SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

Latin Influence on the Norwegian Language r69
[erneimt, nedennevnt, vedlagt are fully accepted in
the language. The expressions fyrrnefndr, dornefndr,
optneindr came into Old Norse from the Latin predictus,
aniedictus, prefatus, sepedictus, and became well established
through the manuals. It is clear, incidentally,
that they are to be found, particularly in standard
expressions, first and foremost in connection with proper
names. The following two sentences will help to
illustrate this: "bidium ver at peer later Hakon
fyrnsemfdan af yder finna hiollp", and "hefr han poo i
Biorgvin dvallst siidan .. saker sinnar mredo sem aadr
soghdum ver".
The dative absolute is also very much a living element
in the epistolary literature, e.g. undanteknum vicariis
(notice also the Latin noun), os uspurdum, We meet
the cliche, all tatt i betraktning, every day. The summa
dictaminis of the Middle Ages created the Norwegian
equivalent of the narratio of the letter: "Bref ydart kom
til vaar ... j hveriu ...", where, as we see an interrogative
is used as a relative pronoun, a usage that one does
one's best to avoid in modern Norwegian.
With regard to the reflexive form of the verb we can
see that there is already a tendency in Old Norse to use
the passive in -s to render the incomplete action. It is
particularly noticeable in the case of the verb segja or
segjast: "marght segizst her"; - "breflaust segizst af
ordom herra Halkells"; - "Til sannenda segizst her" ;
- "Sagdezst her hoghlegha so". But on one occasion
Bishop Hakon inserts a popular proverb, and then,
instead of using segizst, he says "seghia menn at vorm
er vma . senna " .
The other effects which Latin influence has had on
Norwegian syntax are more sporadic. When Bishop
Arne refers to the worthy gentleman godrar aminningar,
Bishop Erlend of the Faroes, or when Bishop Hakon
writes to the king mentioning among other things "brefe
vyrduleges herra ydars mofiurfodur Hakonar konungs