Editing Norwegian language (section)

===Origins===
{{Main|Proto-Norse|Old Norse}}
{{Also|Elder Futhark}}
[[File:Oldest runestone 20.jpg|thumb|right|350px|Close-up of the "''idiberug/n''" inscription on the [[Hole Runestone]] dating beween '''1 and 250 CE'''. Believed to be the oldest writing in Norway and rest of [[the Nordics]] to date.]]
{{Old Norse language map}}

Like most of the languages in Europe, Norwegian derives from [[Proto-Indo-European]]<!-- PIE homeland and dating are subject to debates. It's not good to peremptorily insist on one of the hypotheses. -->. As early Indo-Europeans spread across Europe, they became isolated from each other and new languages developed. In northwest Europe, the [[Germanic languages]] evolved, further branching off into the [[North Germanic languages]], of which Norwegian is one.

[[Proto-Norse]] is thought to have evolved as a northern dialect of [[Proto-Germanic language|Proto-Germanic]] during the first centuries AD in what is today Southern Sweden. It is the earliest stage of a characteristically North Germanic language, and the language [[Attested language|attested]] in the [[Elder Futhark]] inscriptions, the oldest form of the [[runic alphabets]]. A number of inscriptions are memorials to the dead, while others are magical in content. The oldest are carved on loose objects, while later ones are chiseled in [[runestone]]s.<ref name="scan-langs">{{cite journal |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Scandinavian-languages |title=Scandinavian languages |first1=Jan Terje |last1=Faarlund |first2=Einar |last2=Haugen |journal=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] |volume=99 |issue=2495 |pages=505 |access-date=11 September 2016 |bibcode=1917Natur..99..505T |year=1917 |doi=10.1038/099505a0 |s2cid=3988911 |doi-access=free |archive-date=23 June 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160623124221/http://www.britannica.com/topic/Scandinavian-languages |url-status=live }}</ref> They are the oldest written record of any Germanic language.

{{North Germanic clade}}

Around 800 AD, the script was simplified to the [[Younger Futhark]], and inscriptions became more abundant. At the same time, the beginning of the [[Viking Age]] led to the spread of [[Old Norse]] to [[Iceland]], [[Greenland]], and the [[Faroe Islands]]. Viking colonies also existed in parts of the [[British Isles]], France ([[Normandy]]), North America, and [[Kievan Rus]]. In all of these places except Iceland and the Faroes, Old Norse speakers went extinct or were absorbed into the local population.<ref name="scan-langs"/>