- Old Norwegian
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This article is part of a series on:
Old NorseDialects- Old West Norse
- (Old Icelandic · Old Norwegian · Greenlandic Norse)
- Old East Norse
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- Old Gutnish
Use- Orthography
- Runic alphabet
- (Younger Futhark · Medieval)
- Latin alphabet
- Grammar
- Phonology
- Morphology
LiteratureAncestorsOld Norwegian refers to a group of Old Norse dialects spoken and written in Norway in the Middle Ages. They bridged the dialect continuum from Old East Norse to Old West Norse.
Contents
Old Norwegian vs Common Norse
One of the most important early differences between Old Norwegian and Old Icelandic is that h in the consonant combinations hl-, hn- and hr- was lost in the former around the 11th century, but not in the latter. Thus, one has e.g. Old Icelandic hlíð 'slope', hníga 'curtsey' and hringr 'ring' vs Old Norwegian líð, níga and ringr, respectively.
Old Norwegian had an alternative dual 1st person pronoun, mit, to the Common Norse vit.[1]
Development into Middle Norwegian
The plagues that decimated Europe in the Middle Ages came to Norway in 1349 (Black Plague), killing over 60% of the population.[2] This is probably part of the cause why the process of language development accelerated around this time.[citation needed] The language in Norway after 1350 up to about 1550 is generally referred to as Middle Norwegian. The language went through several changes. Grammar was simplified, including the removal of the cases system and personal inflexion of verbs. A vowel reduction also took place, in some dialects, including in parts of Norway, reducing many of the last vowels in a word to a common "e".
The phonemic repertoire also underwent changes. The dental fricatives, represented by the letters þ and ð disappeared from the Norwegian language generally merging with their equivalent plosive sounds, represented by t and d respectively.
See also
External links
- «Kulturformidlingen norrøne tekster og kvad» Norway.
- «Medieval Nordic Text Archive» Organization working with Medieval Nordic texts.
- «Dokumentasjonsprosjektet» Includes old Norse dictionary and includes Diplomatarium Norvegicum which is a collection of texts from before 1570 (originally 22 books with 19 000 documents) and Regesta Norvegica which contains letters and official documents (it's a more detailed description on "Om Regesta Norvegica") from 822 to 1390. This page is partly available in English. (not Regesta Norvegica)
- Old Norwegian online dictionary
References
- ^ Richard Cleasby, Guðbrandur Vigfússon — An Icelandic-English Dictionary (1874). Eirligr-Ekkill
- ^ Harald Aastorp (2004-08-01). "Svartedauden enda verre enn antatt". Forskning.no. http://www.forskning.no/Artikler/2004/juli/1090833676.68. Retrieved 2009-01-03.
Norwegian language forms Norwegian Language Council · Norwegian Academy · Noregs Mållag · Riksmålsforbundet · Norwegian dialects · Dano-NorwegianNorwegian language conflict Germanic languages · Germanic philology Language subgroups Reconstructed Proto-Germanic · Proto-Germanic grammarHistorical languages NorthEastWestModern languages Afrikaans · Alemannic · Danish · Dutch · English · Faroese · German · Gutnish · Icelandic · Limburgish · Low German · Luxembourgish · North Frisian · Norwegian · Saterland Frisian · Scots · Swedish · Vilamovian · West Frisian · YiddishDiachronic features Synchronic features Language histories Categories:- Medieval languages
- Norwegian language
- Old Norse language
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