Part 3 — 1. The Dialectal Provenience of Loanwords.

The general character of the Scand. loanwords in Sco. is Norse, not Dan. This is shown by (a) A number of words that either do not exist in Dan. or else have in Sco. a distinctively W. Scand. sense; (b) Words with a W. Scand. form.

a. The following words have in Sco. a W. Scand. meaning or are not found in Danish:

Airt, to urge. O. N. erta. Not a Dan. word.

Apert, boldly. O. N. apr. Not Dan.

Aweband, a rope for tying cattle. O. N. háband. Meaning distinctively W. Scand.

Bauch, awkward. Not E.Scand.

Bein, liberal. Meaning is W. Scand.

Brod, to incite. O. N. brodda, id. Dan. brodde, means "to equip with points."

Bysning, monstrous. O. N. bysna. Not E. Scand.

Carpe, to converse. Not E.Scand.

Chowk, jawbone. Rather W. Scand. than E. Scand.

Chyngill, gravel. A Norse word.

Dapill, gray. A W. Scand. word.

Dyrdum, uproar. W. Scand. The word is also found in Gael. Furthermore the form is more W. Scand. than Dan. Cp. dýr and dør.

Dowless, worthless. Duglauss a W. Scand. word.

Duds, clothes. Not found in Dan. or Sw.

Ettle, aim at. W. Scand. meaning. O. Dan. ætlæ meant "ponde over."

Farrand, handsome. This meaning is Icelandic and Norse.

Fell, mountain. W. Scand. more than E. Scand.

Gane, be suitable. O. N. gegna. Vb. not found in Dan.

Gyll, a ravine. O. N. gil. Is W. Scand.

Heid, brightness. O. N. hærð. Icel. and Norse.

Hoolie, slow. O. N. hógligr. Not in Dan. or Sw.

Kendill, to kindle. Ormulum kinndlenn is from O. Ic. kendill (Brate).

Lirk, to crease. I have not found the word in E.Scand.

Melder, flour. O. N. meldr. Is W. Scand., particularly Norse.

Pocknet, a fishnet. O. N. pōki-net. Not Dan.

Ramstam, indiscreet, boisterous. Both elements are W. Scand.

Scarth, cormorant. W. Scand.

Tarn, a lake. Distinctively Norse.

Tyne, to lose. O. N. týna. Distinctively Norse.

Waith, booty. O. N. væiðr. Icel. and Søndmøre, Norway.

Ware, to spend. N. verja. W. Scand.

Wick, to cause to turn. O. N. vikja. Not Danish.

b. The following words are W. Scand. in form:

Bolax, hatchet. O. N. bolöx. The O. Dan. word has the vowel u, bulöx.

Bown, O. N. búinn, cp. grouf < grúfu; bowk < búkr; stroup < strjúpr; dowless < duglauss, etc. The O. Dan. word was boin. The form in Orm. is būn, a Norse loanword.

Busk, to prepare, has W. Scand. reflexive ending sk.

Buth, O. N. búð. The O. Dan., O. Sw. vowel was o, boð and bodh, so in modern Dan. diall. In Norse diall. it is u.

Cappit shows W. Scand. assimilation of mp < pp.

Clubbit shows W. Scand. assimilation of mb < bb.

Drucken exhibits W. Scand. assimilation of nk > kk. Cp. O. Dan. dronkne, drone, but N.Dan. drukken.

Harn corresponds better to O. N. hjarni than to umlauted Dan. hjerne, O. Sw. hiärne.

Ill, will. Both show assimilation of ld to ll. Cp. O. N. illr, villr, but Dan. ilde, vild.

Rund, roond, is rather the O. N. rond than Dan. rand.

Ser, seir corresponds better to O. N., O. Ic. sér than to O. Dan. sær. This change of e to æ in Dan. was, however, late, i.e., in the last part of the 10th Century. See Noreen P. G.² I, 526.

Slak, O. N. slakki. Shows W. Scand. assimilation of nk > kk.

Stapp, O. N. stappa. Has W. Scand. assimilation of mp > pp. Cp. cappit.

Stert is O. N. sterta. Cp. Dan. styrte.

Wandreth is nearer to O. N. vandræði than to O. Dan. *vandraþ (Brate), from which N. Dan. vanraad.

Monophthongization of ou to o, ai to i (e), öy to ö took place in O. Dan. about 900. The Scand. loanwords in Eng., where the monophthong might be expected to appear, nearly always have the diphthong, however, which as we know was kept in W. Scand. Have such words been borrowed from W. Scand. then, or were they borrowed from Dan. before the period of monophthongation? Danish settlements began in the latter half of the 9th Century, but Dan. (and Norse) and Eng. did not merge immediately. Scand. continued to be spoken throughout the next century down to the beginning of the 11th Century (Noreen). Brate says the majority of loanwords probably came in in the beginning of the 10th Century. Wall points out that the Mercian and the Northumbrian Gospels of the 1st part of the 10th Century show extremely small traces of Scand. influence. It would seem, then, that the greater number of loanwords came in after monophthongation had taken place in Dan. The following dates for the appearance of loanwords in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle may be of interest. These are all taken from Egge's article, "Norse Words in the A-S. Chronicle."

Hold first appears in 905, then again in 911 and 921; law in the present sense is first used in 959; in 1002 is first found the word grith, peace, which at once became common; lætan, to think, is first found in 1005. In 1008 appears sagth; in 1011 hustinge; 1014 utlagian; 1048 the noun utlah; 1016 feologan; 1036, 1046, 1047, lithmen, sailors; lith, fleet, in 1012, 1066, 1068, 1069, 1071; in 1055 sciplith; in 1036, 1041, 1054, 1045, and 1071 huscarl; hamule, hamle 1039; ha 1040; hasata, rower, (O. N. há-sæti) in 1052; in 1048 bunda and husbunda; 1049 nithing; in the same year also the phrase scylode of male, paid off (O. N. skilja af máli); 1052, 1066 butscarl, boatsman, hytte in 1066, wyrre 1066. In 1072 for the first time appears tacan; in 1076 hofding and brydlop, etc.

We may conclude that the Scand. elements that had come into O. Eng. in the beginning of the 10th Century were not large. From the middle of the century they came in in large numbers, but the period of most extensive borrowing seems rather to be the last part of the 10th and the first half of the 11th Century. Wall suggests that the Dan. spoken by the Dan. settlers in England was of a more archaic kind than that spoken in Denmark—that this might in many cases account for the archaic character of the loanwords. We know that the settlements in central England were predominantly Dan. as opposed to Norse. The Scand. place-names as well as the character of the loanwords in the Ormulum indicate that. It is probable, then, that monophthongation took place later in the Dan. spoken in England than in that spoken in Denmark. The following is a list of some of these words found in Scotch. O. N. æi, Dan. e: bayt, to graze; blaik, to cleanse; graip, a fork; grane, a branch; graith, to prepare; laike, to play; slaik, to smoothen; lairing, gutter; the Yorkshire form lyring (Wall) seems to show an original monophthong. O. N. öy: careing, smaik. O. N. ou, Dan. ö: blout, bare; douff, dull; gowk, a fool; haugh, a knoll; loup, to run; louse, loose; nout, cattle; rowt, to roar; rowst, to cry out; stowp, a beaker; stour, a pole.

It will be seen from the above, leaving out of consideration the diphthong ou and ai, that the character of a large number of the loanwords is Norse. In a great many cases the E. and W. Scand. form of the word was the same. There are, however, a few words in Sco. that bear a Dan. stamp: sprent, donk and slonk exhibit E.Scand. non-assimilation of nt and nk to tt and kk. Snib corresponds to Dan. snibbe, cp. M. E. snibben. All these have the umlaut. Eng. snub, M. E. snubben and O. N. snubba have the unumlauted vowel. Bud agrees closer with Dan. bud, budh, than O. N. boð, Norse bod. Thraive (Dunbar) and threave (Ramsay) both indicate an original a-vowel, hence correspond better to Dan. trave than O. N. þrefi. To these may be added bask, flegger and forjeskit, which are not found in W. Scand.