Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Words of Old Norse origin have entered the English language, primarily from the contact between Old Norse and Old English during colonisation of eastern and northern England between the mid 9th to the 11th centuries (see also Danelaw). Many of these words are part of English core vocabulary, such as egg or knife. There are hundreds of such ...
Anglo-Saxon runes or Anglo-Frisian runes are runes that were used by the Anglo-Saxons and Medieval Frisians (collectively called Anglo-Frisians) as an alphabet in their native writing system, recording both Old English and Old Frisian (Old English: rūna, ᚱᚢᚾᚪ, "rune").
The ansuz rune is always transliterated as o from the Younger Futhark, and consequently, the transliteration mon represents Old Norse man in a runestone from Bällsta, and hon represents Old Norse han in the Frösö Runestone, while forþom represents Old Norse forðom in an inscription from Replösa. [2]
The effect of Old Norse on Old English was substantive, pervasive, and of a democratic character. [2] [27] Old Norse and Old English resembled each other closely like cousins, and with some words in common, speakers roughly understood each other; [27] in time the inflections melted away and the analytic pattern emerged.
The Old English form rún survived into the early modern period as roun, which is now obsolete. The modern English rune is a later formation that is partly derived from Late Latin runa, Old Norse rún, and Danish rune. [6]
Old Norse has three categories of verbs (strong, weak, & present-preterite) and two categories of nouns (strong, weak). Conjugation and declension are carried out by a mix of inflection and two nonconcatenative morphological processes: umlaut, a backness-based alteration to the root vowel; and ablaut, a replacement of the root vowel, in verbs.
Old English and Old Norse were related languages. It is therefore not surprising that many words in Old Norse look familiar to English speakers; e.g., armr (arm), fótr (foot), land (land), fullr (full), hanga (to hang), standa (to stand). This is because both English and Old Norse stem from a Proto-Germanic mother language.
The language is also attested in the Lindisfarne Gospels c. 970 AD, in modern Scotland as a carved runic text, the Dream of the Rood, and on the Ruthwell Cross, c. 750 AD. Old Northumbria was later conquered by the Danes (867–883 AD) and from this day forth the language became influenced with Old Norse. [10]