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Greenlandic Norse is an extinct
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 languages and the extinct East Germanic languages. The language group is also ...
that was spoken in the Norse settlements of Greenland until their demise in the late 15th century. The language is primarily attested by runic inscriptions found in
Greenland Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...
. The limited inscriptional evidence shows some innovations, including the use of initial ''t'' for '' þ'', but also the conservation of certain features that changed in other Norse languages. Some runic features are regarded as characteristically Greenlandic, and when they are sporadically found outside of Greenland, they may suggest travelling Greenlanders. Non-runic evidence on the Greenlandic language is scarce and uncertain. A document issued in Greenland in 1409 is preserved in an Icelandic copy and may be a witness to some Greenlandic linguistic traits. The poem is credited as ''Greenlandic'' in the
Codex Regius Codex Regius (, "Royal Book" or "King's Book"; ) or GKS 2365 4º is an Icelandic codex in which many Old Norse poems from the ''Poetic Edda'' are preserved. Thought to have been written during the 1270s, it is made up of 45 vellum Vellum ...
, but the preserved text reflects Icelandic scribal conventions, and it is not certain that the poem was composed in Greenland. Greenlandic Norse is believed to have been in
language contact Language contact occurs when speakers of two or more languages or varieties interact with and influence each other. The study of language contact is called contact linguistics. Language contact can occur at language borders, between adstratum ...
with Greenlandic and to have left loanwords in it.


Runic evidence

Some 80
runic inscriptions A runic inscription is an inscription made in one of the various runic alphabets. They generally contained practical information or memorials instead of magic or mythic stories. The body of runic inscriptions falls into the three categories of E ...
have been found in Greenland. Many of them are difficult to date and not all of them were necessarily carved by Greenlanders.Hagland, p. 1234. It is difficult to identify specifically Greenlandic linguistic features in the limited runic material. Nevertheless, there are inscriptions showing the use of ''t'' for historical '' þ'' in words such as rather than and rather than . This linguistic innovation has parallels in West Norwegian in the late medieval period. On the other hand, Greenlandic appears to have retained some features which changed in other types of Scandinavian. This includes initial ''hl'' and ''hr'', otherwise only preserved in Icelandic, and the long vowel ''œ'' (''oe'' ligature), which merged with ''æ'' (''ae'' ligature) in Icelandic but was preserved in Norwegian and Faroese. Certain runic forms have been seen by scholars as characteristically Greenlandic, including in particular an 'r' form with two parallel sloping brancheswhich is found in 14 Greenlandic inscriptions. This form is sporadically found outside Greenland. It is, for example, found in a runic inscription discovered in Orphir in Orkney, which has been taken to imply that "the rune carver probably was a Greenlander". The Kingittorsuaq Runestone has one of the longest Norse inscriptions found in Greenland. It was discovered near
Upernavik Kanunarinaqiniiaaq (known as Upernavik) is a small town in the Avannaata municipality in northwestern Greenland, located on a small island of the same name. With 1,064 inhabitants as of 2024, it is the twelfth-largest town in Greenland. It c ...
, far north of the Norse settlements. It was presumably carved by Norse explorers. Like most Greenlandic inscriptions, it is traditionally dated to . However, Marie Stoklund has called for reconsideration of the dating of the Greenlandic material and points out that some of the parallels to the Kingittorsuaq inscription elsewhere in the Nordic world have been dated to . The first line is the transcription verbatim; the second line is the normalized Old Norse version. A caret (^) indicates a bind rune; for example a^r indicates that ᛆᚱ is written as a single glyph. A tilde (~) indicates an unspecified punctuation mark. The patronymic ( standardized Old Norse: ) shows the change from ''þ'' to ''t'' while the word (Old Icelandic , Old Norwegian ) shows the retention of initial ''hl''.


Manuscript evidence

A document written at Garðar in Greenland in 1409 is preserved in an Icelandic transcription from 1625. The transcription was attested by bishop Oddur Einarsson and is considered reliable. The document is a marriage certificate issued by two priests based in Greenland, attesting the
banns of marriage The banns of marriage, commonly known simply as the "banns" or "bans" (from a Middle English word meaning "proclamation", rooted in Frankish and thence in Old French), are the public announcement in a Christian parish church, or in the town cou ...
for two Icelanders who had been blown off course to Greenland, Þorsteinn Ólafsson and Sigríður Björnsdóttir. The language of the document is clearly not Icelandic and cannot without reservation be classified as Norwegian. It may have been produced by Norwegian-educated clergy who had been influenced by Greenlandic. The document contains orthographic traits which are consistent with the runic linguistic evidence. This includes the prepositional form ''þil'' for the older ''til'' which demonstrates the merger of initial 'þ' and 't'. It is possible that some other texts preserved in Icelandic manuscripts might be of Greenlandic origins. In particular, the poem '' Atlamál'' is referred to as Greenlandic (''Atlamál in grœnlenzku'') in the
Codex Regius Codex Regius (, "Royal Book" or "King's Book"; ) or GKS 2365 4º is an Icelandic codex in which many Old Norse poems from the ''Poetic Edda'' are preserved. Thought to have been written during the 1270s, it is made up of 45 vellum Vellum ...
. Many scholars have understood the reference to mean that the poem was composed by a Greenlander and various elements of the poem's text have been taken to support Greenlandic provenance.
Ursula Dronke Ursula Miriam Dronke (née Brown, 3 November 1920 – 8 March 2012Heather O'Donoghue"Ursula Dronke obituary: Inspirational teacher of Old Norse literature specialising in the sagas and poetry of medieval Iceland" ''The Guardian'' 25 March 201 ...
commented that "There is a rawness about the language ... that could reflect the conditions of an isolated society distant from the courts of kings and such refinements of manners and speech as were associated with them."
Finnur Jónsson Finnur Jónsson (May 29, 1858 – March 30, 1934) was an Icelandic philologist and Professor of Nordic Philology at the University of Copenhagen. He made extensive contributions to the study of Old Norse literature. Finnur Jónsson was born a ...
argued that not only was ''Atlamál'' composed in Greenland, some other preserved Eddic poems were as well. He adduced various stylistic arguments in favor of Greenlandic provenance for '' Helgakviða Hundingsbana I'', '' Oddrúnargrátr'', ''
Guðrúnarhvöt Guðrúnarhvöt is one of the heroic poems of the '' Poetic Edda''. Gudrun had been married to the hero Sigurd and with him she had the daughter Svanhild. Svanhild had married the Gothic king Ermanaric (''Jörmunrekkr''), but betrayed him with ...
'', '' Sigurðarkviða in skamma'' and, more speculatively, ''
Helreið Brynhildar ''Helreið Brynhildar'' (Old Norse 'The Hel-ride of Brynhild') is a short Old Norse poem that is found in the ''Poetic Edda''. Most of the poem (except stanza 6) is also quoted in '' Norna-Gests þáttr''. Henry Adams Bellows says in his commen ...
''. One linguistic trait which Finnur regarded as specifically Greenlandic was initial 'hn' in the word '' Hniflungr'', found in'' Atlamál'', ''Helgakviða Hundingsbana I'' and ''Guðrúnarhvöt''. The word is otherwise preserved as ''Niflungr'' in Icelandic sources. Modern scholarship is doubtful of using ''Atlamál'' as a source on the Greenlandic language since its Greenlandic origin is not certain, it is difficult to date, and the preserved text reflects Icelandic scribal conventions.


Contact with Kalaallisut

Greenlandic Norse is believed to have been in
language contact Language contact occurs when speakers of two or more languages or varieties interact with and influence each other. The study of language contact is called contact linguistics. Language contact can occur at language borders, between adstratum ...
with Kalaallisut, the language of the
Kalaallit Kalaallit are a Greenlandic Inuit ethnic group, being the largest group in Greenland, concentrated in the west. It is also a contemporary term in the Greenlandic language for the Indigenous of Greenland ().Hessel, 8 The Kalaallit (singular: ) a ...
, and to have left
loanword A loanword (also a loan word, loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language (the recipient or target language), through the process of borrowing. Borrowing is a metaphorical term t ...
s in that language. In particular, the Greenlandic word (older ), meaning ''Greenlander'', is believed to be derived from the word , the Norse term for the people they encountered in North America. In the Greenlandic dictionary of 1750,
Hans Egede Hans Poulsen Egede (31 January 1686 – 5 November 1758) was a Denmark–Norway, Danish-Norwegian Lutheran missionary priest who launched mission efforts to Greenland, which led him to be styled the Apostle of Greenland. He established a succes ...
states that is what the "old Christians" called the Greenlanders and that they use the word only with foreigners and not when speaking among themselves. Other words which may be of Norse origin include (female given name, probably from Old Norse "woman", "wife"), ("sheep", Old Norse ), ("porpoise", Old Norse ), ("pig", Old Norse "sow"), ("carrot", Old Norse ) and ("
angelica ''Angelica'' is a genus of about 90 species of tall Biennial plant, biennial and Perennial plant, perennial herbaceous, herbs in the family Apiaceae, native to temperate and subarctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere, reaching as far north as ...
", Old Norse , plural ).Thalbitzer, pp. 35-36. The available evidence does not establish the presence of language attrition; the Norse language most likely disappeared with the ethnic group that spoke it.


See also

* Hvalsey *
Norse colonization of North America The exploration of North America by Norsemen began in the late 10th century. Voyages from Iceland reached Greenland and founded colonies along its western coast. Norse settlements on Greenland lasted almost 500 years, and the population peaked a ...
* Narsaq stick *
Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...
* List of extinct languages of North America


References


Works cited

* Barnes, Michael (2002). "History and development of Old Nordic outside the Scandinavia of today". In ''The Nordic Languages: An International Handbook of the History of the North Germanic Languages: Volume 1''. * Barnes, Michael (2005). "Language" in ''A Companion to Old Norse-Icelandic Literature and Culture'', ed. by Rory McTurk. . * Bugge, Sophus (1867). ''Norrœn fornkvæði. Islandsk samling af folkelige oldtidsdigte om nordens guder og heroer almindelig kaldet Sæmundar Edda hins fróða''. * Dronke, Ursula (1969). ''The Poetic Edda'' I. * Egede, Hans (1750). ''Dictionarium grönlandico-danico-latinum''. * Finnur Jónsson (1894). ''Den oldnorske og oldislandske litteraturs historie''. * Hagland, Jan Ragnar (2002). "Language loss and destandardization in the Late Middle Ages and Early Modern Times". In ''The Nordic Languages : An International Handbook of the History of the North Germanic Languages : Volume 2'', pp. 1233–1237. . * Hollander, Lee M. (1962). The Poetic Edda. * Jahr, Ernst Håkon and Ingvild Broch (1996). ''Language Contact in the Arctic: Northern Pidgins and Contact Languages''. . * Liestøl, Aslak (1984). "Runes" in The Northern and Western Isles in the Viking World. Survival, Continuity and Change, pp. 224–238. . * Olsen, Magnus. "Kingigtórsoak-stenen og sproget i de grønlandske runeinnskrifter". ''Norsk tidsskrift for sprogvidenskap'' 1932, pp. 189–257. *
Rundata The Scandinavian Runic-text Database () is a project involving the creation and maintenance of a database of transliterated runic inscriptions. The project's goal is to comprehensively catalog runestones in a machine-readable way for future resea ...
database. * von See, Klaus, Beatrice la Farge, Simone Horst and Katja Schulz (2012). ''Kommentar zu den Liedern der Edda'' 7. * Stoklund, Marie (1993). "Greenland runes. Isolation or cultural contact?" in ''The Viking Age in Caithness, Orkney and the North Atlantic'', pp. 528–543. * Thalbitzer, William (1904). ''A Phonetical Study of the Eskimo Language''.


External links


Runic inscription from Greenland
{{Germanic languages Norse settlements in Greenland Old Norse West Scandinavian languages Extinct Germanic languages Extinct languages of Greenland Languages extinct in the 15th century 15th-century disestablishments in North America