Sorry should hace gone to the list, not just to GG.

-----Original Message-----
From: Stuntie [mailto:stuntie@...]
Sent: 15 March 2002 19:38
To: elgurus
Subject: RE: [Norse course] Trash-lations



Greetings GG,

I was a student at University College London doing Scandinavian Studies.
I did a year in Sweden and a month in Iceland.
The month in Iceland was with the Sigurður Nordal Institute, which runs a
summer school in conjunction with the University of Iceland.
I majored in Swedish because they only allowed Icelandic as your main
language when I was in my third year otherwise I would have gone for it.

I specialised in Old Norse and Runic inscriptions.

Having learnt Old Norse AND Modern Icelandic I can without a doubt say that
the difference is minimal.
New words, a few endings have changed, The old dual pronouns are now the
plural ones etc. Thats it grammar wise.
I have seen the differences listed in "Learn Modern Icelandic" books in a
single page. That is not much.

Modern Icelandic has changed a lot of the vowel pronunciations though.
Long á for instamce is no longer a sort of "aah" sound and more of an "ow"
sound for instance.
This makes Modern Icelandic sound slightly different.
There are also lots of funny modern pronunciations as well - hrafn is
prounced like hrapn, the ll in Egill is a tl sound.
I say modern, but some of these may date back to the Viking period. Its just
hard to know how a written word was spoken 800 years ago.

But even these changes do little to change the fact that the language is, to
all extent and purpose, the same.

Iceland does not do translations of Old Norse for the home market, they just
read the originals.

I have heard Norwegians bragging about having the "true Viking language" but
modern Norwegian is as related to Old Norse as Anglo Saxon is to Modern
English. At least one Norwegian metal band claimed to be singing in "the
Viking toungue" when it was merely the Norwegian equivalent of Shakespeares
English. But the Icelanders are not bragging, they really are telling the
truth.


Having said all that though, if you think learning Old Norse is tough, try
Modern Icelandic.
To read Old Norse you don´t have to know all the various forms of vera (to
be), you just need to know enough to recognise that it is vera. To speak or
write Modern Icelandic you do. All the grammar is no longer passive, it is
active, and you are doing it, so unlike reading you have to get the grammar
right.

Its hard work, and I was by no means fluent after 4 years at it. (And that
was 5 years ago - so Im hopeless now).
But it opens up a whole new literature, and one amazing country, so in the
end it is worth it.

Stuntie.


-----Original Message-----
From: elgurus [mailto:elgr@...]
Sent: 15 March 2002 14:05
To: Stuntie
Subject: Re: [Norse course] Trash-lations

--- In norse_course@..., "Stuntie" <stuntie@...> wrote:

> A) Its not dead.
> Its just called Icelandic nowadays.

Bravo! I've been trying to convince people for years now,
but they simply WANT to believe Old Norse is dead, and prefer
to assume that Icelanders are bragging when they claim they
can actually read the stuff. I've also tried to point out that
learning Old Norse WITHOUT learing Icelandic at the same time
isn't only silly, but practically impossible.

Last time I tried, I was shot down immediately. You, my friend,
are simply getting the silent treatment. Ah well.

BTW - are you a student at the U of I?

Regards
GG