23. The Scandinavian Conquest. The Scandinavian influence on the English language

Under the year 787 three shiploads of Northmen landed upon the coast of Britain and invaded the country. These invaders were Scandinavian tribes: The Danes, the Swedes. They inhabited the north of Europe (modern Denmark, Norway and Sweden). They started their invasion taking possession over the East of Britain and the Danish invasion resulted in the occupation of a great part of the territory by Scandinavian settlers. In the year 878 the English King Alfred the Great, by the Treaty of Wedmore was obliged to recognize Danish rule over a territory covering two-thirds of modern England; all Northumbria, all East Anglia and one half of Central England made up District called the Danelaw.

The effect of the Danish Conquest was a contribution of many Scan¬dinavian words to the English vocabulary.

The criterion of sound in many cases may be applied in distinguish¬ing Scandinavian words. Since in native English words the sk sound had regularly changed to sh and since the k sound before the vowels e and i had regularly changed to ch, the greater part of the Germanic words in English with the sk sound such as scare, skill, skin, skirt, sky and many words with the k sound before e and i, such as kettle, keg, kirk are to be assigned to Scandinavian origin.

In cases where the Scandinavian form of a word differed from the Eng¬lish form, sometimes both forms survived with a different meaning.

The Scandinavian influence was especially marked in place-names in Northern England, Among the more common ones are those ending in-by (0. N. byr, a dwelling, village); in -beck (has been used as an independent word since 1300 especially in the North; 0. N. bekker, a brook, Ger. Bach); in-dale (O. , a valley, Ger. Thai); in thorp or-torp (0. N thorp, a hamlet, village); in -toft (O. N, toft a homestead, enclosure) and in -twaite (veiti, a clearing).

In some cases when the English word and the Scandinavian agreed in form, the Scandinavian form has imported a new meaning to the English. Thus dream in О. Е. meant toy, but in Middle English the modern meaning of dream was taken over from O.N. draumr. The same is true of bread (formerly meaning a fragment or bloom (bloma, mass of metal), plough (a measure of land); holm (О. Е. holm, ocean).

A number of common words which existed in Old English have been assimilated to the kindred Scandinavian synonyms only in form (e. g. sister descends not from the Old English sweoster, but from the O. N. syster. The same is true of such everyday words as birth, get, give, etc.

24. The Norman Conquest. French element in the me.

The Norman conquest of England was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army of Norman, Breton, and French soldiers led by Duke William II of Normandy, later William the Conqueror. William's claim to the English throne derived from his familial relationship with the (childless) Anglo-Saxon King Edward the Confessor, who may have encouraged William's hopes for the throne. Edward died in January 1066 and was succeeded by his brother-in-law Harold Godwinson. The Norwegian kingHarald Hardrada invaded northern England in September 1066, was victorious at the Battle of Fulford, but Harold defeated and killed him at the Battle of Stamford Bridge on 25 September 1066. Within days, William landed in southern England. Harold marched south to confront him, leaving a significant portion of his army in the north. Harold's army confronted William's invaders on 14 October at the Battle of Hastings; William's force defeated Harold, who was killed in the engagement. Following the Conquest a lot of Normans crossed the channel, and enlarged the population of England. For almost three centuries the French language was the official language of the English kingdom; it was the language of the royal court, the church, courts of law, army and the castle. Education, as it was mainly controlled by the church was also in French, though the Latin language was traditionally also taught. The three hundred years of French domination affected the English language enormously. But English language didn’t die as the English speakers demographically prevailed. The effects of the French language on the Middle English are hard to overestimate. The changes in spelling that took place in that period laid the basis for present-day English spelling, a great number of words came into the language and the majority of them are still used, fully assimilated and no longer perceived as borrowings, The English grammar was much simplified. The language under Norman rule lost its natural immunity to foreign influence, the nationalistic spirit guarding the purity of the language was muffled, which made the language more liberal, more tolerant to variation and more flexible.