Old West and Old East Norse

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Old-West and Old-East Norse are two dialect areas of Old Norse . Old West Norse includes Old Icelandic and Old Norwegian . Old-Eastern Nordic languages ​​are Old Danish and Old Swedish . Old Gutnian , which was spoken on Gotland , can only be included in this structure to a limited extent and is often considered a separate branch of the Old Norse languages .

The differentiation between West and East Nordic is already evident in the 10th century, but the division only makes sense for a certain language level. Linguistics uses different classifications for later language levels (see North Germanic languages ).

features

Old West and Old East Nordic differ in the following features, among other things:

Vocal system

  • The Germanic diphthongs au and ai appear in the west as au and ei, in the east as a long ö and a long e; Examples: aisl. l au ss - aschwed. l ø s 'los', aisl. st ei nn - aschwed. st ē n 'stone'.
  • The umlauted diphthong au appears in the west as ey and in the east as a long ø; Examples: aisl. ey - aschwed. ø 'island'.
  • The monophthong y is diphthongized in the east before -ngw-, -nkw- and -ggw- to iu ; Examples: aisl. s y ngva - aschwed. s iu nga, old dan. s iu length .
  • The umlaut a to ǫ before the unstressed u of the following syllable (hence called u- umlaut) occurs more frequently in the west than in the east.

Consonant system

  • The initial vr- was simplified to r- in the west , but was retained in the east; Examples: aisl. r íða - aschwed. vr iþa .
  • The assimilation of consonants is more common in the West than in the East; Examples: aisl.-anorw. e kk ia - aschwed.-adän. æ nk ia 'widow', aisl.-anorw. mǫ tt ull - aschwed.-adän. ma nt ul 'coat'.

morphology

  • In the west, the plural dative is the archaic ending -unum, in the east it is -umin; Examples: aisl.-anorw. fót unum - aschwed.-adän. fot umin 'feet'.
  • The synthetic passive of the verb has been simplified in the East; Examples: aisl.-anorw. kalla sk - aschwed.-adän. kalla s , are called / called hot '.

Delimitation problem

The terms Old West Norse and Old East Norse are useful organizational terms . One should not assume, however, that Old Norse has split into two individual languages ​​called Old West Norse and Old East Norse . Rather, the transitions between them were fluid.

The east Nordic monophthonging reaches z. B. not all parts of Sweden, but part of Norway. The monophthongization of Germ. Au and ai, which is believed to be typical of the north-north, does not occur in the easternmost part of the north-east of all areas: in the old Gutniche (on the island of Gotland ) the old diphthongs remain. The same monophthongization takes place in an area that is normally considered to be part of the western Nordic region, namely in eastern Norway. In addition, East Nordic language changes have different starting points (mostly Denmark, but not exclusively).

literature

  • Oskar Bandle : The structure of the North Germanic. Helbing & Lichtenhahn, Basel / Stuttgart 1973 (2nd edition 2011).
  • Adolf Noreen: Old Norse Grammar I: Old Icelandic and Old Norwegian grammar (phonology and inflection theory), taking into account traditional Norse. 1st edition Niemeyer, Halle (Saale) 1884; 4th, completely revised edition Niemeyer, Halle (Saale) 1923 = 5th, unchanged edition Niemeyer, Tübingen 1970 (collection of short grammars of Germanic dialects A 4).
  • Adolf Noreen: Old Norse Grammar II: Old Swedish grammar, including Gutniche. 1st edition Niemeyer, Halle (Saale) 1904; photomechanical reprint Leipzig 1978 (collection of short Germanic grammars of Germanic dialects VIII 2).
  • Joh [anne] s Brøndum-Nielsen: Gammeldansk grammar i sproghistorisk Fremstilling. Vol. I – VIII Schultz and Akademisk Forlag, København 1928–1973, Vol. I – II 2., ændrede Udgave 1950/57.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Claus Jürgen Hutterer: The Germanic languages. Your story in outline. 4th edition. VMA-Verlag, Wiesbaden 2002, ISBN 3-928127-57-8 , p. 146.
  2. ↑ Vemund Skard: Norsk Språkhistorie - Bind 1 - til 1523 S. 65th
  3. ^ Friedrich Ranke and Dietrich Hofmann: Old Norse Elementary Book. 5th edition. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1988, ISBN 3-11-011680-4 , p. 11 f.