Ivar Berg

Old Norse–Norwegian

Fimmtudaginn 27. mars 2025 kl. 16.30 / Thursday, March 27, 2025, at 16.30
Fyrirlestrasal Eddu (E-103) / Edda auditorium (E-103)

What’s in a name? The terminology used for the West Nordic medieval language varies between ‘(Old) Icelandic’, ‘Old Norwegian’, ‘Old Norse’, and the combination ‘Old Norse–Icelandic’. I will discuss some ideological implications of this terminology before moving on to linguistic form.

Although Norwegian and Icelandic must have been the same at the time of settlement, there are dialectal differences already in the oldest extant texts from the 12th century, making the two languages (and Faroese) an interesting example of linguistic divergence in documented history. I will show a few central points where the dialects seem to have been different and compare them with the “textbook norm” of the standard reference works.

Finally, I will show how the Menota corpus can be used in linguistic analysis, looking at the Norwegian texts with annotation published in the corpus. This makes it possible to quantify the relation between competing variants, and shows how an annotaded corpus makes the historical linguist’s life substantially easier. My point here is at least partly methodological, as this is work in progress, but I will show how this approach allows us to get a clearer understanding of some defining characteristics of Old Norwegian.

Ivar Berg is professor of Scandinavian linguistics at the University of Trondheim (NTNU). He works on the history of Norwegian (and related languages) from philological, grammatical, and sociolinguistic points of view.

Fyrirlesturinn verður haldinn á ensku og er öllum opinn. / The talk will be delivered in English and is open to all.