Old Gutnish was a stage in the development of the North Germanic language Gutnish, spoken on the Baltic island of Gotland and Fårö. The extant body of Old Gutnish is small, and Gutalagen and the Guta saga constitute its majority.
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👉 Old Gutnish in the context of Fårömål dialect
Fårömål (Fårö Gutnish) is the dialect of Gutnish spoken on the Baltic island of Fårö north of Gotland. The name "Fårö" (in Gutnish, Fåre) is derived from the words ö, meaning island, and probably far-, which is a word stem associated with travel, as in the Swedish verb fara (to travel). The name Fårö probably means 'the island you have to travel to' or 'the traveler's island'. Mainland Swedes might misinterpret the name Fårö to be derived from får, the Standard Swedish word for 'sheep', due to the many sheep on the island. That word is absent from Modern Gutnish, which uses the word lamm (which in Swedish means 'lamb') instead. Gotlanders describe Fårömål as sounding "coarse" and as characterized by "mumbling".
Fårömål is the most archaic dialect of Gutnish in terms of morphology and phonetics. The dialect is closest to Old Gutnish and has retained, for example, the a-ending of the infinitive. There are also verb endings that no longer exist in the dialect of the main island (Storlandsmål) as in Swedish and Danish (e. g.: ja kimbur, däu kumbort, han kumbur). And while the unstressed endings are often dropped in the Main Island dialect, the Fårö Gutnish has preserved them (e. g. Han skudd' gleid' (gläid') ti Fol u kaup' skog on the main island → Han skudde gläida till Fola u kaupa skog in Farømål).
In this Dossier
- ⭐ Core Definition: Old Gutnish
- 👉 Old Gutnish in the context of Fårömål dialect
- Old Gutnish in the context of Gutes
- Old Gutnish in the context of Gutasaga
- Old Gutnish in the context of Gutnish
- Old Gutnish in the context of Old Danish
Old Gutnish in the context of Gutes
The Gutes (Old West Norse: Gotar, Old Gutnish: Gutar) were a North Germanic tribe inhabiting the island of Gotland. The ethnonym is related to that of the Goths (Gutans), and both names were originally Proto-Germanic *Gutaniz. Their language is called Gutnish (gutniska). They are one of the progenitor groups of modern Swedes, along with historical Swedes and Geats.
View the full Wikipedia page for GutesOld Gutnish in the context of Gutasaga
Gutasaga (Gutasagan) is a saga regarding the history of Gotland before its Christianization. It was recorded in the 13th century and survives in only a single manuscript, the Codex Holm. B 64, dating to c. 1350, kept at the National Library of Sweden in Stockholm together with the Gutalag, the legal code of Gotland. It was written in the Old Gutnish language, a variety of Old Norse.
View the full Wikipedia page for GutasagaOld Gutnish in the context of Gutnish
Gutnish (US: /ˈɡuːtnɪʃ/ GOOT-nish), or rarely Gutnic (Swedish: gutniska or gutamål), is a North Germanic language spoken sporadically on the islands of Gotland and Fårö. The different dialects of Gutnish, while stemming from the Old Gutnish (Swedish: Forngutniska) variety of Old Norse, are sometimes considered part of modern Swedish. Gutnish exists in two variants, Mainland Gutnish (Storlandsgutamål or Storlandsmål), mostly spoken in the southern and southeastern portion of Gotland, where the dialect of Lau became the standard form on the Main Island (Lau Gutnish → Laumål), and Fårö Gutnish (Gutnish: Faroymal; Swedish: Fårömål), spoken on the island of Fårö. UNESCO defines Gutnish as a "definitely endangered language" as of 2010.
Some features of Gutnish include the preservation of Old Norse diphthongs like ai in for instance stain (Swedish: sten; English: stone) and oy in for example doy (Swedish: dö; English: die). There is also a triphthong that exists in no other Norse languages: iau as in skiaute/skiauta (Swedish: skjuta; English: shoot).
View the full Wikipedia page for GutnishOld Gutnish in the context of Old Danish
The Danish language developed during the Middle Ages out of Old East Norse, the common predecessor of Danish and Swedish. It was a late form of common Old Norse. The Danish philologist Johannes Brøndum-Nielsen divided the history of Danish into "Old Danish" from 800 AD to 1525 and "Modern Danish" from 1525 and onwards. He subdivided Old Danish into "Runic Danish" (800–1100), Early Middle Danish (1100–1350) and Late Middle Danish (1350–1525).
View the full Wikipedia page for Old Danish