is apparent that a
considerable Celtic-speaking population survived until fairly lare times. Some such situation
is suggested by a whole cluster of Celtic place-names in the northeastern corner of
Dorsetshire. It is altogether likely that many Celts were held as slaves by the conquerors and
that many of the Teutons married Celtic women. The Kingdom of Kent owes its name to the
Celtic word Canti or Cantion while the two ancient Northumbrian kingdoms of Deira and
Bernicia derive their designations from Celtic tribl names.
The name London itself mostl likely goes back to a Celtic designation. The first
syllable of Winchester, Salisbury, Exeter, Gloucester, Worceter, Lichfield, and a score of
other names of cities is traceable to a Celtic source, while the earlier name of Canterbury
and the name York are originally Celtic. But it is in the names of rivers and hills and places
in proximity to these natural features that the greatest number of Celtic names survive.
Thus the Thames is a Celtic river name, and various Celtic words for river or water are
preserved in the names Avon, Exe, Esk, Usk, dover, and Wye. Celtic words meaning ‘hill’
are found in place-names. Besides these purely Celtic elements, a few Latin words such as
castra, fontana, fossa, portus, and vicus were used in naming places during the Roman
occupation of the island and were passed on by the Celts to the English. It is natural that
Celtic place-names should be commoner in the west than in the east and southeast, but the
evidence of these names shows that the Celts impressed themselves upon the Teutonic

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consciousness at least to the extent of causing the newcomers to adopt many of the local
names current in Celtic speech and the make them a permanent part of their vocabualry.
Latin
In his Etymological Dictionary, Walter Skeat records 108 words in use in English today
which have come from Latin by way of Anglo-Saxon. Henry Bradley in The Making of
English States that about 400 words of Latin origin were found in English in the AS period
– i.e., 2% of the total vocabulary. The Latin influence can be classfied under three heads.
Latin was not the language of of a conquered people. It was the langauge of a race with a
higher civilization, a race from which the Teutons had much to learn. Contact with that
civilization, at first commercial and military, later religious and intellectual, extended over
many centuries and was constantly renewed. It began long before the Anglo-Saxons came to
England and continued throught the Old English period. For several hundred years, while
the Teutons who later became the English were still occupying their continental homes, they
had various relations with the Romans through which they acquired a considerable number
of Latin words. Later when they came to England they saw the evidences of the long Roman
rule in the island and learned from the Celts a few additional Latin words which had been
acquired by them. And a century and a half later still, when Roman missionaries
reintroduced Christianity into the island, this new cultural influence resulted in a really
extensive adoption of Latin elements into the language. There were thus three distinct
occasions on which borrowing from Latin occurred before the end of the Old English
period.
Continental Borrowing
The first Latin words to find their way into the English language owe their adoption to the
early contact between the Romans and the Germanic tribes on the continent. Several
hundred Latin words found in the various Teutonic dialects testify to the extensive contact
between the two races. The number of Germans living within the empire by the fourth
century is estimated at several million. They are found in all ranks and classes of society,
from slaves in the fields to commanders of important divisons of the Roman army. While
they were scattered all over the empire, they were naturally most numerous along the
northern frontier. Close to the border was Treves, the most flourishing city in Gaul in the 3rd
and 4th c, already boasting Christian churches, a focus of eight military roads, where all the
luxury and splendour of Roman civilization were united almost under the gaze of the
Teutons. Traders, Germans as well as romans, came and went, while German youth
returning from within the empire must have carried back glowing accounts of Roman cities

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and Roman life. Such contacts between the two races was certain to carry words from one
language to the other. After the conquest of Gaul by Casaer, Roman merchants quickly
found their way into all parts of the Germanic territory, even into Scandinavia, so that the
Teutons living in these remoter sections were by no means cut off from Roman influence.
The adopted words naturally indicate the new conceptions which the Teutons
acquired from this contact with a higher civilization. Next to agriculture the chief
occupation of the Germans in the empire was war, and this experience is reflected in words
like camp, javelin, wall, pit, road, street, and mile. More numerous are the words connected
with trade. The Teutons traded amber, furs, slaves, and probably certain raw materials for
the products of Roman handicrafts, articles of utility, luxury, and adorrment. While the
words bargain, to trade, commerce, shop are fundamental, pound, bushel, load, burden, coin
are borrowed from Latin. One of the most important branches of Roman commerce with the
Teutons was the wine trade. Hence, such words in English as wine, must (new wine),
vinegar, flask, bottle. A large number of the new words relate to domestic life and designate
household articles, clothing etc.: kettle, table, bench, stool, carpet, curtain, pillow, necklace,
kitchen, cup, dish, spoon, line, gem. The Teutons adopted Roman words for certain foods
such as cheese, wheat, pepper, mustard, chestnut, cherry, butter, onion, plum, pea. Roman
contributions to the building arts are evidenced by such words as chalk, copper, pitch, tile,
mule, dragon, peacock, safe, bald, pipe, church, bishop, emperor, Saturday.
mynet (money) -- moneta --→ mint
Legacy of Roman occupation
It is probable that the use of Latin as a spoken language did not long survive the end of the
roman rule in the island and that such vestiges as remianed for a time were lost in the
disorders that accompanied the Teutonic invasions. There was thus no opportunity for direct
contact between Latin and Old English in England, and such Latin words as could have
found their way into English would have come in through Celtic transmission. The Celts,
indeed, had adopted a considerable number of Latin words – over 600 – but the relations
between the Celts and the English were such that these words were not passed on. Among
the few Latin words that the Teutons seem likely to have acquired upon settling in England,
one of the most likely is ceaster. This word, which represents the Latin castra (camp) is a
common designation in Old English for a town or enclosed community. It forms a familiar
element in English place-names such as Chester, Colchester, dorchester, Worcester and
many others. Some of these refer to sites of Roman camps, but it must not be thought that a
Roman settlement underlies all the towns whose names contain this common element. The

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English attached it freely to the designation of any enclosed place intended for habitation,
and many of the places so designated were known by quite different names in Roman times.
A few other words are port, harbour, gate, town, mountain, tower, rock. It is possible that
some of the Latin words which the Teutons had acquired on the continent such as street,
wall, wine, etc. were reinforced by the presence of the same words in Celtic. Most of the
words became anglicized and thus intermingled.
i) mil (mile) -- mille passus ( a 1000 paces)
ii) win (wine) -- vinum. /v/ in Latin is pronounced /w).
iii) weal (wall) -- vallum
iv) weg (a road) -- via --→ way
v) via strata (a paved way) --→ street
vi) Media via (the Middle way) was coined when the Romans found a river running
through the middle of Kent. Today it is called the Medway.
vii) caester (camp) -- castra
(Normally, c before a front vowel was pronounced like the modern ch, but in the north
under the Danish influence, it was hardened to k sound. Hence, Manchester, Rochester but
Doncaster, Lancaster).
Result of introduction into England of Latin X’ianity
The greatest influence of Latin upon Old English was occasioned by the introduction
of Christianity into Britain in 597. In the 6the c, Pope Gregory sent Augustine to gain new
converts for the Catholic Church. Teutonic philosophy exalted physical courage,
independence even to haughtiness, loyalty to one’s family or leader that left no wrong
unavenged. Christianity preached meekness and humility, patience under suffering. Clearly,
it was no small task which Augustine and his forty monks faced in trying to alter the age-old
mental habits of such a people. Fortunately, upon their arrival in England one circumstance
was in their favour. There was in the kingdom of Kent, in which they landed, a small
number of Christians. But the number, though samll, included no less a person than the
queen and the king was baptized within three months from the day Augustine landed. By
the time Augustine died seven years later the kingdom of Kent had become wholly
Christian.
The introduction of Christianity meant the building of churches and the
establishment of monasteries. Latin, the language of the services and of ecclesiastical
learning, was once more heard in England. Schools were established in most of the
monasteries and alrger churches. The many new conceptions which followed in the train of

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the new religion naturally demanded expression and found the resources of the langauge
inadequate. In fact it is fairly easy to divide the Latin borrowings of this period into two
groups. The one group represents words whose phonetic form shows that they were
borrowed early and whose early adoption is attested also by the fact that they ahd found
their way into literature by the time of Alfred. The other contins words of a more learned
character first recorded in the 10th and 11th c and they express more often ideas of a
scientific and learned character.
First group
i) mynster -- monasterium
ii) munue (monk) -- monachus
iii) biscop (bishop) -- episcopus
iv) preost (priest) -- presbyter
v) maesse (Mass) -- missa --→ mittere (to send)
Incidentally, it may be noticed that a few native that a few native words which have been
connected with the old pagan religion took on a new significance with the coming of
christianity since the missionaries wisely sought as far as possible to build upon native
tradition rather than to uproot it.
i) hysl acquired the meaning of sacrament. Earlier it was the word for sacrifice.
ii) ‘Easter’ took its name from an old pagan feast held to celebratre the resurrection of
nature with the coming of spring.
Second group
Anti-christ, antiphoner, apostle, cantor, canticle, cell, demon, dirge, idol, prime, prophet,
sabbath, synagogue, accent, brief, decline, history, paper, term, title.
A great number of plant names are recorded in this period. Many of them are
familiar to readers of old herbals. Some of the better known include coriander, cucumber,
ginger. A few names of trees such as cedar, cypress, fig, laural, almond might be added.
Medical terms like cancer, paralysis, plaster and words relating to the animal kingdom like
viper, camel, scorpion, tiger belong apparently to the same category of learned and literary
borrowing.
Scandinavian or Old Norse
Near the end of the Old English period English underwent a third foreign influence,
the result of contact with another important language, the Scandinavian. The incursions of
the Danes started towards the end of the 8th c when bands of Norse marauders plundered the
east Coast and finally established a few settlements. After a 100 years, these settlements

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became numerous and they began to move into both the Southern and Northern parts of
England. In the year 878, Alfred, by the Treaty of Wedmore, allowed the Danes to settle in
the North from London to Chester, while the South was left under Saxon jurisdiction.
Though the division was of a purely political character, it was destined to have its effect on
the development of the language into two parts of the country. The Scandinavian influence
can be studied under two heads. Skeat’s Etymological Dictionary gives about 500 words of
Norse origin which are in use today. Danish influence was fairly widespread and went
deep.
The relation between the two languages in the district settled by the Danes is a
matter of inference rather than exact knowledge. While in some places the Scandinavians
gave up their language early, there were certainly communities in which Danish or Norse
remained for some time the usual language. Up until the time of the Norman Conquest the
Scandinavian languge in England was constantly being renewed by the steady stream of
trade and conquest.
The similarity between Old English and the language of the Scandinavian invaders
makes it at times very difficult to decide whether a given word in Modern English is a
native or a borrowed word. One of the simplest tests to recognize is the development of the
sound sk. In Old English this was early palatalized to sh (written sc), whereas in the
Scandinavain countries it retained its hard sk sound. Consequently, while native words like
ship, shall, fish have sh in Modern English, words borrowed from the Scandinavians are
generally still pronounced with sk: sky, skin, skill, scrape, scrub, bask, whisk. The Old
English scyrte has become shirt, while the corresponding Old Norse form skyrta gives us
skirt. In the same way the retention of the hard pronunication of k and g in such words as
kid, dike, get, give, gild, egg, is an indication of Scandinavian origin.
Danish influence in place-names
Among the extensive Scandinavian settlement in England is the large number of
places that bear Scandinavian names. When we find more than 600 places like Grimsby,
whitby, Derby, Rugby, and with names like ending in –by, nearly all of them in the district
occupied by the Danes, we have a striking evidence of the number of Danes who settled in
England. In Danish ‘by’ meant ‘farm’ or ‘town, a word which is also seen in ‘by-law’ (town
law). The term ‘by’ in the word by-law, which is NOT a lesser law, but a law made by the
council of a town as distinct from the one made by parliament to the entire country. The
word ‘by’ is related to the English words borough and bury.

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Some 300 names like Althop, Bishopsthorpe, Gawthorpe, Linthorpe contain the
word thorp (village). An almost equal number contain the word thwaite (an isolated piece
of land) – Applethwaite, Braithwaite, Cowperthwaite, Langthwaite, Satterthwaite. About a
hundred places bear names ending in toft (a piece of ground) – Brimtoft, Eastoft, Langtoft,
Lowestoft, Nortoft. These elements entered intimately in the speech of the people of the
Danelaw. Names ending in -son, like Stevenson or Johnson, conform to a characteristic
Scandinavian custom, the equivalent Old English patronymic being –ng, as in Browning.
Introduction of new words of Danish / Old Norse origin
It was after the Danes had begun to settle down peacefully in the island and enter into the
ordinary relations of life with the English that Scandinavian words commenced to enter in
numbers into the language. The Danish invasions were not like the introduction of
Christianity, bringing the English into contact with a different civilization and introducing
them to many things physical as well as spiritual, that they had not known before. The
civilization of the invaders was very much like that of the English themselves, if anything
somewhat inferior to it. Consequently, the Scandinavian elements that entered the English
language are such as would make their way into through the give and take of everyday life.
Their character can best be conveyed by a few examples.
Nouns: band, bank, birth, boon, booth, calf, dirt, days of the week, egg, fellow, gap, guess,
keel, kid, knife, leg, link, loan, mire, race, rift, root, scales, score, scrap, seat, sister, skill,
skin, skirt, sky, slaughter, snare, stack, steak, swain, thrift, tidings, trust, want, window.
Adjectives: awkward, flat, ill, loose, low, meek, odd, rotten, rugged, scant, seemly, sly,
tattered, tight, week.
Verbs: to bait, bask, batten, call, cast, clip, cow, crave, crawl, die, drrop, gape, gasp, get,
give, glitter, kindle, lift, ransack, rake, rid, scare, scout, screech, snub, sprint, take, thrive,
thrust.
Form words: to, from, at, are, they their, them, him, both, same, till
In OE, the word dream meant joy. The present meaning came in with the Norsemen.
Conclusion
The English language despite all its borrowings and all the foreign influences that have been
brought to bear upon it, is predominantly Anglo-Saxon in character.

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