Cogs Verbix logo
Navigation
On-line services
Windows software
Search

Germanic languages: Old Swedish

Old Swedish belongs to the Scandinavian branch of the Germanic languages, a subfamily of Indo-European languages. It is an eastern development of the language known as D nsk tunga (Danish tongue), which was spoken in all of Scandinavia even before the early Middle Ages.

The Swedish branch of this common tongue developed into a separate language from 900 to 1500 AD; the oldest period (900-1225) is known as Runic Swedish. The Latin alphabet was introduced in the 13th century; periods of further differentiation followed, and some approximation to Danish occurred. This latter period (1225-1500) is known as Old Swedish. The written language, based on two of the most widely spoken dialects, was made uniform throughout Sweden in the 14th century.

Conjugate an Old-Swedish verb:
Fill in the infinitive. Don't use any capital letters!

Entering verbs

There was some nowadays obsolete characters in Old Swedish. If you cannot input them, try the following:

To input:

Enter:

Example

æ

aE

ægha equals aEgha

ø

o!

göra equals go!ra

þ

tH

leþa equals letHa

Old Swedish strong verbs

Old Swedish verbs were grouped in two major groups: weak verbs and string verbs. They differ in they way of forming the past tense. Weak verbs form the past tense with a dental suffix (þ, d, t), e.g., kalla -- kallaþe. Strong verbs form the past with vowel shift in the root of the verb.

Due to different vowel shifts, strong verbs were grouped in 6 categories.

I group ( - - i)
bta (to bite), cf. Old English btan, Swedish 'bita', German 'bei en', Dutch 'bijten'.

II group (i - - u)
biþa (to offer), cf. Old English bodan, Swedish 'bjuda'.

III group (æ - a - u,o)
værþa (to become), cf. Old English weoran, German 'werden', Dutch 'worden'.

IV group (æ,i - a - - u,o)
stiæla (to steal), cf. Old English stelan, Swedish 'stjäla', German 'stehlen', Dutch 'stelen'.

V group (,i - a - -e)
mæta (to measure), cf. Old English metan, Swedish 'mäta', German 'messen', Dutch 'meten'.

VI group (a - - a)
fara (to go), cf. Old English faran, Swedish 'fara', German 'fahren', Dutch 'faren'.

Sources (for verb conjugation): 

  • Noreen, Adolf. Altschwedische grammatik mit Einschluß des Altgutnischen. Max Niemeyer. Halle. 1904.
  • Noreen, Adolf. Altschwedische grammatik. Max Niemeyer. Halle. 1896.
  • Noreen, Adolf. Grunddragen av den Fornsvenska Grammatiken. K.W. Appelbergs boktrykkeri. Uppsala. 1910.
  • Noreen, Adolf. Altnordische Grammatik II. Max Niemeyer. Halle. 1904.

 
Content updated 23.09.2006
Literature sources
Contact verbix
© Verbix 1995-2006. http://www.verbix.com