Old Norse and the Modern Scandinavian Languages

[@JacksonCrawford]

I consider this a replacement for two old videos, "Old Norse vs. Modern Icelandic" and "What language is closest to Old Norse?" (by the altar of all that is holy, I will not put a question mark in a video title again).

[@crimsonspectre13]

I imagine that caused a massive migraine due to your eyes rolling and smacking yourself in the forehead while reading the comments. 😂

[@Hwyadylaw]

Your pronunciation of Swedish is very good. Only significant thing that's off is a few things like the vowel in "dom" and "tar" and the pitch accent.

[@saatvikam]

There is a question mark dangerously close to the title of this video. Consider this my Stern Warning.

[@magnanimousknight1162]

Hello Dr. Crawford. I have an unusual request. I was wondering if you could do a video about your thoughts on the British movie The Ritual on Netflix. I'm not sure if you're familiar with it, but it is a horror movie that takes place in Sweden and has a connection with Norse mythology. I would like to hear an expert's opinion on the film and what may be authentic or inauthentic in what the film presents regarding Norse Mythology and possibly any other thoughts and context you could provide.

[@Soren015]

"There is a sort of musical tone to swedish and norwegian that is not present in danish." - that's a harsh truth right there...

[@pipkin5287]

The fact that you can even simulate a vocal stød is impressive to me as a native Danish speaker. Really well done!

[@jhendin]

I lived in Sweden some 47 years ago and have managed to maintain the language over the years. For quite a while I've been trying to do my own independent study with Old Norse, as well as a comparison study involving all the Scandinavian languages. I have all the text books you promote, but there's nothing like in-classroom learning, because it helps having things explained by an instructor. Your videos are the next best thing. You've helped explain the things I've had questions for for a long time.

[@Ca11mero]

Isn't there some swedish classes in the US (I assume you are from the US? I mean there should be some native swedes doing it somewhere. It would be a good start I think

[@Ca11mero]

I guess I misread what the guy said, 5(!) years ago, must have thought he said he lost his ability for Swedish. Reason I said US is because there are quite a few people who moved there as kids and forgot the language. For most of Europe, you would still go back every now and then since it's so close. @@john.premose

[@Taggez1]

Your pronunciation is really good! (I speak swedish) and thank you for bringing up älvdalska! I wish our government put in more effort to keep that language alive. The only thing they've really done is open up a kindergarden in Älvdalen where they only speak älvdalska.

[@maxsvensson5891]

Ask your local politicians about it and choose who you vote for this autumn. You are part of "they".

[@SuperEddyn]

There are more of these languages spread out in Scandinavia, like Bondska (Överkalixmål, Kalixmål). But eventually, most of them will probably disappear thanks to a standardization of the languages that is brought upon by the internet.

[@Nallebjorn1]

Jobbade i Lima några veckor och förstod bara en bråkdel av vad de lokala boende sade det var verkligen unikt och skilt från standardsvenskan.

[@Red0100]

Keeping language and dialects alive is up to the people, not the government. Unless you want the government to force people to speak in a certain manner.

[@JellyfishButterGaming]

I'm trying to learn Swedish so I can come visit. Doing my best

[@basketjocke4747]

Grea job with the "sj-sound" in swedish! Please do a video on the more distinct dialects of Scandinavia, such as jærsk, gutamål, bondska and älvdalska.

[@vatterholm]

Could be interesting to cover lesser known but distinct dialects, such as in Orsa or conservative areas of Halland.

[@marklapolla2638]

I also noticed that there was a similar sound to ⟨ɧ⟩ in your reading, Jackson, of the Voluspar. In Sweden, depending on where you are from, that voiceless fricative can be either fronted into an almost [f] should or in the back of the throat like an velar and/or postalveolar fricative [x].

[@marklapolla2638]

I must add that the sj-sound is indeed well done. In some dialects, that ö in sjö is pronounced very close to a /ew/ as in ew in English.

[@livedandletdie]

He could try Mopedalska. It's one of the oldest southern dialects. More closely related to Scanian and Old Danish that the current dialects down here.

[@livedandletdie]

Mark LaPolla, nah the Sj sound wasn't that good, only in Skepp, which is the easy one to learn. There are 4 more to learn. Sk- Sj- Stj- Sch- Tj- K- but just using [ɧ] throughout all of them works.

[@Tankervoy]

So interesting that when you first talked about pronouncing the h in “what” or “why” etc in English, I was unable to reproduce it myself. BUT when you wrote out “hvat” as in the old west Norse, I was able to get it instantly. I speak a northern Norwegian dialect and although we no longer have this sound (I would say “ka” for hvat) it came really naturally to me. It just made sense to put the h before the v-sound instead of the other way around. OK as I am typing this I realize that this is probably not interesting to anyone but myself, haha.

[@asbjrnpoulsen9205]

ka kvat

[@mrmarmellow555]

LilleP Gud Dögg! SOO Agree Nice Enuthiusm There Are U watching the Northern Lights Still Me Lady? Ya Know "Jeg elsker Deg" I Thank thatz Right Aye😄🤗

[@herrfriberger5]

But east scandinavians have it - _vad,_ spelled _hvad_ not long ago (1906).

[@asbjrnpoulsen9205]

in faroese hvat

[@txviking]

In English, the modern spelling is actually a reversal. For example, modern English "what" ultimately derives from Old English "hwæt". I'm not sure why the spelling changed, but the Old English pronouns "hwa, hwæt, hwær, hwæþer, hwelc" etc more closely show the relationship to even modern Scandinavian cognates.

[@albin7772]

We still use "dem" in Swedish as we do "de". They are used in Sweden as (They=de) and (Them=dem) with some exceptions.

[@LeStrata1]

Same thing in danish

[@dan74695]

Same thing in Norwegian as well.

[@theodorandren6850]

That distinction will be dead in 3 generations at most mark my words

[@SynthhInHD]

My Swedish teacher told me that if it's a sentence that makes sense to use "jag" in, it's de, and with "mig" it's dem.

[@SynthhInHD]

@@theodorandren6850 Honestly I hope so, lol. It's such a pointless distinction to make. It isn't distinguishable in spoken Swedish, only in written.

[@weepingscorpion8739]

Very nice video as always. Just a few notes, however: Faroese long 's pronunciation is closer to the stressed vowel in the English word . The -ki ending is also preaspirated though I have seen that some books on Faroese use the regular voiced vs. voiceless distinction but this is incorrect. Also, I noticed "tað tekur", the masculine form would be "hann tekur" just like in Icelandic. The Danish pronoun I (y'all) is always capitalised. The Faroese word for cod is toskur. The -r- in -rsk- and -rst- clusters has a habit of disappearing so we have toskur but also tosti for thirst (tystur for thirsty), also the Faroese cognate to fresh is feskur. As for Faroese þ > h, my speculation is that there's a slight chance that Gaelic _may_ have had some influence here. In Modern Scottish and Irish, the Medieval Irish has become an /h/ so the personal pronoun thu (you (sg.)) is in Scottish Gaelic pronounced like the English word who. But as I say this is just me speculating and I really should look in to that. But as I said, a great video as always, and keep up the good work. PS. most of the dialects of the Faroese island of Suðuroy have developed a glide in the pronouns you mentioned and it is possible to spell them out so you get: jeg elski tjeg, and tú elskar mjeg, however, I don't think many people are aware of this so you don't see it spelled out very often. They also do not use the words vit and tit for the plural pronouns but rather okur and tykur, which are most likely back-formations from the object forms okum and tykum (okkum and tykkum in Standard Faroese). But yeah, all this on Faroese is possibly a story worth its own video but as this afaict would fall outside the scope of your channel, the introduction made here is more than adequate.

[@Tankervoy]

Weeping Scorpion How interesting about the disappearing R. I speak a northern Norwegian dialect and I have noticed a lot of similarities with Faroese that doesn’t exist otherwise in Norwegian language. For instance I remember my grandpa saying «tøst» instead of «tørst» (thirsty).

[@justarandompally]

We have similar dialects in Danish, where many longer vowels (or vowels followed by r) became short vowels, like, for instance, "tørst" becoming "tøst" (though the change in the "ø" sound from the r still remains)

[@benhetland576]

Interesting about the loss of the r in clusters. This sometimes happens in southwestern Norwegian dialects as well, although that would usually be the uvular r being lost. So tørst (thirsty) becomes tyste and først/fyrst (first) becomes fyst. As children we often say tosk for the fish as well, until we are probably relearning that tosk means a stupid person while torsk refers to the cod. Still this r loss doesn't seem to apply universally in such clusters, as eg it can even become more complex than in standard Norwegian, as in norsk and norskt (neuter singular adjective). The application of the 1st person plural pronoun okkar (or similar) is also seen in some places, but in Norwegian dialects the 2nd person plural pronoun dokker is nearly universal along the western coast from the southernmost to the northernmost tip of the country. There are a few exceptions, but they are not many.

[@vatterholm]

I think losing R in words is pretty much universal in Norwegian, save for a few dialects in the south. bjørn>bjønn, torsk>tosk.

[@benhetland576]

There appears to be two different processes being discussed here. One is the simple loss of an R, which apparently may happen to both the uvular as well as the thrilled R. The other phenomenon applies only with a thrilled R, and that it when it gets "merged" with a following d, l, n, s or t. The latter is very prevalent in both Norwegian and Swedish dialects, but never in those using the uvular R. What happens is that the consonant pair gets replaced with a retroflex variant of the second consonant.

[@wug6175]

46:10 That does actually happen in Norway too. You'll have people who say "fjedl" in stead of "fjell". This happens where I come from (Sunnhordland), although it is falling out of use. Nowadays it is only elderly people and some younger farmers that still use it, but it's interesting nonetheless.

[@Vidlaste]

I'm from the southwest, and I say fjedl (mountain), stodl (chair), adle (all). I'm not even that old (30s)

[@EivindurToftegaard]

You even have "fjødd" for "fjell" in some eastern? Dialects.

[@tf5]

One thing I noticed, the D in vad in Swedish is usually pronounced, which you didn't do. Sometimes it's left out, but it's usually when exclaiming suprise; then you may hear someone say ”va?!”, but otherwise it's vad with a D.

[@zoushuu]

In casual spoken language, I think dropping the d is more common than not. But it surely depends on many factors, like how fast you're speaking, how old you are, what part of the country you are from, if you're making an effort to speak extra clearly etc.

[@Magnus_Loov]

No, I think we usually drop the "D" too. We don't say "VaD sa du?", it becomes "va sa du?". Same with "VaD vill du"=""Va vill du?". I think it especially true for the times when the next word begins with a consonant. If it begins with a wovel we may pronouce the "D", like with "Vad är?".

[@lykkemarieofficial]

Interesting that 'I love you' comes ''ek ann þer'' - it reminds me of the verb 'at ane' in danish, which means to notice or to sense, essentially. It would be 'Jeg aner dig', as in 'I sense you' (I'm danish ,so please, other Scandinavian speakers, let me know if its different for you)

[@joedale6496]

Wait! That sounded like Johnny Cash speaking Faroese! Awesome!

[@getinge]

Just found this video and as a swede living in southern sweden I have to say your pronounciation is close to perfect in all languages. Crazy impressed!

[@VeracityTrigger]

This was great. Thanks a lot Dr. Crawford.

[@benhetland576]

Similar to Icelandic, dissimilation of long l, n, rn and sometimes even mm is quite common in the South and West of Norway as well. So fjell can become fjedl, stol > stodl, stein > steidn, barn > badn, korn > kodn, ville > vidle (adj =wild, but not the verb ville =would), alle > adle (=all pl, but it still is alt in sg neuter). Only a few dialects have komma > kobma (to come), but the feature does exist.

[@g.m.s2559]

And in Setesdal (Agder, NO), ll has become dd (as in other dialects in the area). The dialect also has the loss of the letter l before k, g, v, m, p and of the letter k before n. Setesdal: "Tvæ jento og tvei geuta jinge i fjøddou. Da aire foukka, tri kara, trjå jentu og trju bonn leika mæ ain neive og drakk mjåkk." Norwegian (nynorsk): "To jenter og to gutar gjekk i fjella. Dei andre folka, tre karar, tre jenter og tre born leika med ein kniv og drakk mjølk." English: "Two girls and two boys walked in the mountains. "The others folks", three guys, three girls and three children played with a knife and drank milk."

[@Simon-ow6td]

Amazing video and very informative! I learn so much from you. :) As a native Swede, I have to say your swedish is very good for an American. Your "sjö" was amazing for a non-native speaker! I sense that you struggle with "ä" as your pronunciation is unlike any dialect I have encountered at least. It is most commonly closer to 'ai' in the english 'pair', with a kind of smiling mouth.

[@faarsight]

Tager is understandable in Swedish as well though it sounds very archaic or formal. The Taga form is also used in some more archaic songs/hymns so is also understandable.

[@Magnus_Loov]

"Tager" is mostly used at weedings. "Tager du denna..."

[@guyveloz4382]

I recall once reading in an Icelandic saga, I can´t remember which one, but it struck me how amazingly close to English it was. As I recall it the sentence went ´Menn riða þar eftir oss.´which literally translates ´men ride there after us´ And what a typical Icelandic sentence that is, considering the endless feuds that fill the sagas.

[@tylowstar9765]

In Swedish, the same phrase is "Män rider där efter oss.", which is still very similar! That being said, it would be grammatically preffered to say "Där rider män efter oss.", so word order has changed a bit.

[@arinhjorulfr]

I have to add some to the word "tager" and "tar": Evnen in swedish you can say "tager" but it is often used in a question like "tager du?" (do you take?). This is however a some oldish style and aren't used that often. The end "-om" was used in older swedish also and this we can see from lyrics from Bellman as "halkom" instad of "vi halkar" (we slips). I must say that you have explained alot of my language, swedish, that I never have learned before.

[@gnarzikans]

nynorsk "me" for first-person plural pronoun coming from a verbal ending is a *very* interesting and odd feature. it reminds me of the common first-person plural pronoun in modern irish (western and northern varieties), where the first-person plural present verb ending -mid has been reanalyzed as the subject pronoun "muid"

[@eivindkaisen6838]

Given the length and scope, a lot of dialectal variations had to left out (e.g. that there are placece in Western Norway where fjell has become fjedl) but a quite widely spread variant is where the hv - kv shift has become a simple k - as in ka (kva), kem (hvem/kven) and kor (hvor/kvar; even if kor is an accepted form in nynorsk) / kordan, koss, korleis (hvordan).

[@vatterholm]

That's just in pronouns. We still say "kvit" and "kval". (The v is also lost in the east. hvosso>hossen, hvat>hått)

[@vatterholm]

It got to be a new thing, or they would have written it as "dl" in Norse times. There are a lot of similarities between the areas though. It is possible that it could be loan/influences as late as the 15th century.

[@aqidon]

vatterholm I wonder though. There must have been dialects back then as well. The region most icelandic would come from in norway is also the region that os most simular to modern icelandic. Mayebe even back then not all words were spoken the same way it was written by everyone.

[@erikgranqvist3680]

A note from a Swede: we sometimes have emphasis on the vocal, especially in short words. Jag, as an example, have emphasis on the a. And the a does not sound the same everywhere: in "jag", its a long thats sounds different then an English a. If you take our word for allways - "alltid", the a is similar to the pronunciation in the a in English allways. The emphasis in "alltid" is on the double l. Its a bit against common sense, but somehow a double letter is almost allways pronounced very short compared to a single letter. The pronunciation differ quite a lot between dialects, though. Especially in parts of Sweden that is close to the Norwegian border, Skåne (wish used to belong to Denmark) and Gotland.

[@SuperEddyn]

I'd say that the "a" in "alltid" is more like "u" in the English word "cut". Had "alltid" been spelled "altid", then it would have bee pronounced like the "a" in the English word "bra".

[@iddet8867]

In the section of this video where the use of "I take" is explained (about 25 min), I would like to point out that Icelanders still use "vér" and " "ér" from old Norse when we want to be extra formal. It is spelled vér and þér.

[@gudmundur-heimisson]

Although at this point essentially only in written form. Even by my grandmother’s time in the 1930s according to her they would only use those when talking to the priest. Today you’d only encounter them in poems and speeches in parliament.

[@RTMarx]

You absolutely nailed the Faroese pronunciation. Btw I would call these languages "Nordic", since the term "Scandinavian" often doesn't include Iceland and Faroe islands

[@zoushuu]

North Germanic is better than all those options, since "Scandinavian" could imply that Icelandic is excluded, and "Nordic" could imply that Finnish is included.

[@RTMarx]

@@zoushuu Oh, yes absolutely, agreed!

[@Alianger]

Tager is swedish too but considered outdated and was only used formally I think, like "tager du denna brud" in marriage ceremonies. You still see this particular phrase in various articles if you google it.

[@luaulola]

Damn you are the coolest person. Haha thanks for this research. I’d love to sit through a lecture

[@annatraustadottir4387]

Modern Icelanders have little difficulty understanding written Old Norse, the same can not be said about the other nordic nations. Icelandic has retained the grammar and the minor difference in spelling is not a obstacle. The vocabulary is familiar. I would say that by far the Icelandic is closest to Old Norse. I did not understand what you said about the difference between ann and an in Icelandic, I am probably misunderstanding what you were taking about but there is a difference between pronunciation of ann and an or enn and en in icelandic.

[@AlphaChinoz]

Well, here in Norway you have about six different ways to say "I", depending on the dialect (I guess some would call it accent): - Jeg - Je - Eg - E - Æ - I

[@Vidlaste]

Æg

[@ole7146]

In Jutland, Denmark you’ll hear: jeg, jej, jah, A, Æ for “I”

[@hellmaze85]

Ej

[@Luka1180]

@@ole7146 I've also heard Je I think.

[@tompatterson1548]

I think I've heard jaj in music.

[@SwedenTheHedgehog]

I thank you immensely for often mentioning and considering the dialectal differences, that are very alive and, indeed, different!

[@checkyourfacts6457]

I reckon you have heard it before, but for those of you interested in norwegian dialects this video is literally a journey from the border to Sweden all along the coast to the border with Russia. kzbin.info/www/bejne/aZ3Qm3ympceJqqM it starts at 1:12. Performed by a radio host that is a master of dialects and fun personalities.

[@oskich]

Swedish dialects - swedia.ling.gu.se/info/litenkarta.html

[@severenr]

Takk!

[@pinkponyofprey1965]

Swedish trip from north to south - funny version: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gnW6Z4RvrtuilZY

[@acenname]

Thanks for the link. It is really incredible how he gradually changes from one dialect to the next in the course of a few words, and covers several dialects in one sentence. Amazing!

[@oliverhees4076]

Yay, another linguistics video! I discovered your channel through your video on the Indo-European languages and it's nice to see another.

[@MaMastoast]

In my particular dialect of danish (that of Copenhagen) many words have been shortened from the "correct" way of saying them. For example "Tager" is "Tar" "Jeg" is "Jar", "Vil" is "Ve", "Kan" is "ka" and so forth. Mind you, we still write them correctly, but the written form poorly reflect how they're usually spoken.

[@klausolekristiansen2960]

You use the longer form for emphasis. "Je' ka' ikke", "je' kan ikke" and "Jeg ka' ikke" mean different things.

[@Gabriel5955959]

Danish is the French of the Nordic language lmao

[@dennislindqvist8443]

It would be interesting to watch a video about the Swedish dialect in Finland. There are some Finnish and Russian influences, yes, but very little. It's still very different.

[@johnbeagmartin5809]

Our Scottish Gaelic is inflected. Old Norse had an influence on us, especially in the Isle of Lewis and Harris, where i live

[@ole7146]

john beag martin , I’m not sure about Gælic, but Scots (not scottish English) is indeed. There are tons of words that are the same or similar as in the Scandinavian languages.

[@kaptenteo]

I love your videos. Thanks for sharing. Have you considered including IPA notations when you describe pronunciation? It doesn't need to replace how you sometimes describe the sound value by giving examples from English, but its inclusion would help many of your international viewers, I'm sure.

[@TheMandyM]

Fascinating! I'm quite intimidated by you and the knowledge you've acquired. But just as intrigued. And very much looking forward to learning what you are teaching! Thank you so much for spending the time and effort in these videos.

[@mihai5456]

The palatalization outcomes of "skepp", "sjö" and "kittel" in the Swedish spoken in Finland (finlandssvenska) are like in Faroese. There are also other differences of pronunciation between finlandssvenska and sverigesvenska, like the lack of pitch accent in the former.

[@marna_li]

The R:s of Danish and Scanian are iconic and stereotyped. In the dialect of Skåne/Scania (the southeastern variety in "Österlen", my dialect) in Sweden: gröt (or gröd, when exaggerated) - g(h)-rrö(t/d) - meaning "porridge". The dialect is now changing rapidly because of the standard language.

[@joannavandenbring1725]

Not because of the standard language - it's been the norm there since 1680, but people now choose to discard the Scanian dialect for various reasons, mainly because it's perceived as low status and it's easier to make your way in the Swedish world if you don't speak half Danish.Sad but the same is happening to minority dialects and languages all over the world.

[@rodholseth6354]

I'm Icelandic who speaks Norwegian fluently. I find it so fascinating that the word in Old Norse ár (for year) in Old Norse is pronounced like år in Norwegian but written like ár in Icelandic.

[@carismo9502]

Kudos to you for knowing about the dialect of Älvdalen

[@samgardner8456]

I was brought to your videos by Matt Colville's recommendation, and I find this quite informative and simple to understand.

[@vallraffs]

Good video, very interesting. Just a suggestion, but you might want to consider using time-stamps in the description in such a long video. Help people find the part they are searching for easier.

[@tonyvice6661616]

What can you share with us about the seeming absurdity of ett/en in Swedish (and Norwegian)? Is there indeed some grammatical rules hinted in old norse that explain when to use one over the other?

[@jansundvall2082]

In modern language there is two sexes common, combination of male and female ,and neutral, ett is used for nouns wich are neutral and en for all other, which before late Middle Ages were either male or female. ett hus, ett djur en man, en kvinna, en hund (m), en katt (f)

[@Magnus_Loov]

Although "Kittel" is a Swedish word it is probably not used that very much. We probably say "Vattenkokare" or "kastrull" or "hurra" more often. And the word "Tager" is also used in Swedish (in addtion to "ta"). It is just quite archaic and mostly used during weddings when a person is asked if he/she will take the other person (ie marry them) with "Tager du denna Maria Andersson att bli din äkta maka?".

[@pm71241]

Actually ... in Danish. "Jeg tager" (and the rest of the subjects) can be pronounced both "Jeg tar" (as you did), but also "Jeg tager". - or "ta'er" (with the "a" changing vowel ) Few danish people would notice which form you use although the latter might sound a bit more formal. (depending on dialect)

[@pm71241]

... same goes for danish "hvad" ... if you speak fast, you don't pronounce the D - but you can do it if you want and it would be equally valid.

[@2200bronx]

Peter Mogensen Det går da an på, hvor i landet man kommer fra og nok ikke hvor hurtigt man taler.

[@MrPetter1000]

Svårt att höra skillnad när ni inte uttalar orden

[@vanefreja86]

@@MrPetter1000 jeg beklager :) ;P

[@Apremus]

i'm actually pretty damn impressed by how you pronounced Danish. The fact that you let the "eg" in "jeg" roll off softly, sounds very alike to how we'd pronounce it in Denmark.

[@mikael5743]

Thank you professor

[@MarkPierro]

Thank you Dr Crawford, absolutely fascinating lecture.

[@kilipaki87oritahiti]

As a Norwegian, history and language nerd who’s mom is a Norwegian language teacher, love your videos, but could you do a video on how and why the Danes decided to suddenly speak differently than Swedish and Norwegian, even though we too have been influenced byGerman and Dutch, mostly our western dialects on the west coast of Norway - Hansistic Leage, and how Danish would have sounded like today if not undergone that change? Also a fee fun facts, the Icelandic Vikings came from Sogndal, western Coast of Norway, and according to my bf who is Icelandic, they understand easier if not fluent in Danish/Norwegian, the dialects from the western coast if spoken slowly and clearly. And you should check out the dialect from Setesdalen, Telemark Southern Norway, as they speak a dialect that few Norwegians understand and find the hardest out of the X hundred that we have if not in the thousands, as it’s the closest you get to Old Norse… again my bf understood it fairly well.

[@g.m.s2559]

Since the dialects in Norway are so different from each other, one should think that there was a noticeable difference in speech, already when Iceland was populated. What do the experts think about this?

[@vatterholm]

Norway doesn't have more dialects than Sweden and Denmark. Our dialects just have higher status. But yeah, there were dialectal differences even then. Like how Vestlandet/Trøndelag had "rangr" while Vika and the south had "vrangr". ek/jak, Icelandic/Hardanger -ur other Norwegian -er, Trønder/Icelandic "o-" vs others "u-" etc. But no dialects as distinct as today. Most of that happened after 1400.

[@g.m.s2559]

Takk for svar, det er eit interessant tema. Eg tenkte fyrst og fremst på at dei som slo seg ned på Island var frå Vestlandet (og kanskje Nord-Norge?), derfor skreiv eg slik eg gjorde. Eg veit at Danmark og Sverige ogso har mange dialektar, synd at dei ikkje blir teken like godt vare på. Eg har vakse opp med ei gamal svensk dialekt, for mor mi er frå Österbotten. Desse finlandssvenske dialektane skulle ein sjå nærare på, for dei har mange «rare» ord og fleire av dei minner om ord i norske dialektar.

[@robinviden9148]

Innen det svenskspråklige området, skulle det bli veldig vanskelig hvis alle bare holdt på dialekten sin. Der er altfor stor dialektal variasjon (jeg skulle nok si at den, på mange måter, er mye større enn i Norge). For å klare å forstå hverandre, må man ha et felles standardspråk. Det vanlige, for dialektbrukere, er at man bruker dialekten sin heime og med kjente i bygda, men at man slår over til standardspråket i kontakten med talere utafra. De svenske dialektene lever ennå (det er en utbredt misoppfatning at de ryddes ut), men vi har dem ikke bare over hele Sverige og store deler av Finland, men også i deler av Estland og i et område i Ukraina - og hver bygd har sine quirks - så hadde man ikke hatt standardsvensk som et naturlig samlingssted, hadde man måttet ty til et annet språk. Det er dog sant at svenske dialekter ikke ses og høres så mye i det offentlige (TV, radio, etc.), men det har nettopp å gjøre med det at ikke alle lyttere da skulle skjønne hva som ble sagt. Det er også sant at ikke alle svenskspråklige snakker dialekt (ofte er det bare regionalt fargede varianter av standardspråket), men mange nok gjør det for at de skal leve videre.

[@Utenerd]

@@g.m.s2559 Mener du kvensk? Kvenske innvandrere til Troms og Finnmark tilpasset seg kjapt det (nord-)norske språket da de kunne få eiendomsrett men med krav om å fornorske sine kvenske navn. Økonomiske insentiver får folk til å justere tradisjoner og endre seg.

[@germanicgems]

Note that just 80 years ago in official speech in Sweden, the forms Vi taga, I tagen, and De taga were recommended. This is still reflected in the phrase often seen on signs ”Obehöriga äga ej tillträde”, meaning ”Unauthorized do not have access.” The äga is because unauthorized is in plural, and so it is ”äga ej”, instead of ”äger ej”. Considering what has been done with Nynorsk, I really wish there would be an effort to reinstate these plural forms, and also with the form ”Vi tagom”. This -om first person form can be seen in the Christmas song Staffan var en stalledräng, where it’s ”Vi tackom nu så gärna”, instead of ”Vi tacka” or ”Vi tackar”.

[@kampfiretv9309]

I have just discovered your videos recently...so thankful for your talented work!!

[@rjuriklodhbrok546]

Absolutely love your work, thanks a lot for these very useful lessons!

[@Zapp4rn]

31:26 you can say "jag tager" in swedish but it's old school

[@Dadutta]

what do you think of the sogndal dialect ?

[@anotherelvis]

Nitpicking. As a Dane I would often pronounce the noun "gave" as "ga-u". In other words the v is not pronounced, but it changes the last vowel into a long u-sound. Your pronunciation is also correct, but a little formal or less sloppy (Norwegian kamelåså-video goes here)

[@Lindormber]

Elfdalian also has nasal vowels which were present in proto-germanic, I think. Kinda cool.

[@julnitti]

I speak a small western dialect of norwegian, and it’s so cool to learn about where these differences came from! Like old west/east norse, and how they affected the norwegian language. I say me, dåke (y’all - dykkar/dykk in NN) ka (what) koffor (why) and kossen (how). We also pronounce all our -r’s like in france 😁 if you ever need a nynorsk «user» as well as someone with a rural western dialect, I can help 🤩

[@EivindurToftegaard]

Many don't know this, but you 'can' use "korso" for "koffor/korsen/kosse", in written nynorsk, instead of "korleis". :)

[@bogisimonsen471]

Nice Vid. I have a question for you. Do you know witche of the Scand understand the most of the Scand langu..?

[@txviking]

In modern Norwegian, a doubled consonant is also said to affect the duration that the consonant is held. But the more salient point is that it influences the duration of the preceding vowel. Some minimal pairs as examples: damen /da:men/ vs dammen /damen/ ; fine /fi:ne/ vs finne /fine/ ; or in nynorsk, døme /dø:me/ vs dømme /døme/. I had assumed Old Norse would work the same, as we see the same traits across all the Scandinavian languages. It seems likely to me that this trait would have been inherited from Old Norse.

[@vatterholm]

It's a bit more complex. In old norse you could have it for ways. skin, skín, skinn and skínn, while in Norwegian you can only have long vowel or not long vowel/long consonant. "skin" vs "skinn". Besides a couple dialects. So the forms above had to merge. skin and skín merged to "ski:n" pretty universally, with a long vowel. But there's variation. For example westerners made the "o" in "skot" long, while easterners say "skott" instead. Everyone made the A long, such as in "mat". skinn and skínn mostly merge into "skinn". Thus double consonant came to mean that the vowel has to be short.

[@Aliestor]

It is hard for me to judge the other pronunciations but a think to consider with danish is that fx. what 'hvad' sometimes you would pronounce the d making the sound 'vad' instead of 'var'. Also to take 'tager', sometimes you say 'tar' also like the word tar in english, but in other case you prenounce the g and other letters similar to the danish word for roof 'tag'.

[@KimOfDrac]

My swedish heart is so happy about this😍

[@Armandosweden]

Great Video! Our old Swedish accent/dialect Gute spken on Gotland is VERY similar to Icelandic/Färöisk in many ways if you listen to "Skaoul" for Cheers, Jaouu- Yeahh! or their common word for "butter" "Smjör" ;)

[@anarchosophist]

I think the intent behind the question could be clearer. Perhaps a better phrasing that expresses the question I and a few others have is 'to what extent would learning Modern Icelandic facilitate the comprehension of the written form of Old Icelandic the sagas are written in?' While sure, you could learn the extinct form directly, there are infinitely more resources available for living languages, from apps, to tv shows and movies, to other living speakers. As modern Icelanders read the sagas in school, the question I have, is would the sagas be of a similar level of comprehensibility to an Icelandic speaker as Middle English is to an English speaker? Again, I should emphasise I am purely referring to the written form, not the pronunciation.

[@anarchosophist]

From the examples given in the video, the Icelandic written form seems almost identical to the OWN written form, as close as say, the 17th century English of Dryden and Pope to modern English.

[@imppious]

Great video. Also I liked the disappearing act at the end. It was very funny.

[@antivanti]

It's interesting to look at these changes from OWN and OEN to the modern languages and then look at my own local dialect of Swedish (Pitemål) and try to figure out where the influences came from. Being a northern Swedish dialect we drop a lot of sounds. i ta, dö ta, han ta, vä tåga ,jä tåga döm tåga

[@My2Cents1]

In Swedish "dig" (you), and "mig" (me) are pronounced "day" and "may" in everyday language. You CAN pronounce them as "meeg" and "deeg", but if you do, you really speak in poetic form, as if you're singing or reciting a poem.

[@AndersJackson]

Colorado is beautiful. Look much like my home place in eastern Dalecarlia (östra dalarna). Colorado är vackert. Är väldigt likt varifrån jag kommer i östra dalarna (eastern Dalecarlia).

[@thomasivarsson1291]

In Scania in Sweden we have the east Danish dialect that is not the same as Danish but more close to the dialect talked on the Bornholm island of Denmark.

[@patrickschwarz6924]

Thanks for this great video! A couple of years ago I spent one year in Sweden as an exchange student. Watching the series "Vikings" brought me to this video. It is really fascinating how different european languages are connected and have influenced each other. Especially the connection between German, English and Swedish has helped me a lot to learn Swedish back then. By the way: If you speak Swedish, live next to Stuttgart and would like to do some language tandem with a German, please feel free to pm me. Wanna find out, if I am still on level B2 :)

[@megantvenstrup7687]

We love you too, Mister Crawford! :)

[@anotherelvis]

As a Copenhagener I would pronounce the wovel in torsk similar to o in the English word bored. But your pronounciation may be correct in Jutlandish dialect.

[@VinlandAlchemist]

Doctor, might you have anything to mention (perhaps you already have? If so, do please forgive this... and please point me in the right direction) on the language of Älvdalen (a.k.a., "Elfdalian") of Dalarna, Sweden (which used to be part of Norway)? I would **love** to hear anything that, over all others, YOU would have to share on that! :)

[@garytucker5748]

Thank you for share Sir,Interesting.

[@nahblue]

This video was more than somehvat interesting. Great work :-)

[@Ghillachanucas]

Hello. I am looking someone who specializes or shows a great interest in ancient Germania: the Chatti, the Cherusci, and the Marsi around the time of Arminius and the battle of the Teutoburg forest (possibly one of your peers or someone you know of comparable to your level of expertise on the Norse [of course, considering the limited evidence]). Even if in just good speculation, I'm very interested to know said person's thoughts on the subject(s). A point in the right direction would make me eternally grateful!!!!

[@jh2349]

Awesome as always. Since I started learning old norse I figure it wont be so hard to learn icelandic.

[@frasenp8411]

3:15 From/frá in Swedish is från with an n, is this because of it developing from east norse or something similar or some other reason?

[@rustyhguitar1]

Soft/hard palate: as an unlearned one, your description of sounds moving forward from velar/hard palate to the soft is difficult for me. My tongue feels the back of my palate as soft; the front as hard. Does your use of the adjectives refer to to hardness of sound rather than the physical hardness of the anatomy?

[@webistrator]

At what chronological/philological point(s) did old Icelandic/Norse become something called "new Icelandic"? I'm dealing with (not only) Adeline Ritterhaus's "Neuisländischen Volksmärchen..." from ca. 1900, and in spite of having translated other folk collections from the mid-1800's, hers is the first time I've encountered the literary distinction, "new Icelandic". -- ?

[@exentr]

Dr. Crawford, I am thinking we know that English is less orthographic and i.e. Norwegian is midle orthographic. Lingvists examplify with standard writings but how about examplify with transcription? We can clearly see the differences in written words but would transcription show the real differences? Orthographic Word > Ord. Window > Vindu etc. I don't dare try for transcription. Maybe it would be hard to do transcription on a forreign language. Also there are many dialects and no standard spoken language - at least not in Norway. Still it's a possibility for transcription since it's launched and a probate tool for lingvists. Do you get my point? I mean. It is a difference in the visual standard writing and the phonetic pronounciation.

[@ThomasHojlyng]

Excellent video, your pronunciations of most of the languages are pretty spot on, I can hear that it's Swedish or Norwegian you are speaking, you Danish pretty far off though, as a Dane I find it much easier to understand your Swedish, Norwegian or even Icelandic, then it 's to understand your pronunciation of my own language. Danish it's properly the hardest of the languages you actually speak, from the written word, we have a lot of words that are pronounced quite differently than the way it's spelled, unlike most other Scandinavian languages. We unfortunately tend to have a lot of words which have silent letters, but in similar words are not silent and the part of words that are stressed in Swedish and Norwegian aren't necessarily the same part that is stressed in Danish.

[@Tyrfingr]

For master course in Danish. Ask him to give directions in nautical terms 😂🤘

[@JolsenUK]

How would i say "The Viking" in Old Norse? Does Víkingr already mean this or do you have to add a different ending? Thanks

[@vatterholm]

"víkingrinn" in definite singular nominative. Or you could say "sá víkingr".

[@JolsenUK]

vatterholm Thank you for the help!

[@runareinert325]

hesin is singular form male. We have different words for it, depending on singular v plural and dependidng on the gender, male, female, no gender / mixed

[@herrfriberger5]

A phrase like _"jag älskar dig"_ is still said as _"ja elska dej",_ so actually a little closer to Old Norse than the spelling suggests.

[@frejajonsson6701]

Herr Friberger fast man uttalar oftast g i "jag"? Åtminstone där jag kommer ifrån så uttalas g i jag.

[@herrfriberger5]

Ja, skriftspråksuttal blir allt vanligare, särskilt bland de yngre. Men det är ett ganska nytt påfund.

[@frejajonsson6701]

Herr Friberger Herr Friberger ursprungliga ordet är ju "jak" på fornöstnordiska, som sedan förändrades till "jag". (Fornvästn."Ek"- "Eg") Så att uttala "jag" med g är väl ändå inte ett nytt påfund? Snarare äldre som håller på att falla bort, eller har jag fel? Rätta mig gärna isåfall. Jag kan inte påstå att jag är så värst gammal, så hur man uttalade orden på äldre dar vet jag inte.

[@herrfriberger5]

Det har nog redan "fallit bort" sedan många hundra år (då folk i allmänhet inte ens kunde läsa). Det är snarare så att det håller på att återinträda i uttalet, som sagt. Detta i den mån vi kan veta vilka konsonanter som verkligen uttalades respektive var [mer eller mindre] stumma. Men jag kan hålla med om att ordet "jag" inte är det bästa exemplet på det här fenomenet, då det uttalats både med och utan g så länge det funnits inspelningsutrustning.

[@herrfriberger5]

Not sure about danish. But in Swedish you could perhaps describe it something like _"älskar dig"_ > _"tycker om dig"_ > _"gillar dig"_ > _"uppskattar dig"._ People also say _"jag är kär i dig",_ especially in a youthful or more purely romantic sense. _Glad_ in Swedish is just happy.

[@erikvilleius2252]

I'm Swedish, and as I'm sure you know there are some friendly rivalry between the different Scandinavian countries. Though if someone from the outside says something bad about them at least I will fiercely defend them. Regarding our languages though, we jokingly say that Norwegian is not an actual language, it's just Danish pronounced in a Swedish way. Norwegian is by far the nicest sounding of the Scandinavian languages though.

[@Taggez1]

Erik Villeius I think much of it depends on the dialect. I really dislike the stockholm dialect and skånska of swedish but love dalecarlian. And bergensk dialect in norway sounds really weird compared to how they speak in Oslo.

[@arkemiffo]

Norwegian is just badly written Danish and badly spoken Swedish, and Danish isn't a language, it's a throat infection. :)

[@melb2596]

They say that about Swiss German too, the throat infection I mean. I am half Swiss and half Danish. Imagine the sound of me speaking... :)

[@pm71241]

Personally I could live with the throat infection if only we had sane pronunciation and grammar :)

[@pm71241]

As a Dane having tried to under stand Swiss German ... yeah... I can see your point.

[@ThorirPP]

Note that Icelandic DOES have palatalization, the original one that was in Old Norse, but it hasn't gone the common way of mutating into a palatal affricate. This means that Icelandic "gj" and "kj" are pronounced as the voiceless (unaspirated and aspirated respectively) PALATAL stop [c], rather than the velar stop [k]. These palatal stops are noted as specific phonemes rather than just pure allophones before front vowel sounds (as they were in Old Norse) as the rules of their appearance follows the Old Norse phonology system rather than the Modern Icelandic one. This means there are no palatal stops before the front /ʏ/ (u) and /œ/ (ö) as they came from Old Norse back /u/ and /ɔ/ (ǫ); there are palatal stops before the back /ai/ (æ) because it came from Old Norse front /ɛː/ (æ) and /øː/ (œ); and Old Norse front /ø/ resulting in palatal stops even after the merger of (ø) and (ǫ) into (ö), making a difference between Modern Icelandic "görðum", from Old Norse "gǫrðum", and "gjörðum", from Old Norse "gørðum". This fact is quite apparent in the loanword "gæji", taken from English "guy", which breaks the predictability of spelling to sound by having a velar stop [k] in front of the (æ) just like in the language it was taken from, which sets it apart from all native words with "gæ" and "kæ" spelling from an original Old Norse word. Of course, what Jackson Crawford was referencing when he said "palatalization" was the eventual of change palatal stops into palatal affricates, so this comment is really just a huge nitpick on semantics, but still, the more you know and all that biz.

[@Graybat12]

iirc, Danish "I" as in you-plural is always capitalized, like English "I", for the example that you put up at 31:00

[@fygvar]

I had problem with first and third. The rest was no problem.

[@concernedcitizen6313]

38:09 - When I was studying linguistics, we called the "soft palate" the velum and the "hard palate" the, well, palate, since the velum isn't really a palate but just soft tissue. But my point is that palatalization would thus be moving from the back, "soft" palate to the front, "hard" palate, which seems to be the opposite of what you've just described here. I'm curious, is there a difference in schools of linguistics. I know mine at the U of O in a minority school, but I'd imagine something like that would be universal. Then again, maybe I misunderstood something.

[@formdissolve]

Would be interesting to learn more about the extinct Norn language some day too!

[@sunshinesilverarrow5292]

Excellent!! Thank you so much. Hugs & sunshine 🌞 N

[@johannisak1652]

7:42 T H I C C

[@marissarodriguez6481]

Hi, I was curious. I recently had twin boys and my boyfriend and I decided to go with the names Odin and Aarik. I know of Odin of course, but I was wondering if Aarik (my boyfriends pick) was anyway related or tied into the same mythology as Odin. And if so, I’d like to read some stories of the character if you have any recommendations.

[@colinp2238]

In modern Scandinavian countries, would the natives speaking their mother tongue be able to understand each other relatively easily? I know that there was only a small sample of words here but they look so similar to me. Also what of Fresians how close is their language to Old Norse? It seems, to me at least, so similar to modern English that I have mistaken people talking in Fresian for English speakers.

[@vatterholm]

Most of us can understand each other. Swedes and Danes have more trouble than Norwegians though, since they don't get as much exposure. Swedes need a bit more time to adapt to Danish than Norwegians for example. But based on my experiences working in big groups of Nordic people most people understand each other, especially after working together for a few days. Now if you speak the most extreme dialects, this isn't as true.

[@vatterholm]

Icelandic is incomprehensible to others. Faroese can be understood by some Norwegians, but not as easy as the others.

[@colinp2238]

Thank you for the explanation.

[@joedale6496]

English and Frisian are very closely related. Their ancestors Old English (i.e. Anglo-Saxon) and Old Frisian must have been mutually intellegible without any greater problems some 1500 years ago. Within the West Germanic languages, Old English and Old Frisian have even been grouped together as so-called Ingvaeonic or North Sea Germanic languages. Ingvaeonic languages share common features which set them apart from other West Germanic languages (like Old High German etc.). For example, they lose the nasal n before a spirant, while the preceeding vowel is lengethened. The results of this are still visible in languages spoken today. Compare Modern English 'five' and 'goose' to Modern German 'fünf' and 'Gans'. Danish, Swedish, Icelandic etc., on the other hand, are descended from Old Norse, thus forming the North Germanic languages.

[@colinp2238]

There is also Old Norse inluences in English from the Viking Age, from French following the Norman conquest, Latin from the church and Roman occupation the list just seems to go on. As I have said I have heard peop[eat Heathrow talking what I thought was English with an accent but there was too many unfamiliar words that crept in so I assumed that they were Fresian.

[@leethebeast666]

Have you ever tried to figure the rules fore singular en & ett in Swedish: one book / one house = en bok / ett hus.

A Norwegian friend of mine told me, that Icelandic people are very proud that they can read the old sagas etc and understand them _mostly_ without any prior learning other than that speaking and reading (modern) Icelandic. But this is maybe the fact, that the written form (between Old Norse and modern Icelandic) changed less than the spoken form since that era till the modern Icelandic and they wouldn't be able to understand as well if it's told to them in Old Norse (with the faithful Old Norse pronunciation, of course) rather than reading it?

Well, yes there was the movie "Outlander" where the alien supposed to speak Old Norse (I am not the one who can tell if it's really a good example though ...). And in many forums people stated from Iceland that "what the hell it was, it's clearly Icelandic but with really poor pronunciation, shame on them". :-D So probably it's true that they can understand/identify Old Norse as a "strange accent/dialect" of modern Icelandic ... Unfortunately I stick with examples like this, since I'm really far from know enough on the actual details on Old Norse or modern Icelandic :( Though I'm interested in, otherwise I wouldn't be here either ... (I know a little modern Norwegian, and that's all ...).

[@Ca11mero]

Yeah. I had a girl in collage that came directly from Iceland before she started school (in Sweden). After just half a year she could understand everyone perfectly fine and within a year she was fluent in Swedish. She also said she had no problem understanding written/spoken danish and norwegian as well. I don't think she is an odd exception but rather icelandic language still has the language the other 3 languages are based on.

[@lasseelectronics8914]

at 43:30 -> 43:35 Just some correction to the danish pronouncing, due to comparing norwegian+swedish+ danish languages. For the sake of the Old Norse comparing, i need to do some corrections. In danish, you take the "hva" from norwegian, and add english "th"-sound --> "hva'TH'". Simply saying "hvad" like if "d" was a silent - It is many times, but NOT IN THIS CASE of "hvad". You CAN say "hvad" with a silent "d", but that is a shortcut of the word, and is only found in the mainland of Denmark - in Jylland. - plus points giving to the pronounciation of "a"-sound. Many pronounce it the german way - but giving the Old Norse spectrum, I guess we can't argue against that.

[@anotherelvis]

As a Copenhagener I also say hvad with a silent d at the end most of the time. When the d is silent the wowel becomes shorter.

[@jrogers9052]

fantastic!!

[@Edvin.A]

It was very fun and interesting