Conversational Old Norse

For anyone who wonders about how to say common everyday things in Old Norse (like “How are you?” or just “hello”).

Dr. Jackson Crawford is Instructor of Nordic Studies and Nordic Program Coordinator at the University of Colorado Boulder (formerly UC Berkeley and UCLA). He is a historical linguist and an experienced teacher of Old Norse, Modern Icelandic, and Norwegian.

[alexbowman]

I live in Scotland and we say in our dialect huis for house, haim for home, nae mer for no more, brun coo for brown cow, ut for out, nae for no, stain for stone. I've heard that the fishermen in the Northern Scottish islands talk to Norwegian fishermen in a language that's neither full English or full Norwegian.

[adamconlon]

The background in this video looks like a Bob Ross painting 🤗

[vonelmendorf]

Thank you for this fantastic channel. It's a treasure trove for those of us trying to teach ourselves Old Norse. It's very, very helpful. And thank you for teaching the linguistic and grammar essentials without dumbing them down.

[fartsofdoom]

Fascinating how Icelandic uses "What do you say?" for "How are you?" In my native German dialect (Tyrol) we use much the same phrase, though we actually say it as "What does he/she say?" I always found it a very weird phrase, and as far as I know, it's not a thing in any other German dialects, which is why this parallel with Icelandic makes it infinitely more interesting.

[supermikman]

This is so cool, a cowboy teaches us Viking language. 😂

[kellyezebra]

Hey, just thinking it’s been a bit since I’ve left a comment and wanted to say, thanks for sharing your knowledge with us and that I’m eagerly awaiting my first copy of one of your books from boulder, and how glad I am to see you blossoming from being able to share your scholarship from beautiful spaces!

[evalouisefowler]

have you ever considered doing a narration of your books in the original and translation for audible?

[flensdude]

In my regional Norwegian dialect from Helgeland, for "How are you doing" you can say *"Keleis e' det med de'?"* (lit. _How is it with you?_ ), and for "How are you" you can say *"Ka du sei?"* (lit. _What say you?_ ). The usual response to the latter greeting is "E sei 'kje så mykkje" (lit. _I don't say so much_ ).

These phrases seem to reflect some of the Old Norse greetings you proposed.

[ximono]

> No equivalent to "you're welcome" in any of the Scandinavian languages

In modern Norwegian/Swedish we say værsågod/varsågod (lit. "be so good") as a reply to takk/tack. I was surprised to hear that they didn't in old norse. What did they reply then, when someone said thanks?

[sandskeletor]

I still watch these all the time there still language learning from it many teaching here but thank you always for putting these up

[tapanilofving]

Have you studied any bit of the ancient Finnish poem collections called "Suomen kansan vanhat runot"? The oldest poems are dated to be from at least from the Viking age and they might contain information about Norse mythology as well. I think the collection contains something like poems.

[billn.]

༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ Looks and sounds very similar to Icelandic. I know a few Icelandic words and it is very much close to Old Norse.

[Jormangunder]

You are awesome, thanks for sharing your knowledge.

[atomicpalms]

I've missed the videos focusing on grammar, thank you!

[a..c..]

Thank you for the educational benefits of your lessons

[PrussianJaeger]

That is very high quality audio outside.

[gearhead]

Great video dr Crawford! I appreciate all your work sir. Cheers! 🍻

I'll give it a shot... Ek em frá Jórvík... (PA, of course.. Lol). Very interesting indeed

[faramund]

(warning, this is endless rambling about the Bergakker inscription)
I realized the gap between poetry and 'formal' language and spoken language, as well as time time gap, the most, when I read the Bergakker inscription. Supposedly being 1500 year old Dutch, it was of course just Germanic. And the words that were used were completely unknown to me (from my modern language). A Kesia, that you may know from Thorsteins Vikingssonar saga, is mentioned. A name is mentioned, Haleþewaz. And then a poetic means to say 'to cut' is used, which I'll freely translate to 'giving lays', where a lay was a cut.

Where the Kesia too is most likely a Gaulic loanword to poetically state a lance or spear.


Funnily enough I managed to crack it through Gothic and Old Norse (and obviously by reading what others had to say about it). So I suppose Gothic and Old Norse are closer to Proto-Dutch than modern Dutch is to it. Which isn't too crazy as Gothic is from the same era and Old Norse from a few hundred years later, whereas modern Dutch is 1500 years away from it.

Although I'll mention that þewaz, a servant, still exists in the verb 'dienen' (*þewanona). But for some reason we've reinvented the word þewaz by forming a noun out of the verb 'dienen', which is 'dienaar'. Because I think þewaz would have become something like 'dieuw', which simply doesn't exist as far as I know.

And that 'ann', "he gives", infinitive *unnaną, still exists in Dutch 'gunnen', which is the outcome of *ga-unnaną. And is hard to translate to English. It doesn't literally mean 'to give', but rather, to believe someone is deserving of getting something (usually good).
Although, if I say it in the imperative. "Gun die jongen toch ook een beetje". Then I'm telling you to grant a little bit of whatever you have to this boy. So then it does mean 'to give'.
People often say: "Gun mij ook wat", give something to me too.
And 'misgunnen' is to wish someone will not get what they're trying to obtain. Or sometimes literally not to give them what they want from you because you don't want them to have it.

[ajbroch]

You’re welcome in danish has different expressions depending on the situation. If someone is thanking you for something you’d use “selv tak” which is like responding thank you too. Another version is “velbekomme” that is commonly used when wishing for people to have a good meal, but it can also be used as a more formal way of expressing, you’re welcome. That last one is “tak I lige måde” which is like saying thank you and the same to you. It’s used if someone wishes you well or gives you a compliment. So we do have ways of saying you’re welcome.

[brokenursa]

Now I know, the next time I'm threatened by a viking, I can say "Ek em vinr, " and hopefully he won't kill me.