Franco-norse (language revival)

[Lundtrollinn]

Here is the site about Old Norse language recreation project in France :


All informations are in french and english.

The "Franconorse" project aims to recreate a scandinavian language in France on the basis of the Old Norse linguistic heritage in Normandy.
It is the successor of the "Neonormand" project born in 2006, but is distinguished by its methodology. Its restoration protocol is based on the following principles :

1. the mother tongue systematically influences the target language (Bentahila & Davies, 1993)
2. linguistic purism is a barrier to language revitalization (Dorian, 1994)
3. compromise makes a revitalization program succeed (Thieberger, 2002)

Consequently, the "Franconorse" project is not intended to restore a "pure" form of Old Norse. It is to revive a form of Old Norse adapted to the linguistic competence of French speakers. Thus, the outcome of this program is a distinct and easily appropriable language.

[Hrafn]

So, old danish with french grammar and pronounciation? O.0

[Lundtrollinn]

Just as Modern Hebrew is Ancient Hebrew with Yiddish pronunciation and slavic grammar ; and as Modern Cornish is a celtic language with english pronunciation.

Now yes, it can be stated in this way, even if it is more accurate to say that the grammar is a hybrid between Old Norse and French.

[Hnolt]

Interesting, thanks for the links!

Is there any ancient sources and texts in Normand Norse you base your project upon?

[Lundtrollinn]

No, there are only borrowings and place names. But some (much) are attested for a while.
But texts are not relevant in this case, because it was in tenth century. The variety spoken was in majority Old East (Anglo-)Norse.

The specificity of the revived language will be the fact that it is adaptated (following sound changes in place names and borrowings) to the french phonology.

[Lundtrollinn]

There is a new on Franconorrois.info: the list of equivalences between Old Norse and Franconorse consonants:


Details are not available on the site. But, if you are interested, you can ask for more informations and arguments.
For more objectivity, all Franconorse words are in IPA.