[...]... adjective article auxiliary comparative complementiser dative definite feminine genitive imperative indicative infinitive interrogative masculine neuter A New Introduction to Old Norse I: Grammar; II: Reader; III: Glossary and Index of Names nominative noun phrase Old Norse passive plural positive past participle present reflexive reflexive possessive singular subject; subjunctive superlative verb reconstructed... such widely different places as Faroe, Greenland and Ireland, but it was only in Iceland and Norway — especially the former — that a significant scribal culture developed, and it is upon manuscripts in Icelandic and Norwegian written with the roman alphabet that our knowledge of Old Norse is chiefly based The earliest Icelandic and Norwegian vernacular manuscripts that have survived are dated to c 1150,... great medieval literature of Iceland and Norway was created, there existed an essential unity of language in the western Scandinavian world, and it is on that unity that the present Grammar is based 1.3 Old Norse and modern English A major difference between Old Norse and modern English is that Old Norse is a much more highly inflected language Modern English still has certain inflexions, by which is... form, i. e nominative singular for nouns, nominative for personal pronouns, nominative masculine singular for other pronouns, strong nominative masculine singular positive for adjectives, nominative masculine singular or plural (as appropriate) for numerals, positive for adverbs, and infinitive for verbs Pronunciation and orthography 8 2 Pronunciation and Orthography 2.1 Old Norse Stress was in principle... get him or her to record the examples in 2.2 for you Icelandic radio is now available on the internet, and a CD can be obtained from the Viking Society containing extracts I, II, IV, VIIB, VIII (b) and (e), IX and X from NION II read with Modern Icelandic pronunciation by Icelanders.) 2.2.2 Consonants Consonants in modern Icelandic may be short or long, as in Old Norse (see 2.1.3) However, several of... adverbs, pay particular attention to adverb formation and inflexion for degree (3.5.1, 3.5.2) As soon as practicable, you should begin to read an Old Norse text It is recommended you start with the extract from Hrólfs saga kraka in Part II of A New Introduction to Old Norse, which has word-forword linguistic commentary on the first 40 lines While reading this (or another) text you will meet prepositions,... century Icelandic before various consonant clusters beginning with l (e.g hjalpa > hjálpa, folk > fólk, hjalmr > hjálmr), although such lengthening is generally indicated in Parts II and III (Reader and Glossary and Index of Names) of A New Introduction to Old Norse The conventions adopted here are in the main those found in E V Gordon, An Introduction to Old Norse (1957), which deviates little from usage... country and sometimes from teacher to teacher In the Englishspeaking world a widespread practice is to adopt modern Icelandic pronunciation Although it is often claimed there is little difference between modern Icelandic and Old Norse (and this is true enough as regards the inflexional system and the basic vocabulary), the pronunciation has changed a great deal since the first centuries of the settle- 4 A. .. orthography may be adapted to bring it into greater harmony with that of the manuscript source This last practice means that normalisation of Old Norse does not conform to an immutable standard Even between grammars, text books and dictionaries a degree of variation can be found The present Grammar, for example, does not always acknowledge the lengthening of a, o, ƒ, u which took place in twelfth–thirteenth... exercise at the end of this section is, however, an essential task Having assimilated the basic forms and functions of Old Norse nouns, pronouns, adjectives and verbs, you should go on to tackle numerals (3.4) and adverbs (3.5) When studying the numerals, note in particular similarities with other inflexional types and the various idiomatic usages detailed in both 3.4.1 and 3.4.2 Regarding the adverbs, . complementiser dat. dative def. definite f. feminine gen. genitive imp. imperative indic. indicative inf. infinitive interrog. interrogative m. masculine n. neuter NION I III A New Introduction to Old.