Old Swedish

Old Swedish (Modern Swedish: fornsvenska) is the name for two separate versions of the
Swedish language that were spoken in the Middle Ages:Early Old Swedish (Klassisk
fornsvenska), spoken from around 1225 until 1375, and Late Old Swedish (Yngre
fornsvenska), spoken from 1375 until 1526.
Old Swedish developed from Old East Norse, the eastern dialect of Old Norse. The earliest
forms of the Swedish and Danish languages, spoken between the years 800 and 1100, were
dialects of Old East Norse and are referred to as Runic Swedish and Runic Danish because at
the time all texts were written in the runic alphabet. The differences were only minute, however,
and the dialects truly began to diverge around the 12th century, becoming Old Swedish
and Old Danish in the 13th century. It is not known when exactly Old
Gutnish and Elfdalian began to diverge from Swedish, but Old Gutnish diverged long before
Old Danish did.
Early Old Swedish was markedly different from modern Swedish in that it had a more complex
case structure and had not yet experienced a reduction of the gender system and thus had
three genders. Nouns, adjectives, pronouns and certain numerals were inflected in four cases:
nominative, genitive, dative and accusative.

Development
Early Old Swedish[

A page of the ldre Vstgtalagen (Westrogothic law), a law code used in Vstergtland, from the 1280s

The writing of the Westrogothic law marked the beginning of Early Old Swedish (klassisk
fornsvenska orldre fornsvenska; 12251375), which had developed from Old East Norse. It
was the first Swedish language document written in the Latin alphabet, and its oldest
fragments have been dated to around the year 1225.
Old Swedish was relatively stable during this period. The phonological and grammatical
systems inherited from Old Norse were relatively well preserved and did not experience any
major changes.
Most of the texts from the Early Old Swedish period were written in Latin, as it was the
language of knowledge and the Church. However, Old Swedish was used as a literary

language as well, and laws especially were written in it; of the 28 surviving manuscripts from
this period, 24 contain law texts.[2] Much of the knowledge of Old Swedish comes from these
law texts.[3] In addition to laws, some religious and poetic texts were also written in Old
Swedish.
Loanwords
The Catholic Church and its various monastic orders introduced many new Greek and Latin
loanwords into Old Swedish. Latin especially had an influence on the written language.
The Middle Low German language also influenced Old Swedish due to the economic and
political power of the Hanseatic League during the 13th and 14th centuries. Many German
speakers immigrated to Swedish cities and worked in trade and administration. Accordingly,
loanwords relating to warfare, trade, crafts and bureaucracy entered the Swedish language
directly from Low German, along with some grammatical suffixes and conjunctions. The
prefixesbe-, ge- and fr- that can be found in the beginning of modern Swedish words came
from the Low German be-, ge- and vor-. Some words were replaced with new ones: the native
word for window, vindgha, was replaced with fnster, eldhus (kitchen) was replaced
with kk andglda (to pay) with betala. Some of these words still exist in Modern Swedish but
is often considered archaic or dialectal, one example is the word vindga (window). Many
words related to seafaring were borrowed from Dutch.
The influence of Low German was so strong that the inflectional system of Old Swedish was
largely broken down.[5]

Late Old Swedish

In contrast to the stable Early Old Swedish, Late Old Swedish (yngre fornsvenska; 13751526)
experienced many changes, including a simplification of the grammatical system and a vowel
shift, so that in the 16th century the language resembled modern Swedish more than before.
The printing of the New Testament in Swedish in 1526 marked the starting point for modern
Swedish.
In this period Old Swedish had taken in a large amount of new vocabulary primarily from Latin,
Low German and Dutch. When the country became part of the Kalmar Union in 1397, many
Danish scribes brought Danicisms into the written language.

Orthography
Old Swedish used some letters that are no longer found in modern Swedish: and were
used for modern and respectively, and could stand for both // (th as in the)
and //(th as in thing). In the latter part of the 14th century was replaced with th and dh.
The grapheme i could stand for both the phonemes /i/ and /j/ (e.g. sil (soul), sjl in modern
Swedish). The graphemes u, v, and w were used interchangeably with the
phonemes /v/and /u/ (e.g. vtan (without), utan in modern Swedish), and w could also
sometimes stand for the consonant-vowel combinations /vu/ and /uv/: dwa (duva or dove).
Certain abbreviations were used in writing, such as m for me (modern med, with).[6] The
letter combinations aa and oe were often written so that one of the letters stood above the
other as a smaller letter, which led to the development of the modern letters , , and .

Phonology
The root syllable length in Old Swedish could be short (VC), long (V:C, VC:) or overlong
(V:C:).[7] During the Late Old Swedish period the short root syllables (VC) were lengthened and
the overlong root syllables (V:C:) were shortened, so modern Swedish only has the

combinations V:C and VC:. Unlike in modern Swedish, a short vowel in Old Swedish did not
entail a long consonant.
There were eight vowels in Early Old Swedish: /i, y, u, o, e, a, , /. A vowel shift (stora
vokaldansen) occurred during the Late Old Swedish period, which had the following effects:

[u] became [] (hs [hus] > hus [hs], house)

[o] became [u] (bk [bok] > bok [buk], book)
[a] became [o] (bl [bla] > bl [blo], blue)

The consonant sounds were largely the same as in modern Swedish, with the notable
exceptions of // and //, which do not exist in modern Swedish.

Grammar
Nominal morphology
Early Old Swedish
The most defining difference between Old Swedish and modern Swedish was the more
complex grammatical system of the former. In Old Swedish nouns, adjectives, pronouns and
certain numerals were inflected in four cases (nominative, genitive, dative and accusative),
whereas the case system has completely disappeared from modern Swedish (except some
dialects). There were also three grammatical genders (masculine, feminine and neuter), still
retained in a great amount of dialects today, but now reduced to two in the standard language.
Those features of Old Swedish are still found in modern Icelandic and Faroese, the noun
declensions are almost identical.
Noun declensions fell under two categories: weak and strong. The weak masculine, feminine
and neuter nouns had their own declensions and at least three groups of strong masculine
nouns, three groups of strong feminine nouns and one group of strong neuter nouns can be
identified. Below is an overview of the noun declension system:
The noun declension system

Vowel stems (strong declension)

a-stems
a-stems
ja-stems
ia-stems
-stems
-stems
j-stems
i-stems
i-stems
u-stems
Consonant n-stems (weak declension)
n-stems
an-stems
n, n-stems
n-stems
Consonant stems
monosyllabic stems
r-stems

nd-stems

Some noun paradigms of the words fisker (fish), sun (son), siang (bed), skip (ship), biti (bit)
andvika (week):
Masculine a- Masculine u- Feminine - Neuter a- Masculine
stems
stems
stems
stems
an-stems

Sg.Nom. fisker

Feminine
n-stems

sun

siang

skip

biti

vika

Sg.Gen.

fisks

sunar

siangar

skips

bita

viku

Sg.Dat.

fiski

syni

siangu

skipi

bita

viku

Sg.Acc.

fisk

sun

siang

skip

bita

viku

Pl.Nom.

fiskar

synir

siangar

skip

bitar

vikur

Pl.Gen.

fiska

suna

sianga

skipa

bita

vikna

Pl.Dat.

fiskum

sunum

siangum

skipum

bitum

vikum

Pl.Acc.

fiska

syni

siangar

skip

bita

vikur

Late Old Swedish

By the year 1500 the number of cases in Old Swedish had been reduced from four
(nominative,genitive, dative and accusative) to two (nominative and genitive). The dative case,
however, lived on in a few dialects well into the 20th century.
Other major changes include the loss of a separate inflectional system for masculine and
feminine nouns, pronouns and adjectives in the course of the 15th century, leaving only two
genders in the standard Swedish language, although three genders are still common in many
of the dialects. The old dative forms of the personal pronouns became the object forms
(honom,henne, dem; him, her, them) and -s became more common as the ending for the
genitive singular.

Adjectives
Adjectives and certain numerals were inflected according to the gender and case the noun they
modified was in. Below is a table of the inflection of weak adjectives.

Masculine Feminine Neuter

Singular nominative -i, -e

-a, -

-a, -

Singular oblique

-a, -

-u, -o

-a, -

Plural

-u, -o

-u, -o

-u, -o

Verbs
Verbs in Old Swedish were conjugated according to person and number. There were four weak
verb conjugations and six groups of strong verbs.[8] The difference between weak and strong
verbs is in the way the past tense (preterite) is formed: strong verbs form it with a vowel shift in
the root of the verb, while weak verbs form it with a dental suffix (, d or t). [12] During the Late
Old Swedish period the verbal conjugation system was simplified, and verb agreement for
person was lost.
Strong verbs
The
verbs
in
the
table
below
are bta (bite), bia (offer), vra (become), stila (steal), mta(measure) and fara (go).
Strong verbs

I group II group

III group

Infinitive

bta

bia

vra; vara st(i)la

Past participle

btin

buin

(v)urin

Present participle btande

IV group

V group VI group

m(i)ta

stulin; stolin m(i)tin

fara

farin

biande vrande

stilande

mtande farande

bier

stiler

mter

Indicative present

iak/jk

bter

vrer

farer

bter

bier

vrer

stiler

mter

farer

han/hn/t

bter

bier

vrer

stiler

mter

farer

v(r)

btom

biom

vrom

stilom

mtom

farom

(r)

btin

biin

vrin

stilin

mtin

farin

(r)/(r)/

bta

bia

vra

stila

mta

fara

iak/jk

bt

var

stal

mat

fr

btt

bt

vart

stalt

mast

frt

han/hn/t

bt

var

stal

mat

fr

v(r)

bitum

buum

(v)urom

stlom

mtom

from

(r)

bitin

buin

(v)urin

stlin

mtin

frin

(r)/(r)/

bitu

buu

(v)uro

stlo

mto

fro

Indicative preterite

Conjunctive present

iak/jk

bte

bie

vre

stile

mte

fare

bte

bie

vre

stile

mte

fare

han/hn/t

bte

bie

vre

stile

mte

fare

v(r)

btom

biom

vrom

stilom

mtom

farom

(r)

btin

biin

vrin

stilin

mtin

farin

(r)/(r)/

btin

biin

vrin

stilin

mtin

farin

Conjunctive preterite

iak/jk

biti

bui

(v)ure

stle

mte

fre

biti

bui

(v)ure

stle

mte

fre

han/hn/t

biti

bui

(v)ure

stle

mte

fre

v(r)

bitum

buum

(v)urom

stlom

mtom

from

(r)

bitin

buin

(v)urin

stlin

mtin

frin

(r)/(r)/

biti(n)

bui(n)

(v)urin

stlin

mtin

frin

bte

bie

vr

stile

mte

fare

v(r)

btom

biom

vrom

stilom

mtom

farom

(r)

btin

biin

vrin

stilin

mtin

farin

Imperative

Weak verbs

Weak verbs are grouped into four classes:[8]

First conjugation: verbs ending in -a(r), -(r) in the present tense. Most verbs belong to
this class.
Second conjugation: verbs ending in -e(r), -(r) in the present tense.
Third conjugation: verbs ending in -i(r), -(r) in the present tense.
Fourth conjugation: these verbs have a more or less irregular conjugation. About twenty
verbs belong to this class.

Inside the conjugation classes the weak verbs are also categorized into further three classes

I: those ending in -e in the preterite

II: those ending in -de in the preterite
III: those ending in -te in the preterite

Syntax
Word order was less restricted in Old Swedish than modern Swedish due to complex verbal
morphology. Both referential and nonreferential subjects could be left out as verbal structures
already conveyed the necessary information, in much the same way as in languages such as
Spanish and Latin.
In nominal phrases the genitive attribute could stand both before and after the word it modified,
i.e. one could say his house or house his. The same was true for pronouns and adjectives (that
house or house that; green pasture or pasture green). During the Late Old Swedish period the
usage of the genitive attribute became increasingly more restricted, and it nearly always came
to be placed before the word it modified, so in modern Swedish one would usually only
sayhans hus (his house), or in some dialects or manners of emphasis, huset hans, but almost
neverhus hans. Although, this too has lived on in some dialects, like in Vstgtska, where the
use of "mor din" (mother yours) has been common.[13]

Personal pronouns
Below is a table of the Old Swedish personal pronouns:
Singular

1st
person

Nominative iak, jk

Plural

2nd
person

3rd
person 1st
masc./fem./neut.
person

2nd
person

3rd
person
masc./fem./neut.

han / hon / t

vi(r)

i(r)

e(r) / a(r) / e, n

Genitive

min

in

hans / hnna(r) / s

var(a)

ier,
ira

era / era / era

Dative

m(r)

(r)

hanum / hnni / y

os

ier

em / em / em

Accusative

mik

ik

han / hana / t

os

ier

a / a(r) / e, n

Numerals
The Old Swedish cardinal numbers are as follows.[8] Numbers from one to four decline in the
nominative, genitive, dative and accusative cases and in all three genders (masculine, feminine
and neuter); here the nominative forms are given. Numbers above four are indeclinable.[8]
Old Swedish
1

Old

Modern Swedish
en, (dialectal f. e, ena),

n, n, t

tw(r), twr, t
r(r), ra(r), r
firi(r),
fira(r),
4
fiughur
5 fm
6 sx
7 si
8 tta
9 no
10 to

Modern Swedish

11 llivu

elva

tv, tu
tre

12 tolf
13 rttn

tolv
tretton

fyra

14 fiughurtn

fjorton

fem
sex
sju
tta
nio
tio

15
16
17
18
19
20

ett

2
3

Swedish

fm(p)tan
sxtn
sitn
atertn
ntn
tiughu

femton
sexton
sjutton
arton (archaicaderton)
nitton
tjugo

The higher numbers are as follows. The numbers 2129, 3139, and so on are formed in the
following way: n (twr, rr, etc.) ok tiughu, n ok rtighi, etc.[8]
30
31
40
50
60

Old Swedish
rtighi
n ok rtighi
firatighi
fmtighi
s(i)xtighi

Modern Swedish
trettio
trettioett
fyrtio
femtio
sextio

70
80
90
100
1000

Old Swedish
sitighi
ttatighi
notighi
hundra
sand

Modern Swedish
sjuttio
ttio
nittio
hundra
tusen

Examples
Vstgtalagen
This is an extract from the Westrogothic law (Vstgtalagen), which is the oldest continuous
text written in the Swedish language, and was compiled during the early 13th century. The text
marks the beginning of Old Swedish.
Drpr maar svnskan man eller smalenskn, innan konongsrikis man, eigh
vstgskan, bte firi atta rtogher ok rettan markr ok nga tar bot. [...] Drpar
mar danskan man all norn man, bte niv markum. Drpr mar vtlnskan
man, eigh ma frid flyia or landi sinu oc j th hans. Drpr mar vtlnskn prest,
bte sva mykit firi sum hrlnskan man. Prstr skal i bondalaghum vr. Varr
surman drpin llr nskr mar, ta skal bta firi marchum fiurum em
sakin skir, ok tvar marchar konongi.
Modern Swedish:
Drper man en svensk eller en smlnning, en man ifrn konungariket, men ej en
vstgte, s btar man tretton marker och tta rtugar, men ingen mansbot. [...] Drper
man en dansk eller en norrman btar man nio marker. Drper man en utlndsk man,
skall man inte bannlysas utan frvisas till sin tt. Drper man en utlndsk prst btar

man lika mycket som fr en landsman. En prst rknas som en fri man. Om en
srlnning drps eller en engelsman, skall han bta fyra marker till mlsganden och
tv marker till konungen.
English:
If someone slays a Swede or a Smlander, a man from the kingdom, but not a
West Geat, he will pay eight rtugar and thirteen marks, but no wergild. [...] If someone
slays a Dane or a Norwegian, he will pay nine marks. If someone slays a foreigner, he
shall not be banished and have to flee to his clan. If someone slays a foreign priest, he
will pay as much as for a fellow countryman. A priest counts as a free man. If a
Southerner is slain or an Englishman, he shall pay four marks to the plaintiff and two
marks to the king.

The Life of Saint Eric[edit]

This text about Eric IX (ca. 11201160) can be found in the Codex Bureanus, a
collection of Old Swedish manuscripts from the mid-14th century.[15]
Hr viliom w medh Gudz ndhom sighia medh faam ordhom aff th m hlgha Gudz
martire Sancto rco, som fordum war konungher Swrke. Bdhe aff t ok dle han
war sw fast aff konunga slkt som aff androm Swrkis hfdingiom. Sidhan rkit var
vtan forman, ok han var kir allom lanzins hfdingiom ok allom almganom, th valdo
th han til konungh medh allom almghans gdhwilia, ok sattis hedherlca konungx
stool vidh Upsala.
Translation:
Here we want to say with God's grace a few words about that holy God's martyr Saint
Eric, who was earlier the King of Sweden. In both heritage and nobility he was fastly of
royal extraction as other Swedish leaders. Since the realm was without a leader and he
was beloved by all of the land's nobility and all of the common people, the commoners
chose him as King with all of their good will, and sat him reverentially on the King's
throne a tUppsala.