Norwegian and Old Norse: The Similarities and the Differences
Old Norse is the language that was spoken by the Vikings living in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands between 800-1350 AD.
While the original Old Norse language is extinct —meaning that no one speaks it anymore— its closest offspring, Icelandic, still lives on.
Norwegian has diverged from its Old Norse roots, but modern Icelandic is still close enough that most Icelanders can read texts written during the Viking Age.
It is therefore natural to compare Old Norse to Icelandic when looking at the relationship between Norwegian and Old Norse.
Finally, at the end of this article, we'll see 17 vocabulary words that are very similar between Old Norse and Norwegian.
Old Norse and Norwegian language history
The Old Norse Language
Old Norse and Norwegian are both North Germanic languages (a subfamily of the Indo-European languages).
Old Norse and Norwegian are related languages: Old Norse is the ancestral language from which Norwegian is derived.
Over time, Old Norse evolved into two different languages: East Norse, which turned into Swedish and Danish, and West Norse, which turned into Norwegian, Icelandic, and Faroese.
Many sagas were written in Old Norse, and the most famous of them is Heimskringla, a collection of stories about Swedish and Norwegian kings.
The Norwegian language
Language influence from Norway’s southern European neighbors has changed Norwegian a lot from its Old Norse roots. Norway was once under Danish rule, and from about 1500 to 1850, the Norwegian written language was replaced by Danish.
Another significant language influence was the Low German-speaking Hanseatic League, a commercial empire based in the North German cities of Hamburg, Lübeck, and Bremen, among others. The Hanseatic League had trading stations all across Europe, including the Norwegian city of Bergen.
When Norway gained independence from Denmark, Norwegians wanted their own written language. In 1907, the Norwegian written language got its first name, Riksspråket (The national language), later renamed ‘Bokmål’ (Book language) by the parliament in 1929.
But the story doesn’t end there, as Norway has two written languages — the second one is known as ‘Nynorsk’ (New Norwegian). Created in the 1850s, Nynorsk aimed to rid the language of its Danish influence and preserve features from the many rural dialects of Norway.
Today only about 10% of Norwegians use New Norwegian, and they primarily reside in the western part of Norway.
In Nynorsk, the letter ‘e’ is often replaced by the letter ‘a’, making Nynorsk closer to Old Norse than Bokmål is. An example is the word «gammel» in Bokmål which is «gammal» in Nynorsk and «gamall» in Old Norse.
Vocabulary aside, Nynorsk and Bokmål share both grammar and the 29 Latin letters of the Norwegian alphabet. They are therefore classified as different dialects rather than separate languages.
Why is Modern Icelandic so close to Old Norse?
The people living in Iceland came mostly from mainland Norway during the Viking Era. In contrast to Norwegians traveling to America, no one was living in Iceland at the time, so there were no competing languages.
Not to mention the geographical placement of Iceland as an island far up north and a long journey via boat. This kept foreign language influence to a minimum, and even now, in the Information Age, Iceland still fights this influence.
Linguistic purism in Icelandic is a policy to prevent and discourage words from foreign languages from entering the Icelandic language. Instead, new words are created from Old Icelandic and Old Norse roots.
However, Icelandic is not identical to Old Nose. The grammar stayed pretty much the same, but there are some differences in spelling, sound shifts, and new modern words and meanings.
Old Norse alphabet vs. the Norwegian alphabet
Old Norse and Norwegian are both languages that have additional letters not found in the English alphabet. These additional letters are not shared between Old Norse and Norwegian: each one has its own additional letters.
Old Norse Alphabet
Old Norse was originally written in a runic alphabet called Futhark. Its name derives from the first seven letters of its alphabet, much like ‘qwerty-keyboards’ got its name from the top left letters of the keyboard.
Futhark eventually got replaced with Latin letters when the Nordic countries became Christians. However, two runes remained, namely Ð and Þ, which are still a part of the Icelandic alphabet today.
There are several Old Norse letters that are not found in the Norwegian alphabet:
- Á - á. Pronounced ”ow,” as in the English word ‘owl.’
- Ð - ð. Pronounced ”th” as in the English word ‘the.’
- É - é. Pronounced ”ya,” as in the English word ‘yay.’
- Í - í. Pronounced “e” as in the English word ’see.’
- Ó - ó. Pronounced “Oh” as in the English word ‘over.’
- Ú - ú. Pronounced “ew” as in the English word ‘dew.’
- Þ – þ. Pronounced “th” as in the English word ‘thing.’
Norwegian Alphabet
The modern Norwegian alphabet consists of 29 Latin letters and has been officially in use since 1917. It is identical to the Danish alphabet and is also called the Dano-Norwegian alphabet.
Compared to the English alphabet, Norwegian has three additional letters.
- Æ - æ. Pronounced “a” as in the English word ‘cat.’
- Ø - ø. Pronounced “u” as in the English word ‘burn.’
- Å - å. Pronounced “o” as in the English word ‘horse.’
Like Icelandic, Norway also has letters that are primarily for loanwords, foreign words, and the occasional name. These letters are c, q, w, x, and z.
Old Norse vs Norwegian: grammar differences
Unlike Norwegian, Old Norse is a highly inflected language: in particular the endings of nouns often change to indicate their grammatical case in a sentence. There are 4 grammatical cases in Old Norse: nominative, accusative, dative, and genitive
Old Norse is also more complicated when it comes to verb inflections. While there is only one form of the present tense in Norwegian, there are six in Old Norse. Norwegian has become a language with more analytical word structures.
Are Old Norse and Norwegian mutually intelligible?
While some of the words are the same, Norwegian and Old Norse are languages that as a whole differ greatly.
One of the best indications that Norwegians would struggle to understand someone speaking Old Norse, and vice versa, is that Norwegian and Icelandic are not mutually intelligible.
While Norwegians, Swedes, and Danes can to some degree understand each other, Icelanders are the odd ones out — linguistically speaking.
However, even though Norwegian and Old Norse are separate languages, many words are still similar, as seen in the following list:
| Old Norse | Norwegian | English |
|---|---|---|
| orð | ord | word |
| skjǫldr | skjold | shield |
| stórr | stor | big |
| ráð | råd | advice |
| sárr | såret | wounded |
| aldri | aldri | never |
| bóndi | bonde | farmer |
| brott | borte | away |
| dagr | dag | day |
| hestr | hest | horse |
| konungr | konge | king |
| kveld | kveld | evening |
| með | med | with |
| vár | vår | spring |
| vinr | venn | friend |
| gamall | gammel | old |
| ungr | ung | young |
As seen in the list, many of the words in Old Norse end with a consonant followed by an ‘r’. This is not the case in Norwegian, as almost every word ending with an ‘r’ is preceded by either a vowel or another ‘r.’
When it comes to pronunciation, Old Norse does not utilize silent letters whereas Norwegian does. Some words written in almost the same way can sound very different when spoken out loud, complicating the understanding process even more.
ConclusionAlthough Norwegian is a language that originates from Old Norse, the influence of Low German and other European languages has evolved it into a completely different language. (Related article: a comparison of Norwegian and German)
While Norwegian and Old Norse share some similar vocabulary words, the fact that Norwegians and Icelanders struggle to understand each other tells us that Old Norse and Norwegian have become two different languages. (Related article: a comparison of Norwegian and Icelandic)
