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【Abstract】 The Scandinavian plays an important role in the development of English. There is a close relationship between the Scandinavian and English. The Scandinavian influenced English in such aspects as loanword (including a great number of words). That many Scandinavian entered or replaced original English vocabulary was not completed in a short time . The Scandinavian took an important place in the history of English langlage. A great number of the Scandinavian forms, loanwords and spelling rules of words were contributed to English. Some words were handed down from Old English, but these words were in the from of the scandinavian or loaned from the Scandinavian expressions. Because of the Scandinavian influence upon Old English, some Old English words had metathesis. It took quite a long time for a great number Scandinavian to join or replace some original English vocabularies.
【Key words】ScandinavianOld English Modern English relationship influence metathesisloanword Dane
【中图分类号】G623.31 【文献标识码】A 【文章编号】1001-4128（2009）07-0013-04
The Relationship Between the Scandinavian and English
If you have a chance to study Danish or Norwegian, you will find that certain phrases and certain special usages should have their way into the idom of people in no small part Danish in ancestor and living in close contact with the native Scandinavian speakers. We can know from the history of English langlage that there is a close relationship between English and Scandinavian. The Scandinavian played an important role in the development of English. The Scandinavian took an important place in the history of English langlage. A great number of the Scandinavian forms, loanwords and spelling rules of words were contributed to English. Some words were handed down from Old English, but these words such as awe, loose, sister, get, give and Thursday etc. were in the from of the scandinavian or loaned from the Scandinavian expressions. For instance, bread in Old English meant piece, the present meaning one kind of food which is made by mixing flour with water and yest, kneading and baking in an oven——was loaned from the Scandinavian; dream in Old English meant joy, its present meaning something which one seems to see or experience during sleep was loaned from the Scandinavian; earl in Old English meant soldier, its present meaning a title of a British noblemanwas loaned from the Scandinavian ; dwell in Old English meant lost one’s way, its present meaning live in was loaned from the Scandinavian; bloom in Old Enlish meant an ingot of iron, its present meaning flower was also loaned from the Scandinavian.
Because of the Scandinavian influence upon Old English, some Old English words had metathesis. For example, aks (O.E) ______ask (M.E) ; brid (O.E)_________bird (M.E) ; clasp (O.E)__________claps etc.
Generally, the loanwords from one language to another language are always limited notional words like noun, adjective and verb instead of function words like pronoun, preposition, conjunction and auxiliary verb etc. But the close relationship between English and the Scandinavian respresents that the former borrowed lots of function words from the latter like are, both, same, thought, at, fro, till, they, their, them, shall, will etc .
It took quite a long time for a great number Scandinavian to join or replace some original English vocabularies such as they, their and them. they entered into Old English in the original form at the end of 10th century. It wasn’t used widely in the middle eastern areas in England until 1300. The only one form they didin’t appear in London dialect until 1400. them and their didn’t have its position until 1500 and 1600. they ,them, their were not all accepted by English until 1700.
It is estimated that about more than 1800 words came from the Scandinavian in Modern English, so did more dialects. After the Norman occupation of Britain, some local native language folklore writers some articles which were full of the Scandinavian loanwords in order to prevent French from invading. Among the early Middle English literature works, the number of the Scandinevian loanwords was larger than that of French loanwords. The Scandinavian had been spread and used in some areas in Scotland till 1700. A great number ofScandinavian words slowly entered into English after the Danes had moved to the island and had built normal relationship of life with English. It is easy for us to find a greater part of these words can be divided into classes and the Danes contributed to English culture particularly including naturally English language, which will not have any meaningful result. The Danish attackings neither took the English in touch with various stage of social development nor brought them to physical and spiritual things. The civilization of Danes was as same as that of the English themselves. As a result, Scandinevian words entered the English language. Here are some examples, people can express their character which are arranged purely in alphabetical order, there are following nouns: axlrtree, band, bank, birth, boon, booth, brink, bull, calf, crook, dirt, down, dregs, egg, fellow, freckle, gait, gap. girth, guess, hap, keel, kid, leg, link, loan, mire, race, reef, reindeer, rift, root, scab, scales, score, scrap, seat, sister, skill, skin, skirt, sky, slaughter, snare, stack, steak, swain, thrift, tidings, trust, want, window. There are such adjective as awkward, flat, oll, loose, low, meek. muggy, odd, rotten, ruggged, scant, seemly, sly, tattered, tight and weak. Common verbs among the loanings are as the following: to bait, bask, battern, call, cast, clip, low, crave, crawl, die, droop, egg, flit, gape, gasp, get, gove, glitter, kindle, lift,lug, nag, raise, rake, ransack, rid, rive, scare, scout, scrowl, screech, snub, sprint, take, thrive, thrust.
From these examples above, we can find that there are close relationship between the Scandinavian and English , The Scandinavian had a great influence on the form and development of English.
Firstly, the Scandinavian had a direct inflience on the basic words and the daily expressions. A famous Denish liguist otto Jespersen wrote as following in his book The Growth andStructure of the English Language:
An Englishman cannot thrive or bee ill or die without
Scandinavian words; they are the language what bread
and eggs are to the daily fare.
There is a more delicated and closer mixing relatedness between English and the Scandinavian.This example indicates that the Scandinavian has been incorporated into English and the Scandinavian.
We can see there are five everyday words: “thrive, ill, die, bread and egg”, which came from the Scandenavian. This example can show that the Scandinavian had deeply infiltrated into English. As for the relationship between English and the Scandinavian, which is just like the suger into a glass of tea. It is difficult for you to separate the suger from the tea.
Secondly, the Scandinavian made Old English more openly and promoted Old English to transfer to Middle English. The invasion of the Scandinavian was the first invasion which Britain experienced after Old English formed. At that time Old English hadn’t finalized yet. Old English vocabularies were quite limited. Owing to the Scandinavian inflience, Old English had compatibility and large flexible vocabulary, which formed the base of the structure of language that greatly assimilatted and borrowed foreign languages.
Thirdly, the Scandinavian not only multiplied old English vocabulary, but also greatly affected matters of structure grammar and syntax so that Old Enlish became more stable. The following grammatical phenomenons were affected by the Scandinavian. For example , s of the third personal singular the present plural are of the verb to be and the variety of the endings of word began to be decreased. For example, the participal ending_______and (bindand), corresponding to_____end and________ind are now replaced by_____ing . The words scant, want, athwart preserve in the final t the neuter adjective ending of Old Norse. The body of the word was nearly the same in English and the Scandinavian. The endings became obstacles in the way of mutual understanding. It is natural that the tendency toward the loss of inflections was strengthened and accelerated by the mixed population that existed in the Danelaw. Meanwhile, the Scandnavian also promoted the decrease simplicity of from a synthetical language to an analytical language. It simplified greatly the variety of gender. Numberal case in Old English. It made the position of words order in the whole sentence more definite. Finally, English became one language which depended on mostly word order in European languages whereas the word order of Old English was more free due to the influence of Latin. The estabishment of this normal word order was one of the most important develspments of English syntax. Since then , word order of Eglish completely accorded with human’s natural and logical order. The word order in Modern English is very similar to that in Chinese. English grammar had simplified, the forms of word varied the least. When Chinese people learn English, they needn’t spend too much time in paying attention to word order. but they must do that if they learn other European languages.
Fourthly, the Scandnavian effect outside the standard speech.
If we did not recognize the extent to which it is found outside
the standard speech. Our older literature and the modern dialects
are full of words that are not now in ordinary use. The ballads
offer many examples. When the Geste of Robin Hood begins
“Lythe and listin, gentilmen” it has for its word an Old Norse
synonym for listen. When a little later on the Sheriff of
Nottingham says to Little Jogn, “Say me nowe, wight yonge
man, What id nowe thy name?” he uses the ON vigt ( strong,
courageous ). In the ballad of Captain Car the line “ Busk
and bowne, my merry men all” contains two words from the
same source meaning prepare. The word gar, meaning to cause
or make one do something, is of frequent occurrence. Thus, in
Chevy Chace we are told off Douglas men that “Many a doughete
the(y) garde to dy”—— that is , they made many a doughty man
die. In Robin Hood and Fuy of Gisborne the Virgin Nary is
addressed:” Ah, deere Lady! Sayd Robin Hoode, Thou art both
mother and may!” in which may is a Scandnavian form for maid.
Bessie Bell and Mary Gary, in the ballad of that name, “biggeta
bower on yon burn-brae,” employing in the proces another word
of Norse origin, biggen ( to build ), a word also used by Burns
in To a Mouse : “ Thy wee bit housie, too, in ruin!... And naething
now to big a new ane.” In Burns and Scott we find the comparative
worse in the form waur : “A the warld kens that they maun either
marry or do waur” (Old Mortaoity), also an old word ( ON verre)
more commonly found in the form used by Chaucer in the Book
of the Duchess: “Allas! How myghte I fare were?” Examples
could be multiplied, but it is sufficiently evident that there is
much Scandnavian material in the dialects besides what has found
its way into the standard speech.
( Baugh, 2003 ; 100 )
A modern Dane like Jespersen notes that the omission of the relative pronoun in relative clauses and the retention or omission of the conjunction that are in conformity with Danish usage; that the rules for the use of shall and will in Middle English are much the same as in Scandinavian ; and that some apparently illogical used of these auxiliaries in Shakespeare (eg. “besides it should appear” in the Merchant of Venice, III, ii, 289) do not seem strange to a Dane, who would employ the same verb.
[Baugh, 2007;102]
American English was also affected by Dane immigrating into America. After the Danes entered into England, they became permanent settlers on the island rapidly. Some expression of their number may accord with the fact that there were more than 1400 places in England bearing Scandnavian names.Because the majority of the Danes settled in north and east of England, most of these places used Scandnavian names in the distrct of the Danelaw. With the time passed, a large Scandnavian elements in the settlers was shown not only by place-names but by peculiarities of manorial organization, local government, legal procedure, and the like. A large amounts of marauders, marching and countermarching went across England. Hundreds of thousands of Danish people including farmers lived in all parts of the country for over 200 years. They intermarried with the English, accepted many of their coustoms, and entered into the everyday life of the community. After a long time, naturally, the Scandnavian merged into the English language. The English spoken in the districts where were large numbers of Danes acquired certain Danish habits of expression. For example, American always like to omitthe relative pronoun in relative clauses when they are speaking. In the last ten years of 19th century, more than one million Scandinavian immigrants entering the USA. The population of Scandinavian nearly coverd one fifth of the total population of Norway and Sweden. It was not fully estimated that there were 2.1 million Scandinavian immigrants coming to America from 1860 to 1920. The usage of one word from the Scandinavian caused a law suit in America a few years ago. David Howard acted as an assistant of the mayor of washington D.C, Antony williams. When he reported a finacial budget at a regular meeting in the city hall, he used the word niggardly. At that time, more than half of the washington D.C citizens were Negrose. They complained about city public welfare. What Howard wanted to express by using the word was that they should be a little mean over budgt. But the officials present there, especially the black officials, protested that he couldn’t use the word became the word is similar to nigger, which was likely to arise the race problem. Consequently Homward was prosecuted, then he had to resign. Niggardly came from Scandinavian. It means stingy and miserly.
Since then,English was influenced by other languages. The influence mainly focused on vocabulary and idom. Grammar and the syntax structure were rarely influenced. Both of them had changed little.
参考文献
1 Dennis FreebornFrom Old English to Standard English Beijing:Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2003.
2 Albert C. Baugh & Thomas Cable A History of the English Language Beijing:Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2003.
3 Schendl HerbertHistorical Linguistics Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 2006
【Key words】ScandinavianOld English Modern English relationship influence metathesisloanword Dane
【中图分类号】G623.31 【文献标识码】A 【文章编号】1001-4128（2009）07-0013-04
The Relationship Between the Scandinavian and English
If you have a chance to study Danish or Norwegian, you will find that certain phrases and certain special usages should have their way into the idom of people in no small part Danish in ancestor and living in close contact with the native Scandinavian speakers. We can know from the history of English langlage that there is a close relationship between English and Scandinavian. The Scandinavian played an important role in the development of English. The Scandinavian took an important place in the history of English langlage. A great number of the Scandinavian forms, loanwords and spelling rules of words were contributed to English. Some words were handed down from Old English, but these words such as awe, loose, sister, get, give and Thursday etc. were in the from of the scandinavian or loaned from the Scandinavian expressions. For instance, bread in Old English meant piece, the present meaning one kind of food which is made by mixing flour with water and yest, kneading and baking in an oven——was loaned from the Scandinavian; dream in Old English meant joy, its present meaning something which one seems to see or experience during sleep was loaned from the Scandinavian; earl in Old English meant soldier, its present meaning a title of a British noblemanwas loaned from the Scandinavian ; dwell in Old English meant lost one’s way, its present meaning live in was loaned from the Scandinavian; bloom in Old Enlish meant an ingot of iron, its present meaning flower was also loaned from the Scandinavian.
Because of the Scandinavian influence upon Old English, some Old English words had metathesis. For example, aks (O.E) ______ask (M.E) ; brid (O.E)_________bird (M.E) ; clasp (O.E)__________claps etc.
Generally, the loanwords from one language to another language are always limited notional words like noun, adjective and verb instead of function words like pronoun, preposition, conjunction and auxiliary verb etc. But the close relationship between English and the Scandinavian respresents that the former borrowed lots of function words from the latter like are, both, same, thought, at, fro, till, they, their, them, shall, will etc .
It took quite a long time for a great number Scandinavian to join or replace some original English vocabularies such as they, their and them. they entered into Old English in the original form at the end of 10th century. It wasn’t used widely in the middle eastern areas in England until 1300. The only one form they didin’t appear in London dialect until 1400. them and their didn’t have its position until 1500 and 1600. they ,them, their were not all accepted by English until 1700.
It is estimated that about more than 1800 words came from the Scandinavian in Modern English, so did more dialects. After the Norman occupation of Britain, some local native language folklore writers some articles which were full of the Scandinavian loanwords in order to prevent French from invading. Among the early Middle English literature works, the number of the Scandinevian loanwords was larger than that of French loanwords. The Scandinavian had been spread and used in some areas in Scotland till 1700. A great number ofScandinavian words slowly entered into English after the Danes had moved to the island and had built normal relationship of life with English. It is easy for us to find a greater part of these words can be divided into classes and the Danes contributed to English culture particularly including naturally English language, which will not have any meaningful result. The Danish attackings neither took the English in touch with various stage of social development nor brought them to physical and spiritual things. The civilization of Danes was as same as that of the English themselves. As a result, Scandinevian words entered the English language. Here are some examples, people can express their character which are arranged purely in alphabetical order, there are following nouns: axlrtree, band, bank, birth, boon, booth, brink, bull, calf, crook, dirt, down, dregs, egg, fellow, freckle, gait, gap. girth, guess, hap, keel, kid, leg, link, loan, mire, race, reef, reindeer, rift, root, scab, scales, score, scrap, seat, sister, skill, skin, skirt, sky, slaughter, snare, stack, steak, swain, thrift, tidings, trust, want, window. There are such adjective as awkward, flat, oll, loose, low, meek. muggy, odd, rotten, ruggged, scant, seemly, sly, tattered, tight and weak. Common verbs among the loanings are as the following: to bait, bask, battern, call, cast, clip, low, crave, crawl, die, droop, egg, flit, gape, gasp, get, gove, glitter, kindle, lift,lug, nag, raise, rake, ransack, rid, rive, scare, scout, scrowl, screech, snub, sprint, take, thrive, thrust.
From these examples above, we can find that there are close relationship between the Scandinavian and English , The Scandinavian had a great influence on the form and development of English.
Firstly, the Scandinavian had a direct inflience on the basic words and the daily expressions. A famous Denish liguist otto Jespersen wrote as following in his book The Growth andStructure of the English Language:
An Englishman cannot thrive or bee ill or die without
Scandinavian words; they are the language what bread
and eggs are to the daily fare.
There is a more delicated and closer mixing relatedness between English and the Scandinavian.This example indicates that the Scandinavian has been incorporated into English and the Scandinavian.
We can see there are five everyday words: “thrive, ill, die, bread and egg”, which came from the Scandenavian. This example can show that the Scandinavian had deeply infiltrated into English. As for the relationship between English and the Scandinavian, which is just like the suger into a glass of tea. It is difficult for you to separate the suger from the tea.
Secondly, the Scandinavian made Old English more openly and promoted Old English to transfer to Middle English. The invasion of the Scandinavian was the first invasion which Britain experienced after Old English formed. At that time Old English hadn’t finalized yet. Old English vocabularies were quite limited. Owing to the Scandinavian inflience, Old English had compatibility and large flexible vocabulary, which formed the base of the structure of language that greatly assimilatted and borrowed foreign languages.
Thirdly, the Scandinavian not only multiplied old English vocabulary, but also greatly affected matters of structure grammar and syntax so that Old Enlish became more stable. The following grammatical phenomenons were affected by the Scandinavian. For example , s of the third personal singular the present plural are of the verb to be and the variety of the endings of word began to be decreased. For example, the participal ending_______and (bindand), corresponding to_____end and________ind are now replaced by_____ing . The words scant, want, athwart preserve in the final t the neuter adjective ending of Old Norse. The body of the word was nearly the same in English and the Scandinavian. The endings became obstacles in the way of mutual understanding. It is natural that the tendency toward the loss of inflections was strengthened and accelerated by the mixed population that existed in the Danelaw. Meanwhile, the Scandnavian also promoted the decrease simplicity of from a synthetical language to an analytical language. It simplified greatly the variety of gender. Numberal case in Old English. It made the position of words order in the whole sentence more definite. Finally, English became one language which depended on mostly word order in European languages whereas the word order of Old English was more free due to the influence of Latin. The estabishment of this normal word order was one of the most important develspments of English syntax. Since then , word order of Eglish completely accorded with human’s natural and logical order. The word order in Modern English is very similar to that in Chinese. English grammar had simplified, the forms of word varied the least. When Chinese people learn English, they needn’t spend too much time in paying attention to word order. but they must do that if they learn other European languages.
Fourthly, the Scandnavian effect outside the standard speech.
If we did not recognize the extent to which it is found outside
the standard speech. Our older literature and the modern dialects
are full of words that are not now in ordinary use. The ballads
offer many examples. When the Geste of Robin Hood begins
“Lythe and listin, gentilmen” it has for its word an Old Norse
synonym for listen. When a little later on the Sheriff of
Nottingham says to Little Jogn, “Say me nowe, wight yonge
man, What id nowe thy name?” he uses the ON vigt ( strong,
courageous ). In the ballad of Captain Car the line “ Busk
and bowne, my merry men all” contains two words from the
same source meaning prepare. The word gar, meaning to cause
or make one do something, is of frequent occurrence. Thus, in
Chevy Chace we are told off Douglas men that “Many a doughete
the(y) garde to dy”—— that is , they made many a doughty man
die. In Robin Hood and Fuy of Gisborne the Virgin Nary is
addressed:” Ah, deere Lady! Sayd Robin Hoode, Thou art both
mother and may!” in which may is a Scandnavian form for maid.
Bessie Bell and Mary Gary, in the ballad of that name, “biggeta
bower on yon burn-brae,” employing in the proces another word
of Norse origin, biggen ( to build ), a word also used by Burns
in To a Mouse : “ Thy wee bit housie, too, in ruin!... And naething
now to big a new ane.” In Burns and Scott we find the comparative
worse in the form waur : “A the warld kens that they maun either
marry or do waur” (Old Mortaoity), also an old word ( ON verre)
more commonly found in the form used by Chaucer in the Book
of the Duchess: “Allas! How myghte I fare were?” Examples
could be multiplied, but it is sufficiently evident that there is
much Scandnavian material in the dialects besides what has found
its way into the standard speech.
( Baugh, 2003 ; 100 )
A modern Dane like Jespersen notes that the omission of the relative pronoun in relative clauses and the retention or omission of the conjunction that are in conformity with Danish usage; that the rules for the use of shall and will in Middle English are much the same as in Scandinavian ; and that some apparently illogical used of these auxiliaries in Shakespeare (eg. “besides it should appear” in the Merchant of Venice, III, ii, 289) do not seem strange to a Dane, who would employ the same verb.
[Baugh, 2007;102]
American English was also affected by Dane immigrating into America. After the Danes entered into England, they became permanent settlers on the island rapidly. Some expression of their number may accord with the fact that there were more than 1400 places in England bearing Scandnavian names.Because the majority of the Danes settled in north and east of England, most of these places used Scandnavian names in the distrct of the Danelaw. With the time passed, a large Scandnavian elements in the settlers was shown not only by place-names but by peculiarities of manorial organization, local government, legal procedure, and the like. A large amounts of marauders, marching and countermarching went across England. Hundreds of thousands of Danish people including farmers lived in all parts of the country for over 200 years. They intermarried with the English, accepted many of their coustoms, and entered into the everyday life of the community. After a long time, naturally, the Scandnavian merged into the English language. The English spoken in the districts where were large numbers of Danes acquired certain Danish habits of expression. For example, American always like to omitthe relative pronoun in relative clauses when they are speaking. In the last ten years of 19th century, more than one million Scandinavian immigrants entering the USA. The population of Scandinavian nearly coverd one fifth of the total population of Norway and Sweden. It was not fully estimated that there were 2.1 million Scandinavian immigrants coming to America from 1860 to 1920. The usage of one word from the Scandinavian caused a law suit in America a few years ago. David Howard acted as an assistant of the mayor of washington D.C, Antony williams. When he reported a finacial budget at a regular meeting in the city hall, he used the word niggardly. At that time, more than half of the washington D.C citizens were Negrose. They complained about city public welfare. What Howard wanted to express by using the word was that they should be a little mean over budgt. But the officials present there, especially the black officials, protested that he couldn’t use the word became the word is similar to nigger, which was likely to arise the race problem. Consequently Homward was prosecuted, then he had to resign. Niggardly came from Scandinavian. It means stingy and miserly.
Since then,English was influenced by other languages. The influence mainly focused on vocabulary and idom. Grammar and the syntax structure were rarely influenced. Both of them had changed little.
参考文献
1 Dennis FreebornFrom Old English to Standard English Beijing:Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2003.
2 Albert C. Baugh & Thomas Cable A History of the English Language Beijing:Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2003.
3 Schendl HerbertHistorical Linguistics Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 2006