Old Norse

Facts

Language: Old Norse
Alternate names:
Language code: non
Language family: Indo-European, Classical Indo-European, Germanic, Northwest Germanic, North Germanic, West Scandinavian
Earlier forms: Proto Norse.
Number of speakers: Extinct
Script: Runic script

More information:

Introduction

Red: Old West Norse, light-red: Old East Norse, blue: Gothic, green: other Germanic languages

Old Norse was the North Germanic language spoken by the inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300. It evolved from the older Proto-Norse, in the 8th century and evolved into the modern North Germanic languages after the Viking Age.

Old Norse dialects

Most speakers of Old Norse dialects spoke the Old East Norse dialect in what are present-date Denmark and Sweden. In texts which date from Medieval Icelandic time, writers wrote with Old Icelandic and Old Norwegian dialects. These dialects derive from the Old West Norse dialect.

The Old Norse verb

Verbs were conjugated in person and number, in present and past tense, in indicative, imperative and subjunctive mood.

Verbs are divided into strong verbs and weak verbs. Strong verbs form the past tense with a vowel shift and weak verbs with a -ða/-da suffix.

Sample verb: kalla

Weak verb, class I, characteristic vowel a

	INDICATIVE		SUBJUNCTIVE		IMPERATIVE
	Present	Preterite	Present	Preterite	IMPERATIVE
Sg.1	kalla	kallaða	kalla	kallaða	-
Sg.2	kallar	kallaðir	kallir	kallaðir	kalla!
Sg.3	kallar	kallaði	kalli	kallaði	-
Pl.1	kǫllum	kǫlluðum	kallim	kallaðim	-
Pl.2	kallið	kǫlluðuð	kallið	kallaðið	-
Pl.3	kalla	kǫlluðu	kalli	kallaði	-

Conjugate Old Norse verbs

Verblist

to bite -- biːt-a
to burn -- brenn-a
to come -- kom-a
to die -- deiy-a
to eat -- et-a
to fly -- flyuːg-a
to give -- gef-a
to kill -- drep-a; ban-a
to know -- vit-a
to lie -- ligg-ya
to say -- kveð-a; seg-y-a
to see -- syaː
to sit -- sit-y-a
to sleep -- sof-a
to go -- far-a

References

Altisländische Grammatik und Altnorwegische. [PDF] [PDF]
Zaluska-Strömberg, Apolonia. Grammatik des Altisländischen [Mit Lesestücken und Glossar]. Helmut Buske Verlag. Hamburg, 1982.
Hanssen, Eskil et al. Norrøn grammatikk. Universitetsforlaget. P.J. Schmidt Bogtrykkeri. Vojens, 1975.