Essay on a theme Positive and negative moments of Scandinavians and Normans invasions for the English language.

English is the most widely spoken language in the world. In fact, English is used in over 90 countries. Currently, nearly two billion people around the globe understand it. English is the language of navigation, aviation, science, computing, international trade, diplomacy and Christianity. It holds a crucial place in the cultural, political and economic events in countries all over the world. Recently, English has become a global language that is regularly used and understood by many countries where English is not the first/native language. It is also known that over one billion people worldwide are currently learning English, making it unarguably a global language. But I guess the majority of people dont realize how the English language appeared and why its spoken in such way as we speak nowadays but not in some other way. It wasnt so that English appeared and people began to speak. It would be a very easy way for the language which has such an extremely large vocabulary now (with over 250,000 unique words). People dont suspect that the formation of English was a long process and many different languages influenced to it. Moreover, we can say that this process is going on because its peculiar to language to absorb something in itself and to change under the influence of other languages. Really, the English language has a rich history which can answer and explain the following question: what was the result of language formation? And I hope I wont be mistaken if I say that the language we now know as English, to some extent, is a product of the numerous invasions of warlike peoples into the British Isles. Actually, the British Isles were invaded many times and have been the home of many tribes like Romans, Celts, Angles, Saxons and the subject of this essay,

Scandinavians (or Vikings) and Normans. And, of course, each of them brought something special into the English language. Besides, its necessary to notice that Scandinavian and Norman invasions played the biggest role for English language especially from the linguistic point of view. That is why Id like to pay more attention just these key events against which the language was shaped.

The Vikings began to raid and settle in England in 787AD. When the Vikings arrived in the British Isles the dominant language was the Old English of the Anglo-Saxons, while the Vikings themselves spoke Old Norse. The new settlers and the English intermarried and intermixed; they lived close together and did not differ either in social rank or in the level of culture and customs. Eventually the Scandinavians were absorbed into the local population both ethnically and linguistically. They merged with the society around them, but the impact on the linguistic situation and on the further development of the English language was quite profound. The most positive moment is that speakers of Norse languages made lots of additions to the English lexicon. Many English words beginning with th- originate from Old Norse, although the sound did already exist in Old English. Examples: thrall (slave), thrift, thwart, thrust, they, there, then. Likewise, most English words starting with sk- are Norse in origin, such as: skein, skirt, sky, skill, skate, sky, skid, skittle. Other Norse-derived words include anger, ugly, knife, troll, boulder, slang, tackle, whore, keg, husband, egg, bun, clown, cake, freckle, window, gate, and many more. There are some which are possibly Norse in origin but are more

ambiguous; because Old Norse and Old English are Germanic in origin, they share many similar words, so it is not always easy to tell which a Norse introduction was and which is simply a similar word of Anglo-Saxon provenance. The following interesting invention connects with names. People owe many common English names to the Danish invaders. Eric descends from the common Norse name Erik or Eirik. Howard appears to be a variation of the Scandinavian Havard. Probably the most common Norse contribution to English names is the addition of the patronymic -son at the end of a word. A patronymic is a name component that indicates the person's paternal ancestry, and it is common in different forms throughout Europe. So Andersson is the son of Anders, Williamson is William's son, and so on. Numerous place names are Norse in origin too. The suffix -by means yard, farmstead or village. This is seen in place names such as Grimsby, Normanby, Rugby, Selby, Barnby and Sotheby. The suffix -Thwaite means "meadow" in Old Norse and appears in place names such as Braithwaite and Langthwaite. -Thorpe is another Norse name for village, and is seen in place names like Winthorpe and Scunthorpe. -dale means valley in such names like Cardeldale, Dovedale or Wensleydale. The ending force/foss is translated by the Vikings language like waterfall, e.g. in Catfoss, Fangfoss, High Force and Wilberfoss. These examples of place names show where Vikings once lived.

Also an interesting detail was noticed in the street names for which the standard Scandinavian ending is gate (from Old Norse gata), which means a way, street or road. We can see this form in cities such as Leeds and York and towns like Beverley. For example: Briggate = bridge street Coppergate = street of the cup makers Kirkgate = church street In addition, we should mention about the loanwords. For example, the verb get, one of the most used in English was actually borrowed from Old Norse. The words leg, sky or window are also of Scandinavian provenance. Its necessary to say that one of the most important moments is also that when the Norse had settled in England they brought with them a language that was from the same linguistic family, and indeed enabled them to be understood by their English neighbours. The culture was also similar, not surprising considering that the original English had come from Scania, Denmark and the North Sea coast bordering Denmark. In addition the new comers supplemented, rather than replaced, both the aristocracy and the commons. As a result assimilation was very quick and easy even before the fighting stopped. But absolutely another situation was when the Normans brought with them an alien culture and language. Add to this their social status as the new ruling class, and it is no shock to find that assimilation was slower, and the new society and language that emerged was so radically changed from that which they found when they arrived uninvited in 1066. Its obvious that William the First, Duke of Normandy, conquered England. The French rule over England lasted for several centuries and brought about innumerable changes to the English state, language, culture and lifestyle. William imported French rulers to take over English government and religious posts. The

French were not only the new aristocracy in England, but the new society. The English language was more changed by the Norman Conquest than by any other event in the course of English history. In addition to introducing new words into the English language, the Normans also introduced some new sounds. The English had previously had no phonemic distinction between /f/ and /v/; /v/ was merely an allophone of /f/ that occurred between vowels. However, with the influx of French loans which began in /v/ and contrasted as minimal pairs in English, this distinction made its way into Middle English: vetch> fetch, view> few, vile> file. The French also influenced the adoption of several new diphthongs into English, such as /eu/ neveu neveu (nephew), /au/ cause cause, /Ui/ bouillir boille (boil). The largest influence that the Normans had on the English language was on its vocabulary. During the Norman occupation, about 10,000 French words were adopted into English, some three-fourths of which are still in use today. This French vocabulary is found in every domain, from government and law to art and literature ( la carte "on the menu", la mode "in fashion, style", bon apptit "good appetite" and so on). More than a third of all English words are derived directly or indirectly from French, and it's estimated that English speakers who have never studied French already know 15,000 French words. You can see 1,700 words that are identical in the two languages right here: absent (adjective),

accident (masculine noun), cancer (masculine noun) and much more examples. Besides, the French influence was so strong in such aspect as English phonology. French introduced two novel graphemes to Middle English, *q* and *z*. Moreover, French introduced several new digraphs to the English orthography. They introduced the combinations *ou* and *ow* to represent the phoneme /u/, in loans such as hour and round.

The French language contributed many new affixes to the English language during the Middle English period. Most common prefixes and suffixes appeared in the language after the Normans appeared on English soil. Prefixes such as re-, deand in- and suffixes like -able, -ist, -ify and -ment are all relics of the period of French rule in England. Prefixes counter-, inter and mal-, and suffixes -age, -al, ery, -ess and -ity directly descend from the French. English pronunciation owes a lot to French as well. Whereas Old English had the unvoiced fricative sounds *f+, *s+, *+ (as in thin), and *+ (shin), French influence helped to distinguish their voiced counterparts [v], [z], [] (the), and [] (mirage), and also contributed the diphthong [y] (boy). Another rare but interesting remnant of French influence is in the word order of expressions like secretary general and surgeon general, where English has retained the noun + adjective word order typical in French, rather than the usual adjective + noun used in English. Clearly, when the Normans invaded the Saxon shore in 1066 they influenced much more than the existing language. Almost every aspect of English life was changed when the French took over their rule. However, one may argue that the longest-lasting impact of the Norman Invasion was that on the English language.

In conclusion, I want to say that the English language experienced extensive linguistic change as a result of the Vikings Incursions during the eighth and ninth centuries as well as the Norman Invasion beginning in 1066. Although Norman French created a lasting influence on specific areas such as vocabulary and phonology, Old Norse had a more substantial linguistic effect on the English

language. Besides, both languages contributed to the sounds of English through phonological addition. Nowadays the Norse influence in England is more prominent in the Northeastern areas that were part of the old Danelaw. Yorkshire is the most obvious example, where Norse words live on in local slang. And nevertheless the three hundred years of the domination of French affected English more than any other foreign influence before or after. In general, the French borrowings concerned the fields of culture, aristocratic life, politics and religion, whereas the English words were used to describe everyday experience. Of course, when the Normans arrived in England, their copyists wrote English as they heard it, not realizing that there was no correspondence between the AngloSaxon pronunciation and spelling, and in this way the spelling changed. There appeared different regional Modern-English written dialects, of which the one that the king chose in the 15th century became the standard variety. Anyway, I think that the Middle English was the basis for the Modern English we speak and write today. It is not difficult to recognize the areas where French influence still dominates the language. For example, Im sure that any student of Modern French can see the similar lexical terms between it and Present-Day English, despite the fact that French and English derive historically from different sources. Finally, it would be impossible to speculate what the English language might look like today if the Vikings and the Normans had never invaded Britain.

This work was written by Elvira Hazieva, the student of group 1008.