Old Norwegian

Old Norwegian (Norwegian: gammelnorsk, gam(m)alnorsk) is an early form of the Norwegian language that was spoken between the 11th and 14th century; it is a transitional stage between Old West Norse and Middle Norwegian. Its distinction from Old West Norse is a matter of convention. Traditionally, Old Norwegian has been divided into the main dialect areas of North Western, Outer South Western, Inner South Western, Trøndersk, North Eastern, and South Eastern.

Phonological and morphological features

One of the most important early differences between Old Norwegian and Old Icelandic is that h in the consonant combinations hl-, hn- and hr- was lost in Old Norwegian around the 11th century, while being preserved in Old Icelandic. Thus, one has e.g. Old Icelandic hlíð 'slope', hníga 'curtsey' and hringr 'ring' vs Old Norwegian líð, níga and ringr, respectively.

Many Old Norwegian dialects feature a height based system of vowel harmony: Following stressed high vowels (/i/, /í/, /y/, /ý/, /u/, /ú/) and diphthongs (/ei/, /ey/, /au/), the unstressed vowels /i/ and /u/ appear as i, u, while they are represented as e, o following long non-high vowels (/é/, /ǿ/, /ó/, /ǽ/, /á/). The situation following stressed short non-high vowels (/e/, /æ/, /ø/, /a/, /o/, /ǫ/) is much debated and was apparently different in the individual dialects.