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nn, gamalnorsk , region = Kingdom of Norway (872–1397) , era = 11th–14th century , familycolor = Indo-European , fam2 = Germanic , fam3 =
North Germanic The North Germanic languages make up one of the three branches of the Germanic languages—a sub-family of the Indo-European languages—along with the West Germanic languages and the extinct East Germanic languages. The language group is also r ...
, fam4 =
West Scandinavian The North Germanic languages make up one of the three branches of the Germanic languages—a sub-family of the Indo-European languages—along with the West Germanic languages and the extinct East Germanic languages. The language group is also ...
, fam5 =
Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...
, ancestor = Proto-Indo-European , ancestor2 = Proto-Germanic , ancestor3 = Proto-Norse , ancestor4 =
Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlemen ...
, ancestor5 = Old West Norse , script = Medieval Runes,
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
, iso3 = none , glotto = none , notice = IPA Old Norwegian ( no, gammelnorsk and ), also called Norwegian Norse, is an early form of the
Norwegian language Norwegian ( no, norsk, links=no ) is a North Germanic language spoken mainly in Norway, where it is an official language. Along with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a dialect continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regio ...
that was spoken between the 11th and 14th century; it is a transitional stage between Old West Norse and
Middle Norwegian Middle Norwegian (Norwegian Bokmål: ; Norwegian Nynorsk: , ) is a form of the Norwegian language that was spoken from 1350 up to 1550 and was the last phase of Norwegian in its original state, before Danish replaced Norwegian as the official wr ...
, and also Old Norn and Old Faroese. Its distinction from Old West Norse is a matter of convention. Traditionally, Old Norwegian has been divided into the main dialect areas of North Western, Outer South Western, Inner South Western, , North Eastern, and South Eastern.


Phonological and morphological features

One of the most important early differences between Old Norwegian and Old Icelandic is that ''h'' in the
consonant In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced wi ...
combinations ''hl-'', ''hn-'' and ''hr-'' was lost in Old Norwegian around the 11th century, while being preserved in Old Icelandic. Thus, one has e.g. Old Icelandic '
slope In mathematics, the slope or gradient of a line is a number that describes both the ''direction'' and the ''steepness'' of the line. Slope is often denoted by the letter ''m''; there is no clear answer to the question why the letter ''m'' is use ...
', '' ' curtsey' and 'ring' vs Old Norwegian , and , respectively. Many Old Norwegian dialects feature a height based system of
vowel harmony In phonology, vowel harmony is an assimilatory process in which the vowels of a given domain – typically a phonological word – have to be members of the same natural class (thus "in harmony"). Vowel harmony is typically long distance, mea ...
: Following stressed high vowels (, , , , , ) and diphthongs (, , ), the unstressed vowels and appear as ''i'', ''u'', while they are represented as ''e'', ''o'' following long non-high vowels (, , , , ). The situation following stressed short non-high vowels (, , , , , ) is much debated and was apparently different in the individual dialects. The ''u''-umlaut of short (written ''ǫ'' in normalized Old Norse) is not as consistently graphically distinguished from non-umlauted as in Old Icelandic, especially in writings from the Eastern dialect areas. It is still a matter of academic debate whether this is to be interpreted phonologically as a lack of umlaut or merely as a lack of its graphical representation. Old Norwegian had alternative dual and plural first person pronouns, ''mit,'' ''mér,'' to the Common Norse ''vit,'' ''vér.''Richard Cleasby, Guðbrandur Vigfússon —
An Icelandic-English Dictionary
' (1874)

/ref>


Old Norn


Old Faroese


Middle Norwegian

The Black Death struck Norway in 1349, killing over 60% of the population. This probably precipitated the current process of language development. The language in Norway after 1350 up to about 1550 is generally referred to as Middle Norwegian. The language went through several changes: morphological paradigms were simplified, including the loss of
grammatical case A grammatical case is a category of nouns and noun modifiers ( determiners, adjectives, participles, and numerals), which corresponds to one or more potential grammatical functions for a nominal group in a wording. In various languages, nomin ...
s and the levelling of personal inflection on verbs. A
vowel reduction In phonetics, vowel reduction is any of various changes in the acoustic ''quality'' of vowels as a result of changes in stress, sonority, duration, loudness, articulation, or position in the word (e.g. for the Creek language), and which are per ...
also took place, in some dialects, including in parts of Norway, reducing many final unstressed vowels in a word to a common "e". The
phonemic In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language. For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-west ...
inventory also underwent changes. The
dental fricative The dental fricative or interdental fricative is a fricative consonant pronounced with the tip of the tongue against the teeth. There are several types (those used in English being written as ''th''): *Voiced dental fricative - as in the English ...
s represented by the letters þ and ð disappeared from the Norwegian language, either merging with their equivalent stop consonants, represented by t and d, respectively, or being lost altogether.


See also

*
Norwegian language Norwegian ( no, norsk, links=no ) is a North Germanic language spoken mainly in Norway, where it is an official language. Along with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a dialect continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regio ...
*
Icelandic language Icelandic (; is, íslenska, link=no ) is a North Germanic language The North Germanic languages make up one of the three branches of the Germanic languages—a sub-family of the Indo-European languages—along with the West Germanic lan ...
* Faroese language *
Norn language Norn is an extinct North Germanic language that was spoken in the Northern Isles ( Orkney and Shetland) off the north coast of mainland Scotland and in Caithness in the far north of the Scottish mainland. After Orkney and Shetland were pledged ...


References


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
{{Authority control Norwegian, Old Norwegian language
Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...
Norwegian manuscripts Languages attested from the 11th century