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Old Norse orthography

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Main page The orthography of the Old Norse language was diverse, ‹ The template Sidebar with collapsible lists is being considered for

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In modern times, scholars established a standardized spelling for the Old Norse
language. When Old Norse names are used in texts in other
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the names of Old Norse mythological figures often have several
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The appearance of Old Norse in a written runic form first dates back to
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Community portal approximately AD 200–300.[1] While there are remains of Viking
Recent changes runestones from the Viking Age today they are rare, and vary in use of
Dialects
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Old West Norse
created near the end of the Viking Age tend to have a greater (Old Icelandic · Old Norwegian
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influence from Old English runes. Greenlandic Norse)
What links here Old East Norse
Related changes An understanding of the writing system of Old Norse is crucial for fully (Old Danish · Old Swedish)
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Special pages stones from the Viking Age reveal many nuances about the spoken Use
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language, such as the constant use of alliteration. A comparison of
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various whetstones from this time period with the works of Snorri (Younger Futhark · Medieval)
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Sturluson reveal that alliteration was common in many Old Norse Latin alphabet
writings, and were not only present in skaldic works. This would then Grammar · Phonology
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suggest that the Vikings closely tied their language to their auditory
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their cultural memory, which was also closely tied to their language.[2]
(alliterative verse)
Languages Sagas
Contents [hide] (of Icelanders)
Français
1 Latin alphabet orthography Edda
Galego (Poetic Edda · Prose Edda)
1.1 Manuscript spelling
Edit links First Grammatical Treatise
1.2 Normalized spelling
2 Runic orthography and transcription Ancestors
2.1 Transcription of Danish and Swedish runestones Proto-Indo-European
Proto-Germanic · Proto-Norse
3 Modernized Icelandic spelling
4 Anglicized spelling Descendants
5 List of names Danish · Faroese ·
Greenlandic Norse (extinct) · Icelandic ·
5.1 Gods (Æsir)
Norn (extinct)
5.1.1 Goddesses
Norwegian · Swedish
5.2 Giants
5.2.1 Giantesses English words of
Old Norse origin
5.3 Animals
5.4 Places V· T · E

5.5 Other
6 See also
7 References
8 External links

Latin alphabet orthography [edit]

The following table gives various attested spellings of sounds and their IPA transcription. In general usage,
an orthographic distinction of phones or phonemes is not necessarily held by every writer. For example, an
author may only distinguish some vowels by length, and orthographic devices could be mixed and matched.
Where the table lists a long-or-short phoneme /(ː)/, a specifically short // or long /ː/ phoneme represents
additional spellings not covered by length marking rules. Likewise, a phonetic entry only lists spellings not
used by the equivalent phoneme(s). N/A is used when no specific spelling is used, e.g. where all long vowel
spellings are found using the rules for deriving long vowel spellings from the short vowel, or no general
spelling is used, e.g. when short and long vowels are always spelled differently.

Latin orthography of Old Norse vowels

Phoneme /i(ː)/ /i/U /e(ː)/ /æ(ː)/ /æ/ /æː/ /y(ː)/ /ø(ː)/ /ø/ /øː/
i, e, ø, ö,
General usage i e, æ æ, ę e N/A y N/A
æ œ
Standard
i e N/A ę æ y N/A ø œ
normalization
Phoneme /u(ː)/ /u/ U /o(ː)/ /ɑ(ː)/ /ɑ/ U /ɒ/ /æi/ /ɒu/ /øy/ /Vː/
ǫ, o, ei, ęi, V, V́ ,
General usage u u, o o a a, æ au ey, øy
aE æi VV
Standard
u o a ǫ ei au ey V́
normalization
Latin orthography of Old Norse consonants
Phone(me) /p(ː)/ /b(ː)/ /m(ː)/ /f/ [v] /θ/ [ð] /t(ː)/ /d(ː)/ /n(ː)/
ff, u, ?
General usage p b m f þ, th ð, dh, d t d n
ffu
Standard
p b m f f þ ð t d n
normalization
Phone(me) /l(ː)/ /lː/ /s(ː)/ /r(ː)/ /ɽ(ː)/ /j/ /w/ /k(ː)/ /ɡ(ː)/ [ɣ]
u, v, ƿ,
General usage l ꝇ s r r i, j k, c g gh
ꝩ
Standard
l N/A s r j v k g g
normalization
/hw, hr, hl,
Phone(me) /h/ [ts] [t, d, ð, n]+[s] [ks] [ɡs] [kw] /Cː/
hn/
qu, qv,
General usage h h(S) z x gx[3]E CC, C
kv
Standard
h h(S) z N/A x N/A N/A CC
normalization

Legend:
U: Unstressed
E: Chiefly eastern
(ː): Long or short. See /Vː/ and /Cː/ columns for length and gemination marking.
?:[citation needed]

The low/low-mid vowels may be indicated differently:

/æ/ = /ɛ/
/ɒ/ = /ɔ/
/ɑ/ = /a/

Dialect-specific sounds:

/ɒː/: Icelandic; a, aa, á, o, ó, [4] ǫ́; Normalized: á

/ə/: Danish; e, æ

When dialectal mergers such as OEN monophthongization took place, regional spelling often changed to
reflect this. Sometimes, both phonemes' spellings would be used, but confused.

The epenthetic vowel had different regional spellings. In East Norse it was commonly spelled as ⟨e⟩ or ⟨a⟩,
while in West Norse it was often spelled ⟨u⟩, almost always so in Iceland.

Manuscript spelling [edit]

The original Icelandic manuscripts which are the main source of our knowledge of Norse mythology did not
employ a unified system of spelling. During the Viking Age, many dialects of Old Norse were spoken. While
they appear to have been mutually intelligible, the slight variances resulted in various spelling.[5] Thus the
same name might be spelled several different ways even in the original manuscripts. Letters unique to the
language existed, such as a modified version of the letter Wynn called Vend that was used briefly for the
sounds /u/, /v/, and /w/. In particular, the length of vowels was only sporadically marked in many
manuscripts and various umlauted vowels were often not distinguished from others. Another complication is
that several shortcut forms for common words, syllables, and grammatical endings developed. One example
is the use of the rune named maðr (man) for the word maðr. Another is the use of a special glyph for the
various r-endings so common in Old Norse. These scribal abbreviations are categorized as follows:[6]

Suspension, truncation, or curtailment: Certain letters of the word are omitted, with the abbreviation
indicated by a superscript stroke (esp. dropping a nasal), dot(s) beside the letter, or occasionally a colon.
Examples: Ꝥ for þat (etc.), ū for um, hō for hón, þan̅ for þann; .kgr. for konungr, .s. for sonr.
Contraction: The first and last letters are written, and the abbreviation is indicated by a dot or superscript
stroke.
Special signs or brevigraphs: Symbols replacing words or syllables. Examples: Tironian et (⁊) for ok, ᛘ
for maðr, syllabic et (Ꝫꝫ) in mꝫ (með) for /eð/.
Superscript letters: Regular letters contained in the word or letters specifically for abbreviation purposes.
Often with syllabic content. Examples: sᵏ (sik), a zig-zag shaped symbol mainly for er and ir in u͛a (vera).

These abbreviation conventions and a majority of the signs are inherited from the Latin language itself, and
were common to the Latin alphabet in other languages. However, other signs or conventions are specifically
Norse, such as the er zig-zag.

Normalized spelling [edit]

"Normalized spelling" can be used to refer to normalization in general or the standard normalization in
particular. With normalized spelling, the manuscript spelling is altered to adhere to be more strict and
regular. These respellings are designed to be phonemically precise rather than representative of the
manuscripts. The degree of normalization may vary, but in general the text is at the end reduced to limited
deviation from a regularized system, perhaps at the expense of some dialectal character.

For various reasons 19th century scholars came up with a standardized normalization of Old Norse which
remains in use. It is primarily based on the so-called First Grammatical Treatise. Vowel length is marked and
umlauted vowels are unambiguously represented. The standardized spelling employs a few characters that
are not available in the most common electronic character sets. Replacements are often used, particularly in
electronic formats. The most consequential is the use of ö instead of ǫ.

Runic orthography and transcription [edit]

See also: Younger Futhark, Medieval runes, and Runic transliteration and transcription

This section needs expansion. You

can help by adding to it. (February 2010)

The following table associates the phonemes of the language to its orthographic representations. Vowel
nasalization and length are not distinguished in the table when distinguished in neither orthography, nor is
/æi/ distinguished from /æ/+/i/.

Runic orthography of Old Norse vowels

/i/U, /ɒu/,
Phoneme /i(ː)/ /eː/ /æ(ː)/ /y(ː)/ /ø(ː)/ /u(ː)/ /u/ U /o(ː)/ /ɑ(ː)/ /ɒ(ː)/ /ɑ̃(ː)/
/e/ /ɐy/
Younger Futhark, ᛆ/ᛅ, ᚢ, ᛆ/ᛅ,
ᛁ ᚢ ᛆ/ᛅ ᚬ/ᚭ ᛅᚢ/ᛆᚢ
8th–12th c. ᚬ/ᚭ ᚬ/ᚭ ᛅᚢ/ᛆᚢ
Medieval Runes,
ᛁ ᛂ ᛅ ᚤ, ᛦ ᚯ ᚢ ᚮ ᛆ ᛆᚢ
11th–14th c.
Runic orthography of Old Norse consonants
Phone(me) /p/ /b/ /f/ [v] /t/ /d/ /θ/ [ð] /s/ [ts] /k/ /ɡ/ /h/
Younger Futhark,
ᛒ ᚠ ᛏ ᚦ ᛋ ᚴ ᚼ
8th–12th c.
Medieval Runes,
ᛔ ᛒ ᚠ ᚡ ᛐ ᛑ ᚦ ᚧ ᛌ ᚴ ᚵ ᚼ
11th–14th c.
 /ɾ/
Phoneme /m/ /n/ /ɽ/ (?) /l/ /j/ /w/ /Cː/
(?)
Younger Futhark,
ᛘ ᚾ ᚱ ᛦ ᛚ ᛁ ᚢ N/A
8th–12th c.
Medieval Runes, C,
ᛘ ᚿ ᚱ ᛧ ᛚ ᛁ ᚢ
11th–14th c. CC

U: Unstressed

Transcription of Danish and Swedish runestones [edit]

When transcribing Old Norse texts from Danish and Swedish runestones, many scholars,[7] but not all,[8] use
an orthography that is adapted to represent Old East Norse, the dialect of Old Norse in Denmark and
Sweden. The main differences are the diphthong æi instead of ei as in stæinn ("stone") and i instead of the
glide j as in giald ("payment"). In this standard, the u-umlauted a represented by ǫ is not usually considered,
but rendered as the underlying a, as in the name Anundʀ. Another difference is the representation of the
phoneme ʀ, instead of simply r as in West Norse, where the ʀ phoneme merged with r earlier. However,
even if they render the transcription according to the local pronunciation, the Rundata project presents
personal names according to the previously mentioned standardized spelling in English translations. Here
follows an example from the Orkesta Runestone (U 344):

Standardized spelling:

En Ulfr hefir á Englandi þrjú gjǫld tekit. Þat var fyrsta þat's Tosti ga[l]t. Þá [galt] Þorketill. Þá galt Knútr.

The rendering of Old East Norse:

En Ulfʀ hafiʀ a Ænglandi þry giald takit. Þet vas fyrsta þet's Tosti ga[l]t. Þa [galt] Þorkætill. Þa galt Knutʀ.

But when translating into English, the standardized spelling is used:

But Ulfr has taken three payments in England. That was the first that Tosti paid. Then Þorketill paid.
Then Knútr paid.

Modernized Icelandic spelling [edit]

In many modern Icelandic publications of Old Norse works, the modern Icelandic spelling is used. The
orthography is essentially the same (since it was intentionally modelled after the aforementioned normalized
Old Norse in the 19th century), but changes from Old Norse phonology to Icelandic phonology are
incorporated in the translation that may not have been in the source text. One such difference is the insertion
of u before r, when it is preceded by a consonant at the end of the word. Thus the Old Norse name Baldr
comes out as Baldur in modern Icelandic. Other differences include vowel-shifts, whereby Old Norse ǫ
became Icelandic ö, and Old Norse œ (oe ligature) became Icelandic æ (ae ligature). Old Norse ø
corresponds in modern Icelandic to ö, as in sökkva, or to e, as in gera). There is also consonant lenition of
final k and t to g and ð, e.g. mig for earlier mik and það for earlier þat. These distinct features are
summarized in the table below:

ON Icelandic
-r -ur
-k -g
-t -ð
ǫ ö
œ æ
ø ö, e

Anglicized spelling [edit]

For the convenience of English writers and readers the Old Norse characters not used in English are
commonly replaced with English ones. This can lead to ambiguity and confusion. Diacritics may be removed
(á → a, ö → o). The following character conversions also take place:

ø→o
œ → o, oe
æ → ae
 þ → th
ð → th, d, dh

Another common convention in English is to drop consonant nominative endings:

Egill → Egil
Yggdrasill → Yggdrasil
Gunnarr → Gunnar
Sveinn → Svein
Freyr → Frey
Hildr → Hild

Sometimes a j is dropped after ey.

Freyja → Freya

Other quirks sometimes seen include adding a Latin -a suffix to the names of goddesses.

Frigg → Frigga
Iðunn → Iduna

Obviously the various permutations allow for many possible spellings for a given name.

Some authors, for example, replace þ with th and ð with th, dh or d but keep the accents; others may not
replace ǫ with ö but prefer o.

Thus, in addition to the various versions below, the name of Hǫðr could come out as:

Hod, Hoðr, Hödhr, Hödr, Höd, Höð, Hoð, etcetera

List of names [edit]

A list of some commonly encountered Old Norse names with variant spellings. * marks anglicizations.

Gods (Æsir) [edit]

Ása-Þórr, Asa-Thor*
Bragi, Brage
Baldr, Balder, Baldur. See Old Norse epenthetic vowel.
Hǫðr, Hoth,* Hod,* Hothr,* Hodr, Hoder, Hodhr*
Freyr, Frey*
Forseti, Forsete
Heimdallr, Heimdalr, Heimdall,* Heimdal*
Hœnir, Honir, Hoenir*
Óðinn, Odin, Odhin,* Othin,* Odinn
Ǫku-Þórr, Oku-Thor*
Þórr, Thor,* Thorr*
Týr, Tyr, Ty*
Vili, Vilji, Vile
Vé, Ve

Goddesses [edit]
Frigg, Frigga
Freyja, Freya
Hlín, Hlin
Iðunn, Idun,* Idunn, Iduna

Giants [edit]

Ægir, Aegir*
Býleistr, Byleist
Loki, Loke

Giantesses [edit]
Hel, Hela
Gerðr, Gerd, Gerth,* Gerthr*
Rindr, Rind
Angrboða, Angrboda
Animals [edit]

Freki, Freke
Geri, Gere
Huginn, Hugin*
Jǫrmungandr, Jormungand, Iormungand
Miðgarðsormr, Midgardsorm
Muninn, Munin*
Ratatoskr, Ratatusk, Ratatosk

Places [edit]

Ásgarðr, Asgard*
Miðgarðr, Midgard*
Niflheimr, Niflheim
Útgarðr, Utgard*

Other [edit]

Æsir, Aesir*
Hávamál, Havamal
Ragnarǫk, Ragnarok
Vǫluspá, Völuspá, Voluspa
Yggdrasill, Yggdrasil*

See also [edit]

First Grammatical Treatise

Runic transliteration and transcription

References [edit]
1. ^ Jones, Gwyn (1968). A History of the Vikings . Oxford University Press. p. 71.
2. ^ Shulte, Michael (2007). "Scripta islandica: Memory culture in the viking age: The runic evidence of
formulaic patterns". Scripta Islandica. 58: 57–70.
3. ^ Gordon and Taylor Old Norse readings - konungx for normalized konungs
4. ^ Cleasby-Vigfússon: Málsnjallr-Máttigr ; Mánuðr, alternated with mónoðr
5. ^ Jones, Gwyn (1968). A History of the Vikings . Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 71.
6. ^ Abbreviations in Old Norse-Icelandic manuscripts
7. ^ See the Rundata transcriptions.
8. ^ See e.g. the Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages project .

External links [edit]

Medieval Nordic Text Archive , which contains Old Norse texts in manuscript and standard
orthographies.

V· T · E Norse paganism and mythology

 Baldr · Bragi · Dellingr · Forseti · Heimdallr · Hermóðr · Höðr · Hœnir · Ítreksjóð · Lóðurr ·
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(Dark elves (Dökkálfar) · Light elves (Ljósálfar) · Black elves (Svartálfar)) · Fimafeng · Fenrir
· Garmr · Gullinbursti · Hati Hróðvitnisson · Hel · Hildisvíni · Hjúki · Horses of the Æsir
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Others Gulltoppr · Gyllir · Hamskerpir and Garðrofa · Hófvarpnir · Skinfaxi and Hrímfaxi · Sleipnir ·
Svaðilfari) · Jafnhárr · Jörmungandr · Móðguðr · Nine Daughters of Ægir and Rán ·
Nine Mothers of Heimdallr · Narfi and Nari · Níðhöggr · Norns · Personifications (Dagr · Elli ·
Nótt · Sumarr and Vetr) · Skírnir · Sköll · Shieldmaiden · Þjálfi and Röskva · Valkyrie ·
Völundr

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Other locations
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Sources
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See also
Germanic paganism · Heathenry (new religious movement)

Categories: Old Norse Language orthographies

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