29: A Norse language of Estonia and a Norse language of Finland
(Ormsö Norse and Krono Norse)

 

Written on the 6th of June 2024 by Linden Alexander Pentecost. This page/article has never been published elsewhere, like all articles on this website, and that includes none of the articles available on the website being published in any of the ebooks published on the website. Below the title and intro paragraph, the sections of this page or article are: "The Ormsö Norse language of the island of Ormsö, Estonia", "The place-name Saxby on Ormsö, and vague links to England and English?", "The name Ormsö and lindworms of Nordic Estonia", "Ormsö Norse words, compared to words in Rikssvenska Swedish, Rigsdansk Danish and English", "Notes on Ormsö Norse pronunciation:", "The Ormsö vocabulary in connection to German, or to prehistoric language", "The Krono dialect of Finland Norse References (for the entire article):", "Further resources on Norse languages in Estonia and Finland by the author:". In this article I write about the Ormsö Norse language of the Estonian island of Ormsö or Vormsi, and then about the Norse language of Kronoby in Ostrobothnia, Finland, with many other topics touched upon in this article in relation to language and words. This article or page contains 3089 words.
Note that this article (in front of you) is separate from two, recently written (one already published) articles for Silly Linguistics, titled: Småländska and language in relation to Småland, and Language in Southern Sweden continued: Värmländska, Värmland Finnish, Blå Jungfrun and Öländska. The former article is referred to in the article in front of you, the latter: Language in Southern Sweden continued: Värmländska, Värmland Finnish, Blå Jungfrun and Öländska, has yet to be published, but will hopefully be published in the June edition for Silly Linguistics 2024. The first article, titled  Småländska and language in relation to Småland, was published in Silly Linguistics on the 28th of May 2024 in Edition 72 of Silly Linguistics.

 

The Ormsö Norse language of the island of Ormsö, Estonia

All words in this section given in bold are those words in the Ormsö Norse language, and are sourced from source (1). Some changes in the spelling have been made, please see the "Notes on Ormsö pronunciation" part of this article for further information about spelling. The Ormsö words are accurate to the best of my knowledge, but some linguistics have told me that Herman Vendell, one of the authors of source (1) including the Ormsö words, made some mistakes in his studies, although I am confident that the examples I have given here are accurate and am not sure to what extent out of the two authors Herman Vendell worked on Ormsö specifically, it may be that the Ormsö words were more the input of A. O. Freudenthal, the other author, but I am unsure to be honest. Anyway, I am confident that the examples I have given are accurate.

 

The island of Ormsö, Vormsi in Estonian, is an island located off the coast of Estonia, where traditionally a Nordic language was spoken. Ormsö is a relatively small island, with small villages, traditional houses, beautiful forests and quiet beaches. The part of Estonia where Norse was traditionally spoken was generally referred to as Aiboland. The name Vormsi is the Estonian name, whilst Ormsö is the Nordic and/or Swedish name. As I mention again later, the island is called Worms in German, the connection with German is something I also talk about in this article.

The Estonian Norse languages, being the title I prefer to use, are more commonly refered to elsewhere as "Estonian Swedish", although I do not think that this name is ideal. The same is true I think for a lot of the so-called "Swedish" dialects, including most of those called such in Finland and in Sweden.

 

The place-name Saxby on Ormsö, and vague links to England and English?

On the island of Ormsö and close to the lighthouse is the village of Saxby. The basic root word that may be visible, may be the same as that used to refer to the "Saxons", and forms of this word appear in parts of Germany and Britain for example, but also sporadically in Northern Europe. Forms like Saxby in Lincolnshire in England show an identical place-name to that found on Ormsö. It is unlikely that all of these names refer to Saxons as such however, and we might infer that this rootword Sax- could have had another meaning in the context of Northern Europe. Having said this, some relationship to the Saxons and to England cannot be entirely ruled out. England and the Baltic countries were in contact in ancient times, including through the trade of amber, for example.
You may also notice that to a limited degree, Estonian Norse, including Ormsö Norse, shares certain sounds or sound-changes that are found in English, but not widely in the Nordic-speaking world. Take for example the similarity of Ormsö Norse kíl/kíL - "keel", to English "keel", and for example the initial w- and hw- sounds in Ormsö Norse, compare initial English w- and wh-.

 

The name Ormsö and lindworms of Nordic Estonia

I published separate work with regards to Lindworms recently in an unrelated article to the one on this page. The article was published by Silly Linguistics on the 28th of May of this year and is titled "Småländska and language in relation to Småland"

 

Ormsö means "worm island", not as in an earthworm probably, but apparently because of a personal name. Although it's also possible that the island was in some way already associated with the symbolic, magical beings known to the Norse as orm and to the Anglo-Saxons as wyrm. Even though the general idea behind this root word has also come to mean "worm" or "snake", traditionally in Germanic languages this root word did not refer to a specific biological animal as such, but rather to the concept of an otherworldly being that in some senses snakes and earthworms for example were also associated with. At its fundimental, basic level, this root word refers to something that behaves in a twisting, turning motion, often with symbolic associations with chaos, but also creation and even fertility. In German, the island is simply known as Worms. According to source (1), beings known by a similar name were known in Aiboland (the Norse part of Estonia). From the name of the island alone, one can assume that they were known in some way on Ormsö. However, source (1) only gives the word lindoʀm as being known in Gammalsvenskby at the time of dialect research. Gammalsvenskby is located in Ukraine, and is a village to which Estonian Norse people, Aibofolk went.  In source (1), the translation of lindoʀm is given as jätteorm, "giant serpent". Just how similar the Aiboland lindoʀm is to that in Småland I do not know. 

My article published recently in the Sillylinguistics magazine titled Småländska and language in relation to Småland (Published in Issue 74 of Silly Linguistics, published on the 28th of May 2024), includes a completely different scope of information about the lindworm in general and its name, and my name.

 

Ormsö Norse words, compared to words in Rikssvenska Swedish, Rigsdansk Danish and English