--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, <thor33555@...> wrote:

> Hello, I am a musician from Cincinnati, Ohio,
> and I am planning on coming out with an album
> titled Völuspá, because my lyrics are based
> largely off Norse Mythology. I've read several
> articles on pronunciation of Old Norse, but I'm
> having a bit of trouble pronouncing the word. Am
> I right in thinking it is said : vuh-loo-SPAH?
> Thanks a lot for helping a lost soul!

Hi Noah,

That depends how vuh-loo-SPAH is pronounced ;)

It also depends on what date you want it to be correct for. Here
are some suggestions to the best of my limited knowledge. Maybe
someone who knows more can fill in the gaps and correct any
mistakes. I've written them first using the SAMPA phonetic notation
for computers [ http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/sampa/home.htm ],then
explained the symbols below. The English approximations are very
very rough, and ambiguous, and only apply to my own British accent
(with no "r" sound after vowels), so don't take them too seriously.

Stress in each case is on the first syllable.

1) Modern Icelandic [v9lYspau] "vurlew-spow"
2) late 13th century [v9lUspO:] "vurloo-spore"
3) mid 12th century [wOlospa:] "wallow-spar"

Luckily the earliest pronunciation is simplest for English speakers.

[w] exactly as in "wallow".
[O] as in German 'Schloss', or like English "law" but short.
[l] exactly as in English here I think.

[o] like German 'Bohne', or the first part of the vowel in some
English pronunctiations of "go" [goU], but without the final glide.
Or according to some discriptions the sound here would have been
[U], as in my pronunciation of "book". I'm not really sure about
the timing of the changes of this sound in unaccented positions.

[sp] exactly like English.
[a:] Long [a], there's a few of them in this recording:
http://www.hi.is/%7Ehaukurth/norse/sounds/krakumal.html

As for the other versions, the [9] represents a "short open-mid
front rounded vowel" as in German 'Götter' "gods". Listen to the
first sound in this recording [ http://www.hi.is/%
7Ehaukurth/norse/sounds/vellekla.html ]. The Modern pronunctaion =
the first two versions above, the Old Norse = version 3.

I've read that the poem itself was probably written in the last half
of the 10th or the first half of the 11th century. I wonder if
there would have been any major differences in the way the author
would have pronounced the word from this 12th century reconstruction.

Llama Nom


PS. Some general explanations of Old Norse pronunciation:

http://www.hi.is/%7Ehaukurth/norse/articles/pronunc.html
http://www.hi.is/%7Ehaukurth/norse/articles/altpron.html
http://www.utexas.edu/cola/depts/lrc/eieol/norol-TC-X.html