How comprehensible does Old Norse seem to you? Can you understand a good deal of the language when looking at an ON text, or does it seem rather obscure in the same way that Old English does to Modern English speakers? This question does not apply to Icelandic speakers since Icelandic has remained so much like Old Norse.
Question for any Scandinavian speakers about Old Norse
I'm not a Scandinavian speaker,but it is the same,when Italians look at a Latin text.
I'm not a Scandinavian speaker,but it is the same,when Italians look at a Latin text.
Most of the times when an Italian read a Latin text can understand a few words and sometimes even the general meaning of simple phrase. At least this is my experience
Most of the times when an Italian read a Latin text can understand a few words and sometimes even the general meaning of simple phrase. At least this is my experience
It's the same,when Westerlauwer,North or Saterlandish Frisian looks at an Old Frisian text,German looks at an Old High German text ,Low German or Dutch looks at Old Frankish or Old Saxon text and so on.Believe me ,Watzema and Luikenga surnames are the same in the Netherlands(Westerlauwers) Fryslan and Oostfreesland in Germany.
It's the same,when Westerlauwer,North or Saterlandish Frisian looks at an Old Frisian text,German looks at an Old High German text ,Low German or Dutch looks at Old Frankish or Old Saxon text and so on.Believe me ,Watzema and Luikenga surnames are the same in the Netherlands(Westerlauwers) Fryslan and Oostfreesland in Germany.
Faroese and Norn speakers have the easiest time with it, especially Faroese, which has an orthography that looks very much like Old Norse even if a lot of the letters are silent in spoken Faroese or pronounced differently. Following that would be speakers of some of the very conservative dialects of Swedish and Norwegian that retain a lot of very archaic forms. Then would be people familiar with Nynorsk, as it is similar to Faroese as being at least partially historically based. People that know only Bokmaal, or standard Danish or Swedish would have the hardest time understanding it, but of course they would be able to pick out a few words of it.