Proto-Norse language
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
Proto-Norse, Proto-Nordic, Ancient Nordic or Proto-North Germanic was an Indo-European language spoken in Scandinavia that is thought to have evolved from Proto-Germanic between the 1st century BC and the 2nd century, and was spoken until ca 800, when it evolved into the Old Norse language.
Proto-Norse was a uniform language with small dialectal difference regardless of the time and place at which it was spoken. In fact this is one of the definitions of Proto-Norse: The uniform north germanic language spoken in prehistoric Scandinavia.
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Phonology
Accent
Proto-Norse had two accents. The stress accent fell on the first syllable. Proto-Norse also had a pitch accent inherited from the Proto-Indo-European language, for all purposes the pitch accent is nothing but a curiousity, though still preserved in modern Swedish and Norwegian.
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: [a]
- e: [e]
- i: [i]
- u: [u]
Long vowels
- ō: [o:]
- ī: [i:]
- ū: [u:]
Diphthongs
- eu: [eu]
- au: [au]
- ei: [eɪ]
- ai: [aɪ]
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: [p]
- t: [t]
- k: [k]
- b: [b]
- d: [d]
- g: [g]
Fricatives
- f: [f]
- Þ: [θ]
- h: [χ]
- s: [s]
- z: [z], by older scholars considered to be pronounced like a retroflex r.
Nasals
- n: [n]
- m: [m]
Sources of Proto-Norse
Runic inscriptions
The most important singular source of Proto-Norse are the runic inscriptions in the elder fuþark. There are about 200 inscriptions in the elder fuþark, the earliest from about 200 CE.
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. [me]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 [ek go]dagastiz runo faihido ([I, 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 may as well has been Gudagasti, or similar.
- The Björketorp Runestone is one of three menhirs, 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
Some Proto-Norse words has survived as borrowing in Sami and Finnish. Some of these words are (with the reconstructed form in P-N): rengas < *hrengaz (ring), kuningas < *kuningaz (king), ruhtinas < *druhtinaz (sv. drott).
Other
Some Proto-Norse names are found in latin works such as tribal names e.g. Suiones (*Swihoniz or *Sweoniz, Swedes). Others can be conjectured from MSs 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 old enough found elsewhere are considered to be Proto-Germanic. For example, the name inscripted on the Negau helmet is Proto-Germanic though the inscripted name 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 of Gothic mēna and Old Norse máni (en. moon)
Proto-Norse to Old Norse
Two great changes within Proto Norse separates it from Old Norse, these took place in the period 500-800. Umlauts appeared which means that a vowel was influenced by the succeeding vowel or half-vowel, e.g. Old Norse gestr (guest) came from P-N ʒastiz (guest). Umlauts also resulted in the appearance of the new vowels y (e.g. fylla from *fullian) and ö (e.g. döma from *dōmian). There was also a special umlaut resulting in diaresis, 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 vowels if certain vowels were in following syllables. However, the changes brought forth by syncope made umlaut a distinctive non-transparent feature of the morphology.
Due to syncope the long vowels of unstressed syllables were shortened and the shortened vowels lost. As in P-N rhe stress accent lay on the first syllable words as P-N *katilōz became ON katlar (cauldron), P-N horna was changed into Old Norse horn and P-N ʒastiz resulted in ON gestr (guest). Some words underwent even more drastic changes as the polysyllabic *χaƀukaz which changed into a monosyllabic ON haukr (hawk).
The postpositioned definite article also appeared during this time e.g. dagen (the day, der Tag).da:Urnordiskeo:Praskandinava lingvo
