5. Лінгвістичні наслідки скандинавського та норманського завоювань. Порівняння скандинавського та французького впливів. Розвиток національної літературної англійської мови.

Though the Scandinavian invasions of England are dated in the OE period, their effect on the l-ge is particulary apparent in ME.

Since the 8^th c. the British Isles were ravaged by sea rovers from Scandinavia, first by Danes, later – by Norvegians. By the end of 9^th century the Danes had succeeded in obtaining a permanent footing in England; more than half of England was yielded to the invaders and recognized as Danish territory - “Danelaw”.

Some of Scandinavians came to England only to plunder and come back home, but some stayed. The later brought their families to England. The new settlers intermarried and intermixed, it was happening the more easily as it was no linguistic barrier between them. (OE and OScad. Belonged to the Germanic group of l-ges and at that time were much closer than their descendants are today).

Alltogather more than 1400 English villages and towns bear names of Scandinavian origin (with the elemant thorp meaning “village” e.g. Woodthorp, linthorp; toft ‘a piece of land’, e.g. Brimptoft, Lowestoft and others)

Scandinavian loans

8th – 11th cen. A.D.

Total number – appr. 900; abt 700 belong to Standart English

Certain English words changed their meanings under the influence of Scandinavian words of the same root. So, the O. E. bread which meant "piece" acquired its modern meaning by association with the Scandinavian brand.

The О. Е. dream which meant "joy" assimilated the meaning of the Scandinavian draumr(cf. with the Germ. Traum "dream" and the R. дрёма).

Features:

/k/ and /g/ before e and i e.g. give, kid,get, gift

/sk/ in the initial position, e.g. sky, skill, score, skin, skirt;

Linguistic consequences of the Norman conquest

1066 – William of Normandy came to conquer Britain.

The most immediate consequence of the Norman domination in Britain is to be seen in the wide use of French l-ge in many spheres of life. For almost three hundred years French was the official l-ge of administration: it was the l-ge of king’s court, the law courts, the church, the army and the castle. It was also the everyday l-ge of many nobles, of the higher clergy and of many town-people in South. The intellectual life, literature and and education were in hands of French-speaking people. French alongside Latin was the l-ge of writing. Teaching was largely conducted in French. The changes of this period affected English in both its grammar and its vocabulary. Those in the grammar reduced English from a highly inflected language to an extremely analytic one. Those in the vocabulary involved the loss of a large part of the Old English word-stock and the addition of thousands of words from French and Latin.

Порівняння скандинавського і нормандського впливів

Scandinavian	Norman
Different social strata
Settlers, l-ge of common people	Nobility, l-ge of upper class and aristocracy
every day or technical notions	semantic fields associated with power or royalty, or law or religion
Higher population proportion, Lower influence on English	Lower population proportion, Higher influence on English
Influenced spoken l-ge more	Influenced written l-ge more
Scandinavian loans spread from the north-eastern part of the country called Danelaw, when Norse terms arrived in London, they may have lacked ‘the automatic acceptability that social and cultural prestige afforded to new French borrowings,’	Radiated from the capital, had more influence throughout the country
Scandinavian infiltrated other aspects of English, most significantly grammar, presumably due to the necessity of communication between Scandinavian settlers and native Englishmen and women	French mostly targeted ‘open-class elements such as nouns’ (and sometimes verbs,)