| Proto-Norse | |
|---|---|
| Region | Scandinavia |
| Era | 2nd to 8th centuries |
Indo-European
| |
| Elder Futhark | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
1be | |
qdl "Runic" (perhapsOld Norse is intended) | |
| Glottolog | olde1239 Older Runic (perhaps) |
 Map of Elder Futhark inscription finds | |
| 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. | |
Proto-Norse was anIndo-European language spoken inScandinavia that is thought to have evolved as a northern dialect ofProto-Germanic in the first centuries CE. It is the earliest stage of a characteristicallyNorth Germanic language, and the languageattested in the oldest ScandinavianElder Futhark inscriptions, spoken from around the 2nd to the 8th centuries CE (corresponding to the lateRoman Iron Age and theGermanic Iron Age). It evolved into the dialects ofOld Norse at the beginning of theViking Age around 800 CE, which later themselves evolved into the modernNorth Germanic languages (Faroese,Icelandic, theContinental Scandinavian languages, and their dialects).
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Proto-Norse phonology probably did not differ substantially from that of Proto-Germanic. Although the phonetic realisation of several phonemes had probably changed over time, the overall system of phonemes and their distribution remained largely unchanged.
| Bilabial | Dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Labial–velar | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | (ŋ) | (ŋʷ) | |||
| Stop | p b | t d | k ɡ | kʷ ɡʷ | |||
| Fricative | ɸ (β) | θ (ð) | s | z | h (ɣ) | hʷ | |
| Trill | r | ||||||
| Approximant | j | w | |||||
| Lateral | l | ||||||
The system of vowels differed somewhat more from that of Proto-Germanic than the consonants. Earlier/ɛː/ had been lowered to/ɑː/, and unstressed/ɑi/ and/ɑu/ had developed into/eː/ and/ɔː/. Shortening of word-final vowels had eliminated the Proto-Germanic overlong vowels.
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Old Norse had astress accent which fell on the first syllable, like its ancestor,Proto-Germanic. Several scholars have proposed that Proto-Norse also had a separatepitch accent, which was inherited fromProto-Indo-European and has evolved into thetonal accents of modernSwedish andNorwegian, which in turn have evolved into thestød of modernDanish.[1][2] Another recently advanced theory is that each Proto-Norse long syllable and every other short syllable received stress, marked by pitch, eventually leading to the development of the Swedish and Norwegian tonal accent distinction.[3] Finally, quite a number of linguists have assumed that even the first phonetic rudiments of the distinction did not appear until theOld Norse period.[4][5][6][7]
All attestations of Proto-Norse areElder Futhark inscriptions. There are about 260 of these inscriptions in Proto-Norse, the earliest dating to the 2nd century.
Numerous early Germanic words have survived with relatively little change as borrowings inFinnic languages. Some of these may be of Proto-Germanic origin or older still, but others reflect developments specific to Norse. Some examples (with the reconstructed Proto-Norse form):
A very extensive Proto-Norse loanword layer also exists in theSámi languages.[8][9]
Some Proto-Norse names are found in Latin works, like tribal names likeSuiones (*Sweoniz, "Swedes"). Others can be conjectured from manuscripts such asBeowulf.
The differences between attested Proto-Norse and unattestedProto-Germanic are rather small. Separating Proto-Norse from Northwest Germanic can be said to be a matter of convention, as sufficient evidence from the remaining parts of the Germanic-speaking area (Northern Germany and the Netherlands) is lacking in a degree to provide sufficient comparison. Inscriptions found in Scandinavia are considered to be in Proto-Norse. Several scholars argue about this subject matter. Wolfgang von Krause sees the language of the runic inscriptions of the Proto-Norse period as an immediate precursor to Old Norse, but Elmer Antonsen views them as Northwest Germanic.[10]
One early difference shared by the West Germanic dialects is the monophthongization of unstressed diphthongs. Unstressed*ai becameē, as inhaitē (Kragehul I) from Proto-Germanic*haitai, and unstressed*au likewise becameō. Characteristic is also the Proto-Norse lowering of Proto-Germanic stressed*ē toā, which is demonstrated by the pairGothicmēna and Old Norsemáni (Englishmoon). Proto-Norse thus differs from the early West Germanic dialects, as West Germanicē was lowered toā regardless of stress; in Old Norse, earlier unstressedē surfaces asi. For example, the weak third-person singular past tense ending-dē appears in Old High German as-ta, with a low vowel, but in Old Norse as-ði, with a high vowel.
The time that*z, a voiced apical alveolar fricative, represented in runic writing by thealgiz rune, changed toʀ, an apical post-alveolar approximant, is debated. If the general Proto-Norse principle of devoicing of consonants in final position is taken into account,*z, if retained, would have been devoiced to[s] and would be spelled as such in runes. There is, however, no trace of that in the Elder Futhark runic inscriptions, so it can be safely assumed that the quality of this consonant must have changed before the devoicing, or the phoneme would not have been marked with a rune different from thesowilō rune used fors. The quality of the consonant can be conjectured, and the general opinion is that it was something between[z] and[r], the Old Norse reflex of the sound. In Old Swedish, the phonemic distinction betweenr andʀ was retained into the 11th century, as shown by the numerous runestones from Sweden from then.
From 500 to 800, two great changes occurred within Proto-Norse.Umlauts appeared, which means that a vowel was influenced by the succeeding vowel or semivowel: Old Norsegestr (guest) came from PNgastiz (guest). Another sound change is known asvowel breaking in which the vowel changed into adiphthong:hjarta from *hertō orfjǫrðr from *ferþuz.
Umlauts resulted in the appearance of the new vowelsy (likefylla from *fullijaną) andœ (likedœma from *dōmijaną). The umlauts are divided into three categories:a-umlaut,i-umlaut andu-umlaut; the last was still productive in Old Norse. The first, however, appeared very early, and its effect can be seen already around 500, on theGolden Horns of Gallehus.[11] The variation caused by the umlauts was itself no great disruption in the language. It merely introduced newallophones ofback vowels if certain vowels were in following syllables. However, the changes brought forth bysyncope made the umlaut-vowels a distinctive non-transparent feature of the morphology and phonology, phonemicising what were previously allophones.
Syncope shortened the long vowels of unstressed syllables; many shortened vowels were lost. Also, most short unstressed vowels were lost. As in PN, the stress accent lay on the first syllable words as PN *katilōz became ONkatlar (cauldrons), PNhorną was changed into Old Norsehorn (horn) and PNgastiz resulted in ONgestr (guest). Some words underwent even more drastic changes, like *habukaz which changed into ONhaukr (hawk).