Original Nordic language

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Primordial Nordic

Spoken in

Scandinavia
speaker none ( language extinct )
Linguistic
classification
Official status
Official language in (extinct)

The Umordian language (sometimes counted as part of the later Old Norse language ) is the oldest form of the North Germanic languages and was probably spoken or written in runes from the 1st or 2nd to the 8th century in what is now Denmark , Sweden and Norway . It is the forerunner of Old Norse and thus also of Norwegian , Swedish , Danish , Faroese and Icelandic .

The language is well documented by numerous runic inscriptions from the 3rd century on. In addition to texts, place names and personal names of ancient authors as well as loan words ( e.g. in Baltic Finnish and Sami ) have come down to us.

Ur-Norse was still fairly close to Ur-Germanic and has some archaisms that even the Gothic language has not retained. Certain Germanic endings in original Norse were retained, with the exception that a [z] (voiced s) in an ending possibly became [r] or a similar sound (written ᛉ or z / R) (e.g. ancient Germanic * dagaz = urnordisch dagaR (in contrast Gothic dags ) = "day"). In addition, the final vowels were still preserved (e.g. ancient Germanic * hurna- = urnordisch horna (on the other hand Gothic haurn ) = "horn"). In the early days, the distinction from Northwest Germanic , the common preliminary stage of the North and West Germanic languages, was difficult, on the one hand because the runes do not always allow conclusions to be drawn unequivocally about the sound value, and on the other hand because the North and the West Germanic defining special developments only gradually emerged during this time.

Classification

There are two periods in Ur-Nordic:

  • older primordial Norse, roughly from 200 to 500
  • Younger Ur-Norse (syncope time), around 500 to 700

swell

Historical linguistics uses the following sources to learn something about the primordial Nordic language:

  • Primeval Norse is best known for its runic inscriptions on stone monuments ( in Norwegian: bautasteinar ), jewelry, weapons and utensils found in graves. Example: the golden horns of Gallehus .
  • Some of the Norse words are known to us because they were borrowed from Finnish or Sami as early as the Norse era . Finnish has not changed as much over the centuries as other languages. That is why the old loanwords have been well preserved.
  • There are also urnordian words in Latin texts.
  • You can find out a lot about Ur-Norse by comparing it with other ancient Germanic languages, especially Gothic , but also with Old English , Old Low German and Old High German .

Not all of the Norse words have survived in the Norse texts. Sometimes you have to reconstruct an Norse form from foreign-language words or from compound words or derivations. To indicate that a word has been reconstructed, an asterisk (*) is placed in front of the word in linguistics. See reconstruction (linguistics) .

Dialects

The Umordian runic inscriptions show only a few dialect differences. One reason for this could be that the writers of these texts used many fixed formulas. Another reason could be that there was a strong tradition of writing that did not allow for dialect differences.

Syncope time

syncope

The syncope is the essential characteristic of the younger Ur-Norse. Syncope here means that short unstressed vowels disappear inside the word. After this development there were only vowels that were either long or stressed. Many long vowels have been shortened during this process. As a result, many of the Norse words became shorter. So the (male) first name HaþuwulfaR in Old Norse became Hálfr .

umlaut

In addition to the most well-known umlaut , the i umlaut , there are also the a umlaut and the u umlaut in the younger Ur -Norse .

The umlaut phenomena resulted in new vowels in traditional Norse. As a result of the syncope, the words became shorter, but new vowels were created to replace the missing vowels and syllables.

Examples of the umlaut:

  • I-umlaut: The urnordic reconstructed word * dômian ("judging") appears in Old West Norse as dœma . The long o became an ö sound, which is written in Old West Norse œ . The reason for this change is the i-umlaut, i.e. the influence of the i , which later disappeared as a result of the syncope.
  • U-umlaut: The original Norse word * maguR ("boy") appears in Old West Norse as mǫgr . Here the a became an o-like sound that is written in Old West Norse ǫ . This change happened because of the u umlauts, i.e. under the influence of the u , which fell away as a result of the syncope.
  • A umlaut: The urnordian word * wira- ("man") appears in Old West Norse as verr . Here the i became an e under the influence of the a in the following syllable (a umlaut).

refraction

A language change that also took place during the syncope was the breaking of some vowels. Refraction is a form of diphthongization. The e transformed under certain conditions into a yes or a jo / jǫ . With the refraction one can already see differences between the individual Umordian dialects and accordingly also between the later North Germanic languages ​​(Swedish, Danish, Norwegian (Icelandic, Faroese)).

Example:

  • The Umordian word * eka ("I") became jak in Old East Norse and ek in Old West Norse. In both cases, the disappeared a as a result of syncope. The eastern form, jak , became the forerunner of Swedish jag and Danish jeg . The western form became the forerunner of the Norwegian eg (in Nynorsk ), the Faroese eg and the Icelandic ég .

consequences

The sound changes in the syncope period made the inflection (inflection) of some words quite complicated. A larger number of vowels in the endings resulted in a larger number of vowels in the stem of some words. The following example shows how the forms of the Norse word * wantuR ("glove") can be changed by i-umlaut and u-umlaut. In this way, the Old West Norse word vǫttr got a complicated inflection, with alternation of a , e and ǫ at the beginning of the word.

Case and number Primordial Nordic Old West Norse
Nom. Sg. * wantuR vǫttr
Acc. Sg. * wantu vǫtt
Date Sg. * wantiu vetti
Gene. Sg. * wantôR vattar
Nom. Pl. * wantiuR vettir
Acc. Pl. * wantunR vǫttu
Date Pl. * wantum (i) R vǫttum
Gene. Pl. * wantô dad

Language examples

Goldhorn from Gallehus (Denmark 5th century)

Primordial Nordic German
ek hlewagastiR holtijaR horna tawido. I, Leugast, son of Holt // der Holte (?), Made (this) horn.

Bracteate from Tjurkö (Sweden 5th century)

Primordial Nordic German
Wurte runoR on whale urn. HeldaR kunimu (n) diu I made the runes on "foreign grain" (= gold). Hero for Kunimund.

Runestone from Kjølvik (Norway 1st half 5th century)

Primordial Nordic German
hadulaikaR. Ek hagusta (l) daR hlaaiwido magu minimo Hadulaik (buried here). I Hagustald buried my son.

Amulet from Lindholmen (6th century)

Primordial Nordic German
ek erilaR sawilagaR ha (i) teka I, the rune master , my name is the clever one.

Björketorp Stone (8th century)

Primordial Nordic German
uþarabaspa. sar þat barutR uti aR weladaude. HaeramalausR gunarunaR arageu falahak haderag, haidRuno ronu. Prophecy of misfortune! (The one who breaks this) faces treacherous death. Without damage, I have dug in the great runes of witchcraft, (as well as) the row of runes of honor.

literature

  • Elmer Antonsen: A Concise Grammar of the Older Runic Inscriptions . Tuebingen 1975.
  • Wolfgang Krause: The language of the urnordian runic inscriptions. Winter, Heidelberg 1971, ISBN 3-533-02178-5 .
  • Hans Frede Nielsen: The Early Runic Language of Scandinavia. Winter, Heidelberg 2000, ISBN 3-8253-1080-9 .

Web links

Wiktionary: Primordial Norse  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Odd Einar Haugen : Grunnbok in norrønt språk. 2. utgåve. Oslo 1995, ISBN 82-417-0506-9 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g Hallfrid Christiansen: Norske Dialekter. Tanum / Norli undated (reprint).