Added: 3 years ago
From: ProfASAr
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  • I love you...

  • Ojj, som språket ser ut idag i förorterna osv ser ju inte så bra ut då vi aldrig kommer kunna lära oss gammelsvenskan igen.

  • I love the fact that there are people who are passionate about the Germanic languages. I speak German and have just started learning Swedish and I am loving it. If I were young I would major in Scandinavian Languages at Harvard.

  • @JoachimderZweite Why Harvard? You can take Scandinavian languages in Sweden or other Scand. countries. I would much rather prefer to learn the language within the country itself rather than in a foreign classroom. I have to say though what I have found out is that with learning so many different ways of pronuncing the latin characters (characters overall) that it is often confusing in other languages and it sometimes takes practice getting rid of your personal preferences to speak properly.

  • haha jag älskar den här personens entusiasm. Lite som att han har druckit för mycket kaffe innan videon:) Detta var mycket intressant/informativt, tack!

  • @wakeupjimmy

    Minst!

  • @wakeupjimmy Är du svensk? Jag är amerikan, och du skriva som jag skulle.

  • @bushinarin skriver is more proper to use there...

  • its amazing how the English language has evolved

    

  • wtf how many languages can this man

  • I'm from Denmark and i can read and understand this!

  • Where did you do most of your philological study and research? I'm planning on becoming a philologist and studying linguistics as my profession as it's a passion for me. In spite of my pen-name (which is where my family immigrated to America from) by blood I'm Danish and Swedish. My older brother had a head start as he did a foreign exchange with family we have in Denmark, but I catch up quickly. i wanted to know what universities are best for linguistics and philological studies.

  • If you listen to modern icelandic you will hear that the pronouncination sounds a little bit like the finnish way of spelling words. As a swede i find it hard to hear this "Scandinavian spelling of words" when i listen to old high german. Because all of the germanic languages got words that german and proto german doesnt share. For example modern german for farmhand=Knecht. In swedish we say Dräng(icelandic=Drengir). Töten=kill some one. In swedish we say döda or Dräpa(icelandic=drepa.

  • @Svitjod100 Jag hoppas att svenskan börjar ta rikting lite tillbaka till fornnordiskan så att vi inte förlorar vårat kulturarv helt. Vi har så många låneord som nästan förstört svenskan.

  • this is so interesting. As a german... even as one coming from the south, when I read over this, I find for every word a link in all kinds of german dialects. The older it gets, the better I can link it. Of course it would turn out slightly different, yet not unintelligable. So fascinating. What a beautiful language old swedish is.

  • vidh - means "at" in this context. "at Up(p)sala". I think you said "with".

    Very informative video even for a swede like me who is interested in languages. I like all your videos.

  • Thetta war myket laerorikt

  • Comment removed

  • You sound kinda stressed

  • The more I study languages, the more puzzled I am .

  • @kukhufvud Why is that?

  • This man is Chuck Norris brother. No doubt.

  • just read the text

  • Where do you learn these languages? Im trying to find books and stuff, but I dont find any. . . Im 14 years old :D

  • @SwedenGirl97 Du kan ju börja med att kolla upp Runstenarna vi har lite här och där i Sverige, Det är ganska intressant.

  • Your videos are awesome! All of them are incredibly well done and you seem like a genius just how you talk. Thank you for taking the time to post these videos online, I imagine you are normally payed for such work, so I just wanted to thank you for allowing people from all over the country and the world to learn this stuff for free.

  • Funny thing is that I, as a swede, can understand that text better than I can modern icelandic! xD

  • Låter om en Finn jävel med kuken nerkörd i halsen.

  • @joonte1010 Fin särskrivning! Visar nivån du ligger på.

  • GOTLAND ÄR SVERIGE!

  • WOW. You are currently my idol based in languages. I have just recently discovered my deep interest and (not beign cocky) talent in learning these languages. I'm currently working on my 4th language. You have opened my eyes to a lot of languages. Thankyou!

  • 4:07 sounds exactly like finnish to me! :D

  • @jimmyjager Hirvenmetsästys äidin nussia?

  • @laksemann yksen kaksen holmenkolmen.

  • isn't it any close to elfdalian?

  • @cama9103 I don't know. As far as I know, noone knows what language elfdalian is. It's not old swedish and not old norse either. Hard to belive but I may be wrong.

  • wepper5  @ i'm sorry, but that is NOT FINNISH 4:07! ( or swedish)

    jaja, de e' int fiska eller svenska. tro mig O.o - jag har talat finska, engelska o svenska i många år :DDDDDDDDDDD

  • 4:07 I'm from Sweden and imo that sounded a lot like finnish lol but it was great and i could actually understand some. A little hint, speak the words with greater tune or else u will sound like a finlander..

  • I´m very impressed. You sound exactly as I imagen people sounded back then. Two minor things though. I think "forman" should be translated "leader" not "form" (compare modern swedish "förman"). In the Gutlandish text (my father is a "gute") I belive "barmi" should be translated "bosom" not "stomach".

  • this gives me horrible memories of having to study runes and decipher old Swedish in school... I am Swedish btw, but I prefer studying Icelandic

  • When are you gonna cover romance languages?

  • @Louieinoz Yeah I wish he would. I guess those are too "easy".

  • you often soun d very nervous when translating, what's up?

  • @Olekander I'd guess that this way of speaking is not the same that Swedish etc. is.

  • There seems to be a slight resemblance to Icelandic and Norwegian. The letter O has a diaginal line through it, common in Norwegian, but not in modern Swedish. Also the letter A and E fused together, again common in Norwegian, but not in modern Swedish. If a modern Swedish person read this, I think they would have trouble understanding it. If a modern Icelander read old Icelandic, they would have no trouble beacause Icelandic has reamined virtually unchanged for hundreds of years.

  • @1100HondaCB

    Actually, it isn't very hard at all for a modern Swede to read it, I myself am one. And the difference in the letters is purely cosmetic, they still represent the same sounds.

  • You're my idol! :)

  • when you read the text you sound somewhat Finland Swedish

  • @sersisor

    Knappast! Du får plugga på dom nordiska språken lite!

    Alexander läser så nära Islänska man kan komma. Man tror att Svenska (innan den totalt förändrades) talades som Isländskan.

    Om du träffar en islänning, så kommer du att höra att det låter precis som en islänning. Saken är den, att språker går ner i tonläge österut medan det går upp i tonläge västerut. Det kan du höra på Norskan.

    Alexander gör det här med stor bravur!!

  • Hey, old swedish sounds and looks a lot like gothic!

  • @Raonisk yeah and wonder where the goths came from =)

  • I understand that that final written R instead of r stands for the Gh sound of standard Parisian and German R, different from the standard tongue-R sound of English and most western languages.

  • Wow, awesome. I could never read that! (swedish)

  • this reminds me painfully of high school swedish lessons :P we learned runes in middle school, and then ijn like 8th grade we had to take old swedish texts and old rune texts and translate them into modern swedish D; it was incredibly hard, but fun

  • Very nice! I speak some modern German and a little modern Swedish. When reading the text I could make out some of the words but when you read them I picked it up quickly. It's amazing how languages can be so similar and so different at the same time.

  • my swedish teacher told us story about how the germans came to scandinavia and didnt like the alphabet so they changed it and came up with the letter å (a and o) ä (a and e) and ö (o and e). do you know about this and what the alphabet before that was, was it one of the texts you showed in the video?

  • @bjornforpresident - Before ä, ö and å the Swedes had æ, ø/œ and aa .. Pretty much the same as the Dano-Norwegian orthography back then. I think the Swedes established their standard in the Gustav Vasa Bible - in an attempt to move closer to German writing and further away from Danish writing. Remember that this was immediately after the collapse of the Kalmar Union.

  • @bjornforpresident - Before ä, ö and å the Swedes had æ, ø/œ and aa .. Pretty much the same as the Dano-Norwegian orthography back then. I think the Swedes established their standard in the Gustav Vasa Bible - in an attempt to move closer to German writing and further away from Danish writing. Remember that this was immediately after the collapse of the Kalmar Union.

  • You reading made me think of Mark Levengood.. xD

  • Jag förstår faktiskt lite :P, I acually understand a bit :P (english spelling is my weakness xD)

  • Germanic languages are cool \m/

  • Man youre awesome.

    Just one thing, at 4:52 you say "..the kings stool with upsala..". Maybe I'm wrong but I believe it should be "at Upsala" instead of "with" there. Compare to the modern swedish word "vid" which means "at".

    Maybe I'm wrong but hey, check it out :)

  • this has nothing to do with swedish but im curious my real last name is Pitsenbarger with the s maybe being a.. z... i have no idea where my least name came from is there anyway you can help me out?

  • @dillonwhite423

    This is just a approximation,I have no knowledge to state that this is 100 % certain.

    Pitsen was a mythological creature in the western Siberian Tatar mythology,barger comes probably from old Norse, "bjarga",meaning "to help, to save,to protect".

  • Wow. Verkligen impresiv.

  • It's amazing to think that all those years ago you could trek through out Scandinavia, Germany, The Netherlands and England and they could all understand each other

  • @ALBIONTYKE I don't think this is actually so. We have examples of "standard" languages, but people around the country usually spoke a local dialect quite different from the standard. For example, in Chaucer's time, the people of London might find they could not understand the people of Kent, even though today much of Kent might be considered a suburb of London.

  • Were the "w"s pronounced like in English, like in modern Dutch or like in German?

    It is a difficult question, can you try to answer, I do not know the answer, myself, for sure!

    Thanks for answering, ProfASAr!

  • @Chomuno I agree. In Chaucer's time, the W sound was represented by UU.

  • vi borde snacka runsråk istället!!?!?! tummen upp om ni håller med!!

  • @Duvefjord101 jag tycker du borde övertala Sverige nu när du har slutligen fått tillräckligt många tummen upp.

  • @Duvefjord101 haha, ja, förfan, nysvenska har blivit väldigt konstigt, de senaste 20 åren snart kommer det att finnas ett helt annat språk i sverige :P

  • What a strange language. It almost sounds like backwards speak.

  • Sounds like gandalf from the lord of the rings when using magic :D

  • Well, to find old danish you might want to look up old legends, such as Danebrugen, and perhaps visit historical places within denmark, that way you can find alot.

    Another historical person you can ise in your search for material is Harald Blåtand. The legends around him seem to be almost unending.

    Just a tip!

  • Texten ser ut som en finlandssvensk har skrivit den

  • Definitivt finlandssvenska ;p

  • The rune stone is like your bloggs, they wrote what had happened. the rune stones ALWAYS points at roads so other people could read it. A letter or symbol took around 1 day to carve into the stone and most of 'em contains LOTS of symbols so the really wanted to share stories with each other.

  • old Swedish is really quite beautiful. it is a pity that we do not speak and write so today ..

    because I really think it is one of the most beautiful languages I know ..

    I'll be honest, it's a bit hard to read and understand what you have on the paper, even though I'm Swedish =P haha

  • It is so friggin awesome that you - an American - actually know more of the Scandinavian languages AND their history than I - a Scandinavian (Danish) - know.

    It makes a Scandinavian proud. Especially the Danes because we feel a little bit lonely with our very rare language ;)

  • It is so friggin awesome that you - an American - actually know more of the Scandinavian languages AND their history than I - a Scandinavian (Danish) - know.

    It makes a Scandinavian proud. Especially the Danes because we feel a little bit lonely with our very rare language ;)

  • they spoke.) These are just my assumptions; I am most likely wrong, but I thoroughly enjoyed watching your videos and wished to offer some assistance if possible. I don't speak much Swedish anymore since my family moved stateside when I was only seven. Hope I helped or at least offered some thought inducing info!

  • Swedish was somewhat isolated and did not take on as much foreign influence as the others. I may be incorrect in this assumption, but I do believe Swedish and Finnish seem to share more of companionship with one another as far as linguistic influence is concerned, whereas Danish and Norwegian are influenced by others (I do believe I read somewhere that the Danes/Norwegians who populated Normandy in France and returned home to Scandinavia brought with them a slight French influence on the way

  • The french influence was in Sweden and Swedish was very influensed by german more so than Norweigan or Danish and swedish has no similarities with Finish AT ALL

  • @Nattensorg

    it is not true .. Swedish and Danish belongs to the East Scandinavian and was at that time much more similar in appealing form. over time, which Danish changed a lot and different part of speech. Finnish belongs to a completely different language and culture is not the least bit like Swedish. but Finn has taken a number of Swedish words and made them a bit more Finnish ...

  • On the topic of Old Danish, I believe that Old Danish and Old Norwegian (Not Old Norse) were variably, in effect, still the 'same' as far as phonology and linguistic structure would go. If you look at the two languages today, you would see how very similar they are to one another and since are both descended from the Western families of Old Scandinavian languages, it would possibly make some sense that the two are closely linked in their development, whereas Swedish developed differently because

  • With all due respect for your awesome knowledge of language (Please understand that I am in no way ironic), your translation sounds a bit strange to me in one place. I don't know much old Swedish, but being Swedish myself, and knowing some (modern) Icelandic, I would spontanously have have translated "Sidhan rikit var vtan forman..." as follows: "Since the "kingdom"/"rike" was without leader (modern swedish: förman)..." I am sure I am wrong, but I felt I should try asking, to free me of doubt.

  • @glottidum You are not wrong, I was. Indeed, "for-man" should be "ruler" and not "form." Thank you for catching this and pointing it out.

  • @ProfASAr Jeg er en 1987-modell norske, og jeg kan lese dette. Artig at språket har endret seg så lite, hvis du vil snakke dette språket i dag, så er det bare å reise til island=)

  • @glottidum Till och med jag kan som har problem med mitt modersomål kan läsa sidan som visas strax efter 3min.Tänkt scenska med danska och tyska och sen läs det på svensla så, ja... What to say

  • @glottidum Till och med jag kan som har problem med mitt modersomål kan läsa sidan som visas strax efter 3min.Tänkt scenska med danska och tyska och sen läs det på svensla så, ja... What to say

    And why does hes text to speek say fast and not fast( som i fast vid) lol. still intresting do. and i cant spell i now agen.

  • This was really impressive. I cant understand old swedish even though I'm swedish. And when I read the text my self, it sounds somewhat familiar. Spooky.

  • i dont even have swedish as a first language and i still understand it all pretty well, at least 95% of it which is enough to make sense of it all

  • Is there anywhere where you can learn (about) Old Swedish?

  • Cool, where did you find the text?

  • Cool, where did you find the text?

  • Osj.. You sound very stressed..

  • I'm swedish, and the one from 1450th was pretty easy to understand.

    The viking one was on the other hand not so easy.

  • Holy bananas, I don't understand anything of old swedish^^

    I am impressed that he understand that!

  • almogha -> almue =

    "common people" in modern D.

    Very interesting.

    Do you have this word in Swedish today?

  • @Bjowolf2 yes 'allmoge'

  • @1DerekRubin1 lol too true.... aha

  • As a native Swede I found it easier to understand the text in old Danish than the one in old Swedish, for some reason. The strangest thing of all is that I usually struggle with modern Danish.

  • Ha, interesting - I as a Dane can read most of this - or make good guesses.

    Nothing to struggle for - just open up your ears and your mind, and before long you will be able to understand most (95 %) of D. without too much effort.

    It helps if you can watch Danish TV where

    you live of course. We have 3 Swedish TV channels on cable here, and I can usually understand 100 % of it.

  • Why don't you try going to Denmark and peruse the books in their libraries.

  • fattar inget ting <.<

    can't understand a thing *wave with hands*

  • It is O.o?

  • Can't understand a word though I'm Swedish.

  • cool! im russian but i know my roots came from nordic tribes of the north, the vikings

  • @arktikgraywolf good thing you know that lol many dont

  • So now you just need to start speaking a proper (Norse) language ;-)

    ( Just kidding !!!!! ).

  • OH MY FUCKING GOD XD

    When you started to read the text, my jaw fucking dropped (I'm swedish).

    Awesome.

  • Kan inte ens läsa det här. Vi Svenskar har helt och hållet glömt bort gammalsvenska.

  • nä då, man fattar ju skiten o det går att läsa om man inte är helt jävla dum i huFVudet

  • Great job, love these videos, you're talented.

    I understand that Swedish, though I read a lot of Older New Swedish (1526-1732.) which is quite alike. :) 5*

  • This swedish is hard to read and understand.

  • Ji taal bitti swensk! ;)

  • You sound distraught in this video :-/

  • If you're Swedish and say that you don't understand this I bet your Swedish is terrible. Most words are very similar to their modern counterparts. Just look at the first sentence:

    Här vill vi med Guds nåd säga, med få ord, att den heliga Guds martyr Sankte Erik, som tidigare (fordom) var kung i Sverige.

    Quite a lot of similarities, no?

  • I've been working with Old Swedish texts and I spot a few inaccuracies

    Hælgha = holy

    Høfdingiom = chieftains

    Forman = Not "form" but "foreman" in the sense of foremost man, leader. What the author means to say is that the realm was without leadership.

  • Grendal speaks like this!

  • If you are talking about Erik den helige Erik the Saint he lived 1160-62 not 1400

  • iam swedish and don't really understand this..

    some words.. but it doesnt make any sense.. haha

  • Well of course, we are too english/latin inspired to understand it.

  • interessant. jag tycker jag förstår varenda ord. problemet för vissa må vara vissa böjningar av ord såsom 'haer viliom wi medh Gudz nadhom'. villiom är alltså en böjlingsform för vi för verbet 'wilia'.

  • "Sidan riket var utan høvding" og utover ligner mye på moderne norskt/svenskt. Det hjelper å høre det flere ganger :)

  • I am also a swede, but I can understand the most of the old Swedish and old Norse if you just take your time in the translation. But it is much easier to understand when you read it then to hear it.

    It is like a crossover between Swedish and Icelandic.

  • xxx is universial aint it?? :)

  • Old swedish/Norse is cool ! Reminds of Gandalf when he does hes spells. God damn what a nerd i'am lol

  • det er en kult vid mann :)

  • I believe 'dh' should be pronounced like the Icelandic 'ð'.

    It'd be great if you would upload the rest of this video!

  • FUTHARK

  • Hi professor Arguelles.

    I'm Icelandic and I'd just like to note that the three serpents in the Gutland text were situated in the poor woman's bosom and not in her stomach. :)

    "Barmur" means bosom in Icelandic at any rate. "Magi" or "kviður" means stomach.

    Oh, and I'd like to join in with the others and congratulate you on this series. This is Youtube at it's best.

    Bjarni Tryggvason

  • I thought Barmur means womb, cause in dutch it's Baarmoeder which is pronounced a wee bit similarly.

  • "Barm" means bosom in Swedish.

  • Can you please upload the missing end of the Old Danish text?

    And by the way, I believe you pronounce 'dh' wrong. It seems likely it should sound like Ð.

  • Actually the text isn't that hard to read... texts from the 17th century are worse, with all awkward loan words from latin and french + bizarre spelling

  • 17 century spelling was in many cases more logical and accordingly to both etymological and pronunciational factors than the same words are spelled today. These loanwords that you mention are still a part of the language today and this medieval Swedish is more pure swedish, thence harder to read.

  • *english class

  • gabbefuchs:

    Ja :D

    Languges, to me though, is the only thing I'm good at. I'm just very good at understanding germanian languges and make my own conclusions. I started writing with a dane, and now I understand written danish really good, and now when I try with norwegian, it's SO EASY since I learned danish first. I'm also trying with icelandic. I also understand german pretty good and I've rarely had to study before englsuh class.

    So old swedish isn't a problem for me :).

    (I'm 17)

  • alt schwedisch ist interessant

  • Om man googlar noggrant efter gammelsvenska/fornnordiska så borde man nog hitta nåt, man kan ju annars fråga sig hur den här snubben lärde sig det (jag kan lite fornnordiska också)

  • how have you learn old swedish?

  • gammalsvenska... skulle vilja veta hur denna grabb lärt sig det.

  • anyone know a place to learn this language? or some litterature?

  • wow I would really like to learn old swedish as I am swedish myself

  • det är så här svenska borde vara även idag.

  • mmm...so is this the languages of the Varangians?

  • This is very interesting. Just some comments on the Old Swedish text:

    1. Sidhan rikit var vtan forman = sedan riket var utan förman = since the realm was without a leader.

    2. Valde = chose, not wanted" (from välja, not vilja, whose preterite is "ville").

    3. Patalisation of k (as in kiaer) is probably 17th c. and is not found in Old Swedish so the "k" is to be pronounced "hard".

  • Another mistake is "vhid Uppsala", which means at Uppsala and not with Uppsala.

  • I think the reason why you might find it hard to find information about Old Danish is the constant struggle between Danish and Swedish rule around the area you are referring to. I know Danes burned Swedish bibles owned by those living in Scania (Skåne), so it is very likely Swedes did the same to Danish texts. Unfortunately I don't know more.

  • SKÅNNNEE!!! hiiijaa dii blåååeee!!

  • Ingen vill ha skåne.

  • hello.... can people today understand old swedish or has it changed too much .. like english?

    and i know finnish isnt a norse language but has that evolved over the years too?

    great vid tho thanks for posting :)

  • Im swedish and i understand 90% of all he said in this video, except the old norse thingy.

    For example in this video it says " Här villiom vi medh Gudz nadom sighia faam ordhom"

    In modern swedish it would be like this " Här vill vi med guds nåd säga fem/få ord"

  • Bullshit you dont understand 90% of it no way.

    Im Swedish and i almost dont understand anything.

    To answer youre qustion

    randomjismthethird normal people dont understand old swedish today. It quite big difference

  • I almost don't understand a word and don't get me started on the writing. PowerfullDiesel is bullshitting you or have a special interest of the subject.

  • Seriöst? Så jävla svårt var det inte att förstå sammanhanget.

  • And I say bullshit. I find old Swedish not that difficult to read, the words are just more adorned and longer. All languages tend to simplify and shorten the words, which is exactly what has happened during these centuries.

    nådhom = nåd, villiom = vill

    höfdingiom = hövdingdom = överklass, adel

    Osv... With other words, it's readable if you have any language training in other languages.

  • Today gotländska, gotlandish, is a dialect of swedish. It is only spoken on Gotland. Swedish has a lot of dialects. Göteborska, spoken in hte area around Gothenburg, Stockholmska (spoken around steockholm), Norlandish, Skånska, spken in sothern Sweden, Dalmål, spoken in Dalarna, and Värmländska (spoken in the areas around Värnern, our biggest lake.) is a few of them. Some are very hard to understand, some easier, but we all have the same written language.

  • I'm not Swedish, but I have always been curious how, in English, the word Sweden is used, but the in Swedish the word is Sverige. Here, in an early version of Swedish, the word is Swerike. Does anyone know the etymology of those words.

  • Swerike / Sverige was originally Svea Rike, which means "Realm of the Swedes". Sweden is originally a word meaning something like "in/among the Swedes" (or to put it a bit more precisely, a dative plural form of the word Swede) if I recall correctly

  • If i remember it correct we had two differnt sides of Sweden competing about the power. It was Götarike and Svearike. svearike vann and it became sweden. the city Göteborg (gothenburg) are named after götarike. I quite hard to understand old swedish, i think. The version we have sounds more beautiful i think, more methodical.

  • Jag förstod ganska mycket av gammalsvenskan

  • I like the fact that it is easier for a faroese or icelandic person to understand Old Gutnish or Old Swedish than it is for a swede (or norwegian or dane).

  • Comment removed

  • And how is that a fact?

    I'm Norwegian and I understood the texts of both Old G. and Old Sw. nearly as well as my own tounge. Actually better than the reader in this video, I dare say.

  • Well of course, the swedish litterature and kings was very interested in the continent and latin, we had a king who forbid swedish at the court and replaced it with french. Swedish has changed very much comperad to other germanic languages.

  • Aye old swedish rules !

    Sounds almost like gandalf in the lord of the rings when he does he's magic spells :D

  • J.R.R tolkien has infact borrowed some of the old runes to his made up language , elvish.