gammelnorsk

Gammelnorsk, in the Norwegian scholarly tradition, denotes the medieval stage of the North Germanic language family spoken in Norway and the broader Norse-speaking world from roughly the 9th to the 14th centuries. It is closely related to what linguists also call Old Norse and represents the historical bridge between Proto-Norse and later Norwegian dialects, including the development that would lead to Modern Norwegian.

Historical scope and diffusion

Gammelnorsk encompasses the Old Norse varieties emerging in Norway, which later split into Old East Norse (in Denmark and parts of Sweden) and Old West Norse. The period is characterized by transition from runic writing to Latin script after Christianization and by substantial dialectal variation across regions. Icelandic Old Norse literature is the best-preserved corpus for the overall language, but Norway produced runic inscriptions, legal codes, and religious texts in this medieval stage as well.

Linguistic features

The language was highly inflected, with noun declensions across cases (nominative, accusative, dative, genitive) and three grammatical genders, and verbs showing strong and weak conjugations. Adjective inflection, pronouns, and a flexible word order reflected its syntactic complexity. Phonological changes during the period contributed to regional differences that later evolved into distinct Norwegian varieties.

Legacy

Gammelnorsk gradually evolved into Middle Norwegian and then into the modern Norwegian languages (Bokmål and Nynorsk) under Danish influence and internal development. It also forms a key part of the broader Old Norse heritage shared with Icelandic and other Norse-speaking communities.