I’d help out any way I can in setting up the ON Wiki…as an admin, translating the messages, etc.  I haven’t kept up too much on the list (getting an MBA right now), but I follow the messages.

 

If we get at least 5 or more people to support the creation, and who will promise to contribute to make a request to the wiki-list, there’s a good chance of getting it up and running.

 

James

 


From: A. L. E. McK. [mailto:runadis@...]
Sent: Monday, March 14, 2005 11:17 PM
To: norse_course@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [norse_course] Re: Wikipedia

 

James and Imre, -and who ever else is interrested!

 

I've obviously missed out on James message, but I think I got the information I need from Imres answer, though I have no clue about what wikipedia is...

I at least am very interrested in starting to use the ON, for starters I'll add that the norse word for the ON language is 'norrfna tunga'. 

I will also add that it's quite frowned upon in academic circles to 'translate' into norse, as it's considered a reconstructed,'dead' language, and we don't know if it relly was used the way we think.  So we might ecspect some resistance, though I think it would be quite passive. 

I don't have a problem with this, as I understand norse as a very flexible language, and I don't think it at the time it was spoken was a correct way of speaking.  As long as they understood each other I think no one minded how you spoke.  It was much regional diversity, this we know, and they also influenced each other and adjusted their language as they met people from other places.  There was probbably also differences between the social classes in their speech pattern, and of course the language also changed during the period. 

So I think we should all speak/write it as we see fit, and if there are differences in how we do it, this will only add a 'realistic' element.  The words for things which did'nt excist at the time, we'll just have to make up as we go, but they should be meaning related so there's a chance of understanding even if one has'nt seen that particular version before.  This is how they do it in modern icelandic instead of using loan words, 'telephone' becomes 'tala tut' (or something like that, I don't know how they spell it), which again transelates into something like 'speaking tout/opening', skyscraper might be something like 'himmin skrapr'...

 

AnnikaRunadis

hobbi_germanista <hobbi-germanista@...> wrote:



--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, "James R. Johnson"
<modean52@...> wrote:

Hello James,

this sounds quite interesting, and would be a great effort to
open wikipedia in an already extinct language. I would participate
if a wikipedia in ON will be opened. But first we should check
how able is ON to express modern things? E.g. we should make up the
names of the countries etc. in ON, or by the way how is "Old Norse"
in ON? In the wikipedia every language is marked by its own name,
like Finnish is marked as "Suomi", Hungarian as "Magyar" etc.

So firstly we should start a language "revitalization". At that
point we should note that New Icelandic does exist so our aim is not
to create a "New Norse", because it does exist, but to preserve Old
Norse as it is. Starting a wikipedia in ON would be like a bunch of
Vikings arrive from the 8-12th century into the 21th century and
they start giving names to the objects of the new world.:)
We should also note that there are other ON "speakers" and they
might be interested too. I mean if we start calling "skyscraper" in
ON "AAA" and then other contributors start calling it "BBB", and
others "ABA" then we would never understand each other, and
occasionally "Modern Old Norse" splits into dialects, just as it
split in the 14th century. I wonder how many people speak ON at such
a level to contribute to the wikipedia?

Greetings,

Imre Kovacs

PS. You wrote that ON has a language code (non). Does that mean that
ON wikipedia exists?

PSS. We should also need someone to read the posted articles and
check the grammar mistakes.



>
>Hello,
>
>             There's been some discussion on the wikipedia mailing
list about
> the possibility of an Old Norse Wikipedia - a free-content, user-
editable
> encyclopedia in Old Norse!  There's already one in Icelandic,
Gothic, and
> Old English.  Why not Old Norse?  It has a language code (non),
and is very
> rich and expressive.  Anyone want to help out by requesting it on
the
> wikipedia mailing list (they want at  least 5 people to pledge to
> contribute)?
>

>
> James








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