A Handbook of the English Language

by R. G. Latham

The determination of the amount of Danish in English is difficult. It is not difficult to prove a word Scandinavian; but, then, we must also show that it is not German as well. A few years back the current opinion was against the doctrine that there was much Danish in England. At present, the tendency is rather the other way. The following facts are from Mr. Garnett.—"Phil. Trans." vol. i.

1. The Saxon name of the present town of Whitby in Yorkshire was Streoneshalch. The present name Whitby, Hvitby, or Whitetown, is Danish.

2. The Saxon name of the capital of Derbyshire was Northweortheg. The present name is Danish.

3. The termination -by = town is Norse.

4. On a monument in Aldburgh church, Holdernesse, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, referred to the age of Edward the Confessor, is found the following inscription:—

Ulf het aræran cyrice for hanum and for Gunthara saula.

"Ulf bid rear the church for him and for the soul of Gunthar."

Now, in this inscription, Ulf, in opposition to the Anglo-Saxon Wulf, is a Norse form; whilst hanum is a Norse dative, and by no means an Anglo-Saxon one.—Old Norse hanum, Swedish honom.

5. The use of at for to as the sign of the infinitive mood is Norse, not Saxon. It is the regular prefix in Icelandic, Danish, Swedish, and Feroic. It is also found in the northern dialects of the Old English, and in the particular dialect of Westmoreland at the present day.