Scandinavian loanwords in English in the 15th century

Abstract

The paper concentrates on the following two issues concerning Scandinavian loanwards in English in the fifteenth century: (i) the obsolescence of loanwords and (ii) the appearance of new Scandinavian loanwords which survived later in non-standard varieties of English. The possible reason for the disappearance of the obsolete loans seems to be the rivalry of synonyms, mostly of French and native origin. It is also interesting to observe that despite the influx of French vocabulary, Scandinavian loanwords surfaced in English dialects even four centuries after the Viking period. Some of them disappeared a few centuries later, e.g. hink, nait, ra, scraw, stoop, etc., however, most of them survived well into the 20th century, e.g. arwal, garth, marrow, slape and soop.