Celtic Borrowings

Celtic borrowings were very few: no more than a dozen names: OE binn – bin (container for bread), OE bannock – a loaf of home made bread, OE dūn (hill) – down, OE dun – grey brown colour, OE cradol –cradle (a baby’s bed), OE cross < L crux (probably through Celtic). In later ages some of the Celtic borrowings have died out or survived only in dialects: loch – lake, coom – valley. The OE kingdoms Kent, Deira and Bernica derive their names from the names of Celtic tribes. Various Celtic designations of river and water were understood by Germanic invaders as proper names. Ouse, Exe, Esk, Usk go back to Celtic uisage (water), whisky is of the same origin. Avon, Evon go back to Celtic «river. Thames, Stour, Dover also come from Celtic. Some elements in Celtic place names can help to identify them: -comb – deep valley in Batcombe, Duncombe, Winchcombe; torr – high rock in Torr, Torcross, -llan – church in Llandaft, Llanelly; -pill – creek in Pylle, Huntspill. Many Celtic place names are hybrids: the Celtic component goes together with a Latin or Germanic component:

Celtic plus Latin: Man-chester, Win-chester, Glou-cester, Lan-caster, Devon-port.

Celtic plus Germanic: York-shire, Devon-shire, Salis-bury, Canter-bury, Lich-field, Corn-wall.

Part 3

Middle english

Two great historical events influenced the development of the English language: the Scandinavian invasions and the Norman Conquest.

3.1. Historical Background

3.1.1. Scandinavian Invasions

Though the Scandinavian invasions of England are referred to the OE period, their effect on the English language is particularly apparent in ME.

Since the 8-th century he Anglo-Saxons began to suffer from the raids of Scandinavians, mostly Norwegeans and Danes. The Scandinavian searovers, commonly known as the Vikings, first came to the shores of Britain for plunder. At the end of the 9-th c. they settled in England, extending their territory southward from their original foothold in Northumbria until practically all the land north of the Thames was under their control. Only the kingdom of Wessex remained independent.In the year 878 Alfred, king of Wessex (years of reign 871-901), gained an overwhelming victory over Scandinavians (or the Danes, as they were mostly called at that time) and made them sign Wedmore peace treaty. The Scandinavians had to withdraw from Wessex and Western Mercia but they remained in the Eastern, Northern and central parts of England and that territory went under the name Danelaʒu (literally «Danish law»). The Scandinavians, in their turn, recognized the nominal supremacy of the king of England. The Danish occupation of Britain lasted for 200 years. It witnessed diverse political events: the reconquest of Danelaw under Alfred’s successors, the renewal of Scandinavian invasions in the late 10-th century under Sweyne and in 1016 the political annexation of England by Denmark under the Danish king Knut (or Canute) (years of reign 1016-1035). Scandinavian power in England lasted until 1042, when it was overthrown, and the power of the OE nobility was restored under the king Edward the Confessor.

During the years of the occupation, the Danish settlers and the English intermarried and intermixed easily as they did not differ in social rank or the level of culture and customs. Moreover, there was no linguistic barrier between them. The Scandinavian dialects spoken by the invaders belonged to the same North Germanic languages and their phonetic and grammatical structure was similar to that of OE.

The process of assimilation went on until the Scandinavians were absorbed into the local population both ethnically and linguistically. If you look at the map of England, you will see that in the areas of the heaviest settlement of the Scandinavians up to 75% of the place-names are Danish or Norwegian. Altogether more than 1400 English villages and towns bear names of Scandinavian origin: with the element –thorp or -be meaning «village»: Woodthorp, Linthrop, Grimsby; with the element toft – «a piece of land»: Brimtoft, Lowestoft.

The Scandinavian influence manifests itself primarily in the vocabulary: several hundreds words were borrowed from the Scandinavian dialects (600 according to some sources, 900 – according to other sources). Especilly great is the Scandinavian influence on the morphological and phonetic aspects of the English language.