Old Norse phonology

E72573

linguistic subfield phonological system

Old Norse phonology is the sound system of the Old Norse language, characterized by a rich set of vowels, consonant clusters, and distinctive prosodic features that influenced the phonologies of modern North Germanic languages.

Jump to: Surface forms Statements Referenced by

Observed surface forms (1)

Surface form	Occurrences
Old West Norse phonology	1

Statements (49)

Predicate	Object
instanceOf	linguistic subfield ⓘ phonological system ⓘ
documentedIn	Poetic Edda ⓘ surface form: Eddic poetry Norse sagas ⓘ surface form: Icelandic sagas runic inscriptions ⓘ skaldic poetry ⓘ
hasAncestorLanguage	Proto-Germanic ⓘ surface form: Proto‑Germanic Proto-Norse ⓘ surface form: Proto‑Norse
hasDialectalVariation	Old East Norse phonology ⓘ Old Gutnish phonology ⓘ Old Norse phonology self-linksurface differs ⓘ surface form: Old West Norse phonology
hasFeature	allophonic voicing of fricatives ⓘ apocope of final vowels ⓘ assimilation in consonant clusters ⓘ breaking and retraction ⓘ complex consonant clusters ⓘ contrast between short and long vowels ⓘ contrast between single and geminate consonants ⓘ contrastive stress accent ⓘ diphthongs ⓘ fricatives /f θ s h/ ⓘ front rounded vowels ⓘ glides /j w/ ⓘ i‑umlaut ⓘ lenition in some dialects ⓘ liquids /l r/ ⓘ nasals /m n ŋ/ ⓘ phonemic consonant length ⓘ phonemic vowel length ⓘ syncope of unstressed vowels ⓘ u‑umlaut ⓘ voiced stops /b d g/ ⓘ voiceless stops /p t k/ ⓘ word‑initial stress ⓘ
hasLanguageFamily	North Germanic languages ⓘ surface form: North Germanic
hasTimePeriod	Viking Age ⓘ Early Middle Ages ⓘ surface form: early Middle Ages
influenced	Danish phonology ⓘ Faroese phonology ⓘ Icelandic phonology ⓘ Norwegian phonology ⓘ Swedish phonology ⓘ
partOf	Norse ⓘ surface form: Old Norse language
reconstructedFrom	comparative Germanic data ⓘ modern North Germanic languages ⓘ orthographic evidence ⓘ
subfieldOf	Germanic languages ⓘ surface form: Germanic linguistics Nordic linguistics ⓘ historical phonology ⓘ

Referenced by (3)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Old Norse phonology → hasDialectalVariation → Old Norse phonology self-linksurface differs ⓘ

this entity surface form: Old West Norse phonology

Elfdalian → hasPreservedFeatureFrom → Old Norse phonology ⓘ

Faroese language → preservesFeatureFrom → Old Norse phonology ⓘ