Re: s-stems in Slavic and Germanic

From: Andrew Jarrette
Message: 62889
Date: 2009-02-06

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "bmscotttg" <BMScott@...> wrote:
>
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Andrew Jarrette" <anjarrette@>
> wrote:
>
> > --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "bmscotttg" <BMScott@> wrote:
>
> >> Unfortunately, all that survives from the earliest period of
> >> Old West Low Franconian, beyond a great deal of onomastic
> >> material in Latin texts, is the following remarkable West
> >> Flemish sentence of the eleventh century, found in England
> >> in the binding of a Latin manuscript:
>
> >> hebban olla vogala nestas hagunnan hinase hi(c) (e)nda thu
> >> w(at) (u)nbidan (w)e nu
>
> > Do the parentheses indicate that the letters are present but nearly
> > illegible, or that the letters are completely illegible or absent
> > (and hence that they could be any other letters)?
>
> I'd say 'present by nearly to entirely illegible', but you can judge
> for yourself:
>
>
<http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c4/Hebban_olla_vogala_fragment.jpg>
>
>
<http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/Hebban_olla_vogala_overview.jpg>
>
> In the second one the relavant passage is in the second and third
> lines under the inkblot near the righthand edge. The five lines
> there are usually read 'quid expectamus nunc. Abent omnes uolucres
> nidos inceptos nisi ego et tu. Hebban olla uogala nestas hagunnan
> hinase hic enda thu uuat unbidan uue nu. Rector celi nos exaudi ut
> dignare nos saluare.'
>
> Brian
>

It's a very difficult fragment to read, at those lines. I'm surprised
scholars have been able to deduce as much as they have. One question:
might <hagunnan> be separated into <hag unnan>? I haven't a clue what
the translation is (only "all birds have nests"?), so I don't know
whether this suggestion would make sense.

Andrew