Part ofa series on the
Norse colonization of North America
Leiv Eirikson Discovering America, 1893 painting byChristian Krohg
Places Vinland Markland Helluland L'Anse aux Meadows Eastern Settlement Western Settlement Middle Settlement Gunnbjörn's skerries Great Ireland Tanfield Valley Straumfjörð
Alleged artifacts Maine penny Skálholt Map Kensington Runestone Vinland Map
Explorers Erik the Red Leif Erikson Thorvald Eiriksson Freydís Eiríksdóttir Gunnbjörn Ulfsson Snæbjörn galti Bjarni Herjólfsson Thorfinn Karlsefni Helgi and Finnbogi
Literature Saga of Erik the Red Saga of the Greenlanders Flateyjarbók Hauksbók Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum Book of Icelanders Skræling Greenlandic Norse
Researchers Adam of Bremen Galvano Fiamma William W. Fitzhugh Anne Stine Ingstad Helge Ingstad Gwyn Jones Robert McGhee Carl Christian Rafn Kirsten Seaver Patricia Sutherland Birgitta Wallace
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Greenlandic Norse is an extinctNorth Germanic language that was spoken in theNorse settlements of Greenland until their demise in the late 15th century. The language is primarily attested by runic inscriptions found inGreenland. The limited inscriptional evidence shows some innovations, including the use of initialt forþ, 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 poemAtlamál is credited asGreenlandic in theCodex Regius, 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 inlanguage contact withGreenlandic and to have left loanwords in it.

Some 80runic inscriptions have been found in Greenland. Many of them are difficult to date and not all of them were necessarily carved by Greenlanders.^[2] It is difficult to identify specifically Greenlandic linguistic features in the limited runic material. Nevertheless, there are inscriptions showing the use oft for historicalþ in words such astorir rather thanþorir andtana rather thanþana. This linguistic innovation has parallels in West Norwegian in thelate medieval period.^[2] On the other hand, Greenlandic appears to have retained some features which changed in other types of Scandinavian. This includes initialhl andhr, otherwise only preserved inIcelandic, and the long vowelœ (oe ligature), which merged withæ (ae ligature) in Icelandic but was preserved inNorwegian andFaroese.^[3]

Certain runic forms have been seen by scholars as characteristically Greenlandic, including in particular an 'r' form with two parallel sloping branches—  —which is found in 14 Greenlandic inscriptions.^[4] This form is sporadically found outside Greenland. It is, for example, found in a runic inscription discovered inOrphir in Orkney, which has been taken to imply that "the rune carver probably was a Greenlander".^[5]

Medieval Greenlandic rune variations in ABC order.^[6]

TheKingittorsuaq Runestone has one of the longest Norse inscriptions found in Greenland. It was discovered nearUpernavik, far north of the Norse settlements. It was presumably carved by Norse explorers. Like most Greenlandic inscriptions, it is traditionally dated toc. 1300. 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 toc. 1200.[7]

The first line is the transcription verbatim; the second line is the normalized Old Norse version. A caret (^) indicates abind rune; for example a^r indicates that ᛆᚱ is written as a single glyph. A tilde (~) indicates an unspecified punctuation mark.^[8]

The patronymicTortarson (standardized Old Norse:Þórðarson) shows the change fromþ tot while the wordhloþu (Old Icelandichlóðu, Old Norwegianlóðu) shows the retention of initialhl.

A document written atGarðar in Greenland in 1409 is preserved in an Icelandic transcription from 1625. The transcription was attested by bishopOddur Einarsson and is considered reliable. The document is a marriage certificate issued by two priests based in Greenland, attesting thebanns of marriage for two Icelanders who had beenblown 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.^[10] The document contains orthographic traits which are consistent with the runic linguistic evidence. This includes the prepositional formþil for the oldertil which demonstrates the merger of initial 'þ' and 't'.^[11]

It is possible that some other texts preserved in Icelandic manuscripts might be of Greenlandic origins. In particular, the poemAtlamál is referred to as Greenlandic (Atlamál in grœnlenzku) in theCodex Regius. 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 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."^[14]

Finnur Jónsson argued that not only wasAtlamál composed in Greenland, some other preserved Eddic poems were as well. He adduced various stylistic arguments in favor of Greenlandic provenance forHelgakviða Hundingsbana I,Oddrúnargrátr,Guðrúnarhvöt,Sigurðarkviða in skamma and, more speculatively,Helreið Brynhildar.^[15] One linguistic trait which Finnur regarded as specifically Greenlandic was initial 'hn' in the wordHniflungr, found in Atlamál,Helgakviða Hundingsbana I andGuðrúnarhvöt. The word is otherwise preserved asNiflungr in Icelandic sources.^[16] Modern scholarship is doubtful of usingAtlamál 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.^[17][18]

Greenlandic Norse is believed to have been inlanguage contact withKalaallisut, the language of theKalaallit, and to have leftloanwords in that language. In particular, the Greenlandic wordKalaaleq (olderKaraaleq), meaningGreenlander, is believed to be derived from the wordSkrælingr, the Norse term for the people theyencountered in North America.^[19] In the Greenlandic dictionary of 1750,Hans Egede states thatKarálek is what the "old Christians" called the Greenlanders and that they use the word only with foreigners and not when speaking among themselves.^[20][21] Other words which may be of Norse origin includeKuuna (female given name, probably from Old Norsekona "woman", "wife"),^[22]sava ("sheep", Old Norsesauðr),nisa ("porpoise", Old Norsehnísa),puuluki ("pig", Old Norsepurka "sow"),musaq ("carrot", Old Norsemura) andkuaneq ("angelica", Old Norsehvönn, pluralhvannir).^[23][24]

The available evidence does not establish the presence oflanguage attrition; the Norse language most likely disappeared with the ethnic group that spoke it.^[2]

Part ofa series on
Old Norse
Dialects Old West Norse (Old Icelandic Old Norwegian Greenlandic Norse) Old East Norse (Old Danish Old Swedish) Old Gutnish
Use Orthography Runic alphabet (Younger Futhark Medieval) Latin alphabet Grammar Phonology Morphology
Literature Poetry (alliterative verse) Sagas (of Icelanders Legendary) Edda (Poetic Edda Prose Edda) First Grammatical Treatise
Ancestors Proto-Indo-European Proto-Germanic Proto-Norse
Descendants Dalecarlian Danish Faroese Greenlandic Norse(extinct) Gutnish Icelandic Norn(extinct) Norwegian Swedish English words of Old Norse origin
WikiProject Norse history and culture
v t e

• Hvalsey
• Norse colonization of North America
• Narsaq stick
• Old Norse
• List of extinct languages of North America

• Barnes, Michael (2002). "History and development of Old Nordic outside the Scandinavia of today". InThe Nordic Languages: An International Handbook of the History of the North Germanic Languages: Volume 1.ISBN 3110148765
• Barnes, Michael (2005). "Language" inA Companion to Old Norse-Icelandic Literature and Culture, ed. byRory McTurk.ISBN 0-631-23502-7.
• 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.ISBN 0198114974
• 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". InThe Nordic Languages : An International Handbook of the History of the North Germanic Languages : Volume 2, pp. 1233–1237.ISBN 311017149X.
• Hollander, Lee M. (1962). The Poetic Edda.ISBN 0292764995
• Jahr, Ernst Håkon and Ingvild Broch (1996).Language Contact in the Arctic: Northern Pidgins and Contact Languages.ISBN 3110143356.
• Liestøl, Aslak (1984). "Runes" in The Northern and Western Isles in the Viking World. Survival, Continuity and Change, pp. 224–238.ISBN 0859761010.
• Olsen, Magnus. "Kingigtórsoak-stenen og sproget i de grønlandske runeinnskrifter".Norsk tidsskrift for sprogvidenskap 1932, pp. 189–257.
• Rundata database.
• von See, Klaus, Beatrice la Farge, Simone Horst and Katja Schulz (2012).Kommentar zu den Liedern der Edda 7.ISBN 9783825359973
• Stoklund, Marie (1993). "Greenland runes. Isolation or cultural contact?" inThe Viking Age in Caithness, Orkney and the North Atlantic, pp. 528–543.ISBN 0748606327
• Thalbitzer, William (1904).A Phonetical Study of the Eskimo Language.

• Runic inscription from Greenland

• 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

• CS1 Swedish-language sources (sv)
• Articles containing Latin-language text
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from January 2022
• Languages without Glottolog code
• Language articles with IETF language tag
• Language articles with unreferenced extinction date
• Languages with neither ISO nor Glottolog code
• Articles containing Old Norse-language text
• Articles containing Greenlandic-language text