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Old Norse in English. | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| 1qaz2wsx Diglot Groupie Greece Joined 5373 days ago 98 posts - 124 votes  Speaks: Greek*, EnglishC1 Studies: Russian, Albanian | Message 1 of 16 31 March 2010 at 7:59pm | IP Logged | ||
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It turns out that words like 'fellow','law’, ‘ugly’, ‘want’, ‘take’ and 'they' are of Old Norse origin.What other words do you know in English that are loanwords from Old Norse? Edited by 1qaz2wsx on 31 March 2010 at 9:37pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5453 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 2 of 16 31 March 2010 at 8:20pm | IP Logged | ||
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I've heard that "bag", "(I) am" and "(you/they) are" are from Old Norse.
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| hvorki_ne Groupie Joined 5386 days ago 72 posts - 79 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Icelandic | Message 3 of 16 31 March 2010 at 8:34pm | IP Logged | ||
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I dunno about am- but I'm pretty sure 'are' is. the word for 'are' in Norwegian basically sounds like a cross between 'are' and Icelandic 'er' (which I believe is closest to old norse). I'm not sure where 'am' or 'is' are from.
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| Guido Super Polyglot Senior Member ArgentinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6528 days ago 286 posts - 582 votes Speaks: Spanish*, French, English, German, Italian, Portuguese, Norwegian, Catalan, Dutch, Swedish, Danish Studies: Russian, Indonesian, Romanian, Polish, Icelandic | Message 4 of 16 31 March 2010 at 8:41pm | IP Logged | ||
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List of English words of Old Norse origin
More about loan words in English here (lol, 60% of the English language vocabulary is romance...) Edited by Guido on 31 March 2010 at 8:43pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6011 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 5 of 16 31 March 2010 at 9:31pm | IP Logged | ||
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Is is from Anglo-Saxon -- see Dutch "is" and German "ist".
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 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6703 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 6 of 16 31 March 2010 at 10:58pm | IP Logged | ||
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One think I have noticed myself is that the 'density' of possible Nordic loanwords is higher in Scots, which is unexpected as the 'Danelagen' didn't comprise Scotland.
For instance "kirk" means church in Scots, - and "kirkja" is the form in Modern icelandic. Now, place names are notoriously conservative, but a common verb like "speir" (=ask) is tantalizingly close til "spyrja", and I have seen other possible Norse loanwords. But again, you have to know both Anglosaxon and Old Norse to be able to find the true loanwords. Edited by Iversen on 01 April 2010 at 1:44am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6703 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 7 of 16 01 April 2010 at 2:01am | IP Logged | ||
The forms in Anglosaxon were eom (I am), eart (thou art), is (he/she/it is), plural: sint or sindon. I don't think they are loanwords, - it would be very unusual to borrow the forms of 'to be'. The Old Norse forms were em, est/ert, es/er, erum, eruð, eru The Anglosaxon subjunctive forms of 'the be' were 'sie' in singular and 'sien' in plural. But there is another copula verb whose forms are more puzzling. The forms above are based on a root es- or -er, while the forms of 'the second to be' are based on the root *bheu: beo (I am), bist (thou art), biþ (he/she/it is), plural beoþ. And there is even a third verb with the infinitive "wesan": wæs, wære, wæs and plural wæron It is quite clear that the forms of 'to be' in Modern English are a mix of forms from these three verbs: the present from no. 1, the infinitive and participle from no. 2 and the past thense from no. 3. Edited by Iversen on 01 April 2010 at 2:01am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6768 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek | Message 8 of 16 01 April 2010 at 3:18am | IP Logged | ||
Well, there was a now-extinct Nordic language (Norn) spoken in northern Scotland. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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