--- "Jens Persson" <arnljotr@...> wrote:
> "The Old Norse Ö in 'dögum' was pronounced just like the regular
> A in the other cases of the same word - only it was nasalized
> ( = short nasal A). The pronounciation Ö (and spelling) are later."
>
> This is actually new to me.
------------------------------
Perhaps it should be stated, for the benefit of the beginners
and in the interests of accuracy, that this particular theory
is also new to most of the rest of us, and all Old Norse
linguists I have the luck to know. None of the experts
I've asked agree that the "hooked o" was identical to the "a",
nasalised or otherwise. The "hooked o" was, of course, not
pronounced like the modern Icelandic "ö", but it was not the
same sound as "a". At least not according to my teachers at the
University of Iceland. My grammars indicate that it would have
been more like the "o".
Regards
Pelle