--- In norse_course@..., falconsword@... wrote:

> We have stated that the language taught in this course is
> "standardised" 13th century Icelandic. People using other material

to

> supplement this course (or using this course to supplement other
> material) often find that their books do not always use the same
> forms or spelling of the words. It is perhaps high time that some

of

> those variants be discussed.
>
> First it should be stated that it is quite hard to "pin down" a
> language as it was at an exact given form. We say that we're

teaching

> 13th century language but that is not terribly precised - Icelandic
> underwent many changes in the 13th century. Some of our forms may
> even reflect early 13th century language while others mirror that

of

> the late part of the century. Perfect consistency is very hard to
> achieve but we prefer to have some kind of standard. Thus our

choices

> are quite arbitrary here and there and will not exactly reflect

that

> of any other teaching material.
>

Some interesting reflections indeed.

A question:
How can one claim to know 13th century Icelandic? Much of what was
written during and before that period, especially those texts that
has remained for the future, was influenced by a sort of arcaism
tendence. What sounded older also sounded better. I had made the
assumption that texts dated to a certain time in history always
reflected the language of the preceeding century, when it comes to
Old Norrse.


Håvard