North Germanic Languages, The emergence of Old Scandinavian, 600–1500

Inscriptions from the latter part of the Ancient period show North Germanic as a distinct dialect. Information about the earliest stages of the Old Scandinavian period is also derived from runic inscriptions, which became more abundant after the creation of the short runic futhark about AD 800. The expansion of Nordic peoples in the Viking Age (c. 750–1050) led to the establishment