This is a perfect example of what I am not interested in. The symbols do not
intimidate me, as in the dim dark past I used to program in APL, which is
mostly greek symbols and math. To me the below is very uninteresting,
supremely boring, gobbledegook. Help, I am being held prisoner in a Norse
funny farm. Please Mr. Moderator, Sir, throw me off this list!

Bill Cocker

----- Original Message -----
From: "Gordon W" <gorw@...>
To: <norse_course@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, April 02, 2003 2:32 AM
Subject: [norse_course] To Xigung about ä and ö in Swedish


> Hello Xigung,
>
> About the graphemes <ä> and <ö>.
>
> > Try then to simultaneously answer the two questions
> > 1) why was a "dot" used,
> > 2) why was the dot(s) placed above the letter?
> > The answer, as I have understood it, is that it was
> > simply a question of borrowing from another letter,
> > namely the "i", which is the origin of the dot placed
> > above the letter.
>
> The german (fraktur) letters <ä> and <ö> where initially written as A and
O
> with a small <e> ontop of them, to indicate that the pronounciation should
be
> closer to /e/.
>
> Before the introduction of <ä> and <ö> into swedish writing, we used <æ>
> and <ø> which originally were ligatures of a+e and o+e.
>
> The swedish grapheme <å> (was designed the same way modelling the early
<ä>.
> So, indicating it should be pronounced closer to /o/. (In modern Swedish,
/å/
> is equivalent to [o:], and it has been for quite some time, since original
Old
> Swedish /a:/ has shifted to /o:/). It was used sporadically in the 15th
> century, but became very common after the book printer Jörgen Richolff
used
> it in all books printed at Kungliga tryckeriet from 1526 and onwards,
> primarily the New Testament (August 1526).
>
> The reason for the change in Sweden was that the first swedish book
printers
> used german types, this occured in the 16th century. They where not
> incorporated into danish writing. (here is an example:
> http://www.danmark.dk/forside.asp)
>
> <ä> and <ö> with dots, instead of an small e, developed out of "den
> senmedeltida gotiska skrivstilens motsvarande typer", according to Wessén,
> 1995. It could be difficult to see the difference between ä and o in
fraktur
> printing, while the ä was written with an e. The dots where more clearer.
The
> dots where introduced in antikva in 1730, and in fraktur about a hundred
years
> later, also according to Wessén.
>
> > Then some time later the "double-horned o" must have
> > arrived in Iceland as a Danish export and came in vogue
> > there.
>
> I believe I've read somewhere, that the adoption of <ö> into modern
icelandic
> writing was in part because of a wish to distance themselves from denmark
> after the independence, to whom iceland for quite some time and been a
> province. Maybe someone else on the list could clarify this. It is, in any
> case, not a danish export.
>
> > Any way, as I have understood from perusing some
> > textbooks on modern Icelandic, the ö is now a
> > diphtong - can you confirm this? (pronounced in
> > a way that is best reflected by the combination
> > "ai" relative to Norwegian)
>
> Modern Icelandic <ö> is pronounced as Swedish /ö/. Icelandic <æ>, is
> however pronounced as /ai/.
>
> Kind regards,
> Gordon
> Stockholm, Sweden
>
>
>
> Sumir hafa kvæði...
> ...aðrir spakmæli.
>
> - Keth
>
> Homepage: http://www.hi.is/~haukurth/norse/
>
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>
>