Re: Horses' Asses and the Indo-European Homeland

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Brian M. Scott" <BMScott@...> wrote:

>
> At 10:59:05 PM on Friday, September 26, 2008, Andrew
> Jarrette wrote:
>
> > --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Brian M. Scott"
> > <BMScott@> wrote:
>
> >> At 7:53:02 PM on Friday, September 26, 2008, Rick
> >> McCallister wrote:
>
> >> [...]
>
> >>> You also hear "God" as /gaa@.../, /gaaw@.../, etc.
>
> >> That reminds me of another example: Icelandic <guð> 'god'
> >> and words derived from it, including names like <Guðmundur>,
> >> are pronounced as if the element were spelled <gvuð>,
> >> roughly [kvYð] (where [k] is unaspirated). The older ON
> >> form of the word is <goð>.
>
> > What I've read is that it is actually [gvœð] (or [kvœð]
> > with unaspirated [k]), as though spelt <gvöð>.
>
> That disagrees with every description that I've seen and
> with what I've heard, which is <gvuð>, not <gvöð>. I have,
> however, seen the pronunciation of <u> described as [Y],
> [ø], [œ], and 'a sound between the vowels in French _pu_ and
> _peu_'. The sources that are prima facie likely to be best
> generally [Y], but I think that it's rather centralized, and
> I can imagine someone describing it as [œ].
>
> Brian
>

Well if you've heard it then you must be right, I've never actually
heard much more than a few words of Icelandic, and certainly not this
word. A book in my local library was the one that advocated the
<gvöð> pronunciation; maybe its author was mistaken.

AJ