"The influence exerted upon English vocabulary by words that derive from the Scandinavian languages is widespread and profound. These words entered English by Norse speakers in the Anglo-Saxon period, and they claim amongst their number some of the most frequent and important items of everyday modern usage. There nevertheless remains a great deal about this element that we do not properly understand. This book presents etymological and contextual studies of the lexical terms originally derived from Old Norse that are found in the principal early Middle English texts from the South-West Midlands. This is a region that contains some of the most celebrated literary works of the period when Norse-derived words first appear in significant numbers in written English (the late twelfth to the later thirteenth century); being outside the area of the Danelaw, it also presents crucial opportunities for us to understand the transmission of Norse-derived vocabulary to parts of England beyond those of the heaviest initial Scandinavian settlement. This book will be of interest to scholars of early English lexicology, semantics and dialectology, to those studying the background to and linguistic resources of early Middle English literature, and to all those fascinated by the Scandinavian contribution to the history of the English language." --

An investigation of the rivalry of a number of Scandinavian loanwords which entered the English language in late Old English or Middle English and survived in Modern English, and their synonyms in Middle English. It analyses the restructuring process taking place in a number of semantic fields and attempts to account for the survival of the loanwords. Of particular interest are the meaning, frequency and distribution of the Scandinavian borrowings and their equivalents.

So far, no comprehensive study of the obsolescence of Scandinavian loanwords in English has ever been published. This book remedies that situation, and presents an analysis of the causes of obsolescence of Scandinavian loanwords in English since the 15th century. The study has mainly been based on the Oxford English Dictionary and the Middle English Dictionary. Over 300 loanwords have been selected, grouped into semantic fields and analysed. To account for their disappearance, reasons such as the rivalry of synonyms, the exclusive use in local dialects, the disappearance of the referent as well as rare occurrence or phonological changes were investigated.

This book provides a comprehensive look at the impact of the Scandinavian language on Middle English. Björkman examines the origins and meanings of numerous loan-words from Old Norse and Old Danish that are found in Middle English texts. This is an essential resource for scholars and enthusiasts of medieval literature and language. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.