norrænu

Norrænu is the Icelandic term for the North Germanic language group, commonly referred to in English as the Nordic languages. The term covers both the historical language Old Norse and its modern descendants: Icelandic, Faroese, Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish.

Historically, all these languages descend from Proto-North Germanic and converge in Old Norse, which was spoken across Norse settlements in Scandinavia and in Iceland during the Viking Age and early Middle Ages. In the medieval period Old Norse split into regional varieties that evolved into the modern East Norse (Danish, Swedish, Norwegian) and West Norse (Icelandic, Faroese).

Orthography and script are central to the study of norrænu. The early runic inscriptions used the Younger Futhark; since the medieval period, the Latin alphabet has been standard. Contemporary norrænu languages differ in orthography: Icelandic preserves a conservative spelling and many inflected forms; Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish have simplified grammar and shared vocabulary due to close contact. Faroese retains features of West Norse but has its own spelling conventions.

Mutual intelligibility among the modern languages is limited; they are closely related but not mutually intelligible to a high degree for speakers of different languages. Icelandic remains the closest to Old Norse in morphology and vocabulary, while Danish pronunciation and the other languages have diverged more significantly.

In contemporary studies, the term norrænu is used to discuss language history, contact, and standardization efforts across the Nordic countries, as well as the historical development from Old Norse to the modern North Germanic languages.