--- In norse_course@egroups.com, Shoshana and Rex Jemison
<shoshana@...> wrote:

> <<<<
> I do not want to sound silly, or get political here at all. But
please
> understand that for very personal reasons I would have a real
problem with
> using heill or heil as a greeting. Is there another word of greeting
I can
> use that would be ON proper? would blessa'r be appropriate?
> >>>>

I see. Well, "blessa'r" was my slangish spelling for "blessaður" which
means "blessed" and was not much used in the ON we're teaching. It's
something rather Modern Icelandic, so it's probably not appropriate
for you. "Heil" is not pronounced like the German equivalent (which is
[hAil]), but rather [hEil], similar to the English 'hail' (which is of
the same root), if that helps any. But if you're still averted to it,
then I suggest adding "kom" to have "kom heill/heil", or using
"sæll/sæl" instead.

Óskar