Scandinavian Loanwords

Scandinavian Loanwords

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. Loyn (1994:78-79) and

other scholars claim that the two languages, both of the Germanic branch, were probably still

rather similar, thus making it possible for both sides to understand each other, although with a

little effort. The two languages were cognates, and similar in their basic structures.

Additionally, a certain degree  of bilingualism may have developed over time, but there is

however much disagreement over this issue. It is not clear if the Danes, the English, or both,

became bilingual (Ruiz-Moneva 1997:187).

     By 1100 the English in the north and east had been modified to what Loyn (1994:79) calls

Anglo-Scandinavian. This was at the end of the Viking Age but that did not mean that Old

Norse stopped being used in Britain; it was  spoken for a long time thereafter as well.

Travelling by sea was still important, and contacts were kept with the Isle of Man, Irish ports

and the Northern Isles, which helped to keep the language alive. These places all contained a

large and influential Norse-speaking population until the late twelfth century, and sometimes

longer (Loyn 1994:81). The Orkney and Shetland Islands also had an important role in

keeping the language alive. The Orkneys are particularly interesting, since the Norse language

was spoken there throughout the Middle Ages, and remained the common language until the

1500s when the Anglicisation began and the population probably became bilingual. The

complete Scandinavisation of Orkney and Shetland was quite unique;  nowhere else did the

same thing occur (Loyn 1994:103-104).

     The Anglo-Saxon literary tradition shows  few signs of the long coexistence of the two

languages, other than in the legal field, but the impact of the Scandinavians’ language would

prove to be very deep and  far-reaching (Loyn 1994:82). However, the majority of the

Scandinavian loanwords are first recorded after 1100, during the Middle English period; the 10

main reason for this is that there are so few Old English texts from the Danelaw. Kastovsky

(1992:331) also mentions the possibility that Danish could have been an exclusively spoken

language, which might explain the everyday character of the Scandinavian loans, and the lack

of written records. Additionally, it sometimes takes a long time for a new word to appear in

written form even though it may be frequently used in the daily oral language (Ruiz-Moneva

1997:189). However, one very important loanword, the verb to call, was recorded in a war

poem around 991 (Hug 1987:2), so it is clear that the Scandinavian linguistic influence was

starting to show, even this early.

     Naturally, the massive migration and settlement that the Scandinavians undertook led to

extensive use of the Norse tongue in the area of the Danelaw, and we can see evidence of it

even today through its influences on the English language. Scandinavian vocabulary

penetrated nearly every area of the language (Jones 1984:422), but most words of

Scandinavian origin in English are concrete everyday words. A few examples follow here: 

o  The nouns bank, birth, booth, egg, husband, law, leg, root, score, sister, skin, trust,

wing and window

o  The adjectives awkward, flat, happy, ill, loose, low, odd, sly, ugly, weak, and wrong

o  The verbs to cast, clip, crawl, cut, die, drown, gasp, give, lift, nag, scare, sprint, take,

and want. And of course the present plural of ‘to be’, are.

o  The pronouns both, same, they, them and their 

A few examples of later borrowings from the Scandinavian languages are  fjord,  saga,  ski,

slalom, smorgasbord and viking (Odenstedt 2000:88).

     The fact that even the pronouns ‘they’, ‘them’ and ‘their’  were accepted into the language

shows what massive effectsthe Viking settlement had. Of course, since the development of the

Old English pronouns had led to them being very similar and a cause of ambiguity and

misunderstandings, it was easy to accept the Norse variant (Loyn 1994:82). Nevertheless, it is 11

very unusual that grammatical items are borrowed. Furthermore, ‘they’ appears to have been

brought into the language earlier than the other pronouns; writers in the 15

th

 century used

‘they’ but were still using the older forms her (‘their’) and hem (‘them’) (Odenstedt 2000:87). 

     It can be difficult to recognise the Scandinavian words since the languages are so closely

related; many words that look Scandinavian are actually native English words. For instance,

arm,  foot,  tree,  cow,  stone,  land,  eat, and  drink  are all recorded in early Old English

(Odenstedt 2000:87). Odenstedt continues by mentioning certain  ways to decide whether a

word is a Scandinavian loan:

1. Germanic /sk/ became /∫ / (sh) in all positions. This change occurred later in

Scandinavia, and therefore words like  shall,  shoulder and  shirt are native English

words whereas skin, sky and skirt are Scandinavian words. 

2. In early Old English the Germanic /g/ before front vowels became /j/, and /k/ became

/t/. In Old Norse /g/ and /k/ remained. Thus,  child,  choose  and yield are all native

words, while give, gift, kid and kindle are Scandinavian. 

3. Date of first appearance. For instance, the Old English word for ‘take’ was niman, but

in late Old English tacan is found. The Old Norse word was taka, which shows that it

must have been borrowed from the Scandinavians. In the same way, the word for

‘law’ was originally æ but a later recording is lagu, which comes from Old Norse.

In fact, judging by the large number of Scandinavian words in the legal area, The Vikings had

a considerable impact upon the law and order of the Anglo-Saxons. Some examples are fellow

(‘partner’), law, and outlaw. Even more Scandinavian words related to the legal area existed

in Old English but were later replaced. Not only did the Scandinavian peoples bring their laws

and customs to the Danelaw, but their view on law and legal custom was to a great extent

acknowledged by all of England (Jones 1984:423). 

Baugh (1993:95) also mentions that, in addition to the rules above, the vowel of a word

can sometimes indicate that it is a loanword; for instance, in Old English the Germanic

diphthong /ai/ became /a:/, whereas it became /ei/ or /e:/ in Old Norse. Thus words like aye,

nay, and reindeer are borrowings. Baugh further concludes that tests based on these kinds of

sound-developments are the most reliable ways to separate Scandinavian from native words,

but sometimes it is also possible by looking at the meaning of words. The word bloom, for

instance, could derive from Old English bloma or the Scandinavian blom. The Scandinavian

word had the meaning of ‘flower’ or ‘bloom’, while the OE word meant ‘ingot of iron’. Both

meanings have survived in Modern English; the Scandinavian meaning of ‘flower’ has been

retained in the daily use of the word, and the Old English form exists as a metallurgic term.

The same can be applied to the word gift, which was previously discussed. The initial g does

point to the Scandinavian origin of the word, but if we did not know this a look at the

meaning of the cognates might help. The Old English gift had the meaning ‘price of a wife’,

whereas the Old Norse word meant ‘gift, present’. 

     Many of the new Scandinavian words must have made their way into the English language

simply by chance; the Old Norse and Old English words were used side by side, and which

would survive depended on things such as differences in meaning and form (Baugh 1993:98).

In the words of Ruiz-Moneva (1997:190): 

     “The preferred form must have been the one with which maximum mutual understanding  

     was achieved.”  

     Large numbers of Scandinavian loans are also, not very surprisingly, found in war and

seafaring terms (Kastovsky 1992:333). For instance,  keel,  knife, and  slaughter. Today, a

higher number of Scandinavian words are found in the dialects of Yorkshire and Scotland,

than in the rest of Britain. Similarly, in the northern and Scottish dialects, words that do not

exist in the southern parts of the country are also found. For instance gate (meaning ‘street’ or

‘road’),  ken (‘know’), and  kirk (‘church’) (Odenstedt 2000:88). ‘Gates’ in London, such as 13

Newgate, were places literally at gates in the city wall, whereas in northern cites such as York

the –gate means ‘street’. For instance, Briggate – ‘Bridge Street’, and Kirkgate – ‘Church

Street’ (Barber 1993:132). 

     There also seems to be a difference between the form taken by early and late Norse loans;

in Old English the Norse loans usually underwent cognate substitution and took an English

form, but in Middle English loans the Norse form is retained (Townend 2002:201). A possible

explanation is that the Old English loans were borrowed by English speakers while Old Norse

was still a living language, and the Middle English loans being the result of Norse speakers

shifting to English as their own language slowly died out, and thus brought the Norse words

with them. 

     Baugh (1993:92) estimates the number of Scandinavian loanwords in English to be well

over 1400, while Odenstedt (2000:53) mentions a more modest figure of at least 1000. What

is clear is that it is a small number compared to the size of the English lexicon, but still quite

substantial, considering the nature of the Scandinavian ‘colonisation’. 

      The Scandinavian influence also reached into matters of grammar and syntax, although

this is more difficult to show and will not be  further explored here. However, the –s of the

third person singular has been attributed to the Scandinavian influence, as well as the ending 

–t in words like  scant and  want, which was originally the Norse neuter ending. The

inflectional endings were often the only difference and obstacle to the mutual understanding

of Norse and English words, and the loss of the inflections in Old English was accelerated by

the Scandinavian presence (Baugh 1993:101).

     The Danelaw collapsed only some fifty years after its establishment but the Scandinavian

settlers nevertheless remained in the area. The West Saxons had gradually reconquered it, and

eventually the Scandinavians accepted the Saxon king as their own. They did not, however,

live as an isolated group; they were absorbed into the Anglo-Saxon population, and 14

intermarriage was frequent (Wilson 1980:174).  The importance of the Vikings in Britain did

not end with the fall of the Danelaw; they continued raiding England sporadically and in 1016

the Danish King Knut (Canute) also became king over all of England. However, his reign was

short and it is fair to say that with his death the decline of the Viking Age started (Wilson

1980:178).

In conclusion, the Scandinavian imprint on Britain was very deep indeed. The

Scandinavians managed to penetrate nearly every British domain; they affected the law

system of the Anglo-Saxons, they modified the agricultural system in areas of the Danelaw,

there are thousands of place-names of Scandinavian origin,  Viking rune-stones have been

found in certain areas, and the English vocabulary has been very much influenced by the

Norse tongue.