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Latin Influence on the Norwegian Language I59
studied and in part translated into Norwegian comes to
mind. In addition legal literature, especially concerning
canon law, became accessible, and this was an
indispensable subject of study. On top of this we have
works on rhetoric, together with manuals on letter writing,
ars epistolaria, the so-called summae dictaminum which
played such an important part in the latinisation of the
mother tongue. If we turn our attention once again to
Bishop Arne's library, we notice that all these branches
of literature are well represented in some form or other.
Among other things there we find a summa dictaminum
bernardi. If we add to this the medical books - and
it is established that such books existed in Norway in
the fourteenth century - I think I have mentioned the
most important of the written Latin sources which were
able to influence the Norwegian language. We ought
perhaps also to add mathematics, compotum cum tabulis
and compotum manualem, as the titles of two books in
Arne's collection read.
The influence of Latin on Norwegian can by and large
be classified under the following four headings: (I) vocabulary,
(2) morphology, (3) syntax, (4) style.
The scope of the influence of Latin on the vocabulary
of an author can vary to a great degree. We may find
longish sentences all in Latin which have, as it were,
occurred to the writer by chance, or shortish standard
phrases, or the influence may be limited to the use of
single words which retain their Latin inflexion according
to their syntactical position in the sentence. The
homilies, the Tale mot biskopene, letters and documents
are full of examples. There are several reasons for this
use of Latin. Paul Th. Hoffmann is, I am sure, right
when he points out that in ecclesiastical circles Latin
was "die heilige Sprache. Die Sprachen der Heimat
blieben profan ... Lateinische Worte waren es, die ...
fremd klangen, die aber darum urn so starker in ihrer
magischen beschworenden Gewalt empfunden wurden." 2
2 Der mittelalterliche Mensch (1922), 168.