--- title: "Pons-Sanz, Sara M. 2013 — paper by Pascual (2012) · SELIM 19" description: "First, she re-tests every proposed loan with phonological and inflectional evidence and moves weak candidates to a separate… 14 references." authors: ["RJ Pascual"] year: 2012 venue: "SELIM 19" source: "https://reunido.uniovi.es/index.php/SELIM/article/view/13348" doi: "10.17811/selim.19.2012.183-188" licence: "CC BY-NC-ND (journal licence per DOAJ; SELIM)" licence_url: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/" summary_licence: "Elamur Cosmic License" canonical: "https://research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/pascual-2019-pons-sanz-sara-m-2013/" --- [Elamur Research](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/pascual-2019-pons-sanz-sara-m-2013/) [home](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [papers](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/) / [2012](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/2012/page/3/) / Pons-Sanz, Sara M. 2013: The Lexical Eff ects of Anglo-Scandinavian Linguistic Contact on Old English # Pons-Sanz, Sara M. 2013: The Lexical Eff ects of Anglo-Scandinavian Linguistic Contact on Old English **Authors:** RJ Pascual · **Year:** 2012 · **Venue:** [SELIM 19](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/venues/selim-journal-of-the-spanish-society-for-medieval-english-language-and/) ([SELIM Journal of the Spanish Society for Medieval English Language and Literature 2012](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/venues/selim-journal-of-the-spanish-society-for-medieval-english-language-and/2012/)) · **Publisher:** [University of Oviedo](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/publishers/university-of-oviedo/) · **Licence:** [CC BY-NC-ND (journal licence per DOAJ; SELIM)](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) **Links:** [Publisher's page](https://doi.org/10.17811/selim.19.2012.183-188) · [PDF](https://reunido.uniovi.es/index.php/SELIM/article/download/13348/12075) · [DOI 10.17811/selim.19.2012.183-188](https://doi.org/10.17811/selim.19.2012.183-188) · [OpenAlex](https://openalex.org/W3133336816) **Citations:** 0 citations (OpenAlex, 2026-10-14) ## Summary This is Rafael J. Pascual's review (SELIM 19) of Sara M. Pons-Sanz's 2013 Brepols monograph on Scandinavian loanwords in Old English. Earlier work treated the topic as minor because Norse-derived words are rare in Old English texts and were assumed to be mostly culture-specific technical terms. Most earlier studies were also word lists copied from predecessors, so doubtful etymologies kept circulating. Pons-Sanz addresses this in two ways. First, she re-tests every proposed loan with phonological and inflectional evidence and moves weak candidates to a separate appendix of probably native words. Second, she maps where the accepted loans occur across texts and semantic fields to judge how deeply each was integrated, rating it as core or peripheral. She also reads the loans and their texts against each other to learn about dialect geography and the origins of the texts. The reviewer considers it the most comprehensive treatment of the subject so far and expects it to shape future research on Old English–Old Norse contact. ## Key points - The book has xv + 589 pages. It is organised as an etymological chapter (2), a lexico-semantic chapter (3), text case studies (4), conclusions, and four appendices: a loan list, a text list, rejected terms, and early Middle English Norse-derived words. - In a sample argument, OE *sweġen* "young man" is explained as a loan from Viking Age Norse *\*suainaʀ*. The spelling ⟨eg⟩ renders the Norse diphthong /ɑi/, whereas the native cognate shows the regular OE /ɑ:/ in *swān*. - Terms long counted as Norse but judged more likely native include *hæfen(e)* "haven" and *wrang* "hold of a ship". - Nouns are the largest group of loans, and technical vocabulary, especially legal terms, outnumbers everyday words. Even so, many loans are non-technical, which goes against the traditional view. - *sceġð* "warship" spread beyond Scandinavianized areas and beyond Scandinavian ships, which makes it a core term. *sweġen*, found only in the Peterborough Chronicle, is peripheral. The case studies examine Ælfric's works and two versions of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, D and E. ## Interesting ideas - Re-verify every inherited label against first-principles evidence rather than trusting earlier lists, because errors in reference resources propagate silently through citation chains. - Prefer explaining an irregular form by a known external rule (borrowing) over calling it an unexplained exception, and rank structural evidence (sound shape, inflection) above meaning when deciding origin. - Measure how central a word is to its semantic field by how widely it spreads across sources and how far its meaning has generalised beyond its original niche. - Use evidence in both directions: words reveal the dialect and origin of a text, and the text in turn clarifies the distribution of its words. - Publish rejected candidates as a separate, reasoned list rather than silently dropping them. ## For Mova How these ideas could serve Mova, our small open language model — its files, stages and tests: - **I1** (learn): Periodically re-audit silver labels and lexicon entries inherited from older resources with independent witnesses, instead of treating them as fixed gold. - **I2** (tokens): For out-of-vocabulary or odd word forms, test them against foreign or variant morphological patterns before falling back to an "irregular" lemma, and record which rule justified the analysis. - **I3** (world): Weight ontology and lexicon concepts as core or peripheral by their spread across corpora and domains, so rare, source-bound terms are not over-trusted in reasoning. - **I4** (tree): Let distinctive lexical markers flag a document's variety or genre, then pick the matching treebank-trained parser or UD dialect conversion for it. - **I5** (learn): Keep an explicit store of rejected rules or labels with reasons, to serve as negative controls in evaluation and to block their re-induction later. *Our summary of the paper, in our own words — not its text. The work belongs to its authors; read it at the links above.* 📚 Shelves (3): [🎭 Arts and Humanities](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/shelves/arts-and-humanities/) · 17,450 works · [🗣️ Language and Linguistics](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/shelves/arts-and-humanities/language-and-linguistics/) · 17,296 works · [🎭 Classics](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/shelves/arts-and-humanities/classics/) · 116 works 🧭 Topics (2): [English](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/topics/english/) · 2,379 works · [⏳ Historical linguistics & language change](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/topics/language-change/) · 250 works ## Cite Cite as: RJ Pascual. 2012. Pons-Sanz, Sara M. 2013: The Lexical Eff ects of Anglo-Scandinavian Linguistic Contact on Old English. SELIM 19. The paper itself, not this page. BibTeX from the library's record of the work. ```bibtex @inproceedings{pascual2012pons, title = {{Pons-Sanz, Sara M. 2013: The Lexical Eff ects of Anglo-Scandinavian Linguistic Contact on Old English}}, author = {RJ Pascual}, booktitle = {SELIM 19}, year = {2012}, doi = {10.17811/selim.19.2012.183-188}, url = {https://doi.org/10.17811/selim.19.2012.183-188} } ``` - [← previous Phonetics of Speech Acts: A Pilot Study](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/chuang-2012-phonetics-speech-acts-pilot-study/) - [next → Reflections on Abu Rumi’s Amharic Translation of the Book of Ruth](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/mulugetta-2012-reflections-abu-rumis-amharic-translation/) - [↑ back to papers of 2012](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/2012/page/3/) ## References 14 references, 0 of them with a card of ours. ↗ leads to the work, «find» searches for one we have no id for yet. 1. Björkman, E. 1900: Scandinavian Loanwords in Middle English. Vol. 1. Halle, Niemeyer. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Bj%C3%B6rkman%2C+E%2E+1900%3A+Scandinavian+Loanwords+in+Middle+English%2E+Vol%2E+1%2E+Halle%2C+Niemeyer%2E) 2. Campbell, A. 1959: Old English Grammar. Oxford, Clarendon Press. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Campbell%2C+A%2E+1959%3A+Old+English+Grammar%2E+Oxford%2C+Clarendon+Press%2E) 3. Fischer, A. 1989: Lexical Change in Late Old English: From ǣ to lagu. In A. Fischer ed. The History and the Dialects of English: Festschrift for Eduard Kolb. Heidelberg, Winter: 103–114. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Fischer%2C+A%2E+1989%3A+Lexical+Change+in+Late+Old+English%3A+From+%C7%A3+to+lagu%2E+In+A%2E+Fischer+ed%2E+The+History+and+the+Dialects+of+English%3A+Festschrift+for+Eduard+Kolb%2E+Heidelberg%2C+Winter%3A+103%E2%80%93114%2E) 4. Frank, R. rev. 2014: Pons-Sanz, S. M. (2013) The Lexical Eff ects of Anglo-Scandinavian Linguistic Contact on Old English. In The Medieval Review 14.05.02. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Frank%2C+R%2E+rev%2E+2014%3A+Pons%2DSanz%2C+S%2E+M%2E+%282013%29+The+Lexical+Eff+ects+of+Anglo%2DScandinavian+Linguistic+Contact+on+Old+English%2E+In+The+Medieval+Review+14%2E05%2E02%2E) 5. Fulk, R. D. 1982: Dating Beowulf to the Viking Age. Philological Quarterly 61: 341–359. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Fulk%2C+R%2E+D%2E+1982%3A+Dating+Beowulf+to+the+Viking+Age%2E+Philological+Quarterly+61%3A+341%E2%80%93359%2E) 6. Hofmann, D. 1955: Nordisch-englische Lehnbeziehungen der Wikingerzeit. København, Munksgaard. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Hofmann%2C+D%2E+1955%3A+Nordisch%2Denglische+Lehnbeziehungen+der+Wikingerzeit%2E+K%C3%B8benhavn%2C+Munksgaard%2E) 7. McKinney, P. R. 1994: To munde us sylfum: A Semantic Study of the Old English Legal Terms for Protection. (Ph.D. dissertation). East Lansing, Michigan State University. Reviews Rafael J. Pascual Universidad de Granada SELIM 19 (2012) [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=McKinney%2C+P%2E+R%2E+1994%3A+To+munde+us+sylfum%3A+A+Semantic+Study+of+the+Old+English+Legal+Terms+for+Protection%2E+%28Ph%2ED%2E+dissertation%29%2E+East+Lansing%2C+Michigan+State+University%2E+Reviews+Rafael+J%2E+Pascual+Unive) 8. Neidorf, L. 2014: The Dating of Beowulf: A Reassessment. Cambridge, D. S. Brewer. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Neidorf%2C+L%2E+2014%3A+The+Dating+of+Beowulf%3A+A+Reassessment%2E+Cambridge%2C+D%2E+S%2E+Brewer%2E) 9. Peters, H. 1981: Zum skandinavischen Lehngut im Altenglischen. Sprachwissenschaft 6: 85–124. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Peters%2C+H%2E+1981%3A+Zum+skandinavischen+Lehngut+im+Altenglischen%2E+Sprachwissenschaft+6%3A+85%E2%80%93124%2E) 10. Pons-Sanz, S. M. 2007: Norse-Derived Vocabulary in Late Old English Texts: Wulfstan’s Works, a Case Study. Odense, University Press of Southern Denmark. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Pons%2DSanz%2C+S%2E+M%2E+2007%3A+Norse%2DDerived+Vocabulary+in+Late+Old+English+Texts%3A+Wulfstan%E2%80%99s+Works%2C+a+Case+Study%2E+Odense%2C+University+Press+of+Southern+Denmark%2E) 11. Pons-Sanz, S. M. 2008: Norse-Derived Terms and Structures in The Battle of Maldon. Journal of English and Germanic Philology 107: 421–444. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Pons%2DSanz%2C+S%2E+M%2E+2008%3A+Norse%2DDerived+Terms+and+Structures+in+The+Battle+of+Maldon%2E+Journal+of+English+and+Germanic+Philology+107%3A+421%E2%80%93444%2E) 12. Pons-Sanz, S. M. 2013: The Lexical Eff ects of Anglo-Scandinavian Linguistic Contact on Old English. Turnhout, Brepols. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Pons%2DSanz%2C+S%2E+M%2E+2013%3A+The+Lexical+Eff+ects+of+Anglo%2DScandinavian+Linguistic+Contact+on+Old+English%2E+Turnhout%2C+Brepols%2E) 13. Wollmann, A. 1996: Scandinavian Loanwords in Old English. In H. F. Nielsen & L. Schøsler eds. The Origins and Development of Emigrant Languages: Proceedings of the Second Rasmus Rask Colloquium, Odense University, November 1994. Odense, Odense University Press: 215–242. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Wollmann%2C+A%2E+1996%3A+Scandinavian+Loanwords+in+Old+English%2E+In+H%2E+F%2E+Nielsen+%26+L%2E+Sch%C3%B8sler+eds%2E+The+Origins+and+Development+of+Emigrant+Languages%3A+Proceedings+of+the+Second+Rasmus+Rask+Colloquium%2C+Odens) 14. SELIM 19 (2012) Rafael J. Pascual • [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=SELIM+19+%282012%29+Rafael+J%2E+Pascual+%E2%80%A2) *Updated 2 November 2026*