Editing Old Norse (section)

=== Old East Norse ===
<!-- This section is linked from [[Rurik]] -->
[[File:Rökstenen.jpg|upright=1.1|thumb|right|The [[Rök runestone]] in [[Östergötland]], Sweden, is the longest surviving source of early Old East Norse. It is inscribed on both sides.]]
'''Old East Norse''' or '''Old East Nordic''' between 800 and 1100 is called ''Runic Swedish'' in Sweden and ''Runic Danish'' in Denmark, but for geographical rather than linguistic reasons. Any differences between the two were minute at best during the more ancient stages of this dialect group. Changes had a tendency to occur earlier in the Danish region. Even today many Old Danish changes have still not taken place in modern Swedish. Swedish is therefore the more [[Linguistic conservatism|conservative]] of the two in both the ancient and the modern languages, sometimes by a profound margin. The language is called "runic" because the body of text appears in [[runes]].

Runic Old East Norse is characteristically conservative in form, especially Swedish (which is still true for modern Swedish compared to Danish). In essence it matches or surpasses the conservatism of post-runic Old West Norse, which in turn is generally more conservative than post-runic Old East Norse. While typically "Eastern" in structure, many later post-runic changes and trademarks of OEN had yet to happen.

The phoneme ''ʀ'', which evolved during the Proto-Norse period from ''z'', was still clearly separated from ''r'' in most positions, even when being geminated, while in OWN it had already merged with ''r''.

The [[Proto-Germanic language|Proto-Germanic]] phoneme {{IPA|/[[Voiced labial–velar approximant|w]]/}} was preserved in initial sounds in Old East Norse (w-), unlike in West Norse where it developed into {{IPA|/v/}}. It survived in rural [[Swedish dialects]] in the provinces of Westro- and North Bothnia, [[Skåne]], [[Blekinge]], [[Småland]], [[Halland]], [[Västergötland]] and south of [[Bohuslän]] into the 18th, 19th and 20th century. It is still preserved in the [[Dalecarlian language|Dalecarlian dialects]] in the province of [[Dalarna]], Sweden, and in [[Jutlandic dialect]]s in Denmark. The {{IPA|/[[Voiced labial–velar approximant|w]]/}}-phoneme did also occur after consonants (kw-, tw-, sw- etc.) in Old East Norse and did so into modern times in said Swedish dialects and in a number of others. Generally, the initial w-sound developed into {{IPA|[v]}} in dialects earlier than after consonants where it survived much longer.

In summation, the {{IPAslink|w}}-sound survived in the East Nordic tongues almost a millennium longer than in the West Norse counterparts, and does still subsist at the present.

Monophthongization of {{lang|non|æi}} > {{lang|non|ē}} and {{lang|non|øy, au}} > {{lang|non|ø̄}} started in mid-10th-century Denmark.<ref name="FromOldNordic" /> Compare runic OEN: {{lang|non|fæigʀ}}, {{lang|non|gæiʀʀ}}, {{lang|non|haugʀ}}, {{lang|non|møydōmʀ}}, {{lang|non|diūʀ}}; with Post-runic OEN: {{lang|non|fēgher}}, {{lang|non|gēr}}, {{lang|non|hø̄gher}}, {{lang|non|mø̄dōmber}}, {{lang|non|diūr}}; OWN: ''[[wikt:feigr|feigr]]'', ''[[wikt:geirr|geirr]]'', ''[[wikt:howe|haugr]]'', {{lang|non|meydómr}}, {{lang|non|dýr}}; from PN {{lang|mis|*faigijaz}}, {{lang|mis|*gaizaz}}, {{lang|non|*haugaz}}, {{lang|non|*mawi-}} + {{lang|non|dōmaz}} 'maidendom; virginity', {{lang|non|*diuza}} '(wild) animal'.

Feminine o-stems often preserve the plural ending {{lang|non|-aʀ}}, while in OWN they more often merge with the feminine i-stems: (runic OEN) {{lang|non|*sōlaʀ}}, {{lang|non|*hafnaʀ}}, {{lang|non|*hamnaʀ}}, {{lang|non|*wāgaʀ}} versus OWN {{lang|non|sólir}}, {{lang|non|hafnir}} and {{lang|non|vágir}} (modern Swedish {{lang|sv|solar}}, {{lang|sv|hamnar}}, {{lang|sv|vågar}} ("suns, havens, scales"); Danish has mainly lost the distinction between the two stems, with both endings now being rendered as {{lang|da|-er}} or {{lang|da|-e}} alternatively for the o-stems).

Vice versa, masculine i-stems with the root ending in either {{lang|non|g}} or {{lang|non|k}} tended to shift the plural ending to that of the ja-stems while OEN kept the original: {{lang|non|drængiaʀ}}, {{lang|non|*ælgiaʀ}} and {{lang|non|*bænkiaʀ}} versus OWN ''[[wikt:drengr#Old Norse|drengir]]'', {{lang|non|elgir}} ("elks") and ''[[wikt:bekkr#Etymology 1|bekkir]]'' (modern Danish ''[[wikt:dreng|drenge]]'', ''[[wikt:elg|elge]]'', ''[[wikt:bænk|bænke]]'', modern Swedish ''[[wikt:dräng|drängar]]'', {{lang|sv|älgar}}, {{lang|sv|bänkar}}).

The plural ending of ja-stems were mostly preserved while those of OWN often acquired that of the i-stems: {{lang|non|*bæðiaʀ}}, {{lang|non|*bækkiaʀ}}, {{lang|non|*wæfiaʀ}} versus OWN {{lang|non|beðir}} ("beds"), ''[[wikt:bekkr#Etymology 2|bekkir]]'', ''[[wikt:vefr#Old Norse|vefir]]'' (modern Swedish {{lang|sv|bäddar}}, {{lang|sv|bäckar}}, {{lang|sv|vävar}}).

==== Old Danish ====
{{Further|History of Danish}}
Until the early 12th century, Old East Norse was very much a uniform dialect. It was in Denmark that the first innovations appeared that would differentiate Old Danish from Old Swedish ({{harvnb|Bandle|2005|loc = ''Old East Nordic'', pp.&nbsp;1856, 1859}}) as these innovations spread north unevenly (unlike the earlier changes that spread more evenly over the East Norse area), creating a series of [[isogloss]]es going from [[Zealand]] to [[Svealand]].

In Old Danish, {{IPA|/hɾ/}} merged with {{IPA|/ɾ/}} during the 9th century.<ref>{{citation | first = Tarrin | last = Wills | title = The Anonymous Verse in the Third Grammatical Treatise | url = https://sro.library.usyd.edu.au/handle/10765/54631 | year = 2006 | publisher = The Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Durham University | access-date = 4 September 2018 | archive-date = 4 September 2018 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180904230041/https://sro.library.usyd.edu.au/handle/10765/54631 | url-status = dead }}</ref> From the 11th to 14th centuries, the unstressed vowels -''a'', -''o'' and -''e'' ([[Old Norse orthography#Normalized spelling|standard normalization]] -''a'', -''u'' and -''i'') started to merge into -''ə'', represented with the letter {{angbr|e}}. This vowel came to be [[epenthesis|epenthetic]], particularly before ''-ʀ'' endings.<ref name="TheNordicLanguages" /> At the same time, the voiceless [[stop consonant]]s ''p'', ''t'' and ''k'' became voiced plosives and even [[fricative consonant]]s. Resulting from these innovations, Danish has {{lang|da|kage}} (cake), {{lang|da|tunger}} (tongues) and {{lang|da|gæster}} (guests) whereas (Standard) Swedish has retained older forms, {{lang|sv|kaka}}, {{lang|sv|tungor}} and {{lang|sv|gäster}} (OEN {{lang|non|kaka}}, {{lang|non|tungur}}, {{lang|non|gæstir}}).

Moreover, the Danish [[pitch accent]] shared with Norwegian and Swedish changed into ''[[stød]]'' around this time.{{citation needed|date=February 2016}}

==== Old Swedish ====
{{Further|Old Swedish}}
At the end of the 10th and early 11th century initial ''h-'' before ''l'', ''n'' and ''r'' was still preserved in the middle and northern parts of Sweden, and is sporadically still preserved in some northern dialects as ''g-'', e.g. {{lang|non|gly}} (lukewarm), from {{lang|non|hlýʀ}}. The [[Dalecarlian dialects]] developed independently from Old Swedish<ref name=Kroonen>{{citation|last1=Kroonen|first1=Guus|title=On the origins of the Elfdalian nasal vowels from the perspective of diachronic dialectology and Germanic etymology|url=http://inss.ku.dk/ansatte/?pure=files/35220983/elfdalian.pdf|work=inss.ku.dk|type=Presentation|access-date=27 January 2016|quote=(Slide 26) §7.2 quote: "In many aspects, Elfdalian, takes up a middle position between East and West Nordic. However, it shares some innovations with West Nordic, but none with East Nordic. This invalidates the claim that Elfdalian split off from Old Swedish."|archive-date=6 February 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160206012822/http://inss.ku.dk/ansatte/?pure=files/35220983/elfdalian.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> and as such can be considered separate languages from Swedish.

==== Text example ====
This is an extract from {{lang|non|[[Västgötalagen]]}}, the Westrogothic law. It is the oldest text written as a manuscript found in Sweden and from the 13th century. It is contemporaneous with most of the Icelandic literature. The text marks the beginning of [[Old Swedish]] as a distinct dialect.
{{Verse translation|lang=non|
Dræpær maþar svænskan man eller smalenskæn, innan konongsrikis man, eigh væstgøskan, bøte firi atta ørtogher ok þrettan markær ok ænga ætar bot. [...] Dræpar maþær danskan man allæ noræn man, bøte niv markum. Dræpær maþær vtlænskan man, eigh ma frid flyia or landi sinu oc j æth hans. Dræpær maþær vtlænskæn prest, bøte sva mykit firi sum hærlænskan man. Præstær skal i bondalaghum væræ. Varþær suþærman dræpin ællær ænskær maþær, ta skal bøta firi marchum fiurum þem sakinæ søkir, ok tvar marchar konongi.
|
If someone slays a Swede or a Smålander, a man from the kingdom, but not a West Geat, he will pay eight örtugar and thirteen marks, but no weregild. [...] If someone slays a Dane or a Norwegian, he will pay nine marks. If someone slays a foreigner, he shall not be banished and have to flee to his clan. If someone slays a foreign priest, he will pay as much as for a fellow countryman. A priest counts as a freeman. If a Southerner is slain or an Englishman, he shall pay four marks to the plaintiff and two marks to the king.
|attr1=[[Västgötalagen]]
}}