... contact with other languages. A series of invasions and eventual colonisation by the Norsemen (a term which will be used to generally refer to the tribal groups which inhabited Denmark and the Scandinavian peninsula), made a permanent impact on the English language. This impact was brought about by an extended period of contact between Old English, the language of the Anglo-Saxons that inhabited the majority of England, and Old Norse, the language of the Norse invaders. To understand the implications of the Norse invasions on the English language, it is first necessary to briefly explore the history and development of English as a language during this period. The language of Old English is sometimes referred to in academic texts as Anglo-Saxon, which is also the general name given to the Germanic people who inhabited Britain between the fifth and eleventh centuries. Anglo-Saxon is not a modern term, constructed to identify ...

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