Reconstructed Middle Norwegian [RMMNO]
▲
5▲ 5 ▼ 0
Typology
New
306 words
[view flag info] Reconstructed Middle Norwegian
That norska skriftmaalet [θɑt nɔrskɑ skrɪftmo:lɛt]*
[view flag info] Reconstructed Middle Norwegian
That norska skriftmaalet [θɑt nɔrskɑ skrɪftmo:lɛt]*
Registered by
[Deactivated User] on 7 November 2019
Language type
A posteriori
Species
Human/humanoid
About Reconstructed Middle Norwegian
Created in 2019, discontinued, and the brought back as of 30/06/23.
As a Norwegian and language-enthusiast, there is nothing more interesting than Old Norse and the development the language has undergone since the Viking age. Reconstructed Middle Norwegian is, for me, a fun way to discover linguistic fossils, funny discourse between old priests, and better understand how the Old Norse language developed into the different dialects we have today. Though I take my reconstructions quite seriously, this is all for good fun. I am also open for any tips or suggestions if you, reading this, have any :)
The principal source for this conlang is medieval letters from the Diplomatarium Norvegicum, and all spellings and digraphs I use, have been attested in the DN, though I use doubled vowels much more frequently for vowel length consistency than the originals. Most of the letters I have chosen were written between 1380-1470, a relative distance from the Viking age, but still about a decade away from 'modern Norwegian'. The place of origin for these letters is Oslo, the capital of Norway at the time. However, to prevent the reconstructions from being completely based on the eastern dialects of Norwegian, I have also chosen to keep any/most forms that were present in Ivar Aasens Landsmål even though they are present not in the letters because they must have survived amongst the lower classes. This includes diphthongs, cases, a-endings and more.
The bulk of my efforts have gone into the grammatical and morphological aspects of Middle Norwegian. As for pronunciation and phonetics, the reconstructions will be pure speculation. I lean towards modern Norwegian vowels, and I have included modern Norwegian phonemes such as /ç/ and /ʃ/, because many letters show sign of palatalisation. I have for the most part tried to keep the Old Norse consonants intact.
As a Norwegian and language-enthusiast, there is nothing more interesting than Old Norse and the development the language has undergone since the Viking age. Reconstructed Middle Norwegian is, for me, a fun way to discover linguistic fossils, funny discourse between old priests, and better understand how the Old Norse language developed into the different dialects we have today. Though I take my reconstructions quite seriously, this is all for good fun. I am also open for any tips or suggestions if you, reading this, have any :)
The principal source for this conlang is medieval letters from the Diplomatarium Norvegicum, and all spellings and digraphs I use, have been attested in the DN, though I use doubled vowels much more frequently for vowel length consistency than the originals. Most of the letters I have chosen were written between 1380-1470, a relative distance from the Viking age, but still about a decade away from 'modern Norwegian'. The place of origin for these letters is Oslo, the capital of Norway at the time. However, to prevent the reconstructions from being completely based on the eastern dialects of Norwegian, I have also chosen to keep any/most forms that were present in Ivar Aasens Landsmål even though they are present not in the letters because they must have survived amongst the lower classes. This includes diphthongs, cases, a-endings and more.
The bulk of my efforts have gone into the grammatical and morphological aspects of Middle Norwegian. As for pronunciation and phonetics, the reconstructions will be pure speculation. I lean towards modern Norwegian vowels, and I have included modern Norwegian phonemes such as /ç/ and /ʃ/, because many letters show sign of palatalisation. I have for the most part tried to keep the Old Norse consonants intact.
Language family relationships
Language treeGermanic
⤷ Proto-Germanic
⤷ North Germanic
⤷ Old Norse
⤷ West Norse
⤷ Reconstructed Middle Norwegian
⤷ Proto-Germanic
⤷ North Germanic
⤷ Old Norse
⤷ West Norse
⤷ Reconstructed Middle Norwegian
[view] About GermanicThe Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family spoken natively by a population of approximately 500 million people mainly in North America, Oceania, Western and Northern Europe. Proto-Germanic , which was spoken in approxima...
Phonology
Consonants | Bilabial | Labio- dental | Dental | Alveolar | Post- Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||||||||
Nasal | m m: | n n: | [ŋ]1 | |||||||||||||
Plosive | p p: | b | t t: | d d: | k k: | g g: | ||||||||||
Fricative | f | θ | ð | s s: | ʃ | ç | ʝ | ɣ | h | |||||||
Lateral approximant | l l: | |||||||||||||||
Approximant | ʋ | |||||||||||||||
Trill | r r: |
Blends | kʋ | ks | ɟʝ | ts |
- allophone of /n/
Vowels | Front | Near- front | Central | Near- back | Back | |||||
Close | i: | y: | ʉ ʉ: | u: | ||||||
Near-close | ɪ | ʏ | ʊ | |||||||
Close-mid | e: | ø: | o: | |||||||
Open-mid | ɛ | œ | ɔ | |||||||
Near-open | æ: | |||||||||
Open | ɑ ɑ: |
Polyphthongs | øʏ | æɪ | æʉ |
Orthography
Below is the orthography for Reconstructed Middle Norwegian. This includes all graphemes as defined in the language's phonology settings - excluding the non-distinct graphemes/polygraphs.
Reconstructed Middle NorwegianOrthography [edit] | ||||||||
Aa/ɑ/ | Bb/b/ | Cc/k/ | Dd/d/ | Ee/ɛ/ | Ff/f/ | Gg/g/ | Hh/h/ | Ii/ɪ/ |
Kk/k/ | Ll/l/ | Mm/m/ | Nn/n/ | Oo/ɔ/ | Pp/p/ | Rr/r/ | Ss/s/ | Tt/t/ |
Uu/ʉ/ | Vv/ʊ/ | Ww/ʋ/ | Xx/ks/ | Yy/ʏ/ | Zz/ts/ | Ææ/æ:/ | Øø/œ/ | |
✖ Unknown alphabetical order [change] |
Additional NotesSome additional letters include:
'c' - used in the word 'oc' [and], and in Latin words representing either /k/ or /s/.
'q' - only used with 'u' for the sound 'kʋ', similar to older Swedish 'qv'.
'j' - represents a long /i:/, always used together with 'i' as in 'ij'.
x - /ks/, after '-gh' /ɣ/ replaced the 'h' as in 'dagx' (daghs) [of a day]
z - /ts/, after -dh' /ð/ replaced the 'h' as in 'gardz' (gardhs) [of a farm]
In the DN, forms with -gx and -dz are much more common than -ghs and -dhz, though they still occur.
'c' - used in the word 'oc' [and], and in Latin words representing either /k/ or /s/.
'q' - only used with 'u' for the sound 'kʋ', similar to older Swedish 'qv'.
'j' - represents a long /i:/, always used together with 'i' as in 'ij'.
x - /ks/, after '-gh' /ɣ/ replaced the 'h' as in 'dagx' (daghs) [of a day]
z - /ts/, after -dh' /ð/ replaced the 'h' as in 'gardz' (gardhs) [of a farm]
In the DN, forms with -gx and -dz are much more common than -ghs and -dhz, though they still occur.