sjæl

See also: sjal and själ

Danish

Etymology

From Old Danish sial, siæl, Old Norse sál (“soul”), related to Norwegian Bokmål sjel and Swedish själ. The West Norse form is borrowed from Old English sāwol, the East Norse form, with -j-, from Old Saxon sēola, siola, both ultimately from Proto-Germanic *saiwalō.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈɕɛˀl]

Noun

sjæl c (singular definite sjælen, plural indefinite sjæle)

1. soul

Inflection

Declension of sjæl

common gender	Singular		Plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	sjæl	sjælen	sjæle	sjælene
genitive	sjæls	sjælens	sjæles	sjælenes

Derived terms

• besjæle
• bondesjæl
• folkesjæl
• kræmmersjæl
• menneskesjæl
• sjæle
• sjælefred
• sjælelig
• sjælfuld
• sjælløs
• sjælstilstand
• verdenssjæl

References

• “sjæl” in Den Danske Ordbog

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Old Norse sjalfr.

Noun

sjæl f (definite singular sjæli, indefinite plural sjæler or sjælir, definite plural sjælerne or sjælene or sjæline)

1. (pre-1917) alternative form of sjel

Usage notes

• The forms sjælir and sjæline were only allowed under Midlandsnormalen.
• Definite plural sjælene was only ever allowed for schoolchildren as of 1910.

Alternative forms

• sjelv (alternative spelling)

Pronoun

sjæl

1. (dialectal, Mid Eastern Norway) alternative form of sjølv (“self”)

Interjection

sjæl

1. (dialectal, Oslo) ditto

Usage notes

Derived from the dialectal form (of the pronoun) traditionally used in the capital area, sjæl. Even though the Danish form (selv) has entered the spoken language through the written language Bokmål, the interjection is exclusively pronounced (and written) sjæl and cannot be replaced by selv.

Synonyms

• same her, (dialectal) sama her
• i like måte (formal)