Old Norse Influence on English: A Case for Koineisation (Evidence from the Peterborough Chronicle)
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2021-06-30
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en
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The many discrepancies between Old English as spoken some 1500 years ago and the English we speak today has given rise to many discussions regarding the nature and development of the language. Some scholars believe this language state can best be analysed along the lines of a creole, while others argue this term is better reserved for more drastically simplified languages. The term creole is itself the topic of a debate as least as extensive as the one surrounding the Middle English Creole Hypothesis. The possibility of Middle English as a koine, a common language shared among speakers of different languages that were to some degree mutually intelligible, has not yet seen a debate of similar extent. An analysis of the degree of deflexion in the Peterborough Chronicle, one of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, shows that the state of mutual intelligibility between Old English and Old Norse led to the formation of a koine, which explains the unique linguistic status of Early Modern English.
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