5) French and scandinavian borrowings

In the 8th century the ancient Scandinavians called the Vikings began to raid Britain. The Vikings continued their wars with the English until the time the Anglo-Saxon king Alphred the Great made treaty with them and gave them part of the country that was called Danclaw. The Vikings settled there, married English wives and began a peaceful life on the British territory. Latter military conflicts started again, but by the 11th century they were over. The influence of these events on the English language was great. A number of Scandinavian words came into English from Danes, as the Anglo-Saxon called all the Vikings. Some of Scandinavian borrowings are easily recognized by the initial ‘SK’ combination (sky, skirt, skin, ski, skill). Earlier Scandinavian borrowings are ‘to call. To take, to cost, to die’, ‘law, husband, window’. ‘ill, loose, law, weak’. Certain English words changed their meanings under the influence of Scandinavian words of the same root, for example the Scandinavians living in Britain called their ‘bread’ by the word ‘brauth’. The English had similar word ‘bread’, meaning a lump, a piece of bread. Under the influence of the Scandinavian language the word bread widened its meaning and began to mean ‘bread’ in general, while the word ‘loaf (from old English hlaf’) narrowed its meaning and now it’s a large lump of bread which we slice before eating. In the year of 1066 the English were defeated by the Normans under William the Conqueror in the famous battle of Hastings. The English King Harold was killed, the English were defeated, the Normans who came from the part of France, called Normandy, brought into Britain not only their King but their French language as well. England became a bi-lingual country. French words from the Norman dialect penetrated every aspects of social life: Administrative words (state, war, government, power, council, parliament). Military terms: (army, war, soldier, officer, battle, enemy), educational terms (pupil, lesson, library, science, pen, pencil), legal terms (court, judge, justice, crime, prison). There were especially many borrowings connected with different names of dishes. The Norman barons brought to Britain the professional cooks, who showed to the English their skills. That’s why up to now there is one name for a live beast, grazing in the field and another for the same beast when it’s skilled and cooked. The matter is that the English peasants preserved Anglo Saxon names for the animals, they used to bring to Norman castles to sell, but the dishes made from the meat got French names, that’s why now we have native English names of animals and French names of meals from whose meat they are cooked. For example – ox and beef, cow and veal, sheep and mutton, swine and pork. A historian writes that an English peasant, who had spent a hard day tending his oxen, calves, sheep and swine probably got so little enough of the beef, veal, mutton and pork, which were gobbled at night by his Norman masters. The French enriched English vocabulary with such food words as bacon, sausage, gravy , toast, biscuit, cream, sugar. They taught the English to have for desert such fruits as fig, grape, orange, lemon, pomegranate and peach. The English learned from them how to make pastry, tart, jelly. From the French the English learned about such spice as mustard. The English borrowed from French verbs to describe different culinary processes – to boil, to roast, to fry, to stu. It’s clear now what Denial Deffo meant when he called English ‘a hybrid - roman – saxon – Danish – Norman – English.