There's something interesting about Old Norse when it's written.

Many vowels may also be used as consonants and there oscillation between use
and non-use is a constant struggle for epigraphers like myself, because
these vowel-consonants Y/V/W are problems in every written language.

Here is a list of the vowels that could also be used as consonants in Old
Norse:
Á for both Y and itself

Í for Y before A, E or O

Ú for V or W before A or O

Ó for both W and itself

É for both Y and itself

As you can see, Old Norse is nice enough to distinguish these letters with
an accent mark.

The rune that was used for Old Norse 'Á' named 'Ár' (Year) is the same rune
and translation given to the Elder Rune 'J/Y' named 'Jera' (Year) only a few
centuries earlier (or a few hundred miles to the south).

The blur between 'Ó' and 'W' is noticeable in the transition of, for
instance, the name of the god Wodan or Wotan from the European continent to
Ódin in Norway and Iceland. Same god, same name, same translation meaning
'The Great Passion'. Slightly different spelling due to the loss of the rune
for the vowel-consonant 'W'.

-Laz

----- Original Message -----
From: "odysseus0042" <odysseus0042@...>
To: <norse_course@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, February 01, 2002 9:38 PM
Subject: [norse_course] Re: quick question on 1 norse word


> Thanks for this information. I was trying to find some good example
> of a Norse word beginning with "y" (not the letter, but the sound of
> the first letter of English "yawn"--[j] in IPA) which is cognate with
> an Old English word beginning with the sound "y" ([j] in IPA). I was
> thinking 'gear'/"year"/'Jahr' would be a good example, but the Norse
> seems to have lost the initial consonant. Thanks, Ben.
>
> --- In norse_course@..., Selvarv Stigard <selvarv@...> wrote:
> > Ben wrote:
> > >Could someone tell me the norse word for "year". I'm guessing it
> > >should be something like [jar] (in IPA transcription), cog.
> OE 'gear'
> > >& German 'Jahr'.
> >
> > ár - refers to both the year, and the year's harvest (har-vest
> > literally being "year-feast")
> >
> > -Selv
> >
> > --
> > Selvårv Stigård
> > selvarv@...
> > Administrator, RagnarökR.com web site and email distribution
> > "Beep-Beep! is the Esperanto of comedy."
> > -Chuck Jones
>
>
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>
> - Keth
>
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