West Norse (WN)

WN refers to a form of early North Germanic language, spoken in Norway and its colonies (chiefly Iceland). It is a descendant of Proto-Norse (PrN), and began to show distinctions from East Norse (WN) from the tenth century AD. WN is preserved in some runic inscriptions and some early manuscripts in the Roman alphabet (after the conversion of Scandinavia to Christianity).

WN is characterized by the following main phonological features:

More extensive i- and u-mutation than in EN eg. Old Icelandic (OIc) n9fnum, Old Swedish (OSw) nafnum "names (dat.)"
Palatal mutation also caused by -R and g/k+high front vowel eg. OIc thaer, OSw thar "they (fem.)"

The break-up of West Norse

From the thirteenth century on, distinctions between Old Icelandic and Old Norwegian became marked.

               	          West Norse
                     _________|_________
                    |                   |
                Icelandic           Norwegian