Wiktionary:About Proto-Norse
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Proto-Norse is the earliest attested Germanic language, and the earliest ancestor of Old Norse, thus also the earliest attested ancestor of the North Germanic languages. It was spoken from the 2nd to the 8th century, and written in runes, specifically with the Elder Futhark. Unlike most other "Proto"-languages, Proto-Norse is not reconstructed, but in fact attested.
Being the earliest attested Germanic language, Proto-Norse is also the most archaic. However, unlike Gothic, Proto-Norse is only attested in very short text fragments, typically maker's formulae of the type "I, N.N. made ".
Terminology and common practice
- The original writer of a runic inscription is called a runographer or runemaster.
- Converting runes directly to the Latin alphabet is called transliterating. When transliterating, bold text is used.
- When normalizing transliterated text, italic text is used.
Entries and formatting
Attestation
As an extinct language (see Wiktionary:CFI#Attestation), only one attestation of a word is required for it to be included. What this means in practice is that every word you can find that is not in the Dictionary, should be added. If a word is not attested, it should be placed in the Reconstruction namespace. See *ᛗᚨᚾᛟ (*mano) for an example. Note also that elements of compounds (almost always proper names), unless also attested independently, should be listed as unattested. See *ᚷᚨᛊᛏᛁᛉ (*gastiʀ).
Lemma forms
The lemma forms of words should optimally be the nominative singular for nouns, the infinitve for verbs and the masculine nominative singular for adjectives, in accordance with the traditional structure of other old Germanic languages, such as Gothic and Old Norse. However, the vast majority of words are only attested in other forms (there are for instance, no infinitives attested at all). In this case, the words should be included as they are, but with a reference to what the "optimal lemma form" should have been.
Quote formatting
Every Proto-Norse entry, unless reconstructed, should have a quote from the runic inscription where it was found. The formatting of quotations should be as on the page ᚢᚦᚼᚱᚼᛒᚼ. It begins with a dating of the inscription, followed by a link to the object. Then comes a direct rendition of the runic inscription, with a translitterated form directly below. After that follows a normalized form, with spaces and macrons indicating vowel length, and finally an English translation.
Normalizing runic inscriptions
When normalizing runic inscriptions, which often feature strange spellings and at times even plain errors, the following is done:
- italic text is used
In wikicode
#* '''7th century''', inscription on the :
#*: {{quote|gmq-pro|'''ᚢᚦᚼᚱᚼᛒᚼ'''ᛋᛒᚼ|tr='''ūþaraba''' spā|t= prophecy of '''misfortune'''}}
As it appears on the page
- misfortune, problem (genitive plural)
- 7th century, inscription on the Björketorp stone:
- ᚢᚦᚼᚱᚼᛒᚼᛋᛒᚼ
- ūþaraba spā
- prophecy of misfortune
- 7th century, inscription on the Björketorp stone:
Orthography
Proto-Norse was written with runes. Below follow some general rules about runic writing in Proto-Norse:
- Unlike modern English, the alphabet is phonetic. What this means is that each rune generally represents one sound value. Thus, if a person wished to write the word */ˈhor.nɑ/ (horna), he would first use the rune with the value of /h/, then the one with the value /o/, etc, until he ended up with ᚺᛟᚱᚾᚨ (horna), a word which we see on the Gallehus horns.
- Each rune has a word associated with it, with a meaning in the Proto-Norse language. The sound value of the rune is determined by initial sound of the word, except for in the cases of ᛉ (z) and ᛜ (ŋ). What this means is that if the initial sound of the word changes, so does the sound value of the rune. This is called acrophony.
- Diphthongs are written with two vowels, not with the ᛃ (j)-rune or the ᚹ (w)-rune. Thus, */ˈstɑi̯.nɑz/ is written as ᛊᛏᚨᛁᚾᚨᛉ (stainaʀ), not *ᛊᛏᚨᛃᚾᚨᛉ (stajnaz).
- A cluster of a dental and a nasal is usually written with just the dental, thus /nd/ is written with only the ᛞ (d) rune. Some examples are ᚱᚨᚷᛁᚾᚨᚲᚢᛞᛟ (raginakudo), ᚲᚢᚾᛁᛗᚢᛞᛁᚢ (kunimudiu).
- Geminated (long) sounds (both vowels and consonants) are only written with one rune. So, the name of the ᛗ (m) rune, *mannz, would be written as *ᛗᚨᚾᛉ (*manz), and the word *rādaz as *ᚱᚨᛞᚨᛉ (*radaʀ), which is attested in several compound words.
The Elder Futhark
At the start of the period, the runic alphabet (the Elder Futhark) looks approximately like this:
| Rune | Roman equivalent | Phonetic value | Reconstructed Proto-Norse name |
|---|---|---|---|
| ᚠ | f | /f/ or /ɸ/ | *fehu |
| ᚢ | u | /u(ː)/ | *ūruz |
| ᚦ | þ | /þ/ | *þursaz |
| ᚨ | a | /a(ː)/ | *ansuz |
| ᚱ | r | /r/ | *raiðu |
| ᚲ | k | /k/ | *kauną |
| ᚷ | g | /g/, /ɣ/ | *gebu |
| ᚹ | w | /w/ | *wunju |
| ᚺ | h | /x/ or /h/ | *hag(a)laz |
| ᚾ | n | /n/ | *nauðiz |
| ᛁ | i | /i(ː)/ | *īsaz |
| ᛃ | j | /j/ | *jāra |
| ᛇ | ï | ? | *īhwaz |
| ᛈ | p | /p/ | *perþu |
| ᛉ | z or ʀ | /ʀ/¹ | *algiz |
| ᛊ | s | /s/ | *sōwilu |
| ᛏ | t | /t/ | *tīwaz |
| ᛒ | b | /b/, /β/ | *berkana |
| ᛖ | e | /ɛ/ | *ehwaz |
| ᛗ | m | /m/ | *mannz |
| ᛚ | l | /l/ | *laguz |
| ᛜ | ŋ | /ŋ/ | *ingwaz |
| ᛟ | o | /o(ː)/ | *ōþala |
| ᛞ | d | /d/, /ð/ | *dagaz |
¹ the exact value of this consonant is unknown. It originally comes from a Proto-Germanic voiced *s, as seen in Gothic, and eventually merges with /r/, though this does not happen until the Old Norse period.
Transitional period
Towards the later part of the Proto-Norse period, the older runic orthography breaks down. This is known as the transitional period, and eventually results in the Younger Futhark. Good examples of this are the Blekinge inscriptions; Stentoften, Björketorp, Gummarp and Istaby.
At this point, certain runes are dropped while others have their values changed. The changes are approximately as follows:
- ᛜ (ŋ), ᛈ (p), and ᛇ (ï) are no longer used.
- the ᚨ (a) rune, which originally represented a regular /a/, comes to represent specifically a nasal /ã/.
- at the same time, /j/ has been dropped before vowels. Because of this, the sound value of the old ᛃ (j) rune has turned into /a(ː)/. Thus, evolved variants of said rune, ᛋ/ᚼ (A) are used for /a(ː)/. This is the origin of the ᛅ (a) rune in the Younger Futhark. As can be seen on the Stentoften stone, however, the older shape of the ᛃ rune persisted alongside this for some time as an ideographic symbol.
- the ᛉ (z) rune is flipped over, which gives us ᛦ, the form seen in the Younger Futhark.
Sound changes from Proto-Germanic to Proto-Norse in roughly chronological order
This list is not exhaustive, and more will be added. Many changes are shared with West Germanic.
Vowels
- Stressed *ē > ā
- Word-final *-ō > -u
- Word-final *-ǭ > -ō
- adjectival feminine accusative singular *-ǭ > -ō (*kundǭ > *kundō (in ᚱᚨᚷᛁᚾᚨᚲᚢᛞᛟ (raginakudo /raginakundō/)))
- Unstressed *au > ō
- u-stem genitive singular *-auz > -ōʀ (*magauz > ᛗᚨᚷᛟᛉ (magoʀ /magōʀ/))
- Unstressed *ai > ē
- Loss of word-final *-i
Consonants
- TBD