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Well you argued (without providing any references) that Norwegian "styrbord" was probably from Old German. Given your example of Viking longboats I find it far
by depressedpanda 8y ago
Well you argued (without providing any references) that Norwegian "styrbord" was probably from Old German. Given your example of Viking longboats I find it far more likely that the word is from Old Norse.
Hence Germanic is correct, but German highly unlikely.
Given the history of the British isles, I would also venture that English is more influenced by Old Norse than Old German.
- elcapitan 8y agoMy correction was merely about the usage of "Germanic" vs specific languages with regard to "old" ;) In general classifying it as "Germanic" is correct, yes. My original distinction was more intended to be about the difference between originally Germanic words vs Scandinavian-only ones. It's probably hard to tell in which of the languages (Norse, German, English) it originated, because there are little sources in that time (talking mid-first millennium here). From what I know German is a little older than Old Norse (700 vs 900). Regarding "viking boats", I used that as an example for a type of boat, I'm pretty sure it was a common way of building boats at the time - the Romans used similar rudders. The concept would have been known to all people building ships.