History of the Nordic languages
SAS1. January 23, 2015
Hávamál 800-1100 AD
Old Norse:
Deyr fé, deya frændr, deyr sjálfr it sama;
ek veit eitt, at aldri deyr:
Dómr um dauðan hvern.
Nynorsk:
Fe døyr, frendar døyr, døyr sjølv det same;
eg veitt eitt, som aldri døyr:
domen om kvar ein død.
Cattle die, kinsmen die, the self dies likewise;
I know one thing that never dies:
.
Hávamál (the voice of the high one – i.e. Odin)
Runic carvings
Transkripsjon
"Til Havgrim, felagen sin, sender Tore fager Guds og sin hilsen, sant
kameratskap og vennskap. Mangt skorter det meg på, felage! Ikke er ølet for hånden, heller ikke fiskene. Jeg vil at du skal vite det, men krev meg ikke. Be bonden komme sør til oss og se hvordan vi har det. Egg ham til det, og krev ikke meg for noen ting; og la ikke Torstein lang vite. Send meg noen hansker. Hvis Sigrid trenger noe, så tilby henne det. Lov du meg ikke pryl for min hjelpeløshet."
By Ingrid Sannes Jensen (Institutt for Arkeologi, Universitetet i Bergen, magasin i Bryggens Museum, BRM 0/21919, foto: GSJ)
‘To Havgrim, his companion, Tore the beautiful sends God’s and his own greetings, true comradeship and friendship. I lack a lot of things, companion! Beer is not at hand, nor fish. I want you to know, but require nothing of me. Ask the farmer to come south to us and see how we are doing. Urge him to it, and require nothing of me; and do not let Torstein the long know. Send me some gloves. If Sigrid needs anything, then offer it to her. Promise not to beat me because of my helplessness.’
200 − 700: Ancient Nordic
• Older period ca. 200 – ca. 500
• Younger period ca. 500 – ca. 700 (syncope period/ ”Synkopezeit”)
700 − 1350: Old Norse
• Older period ca. 700 – ca. 1050
• Younger period ca. 1050 – ca. 1350
800: Split between East and West Nordic 1200: Split between South and North Nordic 1350 − 1550: Middle Norwegian
Atlakviða in AN, ON and Bokmål
Arne Torp (2007): http://folk.uio.no/arnet/
Attilankwiþó
(Ancient Nordic, year 400)
Frágun frókinano if ferhwa wilði gotanó þeuðanaR golþé kaupan.
Atlakviða (Old Norse, year 1200)
Frágu frǿknan ef fjQr vilði gotna þjóðann golli kaupa.
Atlekvida
(Bokmål, year 2000)
De spurte den djerve mennenes hersker om han ville kjøpe livet med gull.
200 − 700: Ancient Nordic
• Older period ca. 200 – ca. 500: Remarkably uniform language througout the vast area
• Younger period ca. 500 – ca. 700 (syncope period/ ”Synkopezeit”): Drastic upheaval affecting all the Nordic dialects
• runic inscriptions
• synthetic language: highly developed inflectional morphology
The transitional period AN – ON
• end of Roman dominance: new structures of organization and trade
• establishment of supraregional centres of power and trade in the Scandinavian countries
• language contact and settlements in the Germanic, Celtic, Slavic and Romance spheres
• adoption and remodelling of Germanic animal styles
• settlements e.g. on Iceland, Faroes, Greenland
• earliest Eddic and skaldic poems
• adoption of Christianity and its dissemination over the whole of Scandinavia
• establishment of states and royal houses following Continental examples
• changes in the language, runic writing system and function of the runic texts
(Birkmann 2001)
The runic alphabet
Why runic alphabet reform in late Ancient Nordic period (500-700)?
• significant changes in the language system through syncopation, breaking, umlaut and loss of consonants
• desire for a more economic script due to an increase in writing: graphic simplification
• influence from Latin alphabet
«Guldhornene». Lisensiert under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Guldhornene.jpg#/media/File:Guldhornene.jpg
Golden horns from fifth century Denmark:
Ancient Nordic to Old Norse
AN: ek HlewagastiR holtijaR horna tawido ON: ek Hlegestr hyltir horn táđa
Modern english: I, HlewagastiR from Holt, made the horn
• syncopation
• bryting (‘breaking’)
• Umlaut
• consonant loss
Syncopation
• deletion of short unstressed vowel → shortening of words
AN: ek HlewagastiR holtijaR horna tawido ON: ek Hlegestr hyltir horn táđa
ME: ‘I, HlewagastiR from Holt, made the horn’
Bryting (‘breaking’)
No: hjerte, Ice: hjarta↔ Eng:______ , G:_____
No: hjelpe, Ice: hjálpa↔ Eng:_____, G:_____
No: stjerne, Ice: stjarna↔ Eng:_____, G:_____
No: jevn, Ice: jafn↔ Eng:_____, G:_____
No: jord, Ice: jörð↔ Eng:_____, G:_____
Transition causing a characteristic distinction between the Nordic and the other Germanic languages. An aor uin an unstressed syllable affected the short ein the previous stressed syllable:
a-bryting: e>ja. AN *hertanbecame hjartain ON (German:Herz).
u-bryting: e>jo, jǫ. AN *erþubecame jǫrðin ON (German:Erde).
Umlaut:
• vowel mutation leads to more complications in the vowel system and the morphology
• short vowels in inflectional endings influenced the root vowels of words, and often
disappeared themselves later. Umlaut gave us /æ/, /ø/ and /y/
– A-umlautleads to the lowering of high vowels – I-umlautleads to the forwarding of back vowels – U-umlautleads to the rounding of unrounded vowels
A-omlyd
A-umlaut leads to the lowering of high vowels
I-omlyd (most important)
I-umlautleads to the forwarding of back vowels
U-omlyd
U-umlautleads to the rounding of unrounded vowels
Consonant changes AN>ON
• Loss of initial /w/ before rounded vowel eng. wool= no. ________
eng. word= no. ________
eng. wolf= no. ________
no. orm= eng. __________
no. under(noun)= ___________
More consonant changes AN>ON
• Loss of initial /j/:
– jara > ár (‘year’)
– jungaR > ungr (‘young’)
• loss of final /n/ in many inflectional endings and some frequent grammatical words:
– an > á (‘on’) – in > í (‘in’)
– lausian > løysa (‘loosen’) – kweman > koma (‘come’) – garwian > gera (‘do’)
ON inflectional morphology: noun
3 inherent genders: masculine, feminine, neuter
4 cases: nominative, accusative, dative, genitive
2 numbers: singular, plural
definiteness: definite, indefinite
Case
Konungr drap ulf. ”A king killed a wolf”
Ulf drap konungr. ”A king killed a wolf”
Ulfr drap konung. ”A wolf killed a king”
Konung drap ulfr. ”A wolf killed a king”
Konungr gaf dvergi banahǫgg.
Dvergi gaf konungr banahǫgg.
Dvergr gaf konungi banahǫgg.
Konungi gaf dvergr banahǫgg.
Konungr gaf dvergi banahǫgg.
‘A king gave a dwarf a mortal wound’
Dvergi gaf konungr banahǫgg.
‘A king gave a dwarf a mortal wound’
Dvergr gaf konungi banahǫgg.
‘A dwarf gave a king a mortal wound’
Konungi gaf dvergr banahǫgg.
‘A dwarf gave a king a mortal wound’
Inflection by affixiation or stem change
Hann nam land á Íslandi ok fór síðan um lǫnd
‘He took land on Iceland and later travelled around in a number of countries’
Nominative Vǫllr er við húsit. ’There is a hill is by the house’
Accusative Maðrinn lagðisk á vǫll. ‘The man lay down on a hill’
Dative Hann lá lengi á velli. ‘He lay long on the hill’
Genitive Konan gekk til vallar. ’The woman went to a hill’
ON inflectional morphology:
adjectives
inflects for
• degree: positive, comparative, superlative
• definiteness
• gender
Dialectal difference East/ West
800: Split between East and West Scandinavian i.e. Denmark and Sweden = East Scandinavian (ES) ↔ Norway etc. = West Scandinavian (WS) = Old Norse
• distinction /u:/ and /o:/
– bru(‘bridge’), tru(‘faith’),ku(‘cow’) in West versus bro, tro, koin East
• ES acquired an initial /j/ in jeg/jag(‘I’)
• ES only two gender: common gender and neutral
• WS preserved old diphthongs /ei/, /au/, /øy/ when ES simplified them to /e:/, /ø/ (cf next slide)
Monophtongation in East
Modern Danish/Swedish : sten (‘stone’)
høg/hök (‘hawk’) ø/ö (‘island’)
Modern Norwegian/Icelandic/Faroese : stein/steinn/steinur
hauk/haukur/heykur øy/ey/oyggj
I-umlaut: Present tense strong verbs without i-umlaut
North/south
1200: Split between South and North Nordic:
Superseding the E-W-division: Split between Denmark ↔ Norway and Sweden
- reduction: (development of –a, -i, -u in final syllable)
- lenisation: /p, t, k/ → /b, d, g/
- tonem in North, glottal stop in
Vowel reduction north/south: neutralization of unstressed vowels in inflectional endings
Icelandic: bakkar synir vísur kastar kennir
Faroese: bakkar synir vísur kastar kennir
Nynorsk: bakkar søner viser kastar kjenner
Swedish: backar söner visor kastar känner
Bokmål: bakker sønner viser kaster kjenner
Danish: bakker sønner viser kaster kender
Modern Nordic languages
Lenisation: /p, t, k/ → /b, d, g/
Tonem
LEIKEN KASTA HAN SEG INN I LEIKEN
²leiken / ¹leiken
1350−1550
• Great linguistic variation, major linguistic changes
– phonology – morphology – syntax – lexicon
• Language contact
• Two Nordic super powers
– linguistic consequences for the lower status Nordic languages
Middle Norwegian
• great changes and simplifications, mostly parallel developments in Swedish and Danish
• massive German influence
• transitional stage: Unstable and fluctuating written language under increasing
pressure from Denmark
Developments in verbal inflection in middle Norwegian (ca. 1370−1525)
Before After Before After
Present tense Indicative
Plural kollum kalla bjóđum bjóđa
kallir kalla bjóđir bjóđa
kalla kalla bjóđa bjóđa
Past tense Indicative
Plural kallađum (kallađu) buđum búđu
kallađur (kallađu) buđur buđu
kallađu (kallađu) buđu buđu
Syncretism of persons in plural
Before After
Singular kallađi kallađi
kallađi kallađi
kallađi kallađi
Plural kallađum kallađi
kallađur kallađi
kallađu kallađi
Source: Kjartan Ottoson (2003): ”Person- og numerusbøying av verb i gammmalnorsk og mellomnorsk” i Faarlund (red.): Språk i endring. Oslo: Novus
The inflections in persons and numbers in weak past tense disappears in middle Norwegian:
Bergen dialect: an example
• simplification and levelling
• dialect contact
• language contact
Hanseatic community in Bergen
• 1350−1750
• 15 000 Norwegians : 2000 Germans – Upper class 50:50
– Other nationalities: Danish, British (Scottish), Swedish, Dutch.
• Male society
• Merchants
”Garpegenitiv”
Far sin hatt(modern Norwegian)
Fars hatt(modern Norwegian) Hatten til Far(modern Norwegian) Hatten hans far(modern Norwegian) Hass sin hatt(modern Norwegian, dialect)
een sien Dood is den annern sien Broot
Joest Middeldorp sinen vnbotsman (Bergen, 1577-1670) Christian Arendt Smit sin frouwe (Bergen, 1577-1670)
Jens ved Diget sin sön (Bergen, 1663)
Other features of Bergen dialect
Weak past tense –et: anklaget, beklaget, berget, loffuit, witnet, kallet, scheldett
Two grammatical genders: En mann, en kvinne (Enn quinde), ett barn
Definite article on personal names, post position: Karien, Hanseken
Och deforudenn haffuer for‗ Morthenn innbrudh sig Vdi
1550- : Modern Norwegian
• The case system is weakened
• Represents the analytic stage reached by the Norwegian dialects in the 16th century, but not codified before Nynorsk (Aasen) in 1850
Post 1500: Split between Mainland Scandinavian and Insular Nordic
• Superseding the S-N-division: deeper split
• Far-reaching morphological simplifications in Scandinavia breaking down the case system in nouns and adjectives and reducing the conjugation of verbs
• no tonem system in Insular Nordic
• lexical development: Hanseatic league → virtual transformation of Scandinavian vocabulary
Norwegian Faroese Icelandic
Sg hest hestur (N) hestur (N)
om hest um hest (A) um hest (A)
fra hest frá hesti (D) frá hesti (D) til hest til hest (A) til hests (G)
Pl hester hestar (N) hestar (N)
om hester um hestar (A) um hesta (A) fra hester frá hestum (D) frá hestum (D) til hester til hestar (A) til hesta (G)
Icelandic Faroese Scandinavian
Case
a) in noun&adjective 4 3 0
b) in pronoun 4 3 2
gender in plural + + –
persons in verb
Verbal inflection
Norwegian Faroese Icelandic
Singular
1.person jeg står eg standi eg stend
2. person du står tú stendur þú stendur
3.person han/hun står han/hon stendur hann/hún stendur Plural
1. person vi står vit standa við stöndum
2. person dere står tit standa þið standið
3. person de står teir/tær/tey standa þeir/þær/þau standa
eks. a- omlyd
no (nn). holt, roten, brote, kolle;
sv. hult, rutten, brutit, kulle
eks. i- omlyd
isl./fær./no(nn): kemur/ kjem og grefur/ grevur/ grev;
da./sv.: kommer og graver
eks. u- omlyd
isl./ no(nn):ösp/ osp, stöng / stong og þröngur/ trong da. asp, stang og trang
Quantity shift
Old Norse Modern Norwegian
1. /V:K/ skín 1. /V:K/ skin 2. /VK:/ skinn 2. /VK:/ skinn 3. /VK/ skin
4. /V:K:/ skínn
Quantity shift
Old Norse Finnish
1. /V:K/ skín 1. /V:K/ tuule
2. /VK:/ skinn 2. /VK:/ tulle (comes) 3. /VK/ skin 3. /VK/ tule
4. /V:K:/ skínn 4. /V:K:/ tuulle (blows)
å flå – flår – flådde – flådd å ha – har – hadde - hatt
á a
/å:/ /å/ /a:/ /a/
Old Norse
Modern Norwegian
More about Bergen dialect and language contact during the
Hanseatic period
Braunmüller, Kurt and Diericks, Willy (1993): Niederdeutsch und die skandinavischen Sprachen I, Heidelberg: C. Winter
Braunmüller, Kurt (1995): Niederdeutsch und die skandinavischen Sprachen II, Heidelberg: C. Winter
Kerswill, Paul (1994): Dialects converging. Rural Speech in Urban Norway. Oxford: Clarendon
If you can read Norwegian, start with:
Nesse, Agnete (2002): Språkkontakt mellom norsk og tysk i hansatidens Bergen. Oslo: Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi
Resources, Old Norse
In Norwegian:
ON Grammar:
http://folk.uib.no/hnooh/grammatikk/
http://www.uib.no/lle/utdanning/fagtilbud/
norron-filologi/arbeidsmateriell
West Nordic Languages
Learn Icelandic (web course by University of Iceland, Free):
http://icelandic.hi.is/
Learn Faroese:
Hjalmar P. Petersen and Jonathan Adams(2009):
Faroese. A Language Course for Beginners.
Tórshavn: Stiðin
Audio recordings to Faroese course book at www.stidin.fo(Free)
