Heill Ketill,

> Question to Oskar:
> Do you mean that some words are legitimate and others aren't?
> (as list topics)

No, of course not. Any ON word or concept MAY be discussed.

I was referring to the fact that the course is designed as
a "protected environment" for students with no prior knowledge of ON,
or other languages, or grammar in general; we, the teachers, then
choose which words and which grammatic concepts enter, for the
benefit of the students, because it's obvious that the students we
have in mind cannot handle the whole of the language at one time. We
must feed it to them in appropriately sized bits.

However, I should like to remind you that:

"This list is not the course"

The course = the lessons. This list is for discussions thereof. That
also gives the list the freedom for "off-topic" discussions (like, on
ON words or concepts not yet introduced in the course); I wouldn't
ever censor such discussions (and censoring and expelling are drastic
measures that we'd only take to after careful consideration).

What I've been trying to say is that I would like for the more
advanced students (such as you, Ketill) to choose their topics, in
general, to match the material in our course. That way, they'd be
helping us, which I hope they'll be honored to do (?).

So it's not that I mind you discussing some of the things you discuss
every now and then. I know that you've also intended your postings to
be helpful to others here, who are interested in learning. But when
you consistently (though perhaps not deliberately) choose material
outside the scope of the course (as it stands today), it's just not
as helpful. Or so I find (perhaps we should have a poll on this?!?).
Your postings haven't been "off-topic", rather "off-scope", which is
ok, but not preferrable en masse (as they _have_ been).

I'm sorry that my message has more often come through as irritation,
censorship, or personal dislike. Your style of writing has had a way
of annoying me every now and then, though that gives me no excuse, as
a moderator (who should moderate, not argue), to resort to the
negative writing that I've presented recently. I hope my message is
clear and friendly enough now that you should read it, understand it,
and respect it. It's essentially a plea to you, as a "senior" student
(one with prior knowledge and advantages in learning, being Nordic),
to act in the best interest of the course. I refer to my words above
for the definition of "best interest".

> Some days ago I posted a list of meanings that belongs to the

verb "vega"

> which would then be one of the "legitimate" words. I hope you

received

> it all right. (it included etymologies as well)
> I hope my comment that it could also mean to "weigh" as well as
> to "build roads", was well taken.

Yes yes, that's all fine. "Vega" in the meaning of "build roads",
though, would not be good style in writing; in fact, it hardly even
appears in speech, though it would be marked as colloquial. Unusually
open-minded of the dictionary to present it, must say. Anyhow, in
Icelandic we generally say "að leggja veg" (to lay a road); cf. the
Icelandic Road Building Company's (Vegagerðin) "slogan", seen on the
signs marking road construction areas:

"Vegagerðin leggur nýjan veg."

> I actually did read through the lessons, and I also did some of the

excercises.

> I realize that I probably should have done more of them, and written
> down the solutions with pencil and paper. But somehow, I belong to
> a younger generation that no longer posesses the zeal for tedious
> study that the old generation used to have. Nevertheless, I am

perfectly

> capable of learning languages, since I have already learned several.
> But I am affraid the methods that suit my character are more of a
> playful/explorative/communicative kind. (naturmetoden)

Huh? I was under the impression that our teaching methods were
modernistic... (?)

> Let us say the word "wolf" comes up. You then press another button
> on the web page, say <Test Declination>, and the java-routine

answers

> by popping up a dialogue box that says (for example) "2nd plur".
> You the have to fill in what you think the 2nd plur of "ulfr"
> is. To produce variation, it will sometimes also ask you to fill
> in the determined conjugation (ulfrinn etc). One might then
> set oneself speed goals. For example "can you correctly decline 10
> randomly chosen nouns in a minute?"

It wasn't clear to either me or Haukur what you mean by "2nd plur";
I've come to the conclusion that you're referring to your case
sequence, and thus mean "genitive plural" ("gen pl", in our
abbreviation). Is that right?

> But now I understand Oskar is using a different model. (crew versus
> passenger)

Keth... don't be so bitter :) Well, actually I'm going to apologize
for my sniding remarks, uncouthly presented in a letter to another
list member. And I apologize (to Arlie too) for my third party reply,
which is not a polite way to criticize a person.

About the crew ~ passenger analogy, then I'd rather consider you
among the crew (in a sense); as such, I'm appealing to you to work
with us.

> But if only a minoriy actually chooses to vote, the polls don't

tell you very much about the 90% who didn't vote.

American democracy? :o) (no offense meant to Americans... they
just "had it coming") :þ :þ

> Yes. Right now I am looking at a piece of phonetic script that has
> been used to transcribe a piece of Icelandic prose. I should like
> to copy it and send it to the list. Then we could have a discussion
> that we might all benefit from. But right now I am a bit unsure
> whether it would be on topic. ? I would however be at a loss to
> know what other list to send it to.

Oh, go ahead and present it. I'll just disparage it and call you a
jerk if it's stupid ;) :þ :þ

>Oskar is THE expert on ON/Icelandic phonetics, who has made his

knowledge available on the net. And for that he deserves great
applause!

Touch of sarcasm? Personally, I wouldn't look an expert in
ON/Icelandic phonetics in the eye and tell him/her that I'm an expert
too... I don't have the credits. However, I'd be unafraid to discuss
the phonetics with him/her and consider his/her opinions critically.
Basically, ON phonetics are pretty much an open question. As to
Icelandic phonetics, I dare to be authoritative because a) I'm a
native speaker, b) I have practical knowledge of phonetics, c) I have
also conferred with some material by Icelandic phoneticists.

Óskar