Language and History in Viking Age England: Linguistic Relations between Speakers of Old Norse and Old English (Studies in the Early Middle Ages, 6) - Softcover

Townend, Matthew

Softcover

ISBN 10: 2503518419 ISBN 13: 9782503518411

Publisher: Brepols Publishers, 2005

Synopsis

This is the first ever book-length study of the nature and significance of the linguistic contact between speakers of Old Norse and Old English in Viking Age England. It investigates in a wide-ranging and systematic fashion a foundational but under-considered factor in the history and culture of the Vikings in England. The subject is important for late Anglo-Saxon and Viking Age history; for language and literature in the late Anglo-Saxon period; and for the history and development of the English language. The work's primary focus is on Anglo-Norse language contact, with a particular emphasis on the question of possible mutual intelligibility between speakers of the two languages; but since language contact is an emphatically sociolinguistic phenomenon, the work's methodology combines linguistic, literary and historical approaches, and draws for its evidence on texts in Old English, Old Norse and Anglo-Latin, and other forms of linguistic and onomastic material.

About this title

About the Author:

Matthew Townend is Lecturer in the Department of English at the University of York.

About this edition

• Publisher: Brepols Publishers
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 2503518419
• ISBN 13: 9782503518411
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 248