Old Swedish
Encyclopedia
Old Swedish is the name for two separate stages of the Swedish language that were spoken in the Middle Ages
: Early Old Swedish (Klassisk fornsvenska), spoken from around 1225 until 1375, and Late Old Swedish (Yngre fornsvenska), spoken from 1375 until 1526.
Old Swedish developed from Old East Norse, the eastern dialect of Old Norse
. The earliest forms of the Swedish and Danish language
s, spoken between the years 800 and 1100, were dialects of Old East Norse and are referred to as Runic Swedish and Runic Danish because at the time all texts were written in the runic alphabet
. The differences were only minute, however, and the dialects truly began to diverge around the 12th century, becoming Old Swedish and Old Danish in the 13th century. It is not known when exactly Old Gutnish
and Elfdalian began to diverge from Swedish, but Old Gutnish diverged long before Old Danish did.
Early Old Swedish was markedly different from modern Swedish in that it had a more complex case structure and had not yet experienced a reduction of the gender system and thus had three genders. Nouns, adjectives, pronouns and certain numerals were inflected in four cases: nominative, genitive, dative and accusative.
The writing of the Westrogothic law
marked the beginning of Early Old Swedish (klassisk fornsvenska or äldre fornsvenska; 1225–1375), which had developed from Old East Norse. It was the first Swedish language document written in the Latin alphabet
, and its oldest fragments have been dated to around the year 1225.
Old Swedish was relatively stable during this period. The phonological and grammatical systems inherited from Old Norse were relatively well preserved and did not experience any major changes.
Most of the texts from the Early Old Swedish period were written in Latin
, as it was the language of knowledge and the Church. However, Old Swedish was used as a literary language as well, and laws especially were written in it; of the 28 surviving manuscripts from this period, 24 contain law texts. Much of the knowledge of Old Swedish comes from these law texts. In addition to laws, some religious and poetic texts were also written in Old Swedish.
introduced many new Greek and Latin loanword
s into Old Swedish. Latin especially had an influence on the written language.
The Low German
language also influenced Old Swedish due to the economic and political power of the Hanseatic League
during the 13th and 14th centuries. Many German speakers immigrated to Swedish cities and worked in trade and administration. Accordingly, loanwords relating to warfare, trade, craftwork and bureaucracy entered the Swedish language directly from German, along with some grammatical suffixes and conjunctions. The prefixes be-, ge- and för- that can be found in the beginning of modern Swedish words came from the Low German be-, ge- and vor-. Some words were replaced with new ones: the native word for window, vindøgha, was replaced with fönster, eldhus (kitchen) was replaced with kök and gælda (to pay) with betala. Many words related to seafaring were borrowed from Dutch.
The influence of Low German was so strong that the inflectional system of Old Swedish was largely broken down.
, so that in the 16th century the language resembled modern Swedish more than before. The printing of the New Testament
in Swedish in 1526 marked the starting point for modern Swedish.
In this period Old Swedish had taken in a large amount of new vocabulary primarily from Latin, Low German and Dutch. When the country became part of the Kalmar Union
in 1397, many Danish scribes brought Danicisms into the written language.
⟩ and ⟨ø
⟩ were used for modern ⟨ä
⟩ and ⟨ö
⟩ respectively, and ⟨þ
⟩ could stand for both ð (th as in the) and θ (th as in thing). In the latter part of the 14th century ⟨þ⟩ was replaced with ⟨th⟩ and ⟨dh⟩.
The grapheme ⟨i⟩ could stand for both the phoneme
s /i/ and /j/ (e.g. siäl (soul), själ in modern Swedish). The graphemes ⟨u⟩, ⟨v⟩, and ⟨w⟩ were used interchangeably with the phonemes /v/ and /u/ (e.g. vtan (without), utan in modern Swedish), and ⟨w⟩ could also sometimes stand for the consonant-vowel combinations /vu/ and /uv/: dwa (duva or dove).
Certain abbreviations were used in writing, such as ⟨mꝫ⟩ for medh (modern med, with). The letter combinations ⟨aa⟩ and ⟨oe⟩ were often written so that one of the letters stood above the other as a smaller letter, which led to the development of the modern letters ⟨å⟩, ⟨ä⟩, and ⟨ö⟩.
There were eight vowel
s in Early Old Swedish: /iː, yː, uː, oː, eː, aː, øː, ɛː/. A vowel shift
(stora vokaldansen) occurred during the Late Old Swedish period, which had the following effects:
The consonant
sounds were largely the same as in modern Swedish, with the notable exceptions of ð and θ, which do not exist in modern Swedish.
s (masculine, feminine and neuter), while there are only two in modern Swedish. Those features of Old Swedish are still found in modern Icelandic
and Faroese
, the noun declensions are almost identical.
Noun declension
s fell under two categories: weak and strong. The weak masculine, feminine and neuter nouns had their own declensions and at least three groups of strong masculine nouns, three groups of strong feminine nouns and one group of strong neuter nouns can be identified. Below is an overview of the noun declension system:
The noun declension system
Some noun paradigms of the words fisker (fish), sun (son), siang (bed), skip (ship), biti (bit) and vika (week):
well into the 20th century.
Other major changes include the loss of a separate inflectional system for masculine and feminine nouns, pronouns and adjectives in the course of the 15th century, leaving only two genders in the Swedish language. The old dative forms of the personal pronouns became the object
forms (honom, henne, dem; him, her, them) and -s became more common as the ending for the genitive singular.
conjugations and six groups of strong verbs
. The difference between weak and strong verbs is in the way the past tense
(preterite
) is formed: strong verbs form it with a vowel shift in the root of the verb, while weak verbs form it with a dental suffix (þ, d or t). During the Late Old Swedish period the verbal conjugation system was simplified, and verb agreement
for person was lost.
Inside the conjugation classes the weak verbs are also categorised into further three classes:
was less restricted in Old Swedish than modern Swedish due to complex verbal morphology. Both referential and nonreferential subjects
could be left out as verbal structures already conveyed the necessary information, in much the same way as in languages such as Spanish and Latin
.
In nominal phrases
the genitive
attribute could stand both before and after the word it modified, i.e. one could say his house or house his. The same was true for pronouns and adjectives (that house or house that; green pasture or pasture green). During the Late Old Swedish period the usage of the genitive attribute became increasingly more restricted, and it always came to be placed before the word it modified, so in modern Swedish one can only say hans hus (his house), not hus hans. Although, this too has lived on in some dialects, like in Västgötska
, where the use of "mor din" (mother yours) has been common.
s:
s are as follows. Numbers from one to four decline in the nominative, genitive, dative and accusative cases and in all three genders (masculine, feminine and neuter); here the nominative forms are given. Numbers above four are indeclinable.
The higher numbers are as follows. The numbers 21–29, 31–39, and so on are formed in the following way: ēn (twēr, þrīr, etc.) ok tiughu, ēn ok þrǣtighi, etc.
(Västgötalagen), which is the oldest continuous text written in the Swedish language, and was compiled during the early 13th century. The text marks the beginning of Old Swedish.
Translation:
(ca. 1120–1160) can be found in the Codex Bureanus, a collection of Old Swedish manuscripts from the mid-14th century.
Translation:
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
: Early Old Swedish (Klassisk fornsvenska), spoken from around 1225 until 1375, and Late Old Swedish (Yngre fornsvenska), spoken from 1375 until 1526.
Old Swedish developed from Old East Norse, the eastern dialect of Old Norse
Old Norse
Old Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....
. The earliest forms of the Swedish and Danish language
Danish language
Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where it holds the status of minority language...
s, spoken between the years 800 and 1100, were dialects of Old East Norse and are referred to as Runic Swedish and Runic Danish because at the time all texts were written in the runic alphabet
Runic alphabet
The runic alphabets are a set of related alphabets using letters known as runes to write various Germanic languages before the adoption of the Latin alphabet and for specialized purposes thereafter...
. The differences were only minute, however, and the dialects truly began to diverge around the 12th century, becoming Old Swedish and Old Danish in the 13th century. It is not known when exactly Old Gutnish
Old Gutnish
Old Gutnish was the dialect of Old Norse that was spoken on the Baltic island of Gotland. It shows sufficient differences from the Old East Norse dialect that it is considered to be a separate branch...
and Elfdalian began to diverge from Swedish, but Old Gutnish diverged long before Old Danish did.
Early Old Swedish was markedly different from modern Swedish in that it had a more complex case structure and had not yet experienced a reduction of the gender system and thus had three genders. Nouns, adjectives, pronouns and certain numerals were inflected in four cases: nominative, genitive, dative and accusative.
Early Old Swedish
Västgötalagen
Västgötalagen or the Westrogothic law is the oldest Swedish text written in Latin script and the oldest of all Swedish provincial laws. It was compiled in the early 13th century and is known to have been the code of law used in the province of Västergötland during the latter half of that century....
marked the beginning of Early Old Swedish (klassisk fornsvenska or äldre fornsvenska; 1225–1375), which had developed from Old East Norse. It was the first Swedish language document written in the Latin alphabet
Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most recognized alphabet used in the world today. It evolved from a western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, which was adopted and modified by the Etruscans who ruled early Rome...
, and its oldest fragments have been dated to around the year 1225.
Old Swedish was relatively stable during this period. The phonological and grammatical systems inherited from Old Norse were relatively well preserved and did not experience any major changes.
Most of the texts from the Early Old Swedish period were written in Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
, as it was the language of knowledge and the Church. However, Old Swedish was used as a literary language as well, and laws especially were written in it; of the 28 surviving manuscripts from this period, 24 contain law texts. Much of the knowledge of Old Swedish comes from these law texts. In addition to laws, some religious and poetic texts were also written in Old Swedish.
Loanwords
The Catholic Church and its various monastic ordersMonasticism
Monasticism is a religious way of life characterized by the practice of renouncing worldly pursuits to fully devote one's self to spiritual work...
introduced many new Greek and Latin loanword
Loanword
A loanword is a word borrowed from a donor language and incorporated into a recipient language. By contrast, a calque or loan translation is a related concept where the meaning or idiom is borrowed rather than the lexical item itself. The word loanword is itself a calque of the German Lehnwort,...
s into Old Swedish. Latin especially had an influence on the written language.
The Low German
Low German
Low German or Low Saxon is an Ingvaeonic West Germanic language spoken mainly in northern Germany and the eastern part of the Netherlands...
language also influenced Old Swedish due to the economic and political power of the Hanseatic League
Hanseatic League
The Hanseatic League was an economic alliance of trading cities and their merchant guilds that dominated trade along the coast of Northern Europe...
during the 13th and 14th centuries. Many German speakers immigrated to Swedish cities and worked in trade and administration. Accordingly, loanwords relating to warfare, trade, craftwork and bureaucracy entered the Swedish language directly from German, along with some grammatical suffixes and conjunctions. The prefixes be-, ge- and för- that can be found in the beginning of modern Swedish words came from the Low German be-, ge- and vor-. Some words were replaced with new ones: the native word for window, vindøgha, was replaced with fönster, eldhus (kitchen) was replaced with kök and gælda (to pay) with betala. Many words related to seafaring were borrowed from Dutch.
The influence of Low German was so strong that the inflectional system of Old Swedish was largely broken down.
Late Old Swedish
In contrast to the stable Early Old Swedish, Late Old Swedish (yngre fornsvenska; 1375–1526) experienced many changes, including a simplification of the grammatical system and a vowel shiftVowel shift
A vowel shift is a systematic sound change in the pronunciation of the vowel sounds of a language.The best-known example in the English language is the Great Vowel Shift, which began in the 15th century...
, so that in the 16th century the language resembled modern Swedish more than before. The printing of the New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
in Swedish in 1526 marked the starting point for modern Swedish.
In this period Old Swedish had taken in a large amount of new vocabulary primarily from Latin, Low German and Dutch. When the country became part of the Kalmar Union
Kalmar Union
The Kalmar Union is a historiographical term meaning a series of personal unions that united the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway , and Sweden under a single monarch, though intermittently and with a population...
in 1397, many Danish scribes brought Danicisms into the written language.
Orthography
Old Swedish used some letters that are no longer found in modern Swedish: ⟨æÆ
Æ is a grapheme formed from the letters a and e. Originally a ligature representing a Latin diphthong, it has been promoted to the full status of a letter in the alphabets of some languages, including Danish, Faroese, Norwegian and Icelandic...
⟩ and ⟨ø
Ø
Ø — minuscule: "ø", is a vowel and a letter used in the Danish, Faroese, Norwegian and Southern Sami languages.It's mostly used as a representation of mid front rounded vowels, such as ø œ, except for Southern Sami where it's used as an [oe] diphtong.The name of this letter is the same as the sound...
⟩ were used for modern ⟨ä
Ä
"Ä" and "ä" are both characters that represent either a letter from several extended Latin alphabets, or the letter A with an umlaut mark or diaeresis.- Independent letter :...
⟩ and ⟨ö
Ö
"Ö", or "ö", is a character used in several extended Latin alphabets, or the letter O with umlaut to denote the front vowels or . In languages without umlaut, the character is also used as a "O with diaeresis" to denote a syllable break, wherein its pronunciation remains an unmodified .- O-Umlaut...
⟩ respectively, and ⟨þ
Thorn (letter)
Thorn or þorn , is a letter in the Old English, Old Norse, and Icelandic alphabets, as well as some dialects of Middle English. It was also used in medieval Scandinavia, but was later replaced with the digraph th. The letter originated from the rune in the Elder Fuþark, called thorn in the...
⟩ could stand for both ð (th as in the) and θ (th as in thing). In the latter part of the 14th century ⟨þ⟩ was replaced with ⟨th⟩ and ⟨dh⟩.
The grapheme ⟨i⟩ could stand for both the phoneme
Phoneme
In a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances....
s /i/ and /j/ (e.g. siäl (soul), själ in modern Swedish). The graphemes ⟨u⟩, ⟨v⟩, and ⟨w⟩ were used interchangeably with the phonemes /v/ and /u/ (e.g. vtan (without), utan in modern Swedish), and ⟨w⟩ could also sometimes stand for the consonant-vowel combinations /vu/ and /uv/: dwa (duva or dove).
Certain abbreviations were used in writing, such as ⟨mꝫ⟩ for medh (modern med, with). The letter combinations ⟨aa⟩ and ⟨oe⟩ were often written so that one of the letters stood above the other as a smaller letter, which led to the development of the modern letters ⟨å⟩, ⟨ä⟩, and ⟨ö⟩.
Phonology
The root syllable length in Old Swedish could be short (VC), long (V:C, VC:) or overlong (V:C:). During the Late Old Swedish period the short root syllables (VC) were lengthened and the overlong root syllables (V:C:) were shortened, so modern Swedish only has the combinations V:C and VC:. Unlike in modern Swedish, a short vowel in Old Swedish did not entail a long consonant.There were eight vowel
Vowel
In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! , where there is a constriction or closure at some...
s in Early Old Swedish: /iː, yː, uː, oː, eː, aː, øː, ɛː/. A vowel shift
Vowel shift
A vowel shift is a systematic sound change in the pronunciation of the vowel sounds of a language.The best-known example in the English language is the Great Vowel Shift, which began in the 15th century...
(stora vokaldansen) occurred during the Late Old Swedish period, which had the following effects:
- [aː] became [oː] (blā [blaː] → blå [bloː], blue)
- [oː] became [uː] (bōk [boːk] → bok [buːk], book) became [ʉː] (hūs [huːs] → hus [hʉːs], house)
The consonant
Consonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are , pronounced with the lips; , pronounced with the front of the tongue; , pronounced with the back of the tongue; , pronounced in the throat; and ,...
sounds were largely the same as in modern Swedish, with the notable exceptions of ð and θ, which do not exist in modern Swedish.
Early Old Swedish
The most defining difference between Old Swedish and modern Swedish was the more complex grammatical system of the former. In Old Swedish nouns, adjectives, pronouns and certain numerals were inflected in four cases (nominative, genitive, dative and accusative), whereas the case system has completely disappeared from modern Swedish. There were also three grammatical genderGrammatical gender
Grammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
s (masculine, feminine and neuter), while there are only two in modern Swedish. Those features of Old Swedish are still found in modern Icelandic
Icelandic language
Icelandic is a North Germanic language, the main language of Iceland. Its closest relative is Faroese.Icelandic is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic or Nordic branch of the Germanic languages. Historically, it was the westernmost of the Indo-European languages prior to the...
and Faroese
Faroese language
Faroese , is an Insular Nordic language spoken by 48,000 people in the Faroe Islands and about 25,000 Faroese people in Denmark and elsewhere...
, the noun declensions are almost identical.
Noun declension
Declension
In linguistics, declension is the inflection of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and articles to indicate number , case , and gender...
s fell under two categories: weak and strong. The weak masculine, feminine and neuter nouns had their own declensions and at least three groups of strong masculine nouns, three groups of strong feminine nouns and one group of strong neuter nouns can be identified. Below is an overview of the noun declension system:
The noun declension system
- Vowel stems (strong declension)
- a-stems
- a-stems
- ja-stems
- ia-stems
- ō-stems
- ō-stems
- jō-stems
- iō-stems
- i-stems
- u-stems
- a-stems
- Consonant n-stems (weak declension)
- n-stems
- an-stems
- ōn, ūn-stems
- īn-stems
- n-stems
- Consonant stems
- monosyllabic stems
- r-stems
- nd-stems
Some noun paradigms of the words fisker (fish), sun (son), siang (bed), skip (ship), biti (bit) and vika (week):
| Masculine a-stems | Masculine u-stems | Feminine ō-stems | Neuter a-stems | Masculine an-stems | Feminine ōn-stems | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sg.Nom. | fisker | sun | siang | skip | biti | vika |
| Sg.Gen. | fisks | sunar | siangar | skips | bita | viku |
| Sg.Dat. | fiski | syni | siangu | skipi | bita | viku |
| Sg.Acc. | fisk | sun | siang | skip | bita | viku |
| Pl.Nom. | fiskar | synir | siangar | skip | bitar | vikur |
| Pl.Gen. | fiska | suna | sianga | skipa | bita | vikna |
| Pl.Dat. | fiskum | sunum | siangum | skipum | bitum | vikum |
| Pl.Acc. | fiska | syni | siangar | skip | bita | vikur |
Late Old Swedish
By the year 1500 the number of cases in Old Swedish had been reduced from four (nominative, genitive, dative and accusative) to two (nominative and genitive). The dative case, however, lived on in a few dialectsSwedish dialects
Swedish dialects can be categorized into Traditional Dialects and Modern Dialects .-Traditional dialects:...
well into the 20th century.
Other major changes include the loss of a separate inflectional system for masculine and feminine nouns, pronouns and adjectives in the course of the 15th century, leaving only two genders in the Swedish language. The old dative forms of the personal pronouns became the object
Object (grammar)
An object in grammar is part of a sentence, and often part of the predicate. It denotes somebody or something involved in the subject's "performance" of the verb. Basically, it is what or whom the verb is acting upon...
forms (honom, henne, dem; him, her, them) and -s became more common as the ending for the genitive singular.
Adjectives
Adjectives and certain numerals were inflected according to the gender and case the noun they modified was in. Below is a table of the inflection of weak adjectives.| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Singular nominative | -i, -e | -a, -æ | -a, -æ |
| Singular oblique | -a, -æ | -u, -o | -a, -æ |
| Plural | -u, -o | -u, -o | -u, -o |
Verbs
Verbs in Old Swedish were conjugated according to person and number. There were four weak verbGermanic weak verb
In Germanic languages, including English, weak verbs are by far the largest group of verbs, which are therefore often regarded as the norm, though historically they are not the oldest or most original group.-General description:...
conjugations and six groups of strong verbs
Germanic strong verb
In the Germanic languages, a strong verb is one which marks its past tense by means of ablaut. In English, these are verbs like sing, sang, sung...
. The difference between weak and strong verbs is in the way the past tense
Past tense
The past tense is a grammatical tense that places an action or situation in the past of the current moment , or prior to some specified time that may be in the speaker's past, present, or future...
(preterite
Preterite
The preterite is the grammatical tense expressing actions that took place or were completed in the past...
) is formed: strong verbs form it with a vowel shift in the root of the verb, while weak verbs form it with a dental suffix (þ, d or t). During the Late Old Swedish period the verbal conjugation system was simplified, and verb agreement
Agreement (linguistics)
In languages, agreement or concord is a form of cross-reference between different parts of a sentence or phrase. Agreement happens when a word changes form depending on the other words to which it relates....
for person was lost.
Strong verbs
The verbs in the table below are bīta (bite), biūþa (offer), værþa (become), stiæla (steal), mæta (measure) and fara (go).| Strong verbs | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| I group | II group | III group | IV group | V group | VI group | |
| Infinitive Infinitive In grammar, infinitive is the name for certain verb forms that exist in many languages. In the usual description of English, the infinitive of a verb is its basic form with or without the particle to: therefore, do and to do, be and to be, and so on are infinitives... |
bīta | biūþa | værþa; varþa | stiæla; stæla | mæta; miæta | fara |
| Past participle | bītin | buþin | vurþin; urþin | stulin; stolin | mætin; miætin | farin |
| Present participle | bītande | biūþande | værþande | stiælande | mætande | farande |
| Indicative present Present tense The present tense is a grammatical tense that locates a situation or event in present time. This linguistic definition refers to a concept that indicates a feature of the meaning of a verb... |
||||||
| iak/jæk | bīter | biūþer | værþer | stiæler | mæter | farer |
| þū | bīter | biūþer | værþer | stiæler | mæter | farer |
| han/hōn/þæt | bīter | biūþer | værþer | stiæler | mæter | farer |
| vī(r) | bītom | biūþom | værþom | stiælom | mætom | farom |
| ī(r) | bītin | biūþin | værþin | stiælin | mætin | farin |
| þē(r)/þā(r)/þē | bīta | biūþa | værþa | stiæla | mæta | fara |
| Indicative preterite Preterite The preterite is the grammatical tense expressing actions that took place or were completed in the past... |
||||||
| iak/jæk | bēt | bøþ | varþ | stal | mat | fōr |
| þū | bētt | bøþt | varþt | stalt | mast | fōrt |
| han/hōn/þæt | bēt | bøþ | varþ | stal | mat | fōr |
| vī(r) | bitum | buþum | vurþom; urþom | stālom | mātom | fōrom |
| ī(r) | bitin | buþin | vurþin; urþin | stālin | mātin | fōrin |
| þē(r)/þā(r)/þē | bitu | buþu | vurþo; urþo | stālo | māto | fōro |
| Conjunctive present | ||||||
| iak/jæk | bīte | biūþe | værþe | stiæle | mæte | fare |
| þū | bīte | biūþe | værþe | stiæle | mæte | fare |
| han/hōn/þæt | bīte | biūþe | værþe | stiæle | mæte | fare |
| vī(r) | bītom | biūþom | værþom | stiælom | mætom | farom |
| ī(r) | bītin | biūþin | værþin | stiælin | mætin | farin |
| þē(r)/þā(r)/þē | bītin | biūþin | værþin | stiælin | mætin | farin |
| Conjunctive preterite | ||||||
| iak/jæk | biti | buþi | vurþe; urþe | stāle | māte | fōre |
| þū | biti | buþi | vurþe; urþe | stāle | māte | fōre |
| han/hōn/þæt | biti | buþi | vurþe; urþe | stāle | māte | fōre |
| vī(r) | bitum | buþum | vurþom; urþom | stālom | mātom | fōrom |
| ī(r) | bitin | buþin | vurþin; urþin | stālin | mātin | fōrin |
| þē(r)/þā(r)/þē | bitin; biti | buþin; buþi | vurþin; urþin | stālin | mātin | fōrin |
| Imperative Imperative mood The imperative mood expresses commands or requests as a grammatical mood. These commands or requests urge the audience to act a certain way. It also may signal a prohibition, permission, or any other kind of exhortation.- Morphology :... |
||||||
| þū | bīte | biūþe | værþ | stiæle | mæte | fare |
| vī(r) | bītom | biūþom | værþom | stiælom | mætom | farom |
| ī(r) | bītin | biūþin | værþin | stiælin | mætin | farin |
Weak verbs
Weak verbs are grouped into four classes:- First conjugation: verbs ending in -a(r), -ā(r) in the present tense. Most verbs belong to this class.
- Second conjugation: verbs ending in -e(r), -æ(r) in the present tense.
- Third conjugation: verbs ending in -i(r), -ø(r) in the present tense.
- Fourth conjugation: these verbs have a more or less irregular conjugation. About twenty verbs belong to this class.
Inside the conjugation classes the weak verbs are also categorised into further three classes:
- I: those ending in -þe in the preterite
- II: those ending in -de in the preterite
- III: those ending in -te in the preterite
Syntax
Word orderWord order
In linguistics, word order typology refers to the study of the order of the syntactic constituents of a language, and how different languages can employ different orders. Correlations between orders found in different syntactic subdomains are also of interest...
was less restricted in Old Swedish than modern Swedish due to complex verbal morphology. Both referential and nonreferential subjects
Subject (grammar)
The subject is one of the two main constituents of a clause, according to a tradition that can be tracked back to Aristotle and that is associated with phrase structure grammars; the other constituent is the predicate. According to another tradition, i.e...
could be left out as verbal structures already conveyed the necessary information, in much the same way as in languages such as Spanish and Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
.
In nominal phrases
Noun phrase
In grammar, a noun phrase, nominal phrase, or nominal group is a phrase based on a noun, pronoun, or other noun-like word optionally accompanied by modifiers such as adjectives....
the genitive
Genitive case
In grammar, genitive is the grammatical case that marks a noun as modifying another noun...
attribute could stand both before and after the word it modified, i.e. one could say his house or house his. The same was true for pronouns and adjectives (that house or house that; green pasture or pasture green). During the Late Old Swedish period the usage of the genitive attribute became increasingly more restricted, and it always came to be placed before the word it modified, so in modern Swedish one can only say hans hus (his house), not hus hans. Although, this too has lived on in some dialects, like in Västgötska
Västgötska
Västgötska is a Swedish dialect spoken in the western Swedish province of Västergötland. Specifically, västgötska commonly refers to several variants of the more broadly defined götamål spoken across Västergötland except for Gothenburg. The dialect is characterized by the frequent omission of...
, where the use of "mor din" (mother yours) has been common.
Personal pronouns
Below is a table of the Old Swedish personal pronounPersonal pronoun
Personal pronouns are pronouns used as substitutes for proper or common nouns. All known languages contain personal pronouns.- English personal pronouns :English in common use today has seven personal pronouns:*first-person singular...
s:
| | Singular | | Plural | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st person | 2nd person | 3rd person masc./fem./neut. | 1st person | 2nd person | 3rd person masc./fem./neut. | |
| Nominative | iak, jæk | þu | han / hon / þæt | vi(r) | i(r) | þe, þer / þa, þar / þe, þøn |
| Genitive | min | þin | hans / hænna(r) / þæs | var, vara | iþer, iþra | þera / þera / þera |
| Dative | mæ(r) | þæ(r) | hanum / hænni / þy | os | iþer | þem / þem / þem |
| Accusative | mik | þik | han / hana / þæt | os | iþer | þa / þa, þar / þe, þøn |
Numerals
The Old Swedish cardinal numberCardinal number
In mathematics, cardinal numbers, or cardinals for short, are a generalization of the natural numbers used to measure the cardinality of sets. The cardinality of a finite set is a natural number – the number of elements in the set. The transfinite cardinal numbers describe the sizes of infinite...
s are as follows. Numbers from one to four decline in the nominative, genitive, dative and accusative cases and in all three genders (masculine, feminine and neuter); here the nominative forms are given. Numbers above four are indeclinable.
| |
Old Swedish | Modern Swedish | |
Old Swedish | Modern Swedish |
| 1 | ēn, ēn, ēt | en, ett | 11 | ællivu | elva |
| 2 | twē(r), twār, tū | två | 12 | tolf | tolv |
| 3 | þrī(r), þrēa(r), þrȳ | tre | 13 | þrættān | tretton |
| 4 | fiūri(r), fiūra(r), fiughur | fyra | 14 | fiughurtān | fjorton |
| 5 | fǣm | fem | 15 | fǣm(p)tan | femton |
| 6 | sæx | sex | 16 | sæxtān | sexton |
| 7 | siū | sju | 17 | siūtān | sjutton |
| 8 | ātta | åtta | 18 | atertān | arton (arcaic aderton) |
| 9 | nīo | nio | 19 | nītān | nitton |
| 10 | tīo | tio | 20 | tiughu | tjugo |
The higher numbers are as follows. The numbers 21–29, 31–39, and so on are formed in the following way: ēn (twēr, þrīr, etc.) ok tiughu, ēn ok þrǣtighi, etc.
| |
Old Swedish | Modern Swedish | |
Old Swedish | Modern Swedish |
| 30 | þrǣtighi | trettio | 70 | siūtighi | sjuttio |
| 31 | ēn ok þrǣtighi | trettioett | 80 | āttatighi | åttio |
| 40 | fiūratighi | fyrtio | 90 | nīotighi | nittio |
| 50 | fǣmtighi | femtio | 100 | hundraþ | hundra |
| 60 | s(i)æxtighi | sextio | 1000 | þūsand | tusen |
Västgötalagen
This is an extract from the Westrogothic lawVästgötalagen
Västgötalagen or the Westrogothic law is the oldest Swedish text written in Latin script and the oldest of all Swedish provincial laws. It was compiled in the early 13th century and is known to have been the code of law used in the province of Västergötland during the latter half of that century....
(Västgötalagen), which is the oldest continuous text written in the Swedish language, and was compiled during the early 13th century. The text marks the beginning of Old Swedish.
- 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.
Translation:
- If someone slays a SwedeSuionesThe Swedes e, "one's own [tribesmen/kinsmen]"; Old English: Sweonas; , Suehans or Sueones) were an ancient North Germanic tribe in Scandinavia...
or a SmålandSmåland' is a historical province in southern Sweden.Småland borders Blekinge, Scania or Skåne, Halland, Västergötland, Östergötland and the island Öland in the Baltic Sea. The name Småland literally means Small Lands. . The latinized form Smolandia has been used in other languages...
er, a man from the kingdom, but not a West Geat, he will pay eight örtugar and thirteen marks, but no wergild. [...] If someone slays a Dane or a NorwegianNorwegiansNorwegians constitute both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway. They share a common culture and speak the Norwegian language. Norwegian people and their descendants are found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in United States, Canada and Brazil.-History:Towards the end of the 3rd...
, 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 EnglishmanEnglishmanEnglishman may refer to:*English people*Grey Partridge*Jason Englishman, Canadian rock music singer and guitarist*Jenny-Bea Englishman, real name of the Canadien singer Esthero*Erald Briscoe, reggae musician who records under the name Englishman...
, he shall pay four marks to the plaintiff and two marks to the king.
The Life of Saint Eric
This text about Eric IXEric IX of Sweden
Eric "IX" of Sweden, , also called Eric the Lawgiver, Erik the Saint, Eric the Holy and in Sweden Sankt Erik meaning Saint Eric was a Swedish king c.1155 – 1160...
(ca. 1120–1160) can be found in the Codex Bureanus, a collection of Old Swedish manuscripts from the mid-14th century.
- Hǣr viliom wī medh Gudz nādhom sighia medh faam ordhom aff thø̄m hælgha Gudz martire Sancto Ērīco, som fordum war konungher ī Swērīke. Bādhe aff ǣt ok ædle han war swā fast aff konunga slækt som aff androm Swērīkis høfdingiom. Sidhan rīkit var v̄tan forman, ok han var kiǣr allom lanzins høfdingiom ok allom almōganom, thā valdo thē han til konungh medh allom almōghans gōdhwilia, ok sattis hedherlīca ā konungx stool vidh Upsala.
Translation:
- Here we want to say with God's grace a few words about that holy God's martyr Saint Eric, who was earlier the King of Sweden. In both heritage and nobility he was fastly of royal extraction as other Swedish leaders. Since the realm was without a leader and he was beloved by all of the land's nobility and all of the common people, the commoners chose him as King with all of their good will, and sat him reverentially on the King's throne at UppsalaUppsala- Economy :Today Uppsala is well established in medical research and recognized for its leading position in biotechnology.*Abbott Medical Optics *GE Healthcare*Pfizer *Phadia, an offshoot of Pharmacia*Fresenius*Q-Med...
.
External links
- Altschwedische Grammatik by Adolf Noreen at the Germanic Lexicon Project
- Old Swedish verb conjugator