If this view be correct, the Scandinavian languages have had an existence of more than four thousand years. But we do not know anything about them during the period before the birth of Christ. It is only from that epoch we can get any information concerning the language of the old Scandinavians, which seems by that time not only to have spread over Denmark and great parts of southern and middle Sweden and of (southern) Norway, but also to have reached Finland (at least Nyland) and Esthonia. In spite of its extension over this considerable geographical area, the language appears to have been fairly homogeneous throughout the whole territory. Consequently, it may be regarded as a uniform language, the mother of the younger Scandinavian tongues, and accordingly has been named the primitive Scandinavian (urnordisk) language. The oldest sources of our knowledge of this tongue are the words which were borrowed during the first centuries of the Christian era (some of them perhaps even earlier) by the Lapps from the inhabitants of central Sweden and Norway, and by the Finns from their neighbours in Finland and Esthonia, and which have been preserved in Finnish and Lappish down to our own days. These borrowed words, denoting chiefly utensils belonging to a fairly advanced stage of culture, amount to several hundreds, with a phonetic form of a very primitive stamp; as Finn. terva (O. Sw. tiaera, Germ. theer), tar; airo (O. Sw. ar), oar; kansa (O. H. G. hansa), people; napakaira (O. H. G. nabagêr, O. Sw. navar), auger; nekla (Got. nêfla, O. Sw. nal), needle; ansas (Got. ans, O. Sw. as), beam; Lapp sajet (Got. saian, O. Sw. sa), sow; garves (O. H. G. garawêr, O. Sw. gör), finished; divres (O. Sax. diuri, O. Sw. dyr), dear; saipo (O. H. G. seifa, Sw. sapa), soap. These words, with those mentioned by contemporary Roman and Greek authors, are the oldest existing traces of any Germanic language. Wrested from their context, however, they throw but little light on the nature of the original northern tongue. But a series of linguistic monuments have come down to us dating from the end of the so-called early Iron Age (about 450 a.d.),— the knowledge and the use of the oldest runic alphabet (with twenty-four characters) having at that period been propagated among the Scandinavians by the southern Germanic tribes. In fact we still possess, preserved down to our own times, primitive northern runic inscriptions, the oldest upon the utensils found at Thorsbjerg, dating back to about 300 a.d. , which, together with the MS. fragments of Ulfila’s Gothic translation of the Bible, about two hundred years later in date, constitute the oldest veritable monuments of any Germanic tongue. These runic inscriptions are for the most part found on stone-monuments (sometimes on rocks) and bracteates (gold coins stamped on one side and used for ornaments), as well as on metallic and wooden utensils, weapons, and ornaments. Up to this time there have been discovered more than one hundred, but of these only about one-half give us any information concerning the language, and most of them are only too short. The longest one, the stone-monument of Tune, in south-eastern Norway, contains only sixteen words. Their language is somewhat later in character than that of the oldest words borrowed by the Lapps and Finns: accented ê , for example, is already changed into a (cf. mariR — Goth, mêrs, renowned; but the Finn. borrowed word nêkla = Goth. nêpla, needle), and the voiced s into a kind of r (cf. dagaR = Goth, dags, day; but Finn. armas = Goth, arms, poor). On the other hand, in all essential matters it is much earlier in character than the language of contemporary Gothic manuscripts, and no doubt approaches more nearly than any Germanic idiom the primitive form of the Germanic tongue. For the sake of comparison, we give a Gothic translation of one of the oldest of the primitive Scandinavian inscriptions, that on the golden horn of Gallehus, found on the Danish-German frontier, and dating from about 400 a.d. :—

Scand.: ek hlewagasti R holtinga R . horna. tawido; Goth.: ik hliugasts. hultiggs. haurn. tawida;

Engl.: I, HlewagastiR, son of Holta, made the horn; as well as the inscription on the stone-monument of Järsbärg in western Sweden, which is at least a hundred years later:—

Scand.: UBA. R HITE. HARABANA. R WIT IAH EK ERILA R RUNO R waritu;

Goth.: ufar hita, hrabns wit jah ik airils rûnôs writu;

Engl.: In memory of HitaR. We both, HarabanaR and I ErrlaR, wrote the runes.

Although very brief, and not yet thoroughly interpreted, these primitive Scandinavian inscriptions are nevertheless sufficient to enable us to determine with some certainty the relation which the language in which they are written bears to other languages. Thus it is proved that it belongs to the Germanic family of the Indo-European stock of languages, of which it constitutes an independent and individual branch. Its nearest relation being the Gothic, these two branches are sometimes taken together under the general denomination Eastern Germanic, as opposed to the other Germanic idioms (German, English, Dutch, &c.), which are then called Western Germanic. The most essential point of correspondence between the Gothic and Scandinavian branches is the insertion in certain cases of gg before w and j (ggj in Gothic was changed into ddj), as in gen. plur. O. H. G. zweiio, O. Engl, tivega (two), compared with O. Icel., 0. Norw. tveggja, O. Sw., O. Dan. tviggjse, Goth, twaddje; and, still, in Germ, treu, Engl, true, compared with Sw., Norw., Dan. trygg, Icel. tryggr, Goth, triggws. However, even in the primitive Scandinavian age the difference between Gothic and Scandinavian is more clearly marked than the resemblance; thus, for example—just to hint only at some of the oldest and most essential differences—Goth. nom. sing, ending in -a corresponds to primitive Scandinavian -ar, -iR (as Goth, dags, day, gasts, guest = Scand. dagaR, gastiR) ·, Goth. gen. sing, in -is to Scand. -as (as Goth, dagis, day’s = Scand. dagas); Goth. dat. sing, in -a to Scand. -e (as Goth. kaurna, corn = Scand. kume) ; Goth. 1st pers. sing. pret. in -da to Scand. -do (as Goth, taurida, did = Scand. tawido).

As early as the beginning of the so-called later Iron Age (about 700 a.d.) the primitive Scandinavian language had undergone a considerable transformation, as is proved for example by the remarkable runic stone at Istaby in the south of Sweden, with the inscription—

AFATR HARIWULAFA HAPUWULAFR HAERUWULAFIR waRAIT RUNA.R pAIA.R;

Engl.: In memory of HariwulfR, HaJrawulfR, son of HeruwulfK, wrote these runes.

Here, e.g., we find nom. sing. in -ar changed into -r (cf. hapuwulafs with holtingas on the golden horn), and the plural ending -or into - a r (cf. runas with runos on the Järsbärg-stone). At the beginning of the so-called Viking Period (about 800 a.d.) the Scandinavian language seems to have undergone an extraordinarily rapid development, which in a comparatively short time almost completely transformed its character. This change is especially noticeable in the dropping of unaccented vowels, and in the introduction of a certain vowel harmony of different kinds (“Umlaut”, vowel changes, caused by a following i (j) or u (w ), as kvoeði for kwáði, poem, and “Brechung”, as healpa instead of helpa, to help), different assimilations of consonants (as ll, nn for l p , np; ll, nn, rr, and ss for ls, ns, rs, and sr), dropping of w before o and u (as orið, ulfr for worð word, wulfs, wolf), simplified inflexion of the verbs, a new passive formed by means of affixing the reflexive pronoun sik to the active form (as kalla-sk, to call one’s self, to be called), &c.

At this epoch, therefore, the primitive Scandinavian language must be considered as no longer existing. The next two centuries form a period of transition as regards the language as well as the alphabet which it employed. We possess some inscriptions belonging to this period in which the old runic alphabet of twenty-four characters is still used, and the language of which closely resembles that of the primitive Scandinavian monuments, as, for example, those on the stones of Stentoften and Björketorp, both from southern Sweden, probably dating from the 10th century, and being the longest inscriptions yet found with the old runic alphabet. On the other hand, inscriptions have come down to us dating from about the middle of the 9th century, in which the later and exclusively Scandinavian alphabet of sixteen characters has almost completely superseded the earlier alphabet, from which it was developed, 'while the language not only differs widely from the original Scandinavian, but also exhibits dialectical peculiarities suggesting the existence of a Danish-Swedish language as opposed to Norwegian, as the form ruulf on the stone at Flemlöse in Denmark, which in a Norwegian inscription would have been written hruulf corresponding to Hrolf in Old Norwegian literature. These differences, however, are unimportant, and the Scandinavians still considered their language as one and the same throughout Scandinavia, and named it Donsk tunga, Danish tongue. But when Iceland was colonized at the end of the 9th and the beginning of the 10th century, chiefly from western Norway, a separate (western) Norwegian dialect gradually sprang up, at first of course only differing slightly from the mother-tongue. It was not until the introduction of Christianity (about 1000 a.d.) that the language was so far differentiated as to enable us to distinguish, in runic inscriptions and in the literature which was then arising, four different dialects, which have ever since existed as the four literary languages—Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish. Of these the latter two, often comprehended within the name of Eastern Scandinavian, as well as the former two, Western Scandinavian, or, to use the Old Scandinavians’ own name, Norrϕnt mál, Northern tongue, are very nearly related to each other. The most important differences between the two branches, as seen in the oldest preserved documents, are the following:—(1) In E. Scand. far fewer cases of “Umlaut,” as vári, W. Scand. vaeri, were ; land, W. Scand. lond (from landu), lands; (2) E. Scand. “Brechung” of i into iu (or to) before ng(w), nk(w), as siungse, W. Scand. syngva (from singwa), to sing; (3) in E. Scand. mp, nk, nt are in many cases not assimilated into pp, kk, tt, as krumpen, W. Scand. kroppenn, shrunken; a enkiae, W. Scand. ekkja, widow; bant, W. Scand. bait, he bound; (4) in E. Scand. the dative of the definite plural ends in -omen instead of W. Scand. -onom, as in handomen, hondonom, (to) the hands; (5) in E. Scand. the simplification of the verbal inflexional endings is far further advanced, and the passive ends in -s for -sk, as in kallaes, W. Scand. kallask, to be called In several of these points, and indeed generally speaking, the Western Scandinavian languages have preserved the more primitive forms, as may be seen in the oldest Eastern Scandinavian runic inscriptions, dating from a period before the beginning of the literature, as well as in many modern Eastern Scandinavian dialects. For, having regard to the Scandinavian dialects generally, we must adopt quite a different classification from that indicated by the dialects which are represented in the literature. We now pass on to review the latter and their history.

I. Icelandic. —In ancient times Icelandic was by far the most important of the Scandinavian languages, in form as well as in literature. To avoid ambiguity, the language before the Reformation (about 1530-40) is often called old Icelandic.

1. Old Icelandic was spoken not only in Iceland, but also in Greenland, where Icelandic colonists lived for a lengthened period (983- about 1400). Our knowledge of its character is almost exclusively derived from the remarkably voluminous literature, dating from the middle of the 12th century, and written in the Latin alphabet, adapted to the special requirements of this language. Nothing is preserved of older runic literature. Indeed, Old Icelandic possesses only very few runic monuments (about forty), all of them almost worthless from a philological point of view. The oldest, the inscription on the church door of Valpjofstaðr, dates from the beginning of the 13th century, and is consequently later than the oldest preserved manuscripts in the Latin alphabet, some of which are as old as the end of the 12th century. A small fragment (Cod. AM. 237, fob) of a Book of Homilies (of which a short specimen is given below) is considered the oldest of all. About contemporary with this is the oldest part of an inventory entitled Reykjaholts máldage. From about 1200 we possess a fragment (Cod. Reg. old sign. 1812) of the only existing Old Icelandic glossary, and from the first years of the 13th century the Stockholm Book of Homilies (Cod. Holm. 15, 4to), which from a philological point of view is of the greatest importance, chiefly on account of its very accurate orthography, which is especially noticeable in the indication of quantity; from the early part of the same century comes the fragment (Cod. AM. 325, 2, 4to) entitled Agrip (“abridgment” of the history of Norway), probably a copy of a Norwegian original, also orthographically important. Among later manuscripts we may mention, as philologically interesting, the Annales Regii (Cod. Reg. 2087) from the beginning of the 14th century, orthographically of great value; the rich manuscript of miscellanies, Hauksbók (Codd. AM. 371, 544, 675, 4to), a great part of which is written with Haukr Erlendsson’s (+1334) own hand; and, above all, three short essays, in which some Icelanders have tried to write a grammatical and orthographical treatise on their own mother-tongue, all three appearing as an appendix to the manuscripts of the Prose Edda. The oldest and most important of these essays (preserved in the Cod. Worm, from about 1330) is by an unknown author of about 1150, and is probably intended to be a continuation of a lost work of the first grammarian of Iceland, Póroddr Rúnameistari (who flourished at the beginning of the 12th century); the second (the oldest known manuscript of which is preserved in the Cod. Ups., c. 1290) is perhaps the work of the famous Snorri Sturloson (+1241); the third (the oldest manuscript in Cod. AM. 748, 4to, of the beginning of the 14th century) is by Snorri’s nephew Ólafr Hvítaskáld (+1259), and is no doubt based partly upon pórodd’s work above mentioned, partly and chiefly upon Priscian and Donatus.

The oldest form of the Icelandic language is, however, not preserved in the above-mentioned earliest manuscripts of the end of the 12th century, which are written in the language of their own age, but in far later ones of the 13th century, which contain poems by the oldest Icelandic poets, such as the renowned Egill Skallagrimson (about 930) and the unknown authors of the so-called Edda-songs. In spite of the late date of the manuscripts, the metrical form has been the means of preserving a good deal of the ancient language. But, as already remarked, during the 10th and 11th centuries this dialect differs but little from Norwegian, though in the 12th this is no longer the case.

We may here contrast a specimen of the above-mentioned oldest Icelandic manuscript (from the end of the 12th century) with an almost contemporary Norwegian one (Cod. AM. 619; see below):— [table]

Apart from the fact that the language is, generally speaking, archaic, we find in the Icelandic text two of the oldest and most essential characteristics of Icelandic as opposed to Norwegian, viz., the more complete vowel assimilation (pionosto, tyonasto; cf. also, e.g., Icel. kollokom, Norw. kallaðum, we called) and the retention of initial h before r (hreinlcga, rasinlega), I, and n. other differences, some of which occur at this period, others a little later, are— in Icel. lengthening of a, o, u before If, Ig, Ik, Im, and Ip (as Icel. halfr, Norw. and oldest Icel. halfr, half); later still, also of a, i, ii, and y before ng and nk ; Icel. di and ey for older and (ϕy (as in Icel. daema, heyra, Norw. and oldest Icel. dϕma, to deem, hϕyra, to hear); Icel. termination of 2nd plur. of verbs in -8 (p) or -t, but Norw. often in -r (as Icel. taktið, -t, Norw. takir, you take). These points may be sufficient to characterize the language of the earlier ‘classical” period of Icelandic (about 1190-1350). At the middle of the 13th century the written language undergoes material changes, owing in a great measure, no doubt, to the powerful influence of Snorri Sturloson. Thus in unaccented syllables i now appears for older e, and u (at first only when followed by one or more consonants belonging to the same syllable) for o ; the passive ends in -z for -sk. The other differences from Norwegian, mentioned above as occurring later, are now completely established. With the beginning of the 14th century there appear several new linguistic phenomena: a u is inserted between final r and a preceding consonant (as in ríkur, mighty); o (pronounced as an open o) passes into ö (the character ö was not introduced till the 16th century), or before ng, nk into au (as long, fioll, pronounced laung, fiöll) ; c before ng, nk passes into ei ; a little later e passes into ie, and the passive changes its termination from -z, oldest -sk, into -zt (or -zst) (as in kallazt, to be called). The post-classical period of old Icelandic (1350-1530), which is, from a literary point of view, of but little importance, already shows marked differences that are characteristic of Modern Icelandic; as early as the 15th century we find ddl for ll and rl (as falla, pronounced faddla, to fall), ddn for nn and rn (as horn, pron. hoddn, horn); about the year 1500 ve after h passes into vo, in other positions to vo (as hvelpr, pron. xvolpur, whelp; kvern, pron. kvöm, mill), etc.

Although dialectical differences are not altogether wanting, they do not occur to any great extent in the Old Icelandic literary language. Thus, in some manuscripts we find ft replaced by fst (oft, ofst, often); in manuscripts from the western part of the island there appears in the 13th and 14th centuries a tendency to change If, rf into lb, rb (tolf, tolb, twelve; porf, porb, want), &c. To what extent the language of Greenland differed from that of Iceland we cannot judge from the few runic monuments which have come down to us from that colony.

Apart from the comparatively inconsiderable attempts at a grammatical treatment of old Icelandic in the Middle Ages which we have mentioned above, grammar as a science can only be said to have commenced in the 17 th century. The first grammar, written by the Icelander Runolphus Jonas (+1654), dates from 1651. His contemporary and compatriot Gudmund Andreae (+1654) compiled the first dictionary, which was not, however, edited till 1683 (by the Dane Petrus Resenius, +1688). The first scholars who studied old Icelandic systematically were H. K. Rask...

If this view be correct, the Scandinavian languages have had an existence of more than four thousand years. But we do not know anything about them during the period before the birth of Christ. It is only from that epoch we can get any information concerning the language of the old Scandinavians, which seems by that time not only to have spread over Denmark and great parts of southern and middle Sweden and of (southern) Norway, but also to have reached Finland (at least Nyland) and Esthonia. In spite of its extension over this considerable geographical area, the language appears to have been fairly homogeneous throughout the whole territory. Consequently, it may be regarded as a uniform language, the mother of the younger Scandinavian tongues, and accordingly has been named the primitive Scandinavian (urnordisk) language. The oldest sources of our knowledge of this tongue are the words which were borrowed during the first centuries of the Christian era (some of them perhaps even earlier) by the Lapps from the inhabitants of central Sweden and Norway, and by the Finns from their neighbours in Finland and Esthonia, and which have been preserved in Finnish and Lappish down to our own days. These borrowed words, denoting chiefly utensils belonging to a fairly advanced stage of culture, amount to several hundreds, with a phonetic form of a very primitive stamp; as Finn. terva (O. Sw. tiaera, Germ. theer), tar; airo (O. Sw. ar), oar; kansa (O. H. G. hansa), people; napakaira (O. H. G. nabagêr, O. Sw. navar), auger; nekla (Got. nêfla, O. Sw. nal), needle; ansas (Got. ans, O. Sw. as), beam; Lapp sajet (Got. saian, O. Sw. sa), sow; garves (O. H. G. garawêr, O. Sw. gör), finished; divres (O. Sax. diuri, O. Sw. dyr), dear; saipo (O. H. G. seifa, Sw. sapa), soap. These words, with those mentioned by contemporary Roman and Greek authors, are the oldest existing traces of any Germanic language. Wrested from their context, however, they throw but little light on the nature of the original northern tongue. But a series of linguistic monuments have come down to us dating from the end of the so-called early Iron Age (about 450 a.d.),— the knowledge and the use of the oldest runic alphabet (with twenty-four characters) having at that period been propagated among the Scandinavians by the southern Germanic tribes. In fact we still possess, preserved down to our own times, primitive northern runic inscriptions, the oldest upon the utensils found at Thorsbjerg, dating back to about 300 a.d. , which, together with the MS. fragments of Ulfila’s Gothic translation of the Bible, about two hundred years later in date, constitute the oldest veritable monuments of any Germanic tongue. These runic inscriptions are for the most part found on stone-monuments (sometimes on rocks) and bracteates (gold coins stamped on one side and used for ornaments), as well as on metallic and wooden utensils, weapons, and ornaments. Up to this time there have been discovered more than one hundred, but of these only about one-half give us any information concerning the language, and most of them are only too short. The longest one, the stone-monument of Tune, in south-eastern Norway, contains only sixteen words. Their language is somewhat later in character than that of the oldest words borrowed by the Lapps and Finns: accented ê , for example, is already changed into a (cf. mariR — Goth, mêrs, renowned; but the Finn. borrowed word nêkla = Goth. nêpla, needle), and the voiced s into a kind of r (cf. dagaR = Goth, dags, day; but Finn. armas = Goth, arms, poor). On the other hand, in all essential matters it is much earlier in character than the language of contemporary Gothic manuscripts, and no doubt approaches more nearly than any Germanic idiom the primitive form of the Germanic tongue. For the sake of comparison, we give a Gothic translation of one of the oldest of the primitive Scandinavian inscriptions, that on the golden horn of Gallehus, found on the Danish-German frontier, and dating from about 400 a.d. :—

Scand.: ek hlewagasti R holtinga R . horna. tawido; Goth.: ik hliugasts. hultiggs. haurn. tawida;

Engl.: I, HlewagastiR, son of Holta, made the horn; as well as the inscription on the stone-monument of Järsbärg in western Sweden, which is at least a hundred years later:—

Scand.: UBA. R HITE. HARABANA. R WIT IAH EK ERILA R RUNO R waritu;

Goth.: ufar hita, hrabns wit jah ik airils rûnôs writu;

Engl.: In memory of HitaR. We both, HarabanaR and I ErrlaR, wrote the runes.

Although very brief, and not yet thoroughly interpreted, these primitive Scandinavian inscriptions are nevertheless sufficient to enable us to determine with some certainty the relation which the language in which they are written bears to other languages. Thus it is proved that it belongs to the Germanic family of the Indo-European stock of languages, of which it constitutes an independent and individual branch. Its nearest relation being the Gothic, these two branches are sometimes taken together under the general denomination Eastern Germanic, as opposed to the other Germanic idioms (German, English, Dutch, &c.), which are then called Western Germanic. The most essential point of correspondence between the Gothic and Scandinavian branches is the insertion in certain cases of gg before w and j (ggj in Gothic was changed into ddj), as in gen. plur. O. H. G. zweiio, O. Engl, tivega (two), compared with O. Icel., 0. Norw. tveggja, O. Sw., O. Dan. tviggjse, Goth, twaddje; and, still, in Germ, treu, Engl, true, compared with Sw., Norw., Dan. trygg, Icel. tryggr, Goth, triggws. However, even in the primitive Scandinavian age the difference between Gothic and Scandinavian is more clearly marked than the resemblance; thus, for example—just to hint only at some of the oldest and most essential differences—Goth. nom. sing, ending in -a corresponds to primitive Scandinavian -ar, -iR (as Goth, dags, day, gasts, guest = Scand. dagaR, gastiR) ·, Goth. gen. sing, in -is to Scand. -as (as Goth, dagis, day’s = Scand. dagas); Goth. dat. sing, in -a to Scand. -e (as Goth. kaurna, corn = Scand. kume) ; Goth. 1st pers. sing. pret. in -da to Scand. -do (as Goth, taurida, did = Scand. tawido).

As early as the beginning of the so-called later Iron Age (about 700 a.d.) the primitive Scandinavian language had undergone a considerable transformation, as is proved for example by the remarkable runic stone at Istaby in the south of Sweden, with the inscription—

AFATR HARIWULAFA HAPUWULAFR HAERUWULAFIR waRAIT RUNA.R pAIA.R;

Engl.: In memory of HariwulfR, HaJrawulfR, son of HeruwulfK, wrote these runes.

Here, e.g., we find nom. sing. in -ar changed into -r (cf. hapuwulafs with holtingas on the golden horn), and the plural ending -or into - a r (cf. runas with runos on the Järsbärg-stone). At the beginning of the so-called Viking Period (about 800 a.d.) the Scandinavian language seems to have undergone an extraordinarily rapid development, which in a comparatively short time almost completely transformed its character. This change is especially noticeable in the dropping of unaccented vowels, and in the introduction of a certain vowel harmony of different kinds (“Umlaut”, vowel changes, caused by a following i (j) or u (w ), as kvoeði for kwáði, poem, and “Brechung”, as healpa instead of helpa, to help), different assimilations of consonants (as ll, nn for l p , np; ll, nn, rr, and ss for ls, ns, rs, and sr), dropping of w before o and u (as orið, ulfr for worð word, wulfs, wolf), simplified inflexion of the verbs, a new passive formed by means of affixing the reflexive pronoun sik to the active form (as kalla-sk, to call one’s self, to be called), &c.

At this epoch, therefore, the primitive Scandinavian language must be considered as no longer existing. The next two centuries form a period of transition as regards the language as well as the alphabet which it employed. We possess some inscriptions belonging to this period in which the old runic alphabet of twenty-four characters is still used, and the language of which closely resembles that of the primitive Scandinavian monuments, as, for example, those on the stones of Stentoften and Björketorp, both from southern Sweden, probably dating from the 10th century, and being the longest inscriptions yet found with the old runic alphabet. On the other hand, inscriptions have come down to us dating from about the middle of the 9th century, in which the later and exclusively Scandinavian alphabet of sixteen characters has almost completely superseded the earlier alphabet, from which it was developed, 'while the language not only differs widely from the original Scandinavian, but also exhibits dialectical peculiarities suggesting the existence of a Danish-Swedish language as opposed to Norwegian, as the form ruulf on the stone at Flemlöse in Denmark, which in a Norwegian inscription would have been written hruulf corresponding to Hrolf in Old Norwegian literature. These differences, however, are unimportant, and the Scandinavians still considered their language as one and the same throughout Scandinavia, and named it Donsk tunga, Danish tongue. But when Iceland was colonized at the end of the 9th and the beginning of the 10th century, chiefly from western Norway, a separate (western) Norwegian dialect gradually sprang up, at first of course only differing slightly from the mother-tongue. It was not until the introduction of Christianity (about 1000 a.d.) that the language was so far differentiated as to enable us to distinguish, in runic inscriptions and in the literature which was then arising, four different dialects, which have ever since existed as the four literary languages—Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish. Of these the latter two, often comprehended within the name of Eastern Scandinavian, as well as the former two, Western Scandinavian, or, to use the Old Scandinavians’ own name, Norrϕnt mál, Northern tongue, are very nearly related to each other. The most important differences between the two branches, as seen in the oldest preserved documents, are the following:—(1) In E. Scand. far fewer cases of “Umlaut,” as vári, W. Scand. vaeri, were ; land, W. Scand. lond (from landu), lands; (2) E. Scand. “Brechung” of i into iu (or to) before ng(w), nk(w), as siungse, W. Scand. syngva (from singwa), to sing; (3) in E. Scand. mp, nk, nt are in many cases not assimilated into pp, kk, tt, as krumpen, W. Scand. kroppenn, shrunken; a enkiae, W. Scand. ekkja, widow; bant, W. Scand. bait, he bound; (4) in E. Scand. the dative of the definite plural ends in -omen instead of W. Scand. -onom, as in handomen, hondonom, (to) the hands; (5) in E. Scand. the simplification of the verbal inflexional endings is far further advanced, and the passive ends in -s for -sk, as in kallaes, W. Scand. kallask, to be called In several of these points, and indeed generally speaking, the Western Scandinavian languages have preserved the more primitive forms, as may be seen in the oldest Eastern Scandinavian runic inscriptions, dating from a period before the beginning of the literature, as well as in many modern Eastern Scandinavian dialects. For, having regard to the Scandinavian dialects generally, we must adopt quite a different classification from that indicated by the dialects which are represented in the literature. We now pass on to review the latter and their history.

I. Icelandic. —In ancient times Icelandic was by far the most important of the Scandinavian languages, in form as well as in literature. To avoid ambiguity, the language before the Reformation (about 1530-40) is often called old Icelandic.

1. Old Icelandic was spoken not only in Iceland, but also in Greenland, where Icelandic colonists lived for a lengthened period (983- about 1400). Our knowledge of its character is almost exclusively derived from the remarkably voluminous literature, dating from the middle of the 12th century, and written in the Latin alphabet, adapted to the special requirements of this language. Nothing is preserved of older runic literature. Indeed, Old Icelandic possesses only very few runic monuments (about forty), all of them almost worthless from a philological point of view. The oldest, the inscription on the church door of Valpjofstaðr, dates from the beginning of the 13th century, and is consequently later than the oldest preserved manuscripts in the Latin alphabet, some of which are as old as the end of the 12th century. A small fragment (Cod. AM. 237, fob) of a Book of Homilies (of which a short specimen is given below) is considered the oldest of all. About contemporary with this is the oldest part of an inventory entitled Reykjaholts máldage. From about 1200 we possess a fragment (Cod. Reg. old sign. 1812) of the only existing Old Icelandic glossary, and from the first years of the 13th century the Stockholm Book of Homilies (Cod. Holm. 15, 4to), which from a philological point of view is of the greatest importance, chiefly on account of its very accurate orthography, which is especially noticeable in the indication of quantity; from the early part of the same century comes the fragment (Cod. AM. 325, 2, 4to) entitled Agrip (“abridgment” of the history of Norway), probably a copy of a Norwegian original, also orthographically important. Among later manuscripts we may mention, as philologically interesting, the Annales Regii (Cod. Reg. 2087) from the beginning of the 14th century, orthographically of great value; the rich manuscript of miscellanies, Hauksbók (Codd. AM. 371, 544, 675, 4to), a great part of which is written with Haukr Erlendsson’s (+1334) own hand; and, above all, three short essays, in which some Icelanders have tried to write a grammatical and orthographical treatise on their own mother-tongue, all three appearing as an appendix to the manuscripts of the Prose Edda. The oldest and most important of these essays (preserved in the Cod. Worm, from about 1330) is by an unknown author of about 1150, and is probably intended to be a continuation of a lost work of the first grammarian of Iceland, Póroddr Rúnameistari (who flourished at the beginning of the 12th century); the second (the oldest known manuscript of which is preserved in the Cod. Ups., c. 1290) is perhaps the work of the famous Snorri Sturloson (+1241); the third (the oldest manuscript in Cod. AM. 748, 4to, of the beginning of the 14th century) is by Snorri’s nephew Ólafr Hvítaskáld (+1259), and is no doubt based partly upon pórodd’s work above mentioned, partly and chiefly upon Priscian and Donatus.

The oldest form of the Icelandic language is, however, not preserved in the above-mentioned earliest manuscripts of the end of the 12th century, which are written in the language of their own age, but in far later ones of the 13th century, which contain poems by the oldest Icelandic poets, such as the renowned Egill Skallagrimson (about 930) and the unknown authors of the so-called Edda-songs. In spite of the late date of the manuscripts, the metrical form has been the means of preserving a good deal of the ancient language. But, as already remarked, during the 10th and 11th centuries this dialect differs but little from Norwegian, though in the 12th this is no longer the case.

We may here contrast a specimen of the above-mentioned oldest Icelandic manuscript (from the end of the 12th century) with an almost contemporary Norwegian one (Cod. AM. 619; see below):— [table]

Apart from the fact that the language is, generally speaking, archaic, we find in the Icelandic text two of the oldest and most essential characteristics of Icelandic as opposed to Norwegian, viz., the more complete vowel assimilation (pionosto, tyonasto; cf. also, e.g., Icel. kollokom, Norw. kallaðum, we called) and the retention of initial h before r (hreinlcga, rasinlega), I, and n. other differences, some of which occur at this period, others a little later, are— in Icel. lengthening of a, o, u before If, Ig, Ik, Im, and Ip (as Icel. halfr, Norw. and oldest Icel. halfr, half); later still, also of a, i, ii, and y before ng and nk ; Icel. di and ey for older and (ϕy (as in Icel. daema, heyra, Norw. and oldest Icel. dϕma, to deem, hϕyra, to hear); Icel. termination of 2nd plur. of verbs in -8 (p) or -t, but Norw. often in -r (as Icel. taktið, -t, Norw. takir, you take). These points may be sufficient to characterize the language of the earlier ‘classical” period of Icelandic (about 1190-1350). At the middle of the 13th century the written language undergoes material changes, owing in a great measure, no doubt, to the powerful influence of Snorri Sturloson. Thus in unaccented syllables i now appears for older e, and u (at first only when followed by one or more consonants belonging to the same syllable) for o ; the passive ends in -z for -sk. The other differences from Norwegian, mentioned above as occurring later, are now completely established. With the beginning of the 14th century there appear several new linguistic phenomena: a u is inserted between final r and a preceding consonant (as in ríkur, mighty); o (pronounced as an open o) passes into ö (the character ö was not introduced till the 16th century), or before ng, nk into au (as long, fioll, pronounced laung, fiöll) ; c before ng, nk passes into ei ; a little later e passes into ie, and the passive changes its termination from -z, oldest -sk, into -zt (or -zst) (as in kallazt, to be called). The post-classical period of old Icelandic (1350-1530), which is, from a literary point of view, of but little importance, already shows marked differences that are characteristic of Modern Icelandic; as early as the 15th century we find ddl for ll and rl (as falla, pronounced faddla, to fall), ddn for nn and rn (as horn, pron. hoddn, horn); about the year 1500 ve after h passes into vo, in other positions to vo (as hvelpr, pron. xvolpur, whelp; kvern, pron. kvöm, mill), etc.

Although dialectical differences are not altogether wanting, they do not occur to any great extent in the Old Icelandic literary language. Thus, in some manuscripts we find ft replaced by fst (oft, ofst, often); in manuscripts from the western part of the island there appears in the 13th and 14th centuries a tendency to change If, rf into lb, rb (tolf, tolb, twelve; porf, porb, want), &c. To what extent the language of Greenland differed from that of Iceland we cannot judge from the few runic monuments which have come down to us from that colony.

Apart from the comparatively inconsiderable attempts at a grammatical treatment of old Icelandic in the Middle Ages which we have mentioned above, grammar as a science can only be said to have commenced in the 17 th century. The first grammar, written by the Icelander Runolphus Jonas (+1654), dates from 1651. His contemporary and compatriot Gudmund Andreae (+1654) compiled the first dictionary, which was not, however, edited till 1683 (by the Dane Petrus Resenius, +1688). The first scholars who studied old Icelandic systematically were H. K. Rask...