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Old Norwegian is a term for the Norwegian language as spoken between the 11th and 14th century; it is a transitional stage between Old West Norse and Middle Norwegian. Its distinction from Old West Norse is a matter of convention.
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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. Old Norwegian had an alternative dual 1st person pronoun, mit, to the Common Norse vit.[1]
The plagues that decimated Europe in the Middle Ages came to Norway in 1349 (Black Plague), killing over 60% of the population.[2] 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 and d respectively.
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