Sælir góðir nemendur!
It is a pleasant surprise to find others with an interest in
Gotland/Gutland and its language lurking around in the shadows
around the corners of norse_course. Gutniska is a lovely tongue
(forget the messy spelling found in old manuscripts and on stones).
I have been making a special study of this tongue, which is critical
to our understanding of the norse of the viking age and even
earlier. Just as Icelandic contains the oldest grammar, so Gutniska
contains the oldest sound-system. If one wants to understand the
oldest language of the viking age, then one must make a perfect
blend of the furthest east and the furthest west, while also
incorporating the oldest aspects of the dialects found between these
two extremes. Interested in ancient Gutniska? Post away. Also, if
anyone is interested in runic writing, I have found a way to
accurately represent any norse dialect, ancient or modern, using
only the historically "correct" 16 letter fúþárk and spelling words
just as they would appear on a runestone. Perhaps this sounds crazy
to some of you that are familiar with the wide array of sounds found
in any dialect of old norse, but I can assure you that it is not. I
have even found a way to write norse with greater phonological and
historical accuracy than the latin alphabet will allow, while using
only the 16 classical runes. The language appears precisely as on an
earlier viking age rune stone (complete with bars above and below
the letters), while at the same time representing the language more
accurately than the Latin will allow. If anyone is interested in
either of these topics, then please let me know. Also, does anyone
have any questions so far about the Grammar that I have been posting?
Skiljið þið allt í henni? Eruð þið með engar spurnigar? Og hvað um
formálann að Brekkukotsannál? Er hann of erfiður?