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| Old East Norse | |
|---|---|
| Øst Norrönt / Östr Norrœnt (West Norse), Øst-Skandinavisk (East Scandinavian) | |
 | |
| Region | Denmark,Sweden,England,Normandy, theVolga and places in-between |
| Era | 9th–12th century |
Indo-European
| |
Early forms | |
| Runic, laterLatin | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | None (mis) |
| Glottolog | None |
| This article containsIPA phonetic symbols. Without properrendering support, you may seequestion marks, boxes, or other symbols instead ofUnicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. | |
| Part ofa series on |
| Old Norse |
|---|
 |
| WikiProject Norse history and culture |
Old East Norse was a dialect ofOld Norse which evolved into the languages ofOld Danish andOld Swedish from the 9th century to the 12th century. It is sometimes calledrunic Danish or Swedish because of its use inrunes.
Old East Norse between 800 and 1100 is called in SwedenRunic Swedish and in DenmarkRunic Danish. They are calledrunic because the body of text appears inrunes. The use ofSwedish andDanish is not for linguistic reasons as the differences between them are minute. Changes had a tendency to occur earlier in the Danish region.
Runic Old East Norse is characteristically archaic in form. In essence it matches or surpasses the archaicness of post-runic Old West Norse which in its turn is generally more archaic than post-runic Old East Norse. While typically "Eastern" in structure, many later post-runic changes and trademarks of EON had yet to happen.
UnlikeProto-Norse, which was written with theElder Futhark alphabet, Old Norse was written with theYounger Futhark alphabet, which only had 16 letters. Due to the limited number of runes, some runes were used for a range ofphonemes, such as the rune for thevowelu which was also used for the vowelso,ø andy, and the rune fori which was also used fore.
The first distinction between the Eastern and Western dialects can be traced to around the 7th century, when the combinations -mp-, -nt-, and -nk- mostly merged to -pp-, -tt- and -kk- in Old West Norse. The following table illustrates this (note the mutual influence of East and West Norse on each other):
| English | NorwegianNynorsk | Faroese | Icelandic | Old West Norse | Proto-Norse | Old East Norse | Swedish | Danish | NorwegianBokmål |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| mushroom | sopp | soppur | sveppur | s(v)ǫppr | *swampu | swampr | svamp | svamp | sopp |
| steep | bratt | brattur | brattur | brattr | *brantaz | brantr | brant | brat | bratt |
| widow | enkje | einkja, arch. ekkja | ekkja | ekkja | *ain(a)kjōn | ænkja | änka | enke | enke |
| to shrink | kreppe | kreppa | kreppa | kreppa | *krimpan | krimpa | krympa | krympe | krympe |
| to sprint | sprette | spretta | spretta | spretta | *sprintan | sprinta | spritta, dial. sprinta | sprinte | sprette |
| to sink | søkke | søkka | sökkva | søkkva | *sankwian | sænkva | sjunka | synke | synke |
An early difference between Old West Norse and the other dialects was that Old West Norse had the formsbú "dwelling",kú "cow" (accusative) andtrú "faith" whereas Old East Norse hadbó,kó andtró. Old West Norse was also characterized by the preservation ofu-umlaut, which meant that for exampleProto-Norse *tanþu "tooth" was pronouncedtǫnn and nottann as in post-runic Old East Norse; OWNgǫ́s and runic OENgǫ́s, while post-runic OENgás "goose".
The phonemeʀ, which evolved during the Proto-Norse period fromz, was still clearly separated fromr in most positions, even when being geminated, while in OWN it had already merged withr.
Another change was of thediphthongæi (Old West Norseei) to themonophthonge, as instæin tosten. This is reflected in runic inscriptions where the older readstain and the laterstin. Monophthongization ofæi > ē andøy, au > ø̄ started in mid-10th-century Denmark.[1] Compare runic OEN:fæigʀ,gæiʀʀ,haugʀ,møydōmʀ,diūʀ; with Post-runic OEN:fēgher,gēr,hø̄gher,mø̄dōmber,diūr; OWN:feigr,geirr,haugr,meydómr,dýr; from PN *faigiaz, *gaizaz, *haugaz, *mawi- + dōmaz (maidendom; virginity), *diuza ((wild) animal).
There was also a change ofau as indauðr intoø as indøðr. This change is shown in runic inscriptions as a change fromtauþr intotuþr. Moreover, theøy (Old West Norseey) diphthong changed intoø as well, as in the Old Norse word for "island".
Feminine o-stems often preserve the plural ending -aʀ while in OWN they more often merge with the feminine i-stems: (runic OEN)*sōlaʀ,*hafnaʀ/*hamnaʀ,*wāgaʀ while OWNsólir,hafnir andvágir (modern Swedishsolar,hamnar,vågar; suns, havens, scales; Danish has mainly lost the distinction between the two stems with both endings now being rendered as -er or -e alternatively for the o-stems).
Vice versa, masculine i-stems with the root ending in eitherg ork tended to shift the plural ending to that of the ja-stems while OWN kept the original:drængiaʀ,*ælgiaʀ and*bænkiaʀ while OWNdrengir,elgir (elks) andbekkir (modern Swedishdrängar,älgar,bänkar).
The plural ending of ja-stems were mostly preserved while those of OWN often acquired that of the i-stems:*bæðiaʀ,*bækkiaʀ,*wæfiaʀ while OWNbeðir (beds),bekkir,vefir (modern Swedishbäddar,bäckar,vävar).
Until the early 12th century, Old East Norse was very much a uniform dialect. It was in Denmark that the first innovations appeared that would differentiate Old Danish from Old Swedish[2]:3 as these innovations spread north unevenly (unlike the earlier changes that spread more evenly over the East Norse area) creating a series ofisoglosses going fromZealand toSvealand.
In Old Danish,/hɾ/ merged with/ɾ/ during the 9th century.[3] From the 11th to 14th centuries, the unstressed vowels -a, -o and -e (standard normalization -a, -u and -i) started to merge into -ə, represented with the lettere. This vowel came to beepenthetic, particularly before-ʀ endings.[4] At the same time, the voicelessstop consonantsp,t andk became voiced plosives and evenfricative consonants. Resulting from these innovations, Danish haskage (cake),tunger (tongues) andgæster (guests) whereas (Standard) Swedish has retained older forms,kaka,tungor andgäster (OENkaka,tungur,gæstir).
Moreover, the Danishpitch accent shared with Norwegian and Swedish changed intostød around this time.[citation needed]
Old East Norse, spoken in theDanelaw in England, may have influenced the development of EarlyMiddle English from (Anglo-Saxon)Old English.
At the end of the 10th and early 11th century initialh- beforel,n andr was still preserved in the middle and northern parts of Sweden, and is sporadically still preserved in some northern dialects asg-, e.g.gly (lukewarm), fromhlýʀ. TheDalecarlian dialects developed as Old Swedish dialects and as such can be considered separate languages from Swedish.
This is an extract fromVästgötalagen, the Westrogothic law. It is the oldest text written as a manuscript found in Sweden and from the 13th century. It is contemporaneous with most of the Icelandic literature. The text marks the beginning ofOld Swedish as a distinct dialect.
Dræpær maþar svænskan man eller smalenskæn, innan konongsrikis man, eigh væstgøskan, bøte firi atta ørtogher ok þrettan markær ok ænga ætar bot. [...] Dræpar maþær danskan man allæ noræn man, bøte niv markum. Dræpær maþær vtlænskan man, eigh ma frid flyia or landi sinu oc j æth hans. Dræpær maþær vtlænskæn prest, bøte sva mykit firi sum hærlænskan man. Præstær skal i bondalaghum væræ. Varþær suþærman dræpin ællær ænskær maþær, ta skal bøta firi marchum fiurum þem sakinæ søkir, ok tvar marchar konongi.
If someone slays aSwede or aSmålander, a man from the kingdom, but not a WestGeat, he will pay eightörtugar (20-pence coins) and thirteen marks, but noweregild. [...] If someone slays a Dane or a Norwegian, he will pay nine marks. If someone slays a foreigner, he shall not be banished and have to flee to hisclan. If someone slays a foreign priest, he will pay as much as for a fellow countryman. A priest counts as a freeman. If a Southerner is slain or an Englishman, he shall pay four marks to the plaintiff and two marks to the king.