--- In norse_course@..., "Óskar Guðlaugsson" <hr_oskar@...> wrote:
> The thing with Icelandic sound changes is that there have been few
> merges (where two formerly different sounds become the same,
> typically of a third value),
Did you here mean to say "there have been a few mergers"?
I am tinking of Æ and Ø that I thought have been merged into
a diphtong that is pronounced like "AI". (e.g. in "Laxdæla")
Maybe the concept of "mapping" would be a good description.
The old vowels have been mapped onto new ones.
Part of the mapping is "one-to-one", but some of the old vowels
have been mapped onto new ones in a "two-to-one" fashion.
btw pronunciation Sampa/Ipa: I saw the "Duden" Aussprachebuch
in the library. It has a good description of the phonetic
alphabet at the beginning of the book. I think these phonetic
symbols that "Duden" describes for use with German, are the
same one Oskar uses with Old Norse.
Are there some sounds in Old Norse that are not used in modern
German (except the THURSE)?
> and most sound changes have been complete (i.e.
> affected all the relevant sounds, not leaving some with the old
value
> and others with the new one). This characteristic of the development
> enables the Icelanders to retain the old orthography almost as it
was.
That is one of the differences between Icelandic and the modern
Scandinavian languages, that the spelling of MS much more closely
reflects the actual pronouncuiation, than in MI. MI is similar to
English in this way. In fact, English does not seem to have gone
through a serious spelling reform since the time of Shakespeare,
or perhaps even earlier. And yet, in the intervening centuries
there must have been many changes in pronounciation.
Thus Written English is today a walking library of language history!
(which is nice if you appreciate knowing about the history of a
language)
> If we take for example an ON word and its Icelandic counterpart:
>
> (using SAMPA transcription)
>
> ON: full (full; fem sg, nom-acc/neut pl, nom-acc)
> pronounced something like [PUll]
> MI: full (full; fem sg, nom-acc/neut pl, nom-acc)
> pronounced [fYtl_0]
>
> The two forms have the same meaning, and same "position" within the
> declension; but their pronunciation is markedly different.
>
> [P] is a so-called "bilabial fricative"; it is very close to the [f]
> that we know, but pronounced without the tongue touching the teeth
(as
> it does in [f], which is therefore called a "labio-dental
fricative").
When I pronounce "F" in Norwegian, the tongue tip does not touch
the teeth. But the lower lip touches the upper front teeth.
I think it is the same way in English. (?)
>
> AFAIK, Faroese would have the following counterpart:
>
> full (full; fem sg, nom-acc/neut pl, nom-acc)
> pronounced [fUtl_0]
>
> I.e. the vowel like that of ON, the consonants like MI.
>
> Generally, though, Faroese has departed most in its vowel system;
<u>
> is one of the few that still has a value similar to that of ON ([U],
> as above). The differences between Faroese and Icelandic are
> especially in their vowel systems. It is two much for me to detail
> here, really.
>
> The general tendency in all the descendants of ON has been to make
> diphthongs out of the former long vowels. Thus, ON <ae>, <oe>, <é>,
> <á>, and <ó> have all become diphthongs of some sort in Icelandic.
In
> Faroese, those, and <ú>, <í>, and <ý> have also become dipthongs.
The
> values of the new dipthongs are quite different between Icelandic
and
> Faroese, and also different between the various dialects of
> continental Scandinavian.
>
> Icelandic and Faroese have more in common in the developments
> of the consonant system. They share their treatment of <ll> (to
[tl]),
> <nn> (to [tn]), and pre-aspiration as well. In both countries, ON
<hv>
> has generally become [k_hv] (pronounced somewhat like English <qu>
in
> <quick>), though some Icelandic dialects have a value closer to the
ON
> one.
>
> In Faroese, however, <kj>, palatalized <k>, <tj>, and <hj> have all
> become an aspirated affricate [t_hS] (as English <ch> in <chill>),
> quite unlike Icelandic. Likewise, <gj> and palatalized <g> have
become
> [tS] (unaspirated <ch>). Faroese has also lost their "ð" [D] (though
> the orthography retains it), and the old "þ" [T] has changed to
either
> a "t" [t_h] or "h" [h] (Far <Hórur> = ON <Þórr> = Thor, the
> Thundergod).
>
> Finally, I should note that the Faroes have a great variety of
> dialects (unlike Iceland)
>
> As I said, it's a tough question, as there is so much to explain;
> perhaps I could provide more understandable answers to less open
> questions :)
"Eg é fodle å gálen"
Ketill