Proto-Norse language
Spoken in
- Indo-European Germanic North Germanic Urnordisch
The Urnordische language (sometimes also expected to later Old Norse language ) is the oldest surviving form of the North Germanic languages and was probably spoken from the 1st to the 7th century in what is now Denmark, Sweden and Norway.
The language is fairly well documented by numerous runic inscriptions from the period since the 3rd century. In addition to texts place and personal names in ancient authors as well as loan words have survived (for instance in Finnish and Sami ).
It is the precursor of Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Faroese and Icelandic.
It was the original Germanic still pretty close, there are some archaisms that has not preserved the Gothic language itself. So were certain Germanic endings in Urnordischen still preserved, with the exception that a "z" ( voiced s ) in a possibly ending (written ᛉ or z / R) r was (eg Germanic * dagaz = urnordisch Dagar ( contrast gothic dags ) = " day "). In addition auslautende vowels were preserved (eg Germanic * hurna - = urnordisch horna ( contrast gothic haurn ) = " horn ").
- 5.1 Gold Horn of Gallehus (Denmark 5th century)
- 5.2 Bracteate of Tjurkö (Sweden 5th century)
- 5.3 Runestone Kjølvik (Norway 1st half of the 5th century )
- 5.4 Amulet Lindholmen ( 6th century )
- 5.5 stone of Björketorp ( 8th century )
Classification
When Urnordischen one distinguishes two periods:
- Urnordisch older, approximately from 200 to 500
- Younger Urnordisch ( Synkopezeit ), approximately from 500 to 700
Swell
To learn about the Urnordische, the Historical linguistics uses the following sources:
- The Urnordische is known primarily for its runic inscriptions on stone monuments ( in Norwegian bautasteiner ), jewelry, weapons and artifacts that have been found in tombs. Example: the golden horns of Gallehus.
- Some urnordische words are known to us, because they have already borrowed in urnordischer time into Finnish or Sami into. The Finnish has evolved over the centuries have not changed so much as other languages. That is why the old loanwords are well preserved.
- In addition, there are urnordische words in Latin texts.
- You can find out a lot about the Urnordische if you compare it with other old Germanic languages, especially with the Gothic, but also with the Old English, Old High German and Altniederdeutschen.
However, it has remained in urnordischen texts not all urnordischen words. Sometimes you have to be reconstructed from foreign words or compound words or discharges a urnordische form. To indicate that a word is reconstructed, are employed in linguistics, an asterisk (*) before the word. See Reconstruction ( Linguistics ).
Dialects
The urnordischen runic inscriptions show a few dialect differences. One reason for this could be that the writers of these texts use many fixed formulas. Another reason could be that there was a strong tradition of writing that dialect differences are not allowed.
Synkopezeit
Syncope
Syncope is the essential characteristic of recent Urnordisch. Syncope means here that unstressed vowels short disappear. After this development, it was only vowels that were either long or stressed. Many long vowels have been reduced during this process. This meant that many urnordische words were shorter. So was the ( male ) first name HaþuwulfaR in Old Norse to Hálfr.
Umlaut
In addition to the famous umlaut, the i- umlaut, there is also the a- umlaut and u - umlaut in the younger Urnordisch.
By Umlaut vowels new phenomena emerged in Urnordischen. As a result of syncope, the words are indeed shorter, but as a substitute for the missing vowels and vowel syllables created new.
Examples of the Umlaut:
- I- umlaut: The urnordische reconstructed word * Domian ( " judge " ) appears in Norse as dœma. From the long o so was a ö - sound which is written œ in Norse. The reason for this change is the i -mutation, so the influence of the I, which was eliminated later, as a result of the syncope.
- U- umlaut: The urnordische word * maguR ( " Young " ) appears in Norse as mǫgr. Here the a, a o -like sound that is written ǫ in Norse. This change came about because of the u - umlaut, ie under the influence of u, which was eliminated as a result of syncope.
- A- Umlaut: The urnordische word * wira - ( " man " ) appears in Norse as verr. Here, i has become an e under the influence of a in the following syllable (a- umlaut ).
Refraction
A language change, which also took place in the Synkopezeit, was the breaking of some vowels. The refraction is a form of diphthongization. The e transformed under certain conditions in a yes or a jo / jǫ. In the refraction you can already see differences between the individual urnordischen dialects and, accordingly, between the later North Germanic languages ( Swedish, Danish, Norwegian ( Icelandic, Faroese ) ).
Example:
- The urnordische word * eka ( " I ") was to jak in Altostnordischen and ek in Norse. In both cases a disappeared as a result of syncope. The eastern form, jak, the forerunner of the Swedish jag and the Danish jeg was. The western form was the forerunner of the Norwegian eg ( in Nynorsk ), the Faroese eg and the Icelandic ég.
Follow
The volume changes in the Synkopezeit ensured that the flexion (bending ) of some words was quite complicated. A larger number of vowels in the endings led to a greater number of vowels in the root of several words. The following example shows how the forms of urnordischen word * wantuR ( " glove" ) by i - umlaut and u - umlaut be changed. The Norse word vǫttr got that way a complicated flexion, with change of a, e and ǫ at the beginning of the word.