Old Norwegian

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Old Norwegian is a term used for the old Norse language as spoken and written in Norway in the middle ages. The term old Norse language refers to the language spoken in the wider old Norse area, in addition to Norway also Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, Greenland and other islands in the North Sea. Old Norwegian is used to describe features of the language that were specific for Norway, likewise old Icelandic is used when referring to specifically Icelandic language, as different from the rest of the old Norse area.

The plagues that decimated Europe in the Middle Ages came to Norway in 1349 (The Black Plague), killing approximately half the Norwegian population. This is probably part of the cause why the process of language development accelerated around this time. The language in Norway after 1350 up to about 1550 is generally referred to as Middle Norwegian. The language went through several changes. Grammar was simplified, including the removal of the cases system and personal inflexion of verbs. A vowel reduction also took place, in some dialects, including in parts of Norway, reducing many of the last vowels in a word to a common "e".

The phonemic repertoire also underwent changes. The dental fricatives, represented by the letters þ and ð disappeared from the Norwegian language generally merging with their equivalent plosive sounds, represented by t d respectively.

[edit] Old Norwegian vs Old Icelandic

One of the most important early differences between Old Norwegian and Old Icelandic is that h in the consonant combinations hl-, hn- and hr- was lost in the former around the 11th century, but not in the latter. Thus, one has e.g. Old Icelandic hlíð 'slope', hníga 'curtsey' and hringr 'ring' vs Old Norwegian líð, níga and ringr, respectively. Another early difference is that Icelandic seems to have preserved distinct nasal vowels until the 12th century, long after this distinction disappeared in Norwegian.

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