What language did the Vikings speak? (8 photos)

What language did the harsh brutal men - the northern Vikings - communicate with each other? This is what we will learn from this post today.





So, the language of the north. It was formed from common Indo-European according to approximately the following scheme: Indo-European - common Proto-Germanic - Old Scandinavian. In general, modern German is also a relative of the Viking language.



Red and orange - the spread of Old Norse dialects in the 10th century AD Other colors are its Germanic relatives. Green - German, yellow - Anglo-Saxon, blue - Crimean Gothic

Sometimes Old Norse is also called Old Norse or Old Icelandic (very similar to modern Icelandic).

The Vikings themselves simply called their language: norrœna, norrœnt mál, norrœn tunga (northern speech). Or dǫnsk tunga (Danish language) - many Vikings called themselves Danes.

Typically, Old Norse linguists divide it into 2 dialects. Western Scandinavian, which later gave rise to Faroese and Icelandic. And also East Scandinavian, from which modern Norwegian (Bokmål and Nynoshk) came from, plus Danish and Swedish.





Today Icelanders and Swedes hardly understand each other's spoken language. Even Danes may have some problems understanding spoken Swedish. However, in the Viking Age (800-1100 AD), all Scandinavians understood each other’s words perfectly.

The Vikings also had a good understanding of their cousins, the Anglo-Saxons. Whose ancestors came to Britain in the 5th-6th centuries from the territory at the junction of modern Denmark and northern Germany.



By the way, people communicated in Old Norse not only in Scandinavia itself and Iceland. But almost everywhere where the Vikings managed to inherit. That is, in Greenland, throughout Northern Europe, Normandy in some enclaves in Rus', in the east of England (Danelag - Area of ​​​​Danish law).

By the way. It was from the mixing of the Scandinavian language with Anglo-Saxon, with the active participation of Norman French, that what we call English today arose in the Middle Ages. Common Scandinavian words like husband, happy, and even egg also entered English.

Today, modern Icelandic is closest to the Viking language.



Icelandic is closest to the Viking language

Due to the great archaic nature of the island and the conservatism of their language, Icelanders are quite capable of reading the Old Norse sagas in the original. Although even they would not have understood the spoken language of the Vikings - the sound of the language has changed so much over a thousand years.

Viking alphabet



Stones with runic inscriptions

The Vikings completely developed their own pagan writing - the so-called Futhark runic alphabet (ᚠᚢᚦᚨᚱᚲ). Included from 16 (younger futhark) to 24 runes (elder).

The Scandinavians endowed runes with magical properties and believed that the god Odin himself gifted their ancestors with writing. The runic alphabet fell out of use in the North only after Christianization and the introduction of Latin writing in Scandinavia.



Viking language today



As I said above, unlike many ancient dialects that have sunk into oblivion, the Viking language is quite well known. Preserved in a huge number of ancient northern sagas.

And today it is often taught by people who are interested in the history of the North and paganism in general. Metallists and folkrockers record entire authentic albums in Old Norse. Like, for example, the cult Norwegian band Wardruna.