English Dialects From the Eighth Century to the Present DaySkeat, Walter W. (Walter William)
History
English Dialects From the Eighth Century to the Present Day
Skeat, Walter W. (Walter William)
English language -- Dialects
It is notorious that the Northern dialect admits Scandinavian words
freely; and the same is true, to a lesser degree, of East Midland.
They are rare in Southern, and in the Southern part of West Midland.
The constant invasions of the Danes, and the subjection of England
under the rule of three Danish kings, Canute and his two successors,
have very materially increased our vocabulary; and it is remarkable
that they have perhaps done more for our dialects than for the
standard language. The ascendancy of Danish rule was in the eleventh
century; but (with a few exceptions) it was long before words which
must really have been introduced at that time began to appear in our
literature. They must certainly have been looked upon, at the first,
as being rustic or dialectal. I have nowhere seen it remarked, and I
therefore call attention to the fact, that a certain note of rustic
origin still clings to many words of this class; and I would instance
such as these: bawl, bloated, blunder, bungle, clog, clown, clumsy, to
cow, to craze, dowdy, dregs, dump, and many more of a like character.
I do not say that such words cannot be employed in serious literature;
but they require skillful handling.
For further information, see the chapter on "The Scandinavian Element
in English," in my _Principles of English Etymology, Series I_.
With regard to dialectal Scandinavian, see the List of English Words,
as compared with Icelandic, in my Appendix to Cleasby and Vigfusson's
_Icelandic Dictionary_. In this long list, filling 80 columns, the
dialectal words are marked with a dagger {+*}. But the list of these
is by no means exhaustive, and it will require a careful search
through the pages of the _English Dialect Dictionary_ to do justice
to the wealth of this Old Norse element. There is an excellent article
on this subject by Arnold Wall, entitled "A Contribution towards the
Study of the Scandinavian element in the English Dialects," printed
in the German periodical entitled _Anglia, Neue Folge_, Band VIII,
1897.
I now give a list, a mere selection, of some of the more remarkable
words of Scandinavian origin that are known to our dialects. For their
various uses and localities, see the _English Dialect Dictionary_; and
for their etymologies, see my Index to Cleasby and Vigfusson. Many of
these words are well approved and forcible, and may perhaps be
employed hereafter to reinforce our literary language.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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