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Theorthography of the Old Norse language was diverse, being written in bothRunic andLatin alphabets, with many spelling conventions, variant letterforms, and unique letters and signs. In modern times, scholars established a standardized spelling for the language. WhenOld Norse names are used in texts in other languages, modifications to this spelling are often made. In particular, the names ofOld Norse mythological figures often have several different spellings.
The first appearance of an ancestral stage of Old Norse in a written runic form dates back toc. AD 200–300[1] (with theØvre Stabu spearhead traditionally dated to the late 2nd century), at this time still showing an archaic language form (similar to reconstructedProto-Germanic) termedProto-Norse. Old Norse proper appears byc. AD 800. While there are remains ofViking runestones from theViking Age, today they are rare, and vary in the use of orthography depending on when they were created. Rune stones created near the end of the Viking Age tend to have a greater influence fromOld English runes.
An understanding of the writing system of Old Norse is crucial for fully understanding the Old Norse language. Studies of remaining rune stones from the Viking Age reveal many nuances about the spoken language, such as the constant use ofalliteration. A comparison of various whetstones from this time period with the works ofSnorri Sturluson reveals that alliteration was common in many Old Norse writings, and were not only present in skaldic works. This would then suggest that the Vikings closely tied their language to their auditory sense, which in turn would have helped with the continual transfer of their cultural memory, which was also closely tied to their language.[2]
The following table gives various attested spellings of sounds and theirIPA transcription. In general usage, an orthographic distinction of phones or phonemes is not necessarily held by every writer. For example, an author may only distinguish some vowels by length, and orthographic devices could be mixed and matched. Where the table lists a long-or-short phoneme/(ː)/, a specifically short// or long/ː/ phoneme represents additional spellings not covered by length marking rules. Likewise, a phonetic entry only lists spellings not used by the equivalent phoneme(s). N/A is used when no specific spelling is used, e.g. where all long vowel spellings are found using the rules for deriving long vowel spellings from the short vowel, or no general spelling is used, e.g. when short and long vowels are always spelled differently.
| Latin orthography of Old Norse vowels | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phoneme | /i(ː)/ | /i/U | /e(ː)/ | /æ(ː)/ | /æ/ | /æː/ | /y(ː)/ | /ø(ː)/ | /ø/ | /øː/ |
| General usage | i | i, e, æ | e, æ | æ, ę | e | — | y | ø, ö, œ | — | |
| Standard normalization | i | e | — | ę | æ | y | — | ø | œ | |
| Phoneme | /u(ː)/ | /u/U | /o(ː)/ | /ɑ(ː)/ | /ɑ/U | /ɒ/ | /æi/ | /ɒu/ | /øy/ | /Vː/ |
| General usage | u | u, o | o | a | a, æ | ǫ, o, aE | ei, ęi, æi | au | ey, øy | V, V́, VV |
| Standard normalization | u | o | a | ǫ | ei | au | ey | V́ | ||
| Latin orthography of Old Norse consonants | ||||||||||
| Phone(me) | /p(ː)/ | /b(ː)/ | /m(ː)/ | /f/ | [v] | /θ/ | [ð] | /t(ː)/ | /d(ː)/ | /n(ː)/ |
| General usage | p | b | m | f | ff, u,? ffu | þ, th | ð, dh, d | t | d | n |
| Standard normalization | p | b | m | f | f | þ | ð | t | d | n |
| Phone(me) | /l(ː)/ | /lː/ | /s(ː)/ | /r(ː)/ | /ɽ(ː)/ | /j/ | /w/ | /k(ː)/ | /ɡ(ː)/ | [ɣ] |
| General usage | l | ꝇ | s | r | r | i, j | u, v,ƿ,ꝩ | k, c | g | gh |
| Standard normalization | l | — | s | r | j | v | k | g | g | |
| Phone(me) | /h/ | /hw,hr,hl,hn/ | [ts] | [t,d,ð,n]+[s] | [ks] | [ɡs] | [kw] | /Cː/ | ||
| General usage | h | h(S) | z | x | gx[3]E | qu, qv, kv | CC,C | |||
| Standard normalization | h | h(S) | z | — | x | — | — | CC | ||
Legend:
The low/low-mid vowels may be indicated differently:
Dialect-specific sounds:
When dialectal mergers such as OEN monophthongization took place, regional spelling often changed to reflect this. Sometimes, both phonemes' spellings would be used, but confused.
The epenthetic vowel had different regional spellings. In East Norse it was commonly spelled as⟨e⟩ or⟨a⟩, while in West Norse it was often spelled⟨u⟩, just like in Iceland.
The originalIcelandic manuscripts, which are the main source of knowledge ofNorse mythology, did not employ a unified system of spelling. During the Viking Age, many dialects of Old Norse were spoken. While they appear to have been mutually intelligible, the slight variances resulted in various spellings.[5] Thus the same name might be spelled several different ways even in the original manuscripts. Letters unique to the language existed, such as a modified version of the letterWynn calledVend that was used briefly for the sounds/u/,/v/, and/w/. In particular, the length ofvowels was only sporadically marked in many manuscripts and variousumlauted vowels were often not distinguished from others. Another complication is that severalshortcut forms for common words, syllables, and grammatical endings developed. One example is the use of therune namedmaðr (man) for the wordmaðr. Another is the use of a specialglyph for the various r-endings so common in Old Norse. These scribal abbreviations are categorized as follows:[6]
These abbreviation conventions and a majority of the signs are inherited from theLatin language itself, and were common to theLatin alphabet in other languages. However, other signs or conventions are specifically Norse, such as theer zig-zag.
"Normalized spelling" can be used to refer to normalization in general or the standard normalization in particular. With normalized spelling, the manuscript spelling is altered to adhere to be more strict and regular. These respellings are designed to bephonemically precise rather than representative of the manuscripts. The degree of normalization may vary, but in general the text is at the end reduced to limited deviation from a regularized system, perhaps at the expense of some dialectal character.
For various reasons 19th century scholars came up with astandardized normalization of Old Norse which remains in use. It is primarily based on the so-calledFirst Grammatical Treatise.Vowel length is marked and umlauted vowels are unambiguously represented. The standardized spelling employs a few characters that were not available in early electroniccharacter sets, so replacements were often used. The most consequential was the use ofö instead ofǫ; the latter being present in Unicode v1.0[7] (1991) as U+01EA.
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The following table associates the phonemes of the language to its orthographic representations. Vowel nasalization and length are not distinguished in the table when distinguished in neither orthography, nor is/æi/ distinguished from/æ/+/i/.
| Runic orthography of Old Norse vowels | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phoneme | /i(ː)/ | /eː/ | /i/U,/e/ | /æ(ː)/ | /y(ː)/ | /ø(ː)/ | /u(ː)/ | /u/U | /o(ː)/ | /ɑ(ː)/ | /ɒ(ː)/ | /ɑ̃(ː)/ | /ɒu/,/ɐy/ |
| Younger Futhark, 8th–12th c. | ᛁ | ᛆ/ᛅ, ᚬ/ᚭ | ᚢ | ᚢ, ᚬ/ᚭ | ᛆ/ᛅ | ᛆ/ᛅ, ᛅᚢ/ᛆᚢ, ᚬ/ᚭ | ᚬ/ᚭ | ᛅᚢ/ᛆᚢ | |||||
| Medieval Runes, 11th–14th c. | ᛁ | ᛂ | ᛅ | ᚤ, ᛦ | ᚯ | ᚢ | ᚮ | ᛆ | ᛆᚢ | ||||
| Runic orthography of Old Norse consonants | |||||||||||||
| Phone(me) | /p/ | /b/ | /f/ | [v] | /t/ | /d/ | /θ/ | [ð] | /s/ | [ts] | /k/ | /ɡ/ | /h/ |
| Younger Futhark, 8th–12th c. | ᛒ | ᚠ | ᚢ | ᛏ | ᚦ | ᛋ | ᚴ | ᚼ | |||||
| Medieval Runes, 11th–14th c. | ᛔ | ᛒ | ᚠ | ᚡ | ᛐ | ᛑ | ᚦ | ᚧ | ᛌ | ᚴ | ᚵ | ᚼ | |
| Phoneme | /m/ | /n/ | /ɾ/ (?) | /ɽ/ (?) | /l/ | /j/ | /w/ | /Cː/ | |||||
| Younger Futhark, 8th–12th c. | ᛘ | ᚾ | ᚱ | ᛦ | ᛚ | ᛁ | ᚢ | — | |||||
| Medieval Runes, 11th–14th c. | ᛘ | ᚿ | ᚱ | ᛧ | ᛚ | ᛁ | ᚢ | C, CC | |||||
When transcribing Old Norse texts from Danish and Swedishrunestones, many scholars,[8] but not all,[9] use an orthography that is adapted to represent Old East Norse, the dialect of Old Norse inDenmark andSweden. The main differences are thediphthongæi instead ofei as instæinn ("stone") andi instead of theglidej as ingiald ("payment"). In this standard, theu-umlauteda represented by ǫ is not usually considered, but rendered as the underlyinga, as in the nameAnundʀ. Another difference is the representation of the phonemeʀ, instead of simplyr as in West Norse, where theʀ phoneme merged withr earlier. However, even if they render the transcription according to the local pronunciation, theRundata project presents personal names according to the previously mentioned standardized spelling in English translations. Here follows an example from theOrkesta Runestone (U 344):
Standardized spelling:
The rendering of Old East Norse:
But when translating into English, the standardized spelling is used:
In many modernIcelandic publications of Old Norse works, the modernIcelandic spelling is used. The orthography is essentially the same (since it was intentionally modelled after the aforementioned normalized Old Norse in the 19th century), but changes fromOld Norse phonology to Icelandic phonology are incorporated in the translation that may not have been in the source text. One such difference is the insertion of u before r, when it is preceded by a consonant at the end of the word. Thus the Old Norse name Baldr comes out as Baldur in modernIcelandic. Other differences include vowel-shifts, whereby Old Norseǫ became Icelandicö, and Old Norseœ (oe ligature) became Icelandicæ (ae ligature). Old Norseø corresponds in modern Icelandic toö, as insökkva, or toe, as ingera. There is also consonantlenition of finalk andt tog andð, e.g.mig for earliermik andþað for earlierþat. These distinct features are summarized in the table below:
| ON | Icelandic |
|---|---|
| -r | -ur |
| -k | -g |
| -t | -ð |
| ę | e |
| ǫ | ö |
| ǫ́ | á |
| œ, ǿ | æ |
| ø | ö, e |
| kø | kjö, ke |
| gø | gjö, ge |
For the convenience ofEnglish writers and readers the Old Norse characters not used in English are commonly replaced with English ones. This can lead to ambiguity and confusion. Diacritics may be removed (á → a, ö → o). The following character conversions also take place:
Another common convention in English is to dropconsonantnominative endings:
Sometimes aj is dropped afterey.
Other quirks sometimes seen include adding aLatin -a suffix to the names of goddesses.
Obviously the various permutations allow for many possible spellings for a given name.
Some authors, for example, replaceþ withth andð withth,dh ord but keep the accents; others may not replaceǫ withö but prefero.
Thus, in addition to the various versions below, the name ofHǫðr could come out as:
A list of some commonly encountered Old Norse names with variant spellings. * marks anglicizations.