Hail Hawk!
I was preparing some notes concerning this, but in the
meantime it became delayed.

--- In norse_course@..., Haukur Thorgeirsson <haukurth@...> wrote:
> Óskar wrote (some days ago):
>
>
> >No no, not at all :) The dualis is just "vit". Then there is a
> >preposition "við". However, later ON has some lenition going on,
> >so "vit" > "við"; the latter is the MI and MFarose form, as well as
> >the probable ancestor of Scandinavian "vi".
>
> I'm not entirely sure...
>
> MFaroese actually has "vit". I don't know whether the t
> is pronounced but they'd probably spell it "við" if it
> wasn't (Faroese also has "vær" in poetry.)
>
> I always assumed the Scandinavian "vi" was a descendant
> of "vér" rather than "vit" but I don't have any evidence either way.

"Vi" is probably East Norse, that now is considered the "civilized"
way of saying "we". That is because Danish is what the priests
spoke, and other educated people. However, it seems to me that in
West-Norse, the right way to say "we" is by saying "me":
"Nå sko me rektig hatt någe kaffi!"
(Nu myndum vit rett haft nokkurt kaffi!????)
probably several errors here - because I didn't look up
any of it - the purpose was just to give a rough idea.
(It would be quite wellcome if you'd point out errors.)
The point here is - please look at the example, even if
part of it is corrupt -- that the two words "myndum vit"
very frequently followed each other in expressions,
and then by and by, something like this happened (don't
have the exact details):

myndum vit --> myndu mvit --> myndu mit.

So the "m" ending of the 1st person plural got glued
onto the "vit", and hence "vit" became changed into "mit".
And so we actually have 4 forms:

vit, við, mit, mið

and they all mean "we" in various regions, and at various
times. Later the final dental -t or -ð was dropped, and that's
why West-Norse uses "me". ("mi" is also used in some places,
for example in Sætesdal). Whether all 4 forms are considered
as "Old Norse" I am not sure about. It depends on what you
mean by "Old Norse". But in general one assumes that Old Norse
is the language of West Norway + Vesterhafseyar (=Island + Forøyar
+ Hjaltland + Orkney + Grønland + Vinland) up until the black
death (1350). Because after the plague, the language in Norway
quickly lost much of its morphology. And then after 1500
Danish started to take over in administration.

Með kveðju Ketils.


>
> Vit vilja tevatn og breyð!
It is very nice that you interject such small sentences
every now and then Haukur! I think a "sentence of the day"
would work wonders! That way we get "fed" on a regular
schedule. Don't post the translation right away. It is good
if we have some phrase to ponder on. One of the most difficult
things to learn well is probably the verbs. For example
in the above, I was wondering why it is "vit vilja". For
example in the "Atlamol en grønlenzku", verse 93, it says:
"vogum or skogi þanns vildum syknan, ..."
(it is not that I couldn't find it out, but I think it
sometimes also is good to point out things that aren't
immediatly ovious to the novice -- such as I am one)
Note list-friends: I drop accents while quoting like that,
because I assume people will want to check spelling any way,
by comparing with their favorite edition, whether you use
Neckel-Khun or simply downloaded copies. The above is from
Gering, but his spelling isn't the "standard" spelling either.
"vó,gum ór skógi þanns vildum syknan, ..."
(here I added the accents, as Gering has them)
("ó," = hooked o with a lengthening accent)
(I now also discovered that on a PC you can make accents
by using the <Alt Gr> button -- if you have it)