Greenlandic Norse

The limited inscriptional evidence shows some innovations, including the use of initial t for þ, but also the conservation of certain features that changed in other Norse languages.

[2] It is difficult to identify specifically Greenlandic linguistic features in the limited runic material.

Nevertheless, there are inscriptions showing the use of t for historical þ in words such as torir rather than þorir and tana rather than þana.

It is, for example, found in a runic inscription discovered in Orphir in Orkney, which has been taken to imply that "the rune carver probably was a Greenlander".

{} Erlingr {} Sighvats {} sonr {} ok {} Bjarni {} Þórðar sonr {} {} {} ok {} Eindriði {} Odds sonr {} laugardagin {} fyrir {} gagndag {} hlóðu {} varða þe[ssa] {} ok … {} …Erlingr Sighvatrs son and Bjarni Þorðr's son and Eindriði Oddr's son, constructed these cairns the Saturday before Rogation Day, and … [7]The patronymic Tortarson (standardized Old Norse: Þórðarson) shows the change from þ to t while the word hloþu (Old Icelandic hlóðu, Old Norwegian lóðu) shows the retention of initial hl.

This includes the prepositional form þil for the older til which demonstrates the merger of initial 'þ' and 't'.

Ursula Dronke commented that "There is a rawness about the language ... that could reflect the conditions of an isolated society distant from the courts of kings and such refinements of manners and speech as were associated with them.

He adduced various stylistic arguments in favor of Greenlandic provenance for Helgakviða Hundingsbana I, Oddrúnargrátr, Guðrúnarhvöt, Sigurðarkviða in skamma and, more speculatively, Helreið Brynhildar.

[13] One linguistic trait which Finnur regarded as specifically Greenlandic was initial 'hn' in the word Hniflungr, found in Atlamál, Helgakviða Hundingsbana I and Guðrúnarhvöt.