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Encyclopedia :
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OLD :
Old Norse language |
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Old Norse language. The red area is the distribution of Old West Norse, whereas the orange area is the spread of Old East Norse. The pink area is Old Gutnish and the green area is the extent of the other Germanic languages with which Old Norse still retained some mutual intelligibilityOld Norse is the Germanic language once spoken by the inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, and the early Middle Ages. It evolved from the older Proto-Norse, in the 8th century. Since most of the literature is from medieval Iceland, Old Norse is usually represented by Old Icelandic, and sometimes defined as Old Icelandic. Old Icelandic was essentially identical to Old Norwegian and they formed together the Old West Norse dialect of Old Norse. The Old East Norse dialect was spoken in Denmark and Sweden and settlements in Russia, England and Normandy. The Old Gutnish dialect was spoken in Gotland and in various settlements in the East. These dialects were very similar and were considered by their speakers to be one and the same language. They called it dönsk tunga (the Danish tongue). In the 11th century, it was the most widely spoken European language ranging from Vinland in the West to the Volga in the East. In Russia it survived longest in Novgorod and died out in the 13th century. The earliest inscriptions in Old Norse are runic, from the 8th century (although there are 200 inscriptions in Proto-Norse going as far back as the 2nd century), and runes continued to be used for a thousand years. The main literary texts are in the Latin alphabet, the great sagas and eddas of medieval Iceland. Its modern descendants are the West Norse languages of Icelandic, Norwegian (nynorsk), Faroese and the extinct Norn language of the Orkney and the Shetland Islands as well as the East Scandinavian languages of Swedish, Danish and Norwegian (bokmål/riksmål). Norwegian was originally West Norse, but was later heavily influenced by East Norse (Scandinavian). Among these, Icelandic and the closely related Faroese have changed the least from Old Norse in the last thousand years, although with Danish rule of the Faroe Islands Faroese has also been influenced by Danish. Old Norse also had an influence on English dialects and particularly Scots which contains many Old Norse loanwords. It also influenced the development of the Norman language. General characteristicsEvolutionAs Proto-Norse evolved into Old Norse, in the 8th century, the effects of the umlauts varied geographically. The typical umlauts (e.g. fylla from *fullian) were stronger in the West whereas those resulting in diaresis (e.g. hiarta from herto) were more influential in the East. This difference was the main reason behind the dialectalization that took place in the 9th and the 10th century shaping an Old West Norse dialect in Norway and the Atlantic settlements and an Old East Norse dialect in Denmark and Sweden. A second difference was that the old diphthongs generally became monophthongs in East Norse. For instance in East Norse stain became sten, whereas it became steinn in West Norse. In Old Gutnish, this diphthong remained. Old West Norse and Old Gutnish kept the diphthong au as in auga, whereas it in East Norse became ųgha. Likewise, West Norse had the ey diphthong, as in heyra, while it in East Norse became ų, as in hųra, and in Old Gutnish was oy as in hoyra.
A third difference was that Old West Norse lost certain combinations of consonnants. The combinations -mp-, -nt-, and -nk- were assimilated into -pp-, -tt- and -kk- in Old West Norse, but this phenomenon was limited in Old East Norse.
Phonemes The standardized Old Norse spelling is for the most part phonemic. The most notable deviation is that the non-phonemic difference between the voiced and the unvoiced dental fricatives is marked. VowelsThe vowel phonemes mostly come in pairs of long and short. The orthography marks the long vowels with an acute accent. The short counterpart of /ę/ is not a phoneme but an allophone of /e/. The long counterpart of /ö/ has merged with /į/ in the classical (13th century) language. All phonemes have, more or less, the expected phonetic realization. Back vowels: /a/ - /aː/ - /o/ - /oː/ /u/ - /uː/ Front unrounded vowels: /ę/ /e/ - /eː/ /i/ - /iː/ Front rounded vowels: /ų/ - // /y/ - /yː/ StopsOld Norse has six stop phonemes. Of these /p/ is rare word-initially and /d/ and /b/ do not occur between vowels. The /g/ phoneme is realized as a voiced fricative between vowels. /t/ /d/ /k/ /g/ /p/ /b/ Fricatives/f/ /θ/ (<ž>) /š/ /s/ /h/ Liquids/l/ /r/ Semi-vowels/j/ /v/ Text Example Of Old West NorseThe following text is from Egils saga. The manuscript is the oldest known for that saga, the so called θ-fragment from the 13th century. The text clearly shows, how little Icelandic has changed structurally. The last version is legitimate Modern Icelandic, although nothing has been altered but the spelling. The text also demonstrates, however, that a modern reader might have difficulties with the unaltered manuscript text, to say nothing of the lettering.
Text example of Old East NorseThis is an extract from the Westrogothic law. It is the oldest text written on paper found in Sweden and from the 13th century. It is contemporaneous with most of the Icelandic literature.
:If someone slays a Swede or a Smålander, a man from the kingdom, but not a West Geat, he will pay eight örtugar and thirteen marks, but no wergild. The king owns nine marks from manslaughter and the killing of any man. If someone slays a Dane or a Norwegian, he will pay nine marks. If someone slays a foreigner, he shall not be banished and have to flee to his clan. If someone slays a foreign priest, he will pay as much as for a foreigner. A priest counts as a freeman. If a Southerner is slain or an Englishman, he shall pay four marks to the plaintif and two marks to the king. Text example of Old GutnishThe Gutasaga is the longest text surviving from Old Gutnish. It was written in the 13th century and dealt with the early history of the Gotlanders. This part relates of the agreement that the Gotlanders had with the Swedish king sometime before the 9th century:
:So, by their own volition, the Gotlanders became the subjects of the Swedish king, so that they could travel freely and without risk to any location in the Swedish kingdom without toll and other fees. Likewise, the Swedes had the right to go to Gotland without corn restrictions or other prohibitions. The king was to provide protection and aid, when they needed it and asked for it. The king and the jarl shall send emissaries to the Gutnish althing to receive the taxes. These emissaries shall declare free passage for the Gotlanders to all locations in the sea of the king at Uppsala (i.e. the Baltic Sea was under Swedish control), and likewise for everyone who wanted to travel to Gotland. See also
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