Hail Anthanarik!

I took a quick look at the etymology book this
morning. Accordingly "æfing" would be the same as
German "Übung" (Die Übung macht den Meister!)
(=æfingin skapar meistarann)
But I am not sure the word existed in Old Norse.
(I didn't know what letter to look under)
German "üben" is however related to ON "efna".
So maybe something could be found. I am not sure.

If I look up English "exercise", I do find several
Icelandic possibilities, viz.: notkun, iðkun, beiting,
framkvæmd, æfing, hreyfing, stíl. The problem then is
to pick the right word from these alternatives that may
have slightly different meanings. One tip is that
exercisebook is called "stílabók", which rings a bell
with me, and can have something to do with the fact
that we were all under Danish rule for so many centuries.

I also find words like "reikningsbók". But you'd have to
ask someone who has gone to an Icelandic elementary school,
if that is what they called it. I also find phrases like
"reikna reikningsdæmi". That too sounds like what they'd
say in school when they are doing math excercises.
An exercisebook is called "æfingabók". Shooting
excercises are called "skotæfingar". Here "skot" (n.) is
a shot. But there is also the verb "skjóta" (skýt, skjótum,
skaut, skutum, skyti, skotið). From this row it can be seen
that the noun is probably formed from the past participle.
And yet, when the composite "skotæfingar" is formed, it
is the noun that is used.

With respect to singing, I find the word "söngvakvöld"
for an evening when one gets together to sing. A song is
called "söngur" (n.). The verb is "syngja" (syng, syngjum,
söng, sungum, syngi, sungið). Here the noun seems to
have been formed from the past tense of the verb.
I was looking for a word for "singing exercises", but I
didn't find it. I was also trying to see if there was
a rule for how such words are formed. But I fail to
see a clear cut rule. It is much easier in my own language,
for there I just KNOW.

Conclusion: It is not advisable to try to make up ones
own words. There are so many pitfalls, that one is almost
certain to arrive at false conclusions. Let's ask the
Icelanders for help instead. Old Norse is different,
because nearly all its words that we can know about are
already in dictionaries, and there is no one we can ask
if we seek a word that is not in the dictionary. We can
of course try to make up our own words. But how can
we be sure we then follow the rules a native speaker
of Old Norse would have followed a 1000 years ago ?

Kveðju,
KeÞ.

> Meir um töluðræfingar
>
> Is there an umlaut here æ as in u.
>
>
>
> A¨