Old Gutnish
Old Gutnish was the dialect of Old Norse that was spoken on the island of Gotland. It shows such differences from the Old East Norse dialects Old Swedish and Old Danish that it is considered to be a separate branch. The root Gut is identical to Goth, and it is often remarked that the language has similarities with the Gothic language, and the most well-known example is that Gothic and Gutnish called both adult and young sheep lamb. These similarities made Elias Wessén consider it to be a dialect of Gothic. The Old Norse diphthong au (e.g. auga> augä "eye") remained like in Old West Norse, while it evolved into the monophthong ĝ in Old East Norse (ĝga). Likewise the diphthong ai in stain (stone) remained while it in Old East Norse became e (sten). Whereas Old West Norse had the ey diphthong (and Old East Norse the monophthong ĝ) Old Gutnish had oy.
| differences |
| Old West Norse |
Old Gutnish |
Old East Norse |
| auga (eye) |
augä |
ĝgha |
| stein (stone) |
stain |
sten |
| dreymdi (dreamt) |
droymdi |
drĝmdi |
Most of the corpus of Old Gutnish is found in the Gutasaga from the 13th century. Example:
:ŝissi ŝieluar hafŝi ann sun sum hit hafŝi. En hafŝa cuna hit huita stierna ŝaun tu bygŝu fyrsti agutlandi fyrstu nat sum ŝaun saman suafu ŝa droymdi hennj draumbr. So sum ŝrir ormar warin slungnir saman j barmj hennar Oc ŝytti hennj sum ŝair scriŝin yr barmi hennar. ŝinna draum segŝi han firi hasŝa bonda sinum hann riaŝ dravm ŝinna so. Alt ir baugum bundit bo land al ŝitta warŝa oc faum ŝria syni aiga. ŝaim gaf hann namn allum o fydum. guti al gutland aigha graipr al annar haita Oc gunfiaun ŝriŝi. ŝair sciptu siŝan gutlandi i ŝria ŝriŝiunga. So at graipr ŝann elzti laut norŝasta ŝriŝiung oc guti miŝal ŝriŝiung En gunfiaun ŝann yngsti laut sunnarsta. siŝan af ŝissum ŝrim aucaŝis fulc j gutlandi som mikit um langan tima at land elptj ŝaim ai alla fyŝa ŝa lutaŝu ŝair bort af landi huert ŝriŝia ŝiauŝ so at alt sculdu ŝair aiga oc miŝ sir bort hafa sum ŝair vfan iorŝar attu. Translation:
:This Thielvar had a son called Hafthi. And Hafthi's wife was called Whitestar. Those two were the first to settle on Gotland. When they slept on the island for the first night, she dreamed that three snakes lay in her lap. She told this to Hafthi. He interpreted her dream and said: everything is bound with bangles, this island will be inhabited, and you will bear three sons. Although, they were not yet born, he named them Guti, who would own the island, Graip and Gunfiaun. The sons divided the island into three regions, and Graip who was the eldest took the north, Guti the middle and Gunfjaun, who was the youngest took the southern third. After a long time, their descendants became so numerous that the island could not support all of them. They drew lots and every third islander had to leave. They could keep everything they owned but the land.
Sources Nationalencyklopedin
|
