Proto-norse Website Links For
Language 		 

Information About ™

Proto-norse
SHOPPER'S DELIGHT
 
Shop For:  
Department
Price Minimum:
Price Maximum:
      



  region Scandinavia
  extinct evolved into Old Norse from the 8th Century
  familycolor Indo-European
  fam2 Germanic
  fam3 North Germanic
  script Elder Futhark


inscription (ca. AD 400)]]Proto-Norse, '''Primitive Norse''', '''Proto-Nordic''', '''Ancient Nordic''', '''Old Scandinavian''' or '''Proto-North Germanic''' was an Indo-European language spoken in Scandinavia that is thought to have evolved from Proto-Germanic over the first centuries AD. It is the earliest stage of a characteristically North Germanic language, and the language of the oldest Scandinavian Elder Futhark inscriptions, spoken ca. from the 3rd to 7th centuries (corresponding to the later Roman Iron Age and the earlier Germanic Iron Age ). It evolved into the dialects of the Old Norse Language at the beginning of the Viking Age .


PHONOLOGY


Accent

The Stress Accent fell on the first syllable. Several scholars have proposed that Proto-Norse also had a separate Pitch Accent , which was inherited from the Proto-Indo-European Language and has evolved into the Tonal Accents of modern Swedish and Norwegian . 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. Finally, quite a number of linguists have assumed that even the first phonetic rudiments of the distinction didn't appear until the Old Norse period.


Vowels

A distinguishing feature of the Proto-Norse vowel system is the lack of symmetry between long and short vowels as seen below.

Short vowels
  • a:

  • e:

  • i:

  • u:


Long vowels
  • ō:

  • ī:

  • ū:


Diphthongs
  • eu:

  • au:

  • ei:

  • ai:



Consonants


Stops

Proto-Norse had the same six stops as had Old Norse. When one of the voiced stops stands in between vowels, it is realized as a fricative.
  • p:

  • t:

  • k:

  • b:

  • d:

  • g:


Fricatives
  • f:

  • þ:

  • h:

  • s:

  • z: , at later stages probably pronounced like a retroflex ''r''.



Nasals
  • n:

  • m:


Continuants
  • j:

  • w:



SOURCES OF PROTO-NORSE


Runic inscriptions

The surviving examples we have of Proto-Norse are all runic inscriptions in the Elder Futhark . There are about 260 surviving Elder Futhark inscriptions in Proto-Norse, the earliest dating to the 2nd Century .

Examples of inscriptions:
  • Øvre Stabu spearhead, Oppland, Norway. 2nd Century ''raunijaz'', O-N ''raun'', tester, cf. Swedish ''utröna'' (find out). The word formation with a suffix ''ija'' is evidence of Siever's Law .


  • Gallehus Gold Horn 2 , South Jutland, Denmark 400 A.D. ''ek hlewagastiz holtijaz horna tawido'', I Hlewagastis of holt made the horn. Note again the ''ija'' suffix


  • Tune stone, Østfold, Norway 400 A.D. ''ek wiwaz after woduride witadahalaiban worahto. {Link without Title} z widuride staina þrijoz dohtriz dalidun arbijarjostez arbijano'', I Wiwaz, after Woduridaz bread-warden wrought. For me Woduridaz, the stone, three daughters prepared, the most noble of heirs.


  • The Einang Stone is dated to the 4th Century . It contains the message '' go dagastiz runo faihido'' ( Go dguest drew the secret), in O-N ''ek goðgestr rún faða''. The first four letters of the inscription have not survived and are conjectured, the personal name could well have been Gudagasti, or something similar.


  • The Björketorp Runestone is one of three Menhir s, but is the only one of them where, in the 6th Century , someone has written a curse: ''haidz runo runu falh'k hedra ginnarunaz argiu hermalausz ... weladauþe saz þat brytz uþarba spa'' (Here, I have hidden the secret of powerful runes, strong runes. The one who breaks this memorial will be eternally tormented by anger. Treacherous death will hit him. I foresee perdition.)



Loan words

  • ''druhtinaz'' (sv. '' Drott '').



Other

  • ''Sweoniz'', Swedes). Others can be conjectured from manuscripts such as Beowulf .



EVOLUTION FROM PROTO-GERMANIC INTO OLD NORSE


Proto-Germanic to Proto-Norse

The differences between attested Proto-Norse and unattested Proto-Germanic are small. The difference in name is mostly a matter of convention. Inscriptions found in Scandinavia are considered to be in P-N; inscriptions found elsewhere that are old enough are considered to be Proto-Germanic. For example, the name inscribed on the Negau Helmet is Proto-Germanic though it would be the same in Proto-Norse. One distinctive difference between the two is the P-N lowering of P-G ''ē'' to ''ā''; this is easiest seen in the pair ''mēna'' ( Gothic ) and ''máni'' ( Old Norse ) (English ''moon'').


Proto-Norse to Old Norse

  • ''fullian'') and ''ö'' (e.g. ''döma'' from ---''dōmian''). There was also a special umlaut resulting in Diaeresis , i.e. the vowel changed into a diphthong e.g. ''hiarta'' from ---''herto''. This change was by and in itself no great disruption in the language. It merely introduced new allophones of Back Vowel s if certain vowels were in following syllables. However, the changes brought forth by Syncope made umlaut a distinctive non-transparent feature of the morphology.


  • ''katilōz'' became ON ''katlar'' (cauldrons), P-N ''horna'' was changed into Old Norse ''horn'' and P-N ''astiz'' resulted in ON ''gestr'' (guest). Some words underwent even more drastic changes, like the polysyllabic ---''χaƀukaz'' which changed into a monosyllabic ON ''haukr'' (hawk).


The postpositioned definite article also appeared during this time e.g. ON ''dagrinn'' (the day).