10. Period and extent of influence.

It is possible to estimate the extent of the Scandinavian influence by the number of borrowed words that exist in Standard English. That number is about 900. These are almost always words designating common everyday things and fundamental concepts. There are, according to Wright, the editor of the English Dialect Dictionary, thousands of Scandinavian words that are still a part of the everyday speech of people in the north and east of England and in a sense are much as part of the living language as those that are used in other parts of the country and have made their way into literature.
Locally, at least, the Scandinavian influence was tremendous. The period during which this large Danish element was making its way into English was doubtless the tenth and eleventh centuries. This was the time in which the merging of the two people was taking place.
Because of its extent and the intimate way in which the borrowed elements were incorporated, the Scandinavian influence is one of the most interesting of the foreign influences that have contributed to the English language.