Old Norse or Danish tongue is the Germanic language once spoken by the inhabitants of the Nordic countries (for instance during the Viking Age).

Formally, it can be divided into two similar dialects:

West Norse

Old Icelandic and Old Norwegian

East Norse

Old Danish and Old Swedish

In the 11th century, it was the most widely spoken European language, ranging from the Icelandic settlements in Vinland and Greenland to the Swedish settlements in Russia in the East, and to the Danish settlements in England and Normandy in the south.

Its modern descendants are the West Scandinavian languages of Icelandic, Norwegian, Faroese and the extinct Norn language of the Orkney and the Shetland Islands as well as the East Scandinavian languages of Swedish and Danish. Norwegian was later heavily influenced by East Scandinavian. (A more accurate division would class Bokmaal as East Scandinavian, Nynorsk as West 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.

The earliest inscriptions are runic, from the 1st 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.

Contents

1 Phonemes 1.1 Vowels 1.2 Stops 1.3 Fricatives 1.4 Liquids 1.5 Semi-vowels 2 Text Example 3 See also 4 References 5 External links

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.

Vowels

The vowel phonemes mostly come in pairs of long and short. The orthography marks the long vowels with an acute accent. The short counterpart of /�/ is not a phoneme but an allophone of /e/. The long counterpart of /�/ has merged with /�/ in the classical (13th century) language. All phonemes have, more or less, the expected phonetic realization.

Back vowels:

/a/ /�/

/ǫ/ /ǫ́/ (pronounced as Sampa [O]; the latter letter is o with an ogonek and a combining acute accent, but your browser may not display the combining accent properly.)

/o/ /�/

/u/ /�/

Front unrounded vowels:

/�/

/e/ /�/

/i/ /�/

Front rounded vowels:

/�/ /œ/ (properly oe-ligature)

/y/ /�/

Stops

Old 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/ (<�>) /�/

/s/

/h/

Liquids

/l/ /r/

Semi-vowels

/j/ /v/

Text Example

The 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.

The manuscript text, letter for letter	The same text in normalized, Old Icelandic spelling	The same text in Modern Icelandic
�geiR blundr systor s egils v �ar a�ingino & haf�i gengit hart at li�ueizlo vi� �st. h ba� egil & �a �stein coma ser t sta�festo ut �angat a myrar h bio a�r fyr suNan huit a fyr ne�an blundz vatn Egill toc uel a�ui. oc fysti �st at �r leti h �angat fa ra. Egill setti �orgeir blund ni�r at ana brecko En stein fǫr�i busta� siN ut yf lang �. & settiz ni�r at leiro lǫk. En egill rei� hei su�r anes ept �ingit m flocc siN. & skil�oz �r fe�gar m kęrleic	�orgeirr blundr, systursonr Egils, var �ar � �inginu ok haf�i gengit hart at li�veizlu vi� �orstein. Hann ba� Egil ok �� �orstein koma s�r til sta�festu �t �angat � M�rar; hann bj� ��r fyrir sunnan Hv�t�, fyrir ne�an Blundsvatn. Egill t�k vel � �v� ok f�sti �orstein, at �eir l�ti hann �angat fara. Egill setti �orgeir blund ni�r at �nabrekku, en Steinarr fœr�i b�sta� sinn �t yfir Lang� ok settisk ni�r at Leirul�k. En Egill rei� heim su�r � Nes eptir �ingit me� flokk sinn, ok skildusk �eir fe�gar me� k�rleik.	�orgeir blundur, systursonur Egils, var �ar � �inginu og haf�i gengi� hart a� li�veislu vi� �orstein. Hann ba� Egil og �� �orstein koma s�r til sta�festu �t �anga� � M�rar; hann bj� ��ur fyrir sunnan Hv�t�, fyrir ne�an Blundsvatn. Egill t�k vel � �v� og f�sti �orstein, a� �eir l�tu hann �anga� fara. Egill setti �orgeir blund ni�ur a� �nabrekku, en Steinar f�r�i b�sta� sinn �t yfir Lang� og settist ni�ur a� Leirul�k. En Egill rei� heim su�ur � Nes eftir �ingi� me� flokk sinn, og skildust �eir fe�gar me� k�rleik.

See also

• Old Norse orthography
• Old Norse poetry

References

• Gordon, Eric V. and A. R. Taylor. Introduction to Old Norse. Second. ed. Oxford: Clarenden Press, 1981.

External links

• Indo-European Language Resources (http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~kurisuto/germanic/language_resources.html) The resources in question are mostly Germanic, including two dictionaries of Old Icelandic (in English), two grammars of Old Icelandic (one in English, one in German) and a grammar of Old Swedish (in German).
• soundsample (http://www.hi.is/~haukurth/norse/sounds/ragn1_2b.mp3)
• Old Norse for Beginners (http://www.hi.is/~haukurth/norse/)

da:Norr�nt de:Altnordische Sprache eo:Norena lingvo fr:Vieux Norrois ja:古ノルド語 ko:고노르드어 pl:Język_staronordycki sv:Fornnordiska