Skriftelige

Skriftelige is an adjective form used in Danish and Norwegian to denote something that is written or in written form. It is commonly used to describe sources, documents, or contributions that exist as written text rather than spoken tradition. In scholarly and archival contexts, the term helps distinguish written records from oral or performative records.

In practice, skriftelige is used before plural nouns to indicate plurality of the written nature. Examples include skriftelige kilder (written sources), skriftelige dokumenter (written documents), and skriftelige bidrag (written contributions). The related root skrift- comes from the word for script or writing, with appropriate Scandinavian adjective endings that mark definiteness, number, and gender in attribution to a noun. This adjectival form is often contrasted with muntlige (oral) to highlight the mode of transmission or evidence.

Etymology traces skrift- to the concept of writing, with the suffixes forming adjectives that mean “having the quality of writing” or “written.” The development of the form reflects the broader Germanic pattern of deriving adjectives from nouns to describe characteristic features, a pattern shared with related terms in Danish and Norwegian.

See also: skriftlig, skrifter, kilde, kildeanalyse, muntlig. In context, skriftelige is part of terminology used in history, linguistics, archaeology, and law to specify that information is documented in written form rather than spoken or inferred from memory.