01
Origins
The ancestor of the Scandinavian languages is known as Proto-Norse. Unlike Proto-Germanic, it is not purely reconstructed. It is written in Elder Futhark runes on a few hundred objects from about the 2nd to the 8th century. The best known is one of the Gallehus golden horns from southern Jutland (c. 400 CE): ek hlewagastiʀ holtijaʀ horna tawidō, 'I, Hlewagastiz of Holt, made the horn'.
The inscription preserves full unstressed endings (-gastiʀ, horna) that the later Scandinavian languages lost, and it writes the reflex of Proto-Germanic final *-z with a special rune, conventionally transcribed ʀ. Some scholars prefer to call this language late Northwest Germanic and not specifically Norse, because it shows few features that are exclusively North Germanic.
02
From Proto-Norse to Old Norse
Between about 500 and 800 CE the language changed faster than at almost any other time. Unstressed vowels were cut away (syncope), and they often left their mark by colouring the vowel of the stressed syllable before them (umlaut). Runic -gastiʀ 'guest' became Old Norse gestr: the i in the ending fronted the a to e and then disappeared.
The results are the familiar shapes of Old Norse, the language of the Icelandic sagas and the Eddic poems. Word-initial *j- had also dropped: Old Norse ár 'year' and ungr 'young' against Gothic jēr and English year, young.
03
The Viking Age Expansion
From the late 8th century Norse speakers spread by raiding, trade and settlement: into the British Isles and Normandy, along the rivers of Eastern Europe, and across the North Atlantic to the Faroes, Iceland and Greenland. The runic script itself was pared down to the 16-letter Younger Futhark. It had fewer letters than the language had sounds, so a single rune often stood for several of them.
The settlement of northern and eastern England had the biggest effect on another language. English took from Norse not only nouns such as sky, skin and egg but the pronouns they, them and their, which is very unusual for borrowing. That episode is described under Anglic, where it happened.
04
Daughter Languages
By around 1000–1200 CE Old Norse had split into a West Norse group (Norwegian, Icelandic, Faroese and the extinct Norn of Orkney and Shetland) and an East Norse group (Danish, Swedish). Later history has blurred the genetic split. Centuries of Danish rule shaped written Norwegian, and today Danish, Norwegian and Swedish are largely mutually intelligible (more easily in writing than in speech). Icelandic and Faroese, which developed in relative isolation, are much harder for mainland speakers to understand.
Where its languages are spoken
- Sweden
- Denmark
- Norway
- Iceland
- Finland
- Faroe Islands
Turning points
- SplitContested
Nordic dialects diverge
Scandinavian dialects gradually separate from their southern neighbours. There was probably no single moment of division. The early runic language sits so close to the Northwest Germanic common stage that it is disputed when a distinctly North Germanic language can be identified.
Sources (1)
- Sound law
Loss of initial j-; final -z as ʀ
Word-initial *j- is lost (Old Norse ár 'year' : Gothic jēr). Final *-z develops into a separate phoneme ʀ with its own rune, which later merges with r (Old Norse dagr 'day' : Gothic dags, Old English dæg).
Compare with other loss across families →
Sources (2)
- Sound law
Syncope and umlaut
Unstressed vowels drop out and often leave umlaut on the stressed vowel before them. Runic -gastiʀ becomes Old Norse gestr 'guest'. In about two centuries the long runic word shapes turn into the compact forms of Old Norse.
Compare with other loss across families →
Sources (2)
- Writing
Younger Futhark
The runic alphabet is reduced from 24 to 16 characters, even though the language now has more distinct sounds. Rune-stones of the Viking Age, including the large Jelling stone (c. 965), are written in it.
Sources (1)
- ContactContested
Viking Age expansion
Norse speakers settle the Faroes, Iceland, Greenland, the Scottish isles, parts of Ireland, northern and eastern England, and Normandy. The contact with Old English is the deepest, and how far it reached into English grammar is still debated.
Sources (1)
- Split
West Norse and East Norse
Old Norse divides into a western group (Norwegian, Icelandic, Faroese, Norn) and an eastern group (Danish, Swedish). One marker of the split is that East Norse monophthongised old diphthongs where West Norse kept them: Old West Norse steinn 'stone', auga 'eye' against Old East Norse stēn, ø̄ga.
Sources (1)