>From: "konrad_oddsson" <konrad_oddsson@...>

>Are you advocating any (or none)
>of the following: 1) that pronounciation not be discussed 2) that we
>use Modern Icelandic pronounciation 3) that we use 'old' pronounciat-
>ion 4) that we use combination of 'old' and 'new'?

None. I am not in a position to "advocate" any of the above on this
group. There are experts present (like yourself) who obviously know much
more about the subject than I do, and decide what the learners should learn
here. I simply objected to a flat-out statement that "�" should be
pronounced as "a". That was all. And the only reason I did this was my
(perhaps mistaken) belief that the majority of the students here are present
because they want to learn "classical" Old Norse, as taught in Haukur's
excellent lessons, which form the basis of this group.

But I am now realizing that the group seems to have mutated into
something quite different from a beginners' "norse_course". But I
think it is safe to assume that most of the members are still hoping to
learn some practical Old Norse here. Statements like "� should be pronounced
as a" are very confusing to these beginners, because they are in diametrical
opposition to the information these students receive from modern, accepted
textbooks.

[For those who missed Konrad's original statement, here it is again
(from post # 2856):

"The Old Norse � in 'd�gum' was pronounced just like the regular A in
the other cases of the same word - only it was nasalized ( = short
nasal A)."]

When I objected to that single statement, I had no intention of
getting into a complicated argument about the evolution of the
ON vowel system (or anyone's private theories about this), nor was
it ever my intention to advocate any specific method of pronounciation. I
just objected to one simple statement, which I believe is wrong and
extremely misleading. My objection still stands. If you want to advocate
such a pronounciation to first year student's of Old Norse/Icelandic, you
should explain to them exactly why they should be taking your word for it,
when all the major textbooks say differently.

If you want to teach this to beginners, then be my guest. I have now
said all (and more) I ever wanted to say about it, and will mercifully
withdraw from this conversation. But I still object.

Regards
Pelle

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