Ескі Норд тілінің алғабасы

Progenitor of Old Norse

Proto Norse (also called Ancient Nordic, Ancient Scandinavian, Ancient Norse, Primitive Norse, Proto Nordic, Proto Scandinavian and Proto North Germanic) was an Indo European language spoken in Scandinavia that is thought to have evolved as a northern dialect of Proto Germanic in the first centuries CE. It is the earliest stage of a characteristically North Germanic language, and the language attested in the oldest Scandinavian Elder Futhark inscriptions, spoken from around the 2nd to the 8th centuries CE (corresponding to the late Roman Iron Age and the Germanic Iron Age). It evolved into the dialects of Old Norse at the beginning of the Viking Age around 800 CE, which later themselves evolved into the modern North Germanic languages (Faroese, Icelandic, the Continental Scandinavian languages, and their dialects).

Proto Norse phonology probably did not differ substantially from that of Proto Germanic. Although the phonetic realisation of several phonemes had probably changed over time, the overall system of phonemes and their distribution remained largely unchanged.

Old Norse had a stress accent which fell on the first syllable, like its ancestor, Proto Germanic. Several scholars have proposed that Proto Norse also had a separate pitch accent, which was inherited from Proto Indo European and has evolved into the tonal accents of modern Swedish and Norwegian, which in turn have evolved into the stød of modern Danish. Another recently advanced theory is that each Proto Norse long syllable and every other short syllable received stress, marked by pitch, eventually leading to the development of the Swedish and Norwegian tonal accent distinction. Finally, quite a number of linguists have assumed that even the first phonetic rudiments of the distinction did not appear until the Old Norse period.

The surviving examples of Proto Norse are all runic inscriptions in the Elder Futhark. There are about 260 surviving Elder Futhark inscriptions in Proto Norse, the earliest dating to the 2nd century.

Øvre Stabu spearhead, Oppland, Norway. Second century , ON raun "tester", cf. Norwegian røyne "try, test". Swedish rön "finding" and utröna "find out". The word formation with a suffix is evidence of Sievers' law. Golden Horn of Gallehus 2, South Jutland, Denmark 400 CE, , "I, Hlewagastis of Holt, made the horn." Note again the suffix
Tune stone, Østfold, Norway, 400 CE. , I, Wiwaz, after Woduridaz bread warden wrought. For me Woduridaz, the stone, three daughters prepared, the most noble of heirs. The Einang stone, near Fagernes, Norway, is dated to the 4th century. It contains the message ([I, Go]dguest drew the secret), in O–N ek goðgestr rún fáða. The first four letters of the inscription have not survived and are conjectured, and the personal name could well have been Gudagasti or something similar. Kragehul spear, Denmark, c. 500 CE. possibly, "I, Eril of Asgisl, was named Muha, ga ga ga mighty ga (ga being most likely an abbreviation of indeterminable reference), (incomplete) hail I consecrate." The Björketorp Runestone, Blekinge, Sweden, is one of three menhirs, but is the only one of them where, in the 6th century, someone wrote a curse: (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.) The Rö runestone, in Bohuslän, Sweden, was raised in the early 5th century and is the longest early inscription: "I, Hrazaz/Hraþaz raised the stone Swabaharjaz with wide wounds. Stainawarijaz (Stoneguardian's) carved."

Some Proto Norse names are found in Latin works, like tribal names like Suiones (*Sweoniz, "Swedes"). Others can be conjectured from manuscripts such as Beowulf.

The differences between attested Proto Norse and unattested Proto Germanic are rather small. Separating Proto Norse from Northwest Germanic can be said to be a matter of convention, as sufficient evidence from the remaining parts of the Germanic speaking area (Northern Germany and the Netherlands) is lacking in a degree to provide sufficient comparison. Inscriptions found in Scandinavia are considered to be in Proto Norse. Several scholars argue about this subject matter. Wolfgang von Krause sees the language of the runic inscriptions of the Proto Norse period as an immediate precursor to Old Norse, but Elmer Antonsen views them as Northwest Germanic. One early difference shared by the West Germanic dialects is the monophthongization of unstressed diphthongs. Unstressed ai became ē, as in haitē (Kragehul I) from Proto Germanic haitai, and unstressed au likewise became ō. Characteristic is also the Proto Norse lowering of Proto Germanic stressed ē to ā, which is demonstrated by the pair Gothic mēna and Old Norse máni (English moon). Proto Norse thus differs from the early West Germanic dialects, as West Germanic ē was lowered to ā regardless of stress; in Old Norse, earlier unstressed ē surfaces as i. For example, the weak third person singular past tense ending dē appears in Old High German as ta, with a low vowel, but in Old Norse as ði, with a high vowel. The time that z, a voiced apical alveolar fricative, represented in runic writing by the algiz rune, changed to ʀ, an apical post alveolar approximant, is debated. If the general Proto Norse principle of devoicing of consonants in final position is taken into account, z, if retained, would have been devoiced to and would be spelled as such in runes. There is, however, no trace of that in the Elder Futhark runic inscriptions, so it can be safely assumed that the quality of this consonant must have changed before the devoicing, or the phoneme would not have been marked with a rune different from the sowilō rune used for s. The quality of the consonant can be conjectured, and the general opinion is that it was something between and , the Old Norse reflex of the sound. In Old Swedish, the phonemic distinction between r and ʀ was retained into the 11th century, as shown by the numerous runestones from Sweden from then.

From 500 to 800, two great changes occurred within Proto Norse. Umlauts appeared, which means that a vowel was influenced by the succeeding vowel or semivowel: Old Norse [[wikt:gestr (guest) came from PN gastiz (guest). Another sound change is known as vowel breaking in which the vowel changed into a diphthong: hjarta from *hertō or fjǫrðr from *ferþuz. Umlauts resulted in the appearance of the new vowels y (like [[wikt:fylla from *fullijaną) and œ (like [[wikt:dœma from *dōmijaną). The umlauts are divided into three categories: a umlaut, i umlaut and u umlaut; the last was still productive in Old Norse. The first, however, appeared very early, and its effect can be seen already around 500, on the Golden Horns of Gallehus. The variation caused by the umlauts was 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 the umlaut vowels a distinctive non transparent feature of the morphology and phonology, phonemicising what were previously allophones. Syncope shortened the long vowels of unstressed syllables; many shortened vowels were lost. Also, most short unstressed vowels were lost. As in PN, the stress accent lay on the first syllable words as PN *katilōz became ON katlar (cauldrons), PN horną was changed into Old Norse horn (horn) and PN gastiz resulted in ON gestr (guest). Some words underwent even more drastic changes, like *habukaz which changed into ON haukr (hawk).