Borrowed from Old Norse 'kalla' (to cry out), replacing native Old English 'clipian' during Norse-English bilingualism.
A cry made as a summons or to attract attention; an instance of speaking to someone on the telephone.
From Middle English 'callen,' from Old Norse 'kalla' (to cry out, to call, to summon), from Proto-Germanic *kallōną (to call, to shout), possibly from PIE *gal- (to call, to shout). Old Norse 'kalla' replaced the native Old English 'clipian/cleopian' (to call, to cry out). The Norse word likely prevailed because of the intense Norse-English bilingualism in the Danelaw during the 9th-11th centuries, a period when many everyday English words were replaced by their Norse equivalents
'Call' is a Viking word. Old English had its own word for calling — 'clipian' (which survives in 'yclept,' an archaic past participle meaning 'called/named'). Norse settlers in the Danelaw replaced it with their 'kalla,' and the Norse word won. Many of the simplest English words — 'call,' 'take,' 'get