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Viking Impact on English Grammar
- Viking influence triggered a major shift in English grammar during the 10th century.
- Old English inflectional endings were lost, leading to fixed word order that shapes Modern English.
From Inflections To Fixed Word Order
- Old English inflections marked word roles, enabling flexible word order.
- Losing inflections forced English to develop a fixed subject-verb-object order for clarity.
Simplification Through Language Contact
- Vikings and Anglo-Saxons retained common stems and dropped differing inflections.
- This created a simplified English and shifted reliance to word order for communication.