--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, mike garcia <exavierstud@...> wrote:

>
> If you don't mind, I understand the runes clearly, however don't

know how

> to come to my own conclusion. I feel before exploring further with the
> Norse material is to understand the basic's of the language it was

written

> for?

Heill Mike!

> Can you help me more in understanding this with the -O for female?

If you have any specific questions, I'll do my best. The nominative
singular ending -o found in the early Scandinavian inscriptions
(originally a long vowel) correspends to (short) -a of the later
language (Viking Age and Medieval Old Norse) in feminine words such as
'stjarna' "star" (Proto-Norse *sternô).

The language went through some major phonetic changes in the period
600-800. Introductory material on Old Norse, including the Norse
Course lessons, usually concentrates on the language found in
Icelandic manuscripts from the 12th to the 15th century, which was
essentially the same as that of Norway at the beginning of this
period, and not so far removed from that of the Viking Age
inscriptions. Sometimes Old Icelandic and Old Norwegian are grouped
together as Old West Norse in contrast to Old East Norse (Danish and
Swedish). But not everyone uses the same terminology; for example,
Jan Terje Faarlund uses 'Old Norse' and 'West Nordic' synonymously to
refer to the language of medieval Iceland and Norway, while Danish and
Swedish are 'East Nordic'.

The reason for this emphasis on Old Icelandic that that most of the
written material comes from Iceland. Anyway, it's a good starting off
point for studying the earlier and less well attested stages. The
Samnordisk runtextdatabas contains transcriptions of inscriptions
together with the text in normalised Old West Norse or Old East Norse,
depending on where the inscription comes from [
http://web.telia.com/~u13403587/rundata/pc/pc.htm ].

> If you don't mind, can I use some of this material to help make some
> friends of mine think more on the matter? The eviedence I have produced
> that I know on it, if you can supply the ref: to what you have

proclaimed

> and only with your permission present it to my friends maybe?

Of course, by all means share any information you find here which is
of use to you. Here is a link to the last chapter of the Old Norse
Online course. This chapter has some information on the sound changes
that I mentioned.

http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/lrc/eieol/norol-10-X.html#Nor10_GP46

These authors call the language of the earliest inscriptions Northwest
Germanic. Other scholars use different terminology and call this
language Proto-Norse or Ancient Nordic or even just Early Runic.