- The Scandinavian Element in the English vocabulary. The linguistic result the Viking raids on Britain which began in ad 787 and continued at intervals for some 200 years was threefold:

1) a large number of settlements with Danish names appeared in England. There are over 1500 such place names in England, especially in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. Over 600 end in -by, the Scandinavian word for “farm” or “town” – Grimsby, Rugby etc. Many end in – thorp (“village”), as in Althorp, Astonthorpe; -thwaite (“clearing”-порубка), as in Applethwaite, Storthwaite; -toft (“homestead”-участок земли), as in Lowestoft, Eastoft;

2) there was a marked increase in personal names of Scandinavian origin. The Scandinavian influence in the north ant east of the country was evident, where over 60 percent of personal names in early Middle English records show Danish influence. Scandinavian personal names ending in -son, such as Davidson, Jackson, Henderson, expressed kinship, the relation to a parent or ancestor.

3) many general words entered the language, nearly 1,000 eventually becoming part of Standard English. Only 150 of these words appeared in Old English manuscripts including landing, score, take, fellow.

In grammar Scandinavian influence is also seen: they, them, their, both, same, till.

Completely assimilated Scandinavian borrowings: egg, husband, fellow, window, ugly, to scrub, to take.

- The French Element in the English Vocabulary. The main influence on English was, of course, French – strictly, Norman French, the language introduced to Britain by the invader. Following William the Conqueror, French was rapidly established in the corridors of power. Within 20 years of the invasion, almost all the religious houses were under French-speaking superiors. The linguistic consequences of these contacts was the borrowing of some French words into Old English, e.g. sennan, 'serve', prisun, 'prison', castel, 'casde'.

French loans in Middle English: administration: baron, constable, government, liberty, majesty, prince, treaty, vassal; law: accuse, advocate, blame, verdict, warrant; religion: abbey, baptism, temptation, virgin; military: army, battle, spy; food and drink: appetite, lettuce, salad, sardine, saucer; fashion: boots, button, collar, wardrobe; leisure and the arts: art, paper, pen, poet, prose, romance, sculpture; science and learning: poison, pulse, surgeon; the home: basin, closet, curtain, lamp, tower; general nouns: action, mountain, ocean, people, person, power; general adjectives: active, honest, horrible, special, usual; general verbs: form, grant, inform, remember, reply, satisfy, suppose; turns of phrase: by heart, have mercy on, on the point of.

Completely assimilated French borrowings in English: aunt, beauty, beast,chance, fruit, garden, honour, language, manner, pair, part, place, story, trouble, general, to agree, to decide, to enjoy, to repeat, to wait.

The most popular borrowings: Italian: sonata, piano, casino, spaghetti, Dutch: deck, yacht, landscape, luck, boss; Spanish: armada, banana, barbecue, chilli, chocolate, cigar, potato, siesta, tobacco, vanilla; Portuguese: cobra, Madeira, verandah; Russian: early borrowings 16c – shuba, tsar, kvass, Cossack, sable, 17c – steppe, troika, 18 c – kibitka, suslik, beluga, 19 c – samovar, vodka, taiga, after 1917 Sovietisms: soviet, komsomol, kolkhoz; German: nickel, Fahrenheit, kindergarten, rucksack, waltz; Indian: bandana, bungalow, jungle, nirvana, sugar, orange; Chinese: tea, silk; Japanese: hara-kiri, riksha, kimono, samurai; Australian: boomerang, kangaroo, kaola; African: baobab, chimpanzee, zebra; Polinisian: tattoo, taboo; North American Indians: moccasin, opossum, tomahawk, wigwam; Persian and Turkish: lemon, shah.