English is (still) a West Germanic language
Kristin Bech, George Walkden
August 2015 

Emonds & Faarlund (2014, English: The Language of the Vikings) have recently attempted to make the case that English from its Middle period onwards is a North Germanic language, descended from the Norse varieties spoken in medieval England, rather than a West Germanic language as traditionally assumed. In this review article we critique Emonds & Faarlund’s proposal, focusing particularly on the syntactic evidence that forms the basis of their argumentation. A closer look at a number of constructions for which Emonds & Faarlund suggest a Norse origin reveals that the situation is not as they present it: in many cases, the syntactic properties of Old and Middle English are not given careful enough consideration, and/or the chronology of the developments is not compatible with a Norse origin. Moreover, Emonds & Faarlund do not engage with the large body of sound changes that constitute the strongest evidence for a West Germanic origin. We conclude that Emonds & Faarlund fail to make a convincing case either for a North Germanic origin or against a West Germanic origin.

Format:	[ pdf ]
Reference:	lingbuzz/002661 (please use that when you cite this article)
Published in:	Nordic Journal of Linguistics 39 (1), 65-100 (2016)
keywords:	old english, middle english, anglicized norse, syntactic change, language contact, language classification, syntax
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