forníslensku

Forníslensku, often translated as "Old Norse," refers to the earliest attested stage of the North Germanic languages, spoken in Scandinavia and its colonies during the Viking Age and the subsequent early medieval period. This linguistic era is generally considered to span from around the 8th to the 14th centuries. It is the ancestor of modern Scandinavian languages such as Icelandic, Faroese, Norwegian, Danish, and Swedish.

The most prominent corpus of Forníslensku literature is found in the Icelandic Sagas, Eddic poems, and skaldic poetry. These texts provide invaluable insights into the language, culture, and mythology of the Norse people. Forníslensku is characterized by a complex inflectional system, with nouns, adjectives, and pronouns having grammatical gender, number, and case. Verbs are also inflected for person, number, tense, and mood.

The study of Forníslensku is crucial for understanding Germanic philology and the historical development of European languages. While modern Icelandic is often described as the most conservative descendant, retaining many features of Forníslensku, other Scandinavian languages have undergone more significant sound changes and grammatical simplifications over time. Scholars analyze Forníslensku through linguistic comparison, textual analysis, and runology, the study of ancient alphabets.