What Old Norse Sounded Like (New Ideas)

Some fresh perspective on questions of what a Scandinavian language might have sounded like a thousand years ago (the answer is not exactly like today's Icelandic).

[thoraro]

Hi, Icelander living in Norway for ten years here. I have many times been tricked into asking norwegian people if they are icelandic, only to find out they are from Sognafjord or Voss. Their dialect is very similar to icelandic pronounciation, But! They still pronounce the Y, including in dipthongs. Maybe worth checking out:)

[joelmattsson]

The the pitch accent definitely makes this easier to understand for me as a swedish speaker, makes the words easier to recognize. That's very interesting. And i think the clearer delineation between long and short vowels also add to it

[karililjendal]

As an Icelander I'm realizing more and more that Old Norse was a wildly different language than modern Icelandic, at least when spoken, despite similarities in written form.

As a teen/young adult, I had an assignment where we tried figuring out pronounciations from the First Grammatical Treatise, and that it surprised us a lot. We were able to identify vowels that sounded similar to what we thought, but others were very alien.

[jakesmith]

As far as I'm concerned; you, Dr. Jackson Crawford, are a very influential person when it comes to Norse myths, language, and other histories. You are my go to for learning things about Norse.

[markdibben]

This certainly sounds a lot more like Wardruna's pronunciation of this stanza at the end of their song Helvegen

[Yngve-Freyr-Njordsson]

Nice to see the golden aspens. Thanks for your attention to beautiful locations for your videos.

[zoazede]

Hi* spanish speaker here* from Argentina 🇦🇷💙, I find very interesting that the pronunciation is very easy to emulate for spanish speakers!! Probably you should considerate taking some tips from the north of Norway and the cost that is closer to Iceland, since their natives where from those Norwegian areas, and as it happens in all countries, probably their accents there are very different from the ones that are more close to the capital and the other countries on land*
Amazing job!! Glad to know that the yt recommendations works the finest for me 😽👍✨

[Mara]

Interesting to hear this new "Swedified" attempt at pronouncing Old Norse. As a Finnish Swedish-speaker, I've half-expected the diftongs to resemble the way Norse loanwords are pronounced in modern Finnish, such "au" being a bit harsher, as in "kauppa" or "kaunis". But the way you pronounce the "au", it makes more sense how the diftong eventually became "ö" in so many Swedish and German words.

[marleenab]

So glad I found this video. Finn expat living in the UK. Have a listen to the dialect of English spoken around Whitby. The area was heavily settled by Norse. I almost mistook a couple of locals speaking for Swedish, because the intonation was so similar! I've actually been waiting to hear Norse spoken this way.

[TehOak]

Grimnismal st. 20 is one of my favourites. The fear of an elderly man losing his memories is humbling.

[Wingy]

Awesome to see you being flexible and self reflective in a way that builds up your knowledge and understanding of such a fundamental aspect of the pronunciation. Every change or counter culture idea before it became mainstream sounded weird or out of place. If you keep putting out the information and ideas as well as educating others you would be surprised the impact you have on changing the pronunciation from the ground up. Keep up the champion work Dr. Crawford.

[eb]

Stressing the first syllable and the following uptone goes well with alliteration. It makes sense to me why it was a common poetic device in old norse text after hearing this

[jonasgustafsson]

My take on the pronation on Hávamál is Håvamål, modern Swedish spelling "Hova mål" . Swedish for court (ea royal) speech as in to have a speech for the court. Makes huge sense for me anyway as a Swede...
Ties in with the word "Skald" which in Swedish still means "person who preforms knowledge and stories by speech performance.

[hemlock]

I have never been an academic but I have known them. I have known even more that are not academic. Telling the truth usually damages peoples ego on eather side of that constructed divide. However I am certain that you telling the truth of the history not only calms.many curious souls but enriches more hearts than it damages egos. Thank you so much for helping to shed light on such a influential yet unrecognized people in our global history.

[cecilialarsdotter]

This opened up understanding as a Swede. Simply by ear.

[rursus]

Your latest pronunciation sounds much better in Swedish ears, I guess that it is much nearer the Old East Norse pronunciation, like when I chant Runic inscriptions transcribed into old Norse.

[Nekotaku_TV]

From my lack of knowledge I would have to agree. It also makes it sound more natural.

[roysigurdkarlsbakk]

If you go to Northern Norway, you'll find the intonations and phonology is quite alike that in Icelandic. The phonology in Northern Norwegian is also close to that of the Sami and Finnish languages which streches the line. I don't know this for certain, but I've learned it by living in Norway for a lifetime and travelling around, also studying Icelandic and knowing Swedish by heart. Listening is the key to phonology ;)

[ytstigto]

Native Norwegian here. On the west coast of Norway (and in the north) we don't have the uptone, and since Iceland was populated mostly from my part of the country I would guess that's why Icelandic doesn't have it either. I'm no linguist, but I know that the southeastern part of Norway has been much more influenced by Swedish and Danish. I don't know the origin of the uptone feature though, or if it was present already in old Norse.

[RossAlexanderDowning]

You’ve defo carried some Swedish sounds into that. Really impressed