Language contact in Viking age England : a sociolinguistic perspective

The main goal of this study is to investigate Old Norse (ON) influence on Old English (OE), by applying sociolinguistic methods for examining ON and OE parallel words. The methodology applied in this thesis consists of two phases. First, a word pool of OE/ON parallel words was complied from the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). Second, from this compilation, each word was categorized into different designated domains. A key research question is whether ON influence on OE appears to be completely random, or whether a structural pattern could be observed in the material. Given that such a pattern emerges, a further question is how the observations can signify or reflect social and cultural influences. It is hoped that this new approach can offer a fresh view of the OE/ON language contact situation and present yet another side of the complexity of the multi-cultural society and the multi-faceted history of Viking Age England