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Language Lineage

East Norse

Monophthongisation: the old diphthongs became long simple vowels (Old Danish stēn 'stone', ø̄gha 'eye' against Old West Norse steinn, auga).

c. 10th century CE – presentDenmark and Sweden, including Scania and the Baltic islands
On this page
  1. Origins
  2. Laws, Runes and Hanseatic Trade
  3. Danish and Swedish Diverge
  4. Where it's spoken
  5. Turning points

01

Origins

East Norse is the speech of Denmark and Sweden once it had begun to part from the Norse of Norway and the Atlantic islands. Its signature change shows up on Danish rune-stones from the late Viking Age: the diphthongs ei, au and øy became long monophthongs, so steinn 'stone' became stēn and auga 'eye' became ø̄gha. Modern Swedish sten and öga and Danish sten and øje continue those forms.

The change did not reach everywhere. The island of Gotland kept its diphthongs, which is one reason Old Gutnish is sometimes treated as a separate branch of Norse and not simply part of East Norse.

02

Laws, Runes and Hanseatic Trade

The first long East Norse texts are the medieval provincial laws of the 13th century. In Sweden the oldest is the Older Westrogothic Law (Äldre Västgötalagen). In Denmark the Scanian Law was even copied out in runes, in the Codex Runicus of about 1300, long after the Latin alphabet had become the normal script.

From the 13th century the Hanseatic League dominated Baltic trade, and its working language, Middle Low German, flooded Danish and Swedish. Everyday verbs such as Swedish betala, Danish betale 'pay', the prefix be-, and the noun suffix Swedish -het, Danish -hed (German -heit) all entered then. Few other Germanic languages took so much from a close relative.

03

Danish and Swedish Diverge

Danish went its own way in pronunciation. From the late Middle Ages the voiceless stops p t k after vowels were weakened, and in the modern language they are often not stops at all: Danish gade 'street' and kage 'cake' against Swedish gata and kaka. Danish also developed the stød, a creaky-voice feature that distinguishes words like hun 'she' from hund 'dog'.

The Reformation fixed the two standards. Gustav Vasa's Swedish Bible of 1541 and Christian III's Danish Bible of 1550 gave each kingdom a model for written prose. The borders then shaped the dialects: after Denmark ceded Scania to Sweden in 1658, the Scanian dialects, though historically Danish, came under the Swedish standard.

On the map

Where it’s spoken

Spoken todayShading marks whole countries, not the regions within them.
  1. Swedenc. 9 million
  2. Denmarkc. 5.5 million
  3. Finlandc. 300,000

Figures are rough first-language estimates, rounded, from censuses and Ethnologue. Counts for small or scattered communities are especially uncertain.

Rings along the limb

Turning points

Oldest first.

  1. Sound lawLate 10th – 11th century CE

    Monophthongisation

    ei au øy → eː øː øː

    The diphthongs ei, au, øy become long ē, ø̄, ø̄ in Danish and most of Swedish: steinn → stēn, auga → ø̄gha. Rune-stone spellings date its spread. Gotland is left out.

    Compare with other vowel shifts across families →

    Sources (2)
    • Harbert, Wayne. 2007. The Germanic Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
    • Barnes, Michael P. 2012. Runes: A Handbook. Woodbridge: Boydell Press.
  2. Writing13th century CE

    Provincial laws in Latin letters

    Danish and Swedish are written in the Latin alphabet at length for the first time, in the regional law codes. Runes stay in use alongside: the Scanian Law survives in a runic manuscript, the Codex Runicus (c. 1300).

    Sources (1)
    • Barnes, Michael P. 2012. Runes: A Handbook. Woodbridge: Boydell Press.
  3. Contact13th – 16th century CE

    Middle Low German via the Hanse

    Hanseatic merchants, many of them settled in Scandinavian towns such as Stockholm and Bergen, bring in large numbers of Middle Low German words and word-building elements: betala/betale 'pay', the prefix be-, and the suffix -het/-hed.

    Sources (1)
    • Harbert, Wayne. 2007. The Germanic Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  4. Sound lawc. 13th – 15th century CEContested

    Danish stop weakening

    p t k → b d ɡ / V _ (weakened further in speech)

    After vowels, Danish p t k weaken to b d g in spelling and much further in speech: gade 'street', kage 'cake' against Swedish gata, kaka. Scholars dispute when it began, because spelling lags well behind pronunciation.

    Compare with other weakening and voicing across families →

    Sources (1)
    • Harbert, Wayne. 2007. The Germanic Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  5. Split1541–1550

    Two national standards

    The Gustav Vasa Bible (1541) and Christian III's Bible (1550) give Swedish and Danish separate written models. The dialect continuum between them remains, but from here on it is split between two standard languages.

    Sources (1)
    • Harbert, Wayne. 2007. The Germanic Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.