Date of Award
Summer 2025
Document Type
Open Access Thesis
Department
Linguistics
First Advisor
Kurt G. Goblirsch
Abstract
Northern English refers to a British English dialect group spoken in the counties of Northumberland, Cumbria, Durham, Westmorland, Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cheshire, Manchester, Lincolnshire, Merseyside, and Tyne & Wear. During the times of Old English and Middle English, this area was referred to as Northumbria and was controlled and inhabited primarily by Scandinavian settlers who spoke Old Norse. This contact with the Norse resulted in many linguistic changes in northern English, with the greatest contribution traditionally argued to be the wealth of borrowings from the Old Norse lexicon. However, some scholars have briefly broached the topic of Scandinavian phonological influence in the region, primarily discussing the cluster /sk/.
To elucidate the phonological effects of Old Norse on Northern English, this thesis analyzes the development of certain aspects which point to Scandinavian influence found in the northern sound system from the times of Old English to the dialects of the modern day. In particular, I focus on the preservation of velar plosives, the cluster /sk/, initial voiceless glottal and labial-velar fricatives, final rhotics, and the development of PGmc */ai/, */oː, o/, and */uː/. Given that this influence took place during a time from which we have very few surviving texts from the northern region, dialect data is provided to supplant this deficit and to demonstrate earlier stages of language development.
While much of what makes the phonological inventory of Northern English archaic was once common to all Old English, the southern dialects of modern English have since innovated bringing them further from that of the modern Scandinavian languages. The aim of this research is to provide evidence of the Old Norse-Northern English phonological connection, as well as to shed light on the no-influence, koineization, and creolization hypotheses put forth by prior scholars in relation to the role of Old Norse contact in the development of the Northern English sound system.
Rights
© 2025, Noah Zane Brandon
Recommended Citation
Brandon, N. Z.(2025). Evidence for the Scandinavian Influence on the Phonology of Northern English Using Modern Dialect Data. (Master's thesis). Retrieved from https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/8445