Reading material Basic

Жлуктенко Ю.О., Яворська Т.А., op. cit., c.52-55.

Гухман М.М. Готский язык. -М., 1958.- С.13-47.

Rastorguyeva T.A. A History of English.-M.:VS, 1983.- P.27-29.

Additional

Marchand J.W. The sounds and phonemes of Wulfila’s Gothic.- Paris: Mouton, 1973.

Voyles J.D. Gothic and Germanic// Language.- 1968.- 44.- P.720-746.

Wright J. Grammar of the Gothic language and the Gospel of St.Mark selections from the other Gospels.- Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1949.

10. North Germanic Languages

10.1 Historical background. Division into East Scandinavian and West

Scandinavian

Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden constitute a socio-cultural area called Scandinavia. There are six official literary languages (Danish, Icelandic, Dano-Norwegian, New-Norwegian, Swedish) and a great variety of spoken dialects. All of them descended from the Common Scandinavian languages. (550-1050).

Indo-European has been spoken in Scandinavia for 5,000 years. Approximately about 3,000 BC a new mode of living came into existence: 1) agriculture and cattle herding were established; 2) new kind of pottery decorated with zigzag, criss-cross and triangular figures (“funnel beakers”) was introduced; 3) a new type of axe for warlike purposes brought fame to the “battle-axe people”; 4) dolmens (a rude ancient structure, consisting of one large unhewn stone resting on two or more others placed erect) were replaced by single-grave burials.

About 1,500 BC the manufacture of bronze, the alloy of copper and tin, was borrowed from Asia Minor. It was superior to stone, though expensive. Bronze was mainly used for weaponry and personal ornaments.

About 500 BC the introduction of iron marked the beginning of Iron Age. The melting of iron may have been transmitted by the Celts, who were migrating across Europe to the British Isles.

The Early Iron Age, a rather moist period, was followed by the Roman Iron Age with a more favourable climate for the Scandinavians. Thanks to close contacts with the Romans, up to the fall of the Roman Empire, standards of culture were rapidly set.

We owe the name “Scandinavia” to Pliny the Elder, who erroneously called a “great island” in the Baltic Sea Scandinauia. He must have heard something like *skaðin auiō, an early form of the southernmost tip of modern Sweden, now known as Skåne. Later on an n crept into the word because of another Latinised form Scandiae.

Scandinavia (*skaðu “dangerous” and auiō “wet place, island”) may also owe its name to the seamen who navigated past the coast of Skåne into the Baltic.

Scandinavia was too far away for anything, almost at the edge of the classical world. Even today Scandinavia is the most northerly part of our planet.

The position of North Germanic is intermediate between West Gmc and East Gmc, so that it has common isoglosses with both of them.

The first firm date from the Scandinavian history (516) is known to us thanks to Gregory of Tours. He mentioned an early viking-type raid on the Frisian coast by someone called Hygelac (Gregory calls him Chochilaicus; in later Old Norse sources this king of the Geats is referred to as Hugleikr).

Jordanes (550) and Procopius (554) offer testimony that at their time organization of power in Scandinavia was still local and tribal.

The sea routes were primary links between Scandinavian people. Three centres of power can be distinguished: 1) a southern centre that would be Denmark; 2) a Baltic centre that would be Sweden; 3) an Atlantic centre that would be Norway.

The Danes made every effort to assert dominion over the Baltic and Atlantic centres. The Swedes were more peaceful, powerfully entrenched in the region around Lake Mälar. One branch of the Swedish royal family migrated to eastern Norway and established round the Oslo fjord a separate Norwegian dominion. The kingdom of Norway came into being in 872.

The Viking Age (800-1050) is considered a separate period. The Vikings masterly used their chief weapon, a viking ship, in their numerous expeditions. To the victims of marauding bands of North Germanic the vikings were known collectively as Danes, Norsemen, or Northmen. The Viking raids were symptoms of the growing concentration of power within Scandinavia. The Viking expeditions included not only piratical raids on defenseless towns and monasteries, but also peaceful voyages of trading and settlement. The Vikings colonised desert islands to the North of England. On the off-shore islands of Britain Scandinavian speech survived into the 18^th century, to say nothing of Iceland and the Faroe Islands where it has been preserved.

Scandinavian languages are divided into two groups: West Scandinavian (Icelandic, Faroese and New-Norwegian) and East Scandinavian (Swedish and Danish). Dano-Norwegian has features of both groups and can be referred to either of them.

East Scandinavian and West Scandinavian have the following differences:

1. Old dipthongs are monophthongs in East Scandinavian, cf.:

   Icel. steinn	Dan., Sw. sten “stone”;
   Icel. auga	Dan. øje, Sw. öga “eye”;

2. “progressive j-umlaut” in East Scandinavian, i.e. ja > jæ, jo > jø, cf.:

   Icel. hjálpa

   Dan. hjælpe, Sw. hjãlpa “help”;

3. breaking e> ja, Q is more widely used in East Scandinavian than in West Scandinavian, cf.:

   Icel. stela

   Dan. stjæle, Sw. stjãla “steal”;

4. inserted d and b in East Scandinavian; although d is not pronounced anymore, it is still preserved in Danish orthography, cf.:

Dan. mand “man”, kalde ['kalə] “call”;

5. the loss of v before r in West Scandinavian, cf.:

   Icel. rangr

   Dan. vrang

   Sw. vrãng

6. mutations are more typical of West Scandinavian;

7. reflexive forms of a verb have a suffix -st in West Scandinavian, and a suffix –s in East Scandinavian, cf.:

Icel. kallast

Dan. kaldes “be called”

Some other divisions of Scandinavian languages are possible. Voiceless sonants are only in Icelandic and Faroese; the phoneme þ has been preserved only in Icelandic; musical stress is typical of Norwegian and Swedish; stød is a peculiar feature of Danish.

Also, Scandinavian languages have some common phonetic changes:

1. intervocalic w and j changed to a plosive:

w > ww > ggw

j > jj > ggj

Similar processes in Gothic: Old Icel. tryggr

Goth. triggws

2. rhotacism (shared with West Gmc languages):

Go. gasts, but Old Sw. gæster

3. the loss of initial j (the only exception is a Scandinavian word ja “yes”):

Goth. juk	juggs	Dan. Åg	ung
G. Joch	jung	Sw. Ok	ung
E. yoke	young	Icel. Ok	Ungur

4. the loss of w before labialised vowels:

   Goth. waurd	Dan. Ord
   G. Wort	Sw. Ord
   E. word	Icel. Orð

5. the loss of final –n:

   Goth. drigkan	Old Icel. drekka
   G. trinken	Old Sw. drikka
   E. drink

6. various assimilations.

The most important change in the vocalic system was the reduction of unstressed vowels. Most short unstressed vowels were lost; all long unstressed vowels were shortened. As a result, two-syllable words became one-syllable words. The reduction of vowels caused mutations, the earliest among them was a-umlaut of u and o: Goth. stulans, Old Icel. stolinn.