--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, simonfittonbrown@... wrote:
> Hi!
>
> I've become interested in the Old Norse concept of ONDVEGISSULA
(the O has a tail and the U is long).
Yes, the U is long (Ú). The symbol 'O with a tail' is a creative way
of writing short nasal A (a mutation of regular short A). Properly
speaking, this sound probably *should* be written as 'A with a tail'
instead of 'O with a tail' to avoid confusion. Time and again folk
misread the symbol 'O with a tail' as having something to do with O
rather than A. If it were not for the fact that modern printing con-
vention adopted 'O with a tail' for this sound, we would have to go
along with many modern scholars and write 'A with a tail' - doing so
would help to eliminate confusion by identifying this sound with A.
We would then have pl. 'land' (with a tail) beside sg. 'land'. Like-
wise, long 'O with a tail' can be written as long 'A with a tail' -
this eliminates the same confusion in the lengthened grade. To make
matters even more complicated, these short and long nasals were at
times represented by short and long AO in old writing - AO here is
written as a single glyph, like Æ (a+e). Runic inscriptions prefer
to use regular A for short nasal A, and Å (a separate rune) for long
nasal A. Also, old poets made no distinction between nasals and non-
nasals for the purposes of assonance. Here are some examples from
the poet Þjóðólfr: 'glamma ó- fyr skömmu' (where Ö represents short
nasal A and assonates with A in 'glamma'), and 'trygglaust of far
þriggja' (where the Y in 'trygg-' is really nasal I and assonates
with regular I in 'þriggja'). The I in 'trygg-' was nasalized by a
following W, which may still have been present in Þjóðólfr's actual
pronounciation as 'triggwlaust' (the GG in 'triggw-' is 'natural',
not from NG). If I could go back and tell the old writers 'how to
write', I would say this: 1) write the true root-vowel 2) use the
accent only for lengthened grades 3) use the 'tail' only for nasals.
The forms quoted would then be written as follows:
sg. land - regular short A
pl. land - regular short A (with a 'tail')
'glamma' - regular short A
'skömmu' - regular short A (with a 'tail')
'trygg-' - regular short I (with a 'tail')
'þrigg-' - regular short I
This system would also work if we adopted the AO glyph for nasals of
A, creating a parallel with Æ (also from A). Modern Ö represents a
shift in pronounciation from short nasal A, making matters even more
complicated for us living today.
I would like to know list-members thoughts about 'A with a tail' vs.
the AO-glyph. Given that either one shows its relationship with A
while at the same time remaining visually distinct, which one is the
most preferable form? Which one would you choose?
Consider 1) the over-all appearance of the vowel-symbol set 2) the
clarity of the way the vowels and their relationships are shown.
Regards,
Konrad.