The Danish language developed during the Middle Ages out of the Old East Norse, the common predecessor of Danish and Swedish. It was a late form of common Old Norse.The Danish philologist Johannes Brøndum-Nielsen divided the history of Danish into "Old Danish" from 800 AD to 1525 and "Modern Danish" from 1525 and onwards. He subdivided Old Danish into "Runic Danish" (800-1100), Early Middle Danish (1100-1350) and Late Middle Danish (1350-1525)