What Are The 139 Words That Influence The Spread Of Modern English

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139 words that we wouldn’t have such as cake,knife,and sleuth if not for Scandinavian raids on the British Isles..Our modern English has changed and adapted over the years.Scandinavian raids on the British Isles helped evolve the Old English of the past into the language used today with the adaptation of many words and grammatical rules and guidelines.

Scandinavian raids brought French influence to the Old English portion of the Anglo-Saxons. The Norman Invasion brought 300 years of French rule to the British Isles in 1066. This provided plenty of time for French words to make their way down to the peasant and working classes. This causes our modern English to be thought of as more of a West Germanic language with lots of French influence. While William the Conqueror was in power French and Old English existed side by side. English was ignored by anyone of nobility leaving it to the peasant and merchant classes. This gave Old English anywhere from 70 to 80 years to become grammatically simpler before becoming Middle English. Scandinavian words have become intertwined with our modern English along with many grammatical rules. …show more content…

For instance a Viking is an overseas expedition while a vikingr is one who would go on these trips. Words of war such as beserkr(beserker), klubba(club), and even ransaka(ransack) are still used today. As Old English evolved, we started to replace old letters with new ones that made the same sound. The Norse letter Þ(thorn) makes the same sound as the “th” in words like “thin”. Also our words Thursday, Wednesday, and Friday are named after Norse gods Thor, Odin, and Freya respectively. Even though there are differences between Old English and modern English we can still read many words between the