--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, simonfittonbrown@... wrote:
> Gledileg Jól öllum fyrirfram!
>
> If any kind soul out there feels like giving me a linguistic
Christmas present, I've been trying to work out which Old English
(but also Modern English would be very useful) vowels correspond
with which Old Norse and Icelandic vowels.
>
> I haven't got very far, though!
>
> This is what I've managed to work out so far:
> Old Norse Old English
> á long o
> au long ea
>
> (e.g. ON ás and OE os, ON auðigr and OE eadig)
Here is another: ON ei = OE â (long a); the English is monophthong-
ized from primitive North West Germanic AI (pronouncd like "I"),
which eventually becomes EI in Norse (pronounced like "ay" in "day").
Here are some examples: OE âþ = ON eiðr (oath), OE stân = ON steinn
(stone), OE ân = ON einn (one). There are others as well. OE and ON
had a common parent language. While scholars have long known that
all of the Germanic languages had a common ancestor (called proto-
or primitive Germanic), more recent research has established beyond
a doubt that certain Germanic tongues, like ON and OE, remained
united for some time after the original break-up af Germanic. The
common ancestor of OE and ON is called NWG (North West Germanic).
From what I have been able to glean thus far from the scholars who
work in this field, OE and ON were the same tongue (or damn near so)
LESS than 2000 years ago! Although this is a subject for ongoing
research, several scholars have already shown that the various sound
changes which produced the two tongues can be regularly generated
from the forms in Early Runic ("Primitive Norse"). Upon reading on
this subject and calculating a few form myself to check the theory,
I looked for maps of ancient Germania. The names "Jute" and "Angle"
appear within the borders of modern Denmark, while the name "Saxon"
appears immediatly below Denmark. Interesting....
> Hardly a stunning piece of scholarship on my part, but if anyone
does have any further suggestions, I'm all ears. Or maybe you know a
good web site?
Hmmm....try typing in terms and phrases relating to these subjects.
Many scholars are presently working in Germanic linguistics, some of
which specialize in these types of changes and correspondences.
>
> Incidentally, who was it who wanted to start up a project to
reconstitute frumnorræna?
That would be I.
I'd be absolutely delighted to help; the reason I haven't offered
before is that I'm still very much a beginner, but if I can make
myself useful in any way, I shall be delighted.
>
> Cheers,
> Simon
I shall try to post more on frumnorræna for you review. Scholars are
uniform in regarding it as the oldest attested Germanic tongue. For
a sample text, read my post entitled "Ek Hlewagastiz Holtijaz horna
tawido" from a few days back.
Gleðileg Jól,
Konráð.