Comments on: Viking Words: The Old Norse Influence on English

By: Sofia Maria

Sofia Maria — Wed, 16 Apr 2025 09:32:38 +0000

I love this, as the trace elements of certain words are vestiges of people long gone. There were many words in my youth one expression, ‘The HAAR is coming in’, meaning the fog is rolling in over the sea. I think this was referring to long hair such expressive words.

By: J M Neilson

J M Neilson — Fri, 23 Feb 2024 15:48:30 +0000

The city of Swansea in Wales, UK, took its name from Sweyn’s Eye – the island of Sweyn/Swein, supposedly a Viking warrior who attacked what was then a very small settlement. It took on various spellings until Swansea became the settled spelling. So the name Swansea has nothing to do with SWANS and the SEA. Near Swansea is Worm’s Head (Rhosilli, Gower). Worm is said to have originated from the Viking word WURM (dragon) because as the Vikings approached they thought it looked like a dragon.

By: Shane

Shane — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 10:31:53 +0000

You forgot about one major county that had massive influence of viking heritage. NORFOLK. its capitol Norwich…norvic was a major factor for the mass waterways in the east. We are prolific boat builders then and now. The fenns and the broads with 2/3 of a coast line. Many many place names, districts, marshs, carrs, bogs, wetlands, farms and waterways are heavily norse in origin. After all, Ivar the boneless and king canute ruled here in danelaw. It was our rich fertile soil,abundance of woodland and the most churches in the whole country they blundered.

By: inigo987

inigo987 — Thu, 02 Mar 2023 19:35:06 +0000

‘Thorpe’ is the Dutch word ‘dorp’ (village). ‘Dale’ is the Dutch word ‘dal’ (valley). ‘Kirk’ is the Dutch word ‘kerk’ (church).
There are many Dutch and English words coming from the same origin, mostly Old-Germanic or even Indo-Germanic. The Old-Germanic ‘th’ sound has remained/survived in English, but in most Germanic languages become a ‘d’ (English/Dutch: the/de, thorpe/dorp, thick/dik, thin/dun, think/denk, through/door, there/daar, this/dit, these/die, etc)

By: Pete Story

Pete Story — Wed, 01 Mar 2023 16:12:14 +0000

Until I learned Norwegian I never thought much about the place names in Yorkshire. My favourite is Ugglebarnby, which you might imagine was a place with lots of owls. But apparently not ... it's a place with a bearded owner... https://www.darlingtonandstocktontimes.co.uk/news/8203110.ugglebarnby-lives-up-to-its-curious-nordic-name/

By: Michael Burton

Michael Burton — Mon, 27 Feb 2023 08:34:02 +0000

The most important effect that Old Norse had on English was to start its transformation from a synthetic language with case endings to the analytical uninfected tongue we have today. The root words used by the Danes and English were often very similar but case endings and gender were mostly different. To overcome this, they quickly dropped the inflections and used prepositions instead which aided mutual understanding.

By: Shirley Regelous

Shirley Regelous — Mon, 27 Feb 2023 01:15:57 +0000

Another borrowing from Old Norse led to the development of pairs of words. ‘Sc’ was found in words of both Old English and Old Norse But the pronounciation differed,being ‘sh’ in Old English and’sk’ in Old Norse. This rise to pairs of words such as ‘shirt/skirt’ and ‘shrimp/skimp’.