Re: Älvdalskt 'ûor' & várt 'vár' (our 'our') - elvish etymology

Säll Konrad!

I should first point out one thing about my spelling of nasalized
clusters of vowels. Let C = u1u2u3...un be a cluster of n vowels,
preferrably an n-phtong. In Älvdalska the following rule is more or
less general: If ui, for some i = 1, 2,...,n, is pronunced nasal, all
of C is pronunced nasal. The spelling rule is that one writes the
nasal diacritic ^ only at u1: C = û1u2u3...un. Thus, all of the
diphtong 'ûo' is pronunced nasal, not only the first vowel. Since it
is the 'á' in Old Dalecarlian (i.e. Old Norse) that was nasal
in 'vár' (=our), the spelling 'uôr' would be more etymologically
correct, since 'ô' (pronunced like a nasal version of English 'oo'
in 'goose') is just a modern 'á'. I use the spelling 'ûor' though.

"One suspects that the elves in Älvdal had a nasal whenever they
spoke about 'vár elfr' (our river)."

--I do not know exactly who the elves are here. They call
themselves 'övkaller' or 'övkelingger' (river men and river women,
respectively, where 'river' refers to Österdalälven "The eastern
Dalecarlian river").
'vár elfr' would be 'ûor öve' in Älvdalska, where 'öve' is a weak
feminine noun. Are you really sure on 'elf-r'? We don't have this
noun in Jamtlandic (instead we say 'á' [å:], [au] etc, a strong
feminine noun), but when listening to southern people who have this
noun they use it as a feminine.

Skål ta mej faan!

/Anlyötä


--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, "konrad_oddsson"
<konrad_oddsson@...> wrote:

> Sæll Arnljótr,
>
> --- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, "Jens Persson" <arnljotr@...>
> wrote:
> > I t strikes me that in Älvdalska, they say 'ûor' (=our), i.e.

with

> a nasalization.
> >
> > /Arnljotr
>
> This makes sense. The development of our 'our' into Old Norse is
> believed to have happened as follows:
>
> *unsar - *ûsar (nasal) - *ôsar (nasal) - *ôsr + ending
> 'sr' in then restructured in 3 different ways:
> 1) reduced to /s/
> 2) reduced to /r/
> 3) deleted
> 1) and 2) result in *ôs (nasal) and *ôr (nasal) - Norse 'oss' & 'ór'
> 3) results in *ô (nasal) + (a/e)r - *ôar - *uâr - vár /vâr/
> (see Voyles and others)
>
> Gothic has both masc. & fem. 'unsar'. It is generally agreed that
> our Proto-Norse speaking ancestors had *unsaraz in the masc. nom.
> and *unsarû in the fem. nom. - very close to Proto-Germanic. One
> suspects that the elves in Älvdal had a nasal whenever they spoke
> about 'vár elfr' (our river).
>
> Regards,
> Konrad.
>
>
>
>
>
> > --- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, "konrad_oddsson"
> > <konrad_oddsson@...> wrote:
> > > 'For the examples given of the nasal vs. oral distinction this
> > > appears from the etymology of each form as follows:
> > >
> > > (Note: nasal are within paranthesis; long vowels not indicated)
> > >
> > > H(A)R 'shark' *hanhaR, cf. Skt. shankú- 'stick, water animal';
> but
> > > HAR 'hair' *hâra, cf. OHG OS hâr, OE h´ær.
> > >
> > > R(O)(hooked o)'corner' *wranhô (cf. Sw. vrå), cf., with
> alternation
> > > according to Verner's Law, OIcel. rong (hooked o) *wrang-, OE
> wrang
> > > (a), cf. Mod. Engl. wrong 'twisted'; but RO (hooked o) 'yard'
> > *rahô,
> > > cf. Sw. rå, MHG rahe.
> > >
> > > Þ(E)L 'file' *þinhlô/*finhlô, cf. OHG fîhala, OE fêol, fîl, cf.
> > Skt.
> > > pimsháti 'hews out, carves'; but ÞEL 'woollen nap' probably
> *þela,
> > > cf. OE þel 'a plank, plate,' Skt. talam 'surface, level, palm'.
> > >
> > > F(E)R (hooked e) 'conceives' *fanhiR, cf. OIcel.inf. fá, Goth.
> > > fahan, OHG OS fâhan, OE fôn *fanhan, cf., with alternation
> > according
> > > to Verner's Law, past part. OIcel. fengenn (cf. also Lat.
> pangô);
> > > but FER (hooked o) 'sheep' *fahaz - PIE *pokos, cf. Gk. pêkos,
> > pôkos
> > > 'wool, fleece'.
> > >
> > > I 'in' *in, cf. Goth. OHG OS OE in; but ISA 'ice floes'(acc.
> pl.)
> > > *îsanz, cf. OHG OS OE îs.
> > >
> > > (O)RAR 'our' (fem.pl.) *unrôR *unzarôz (My Note: oblique case

of

> > the
> > > reflexive pronoun - Proto-Norse adjective would be *unsaraR
> mas.sg.)
> > > cf. Goth. unsar, OHG unsêr, OS unsa; but ORAR 'madness' *wôrôR,
> cf.
> > > OHG adj. wuorag, OS wôrag, OE wêrig (Mod. Engl. weary).
> > >
> > > (Ö)RA 'younger' (neut.) *junhiRô, cf. Goth. juhiza, and, with
> > > alternation according to Verner's Law, OIcel. ungr, Goth.

juggs,

> > OHG
> > > OS jung, OE geong; but ÖRA 'to vex' *wôrian, cf. orar above.
> > >
> > > Þ(U)AT 'pressed' *þunh-; but ÞU 'thou' *þû, cf. Goth. þu, Lat.
> tu,
> > > etc..
> > >
> > > S(Y)NA 'to show' *siunian, cf. OIcel. sión, Goth. siuns;

whereas

> > > SYNA 'laps,' as a gen. pl. of the weak fem. *sýia, must go back
> to
> > > *siujônô (cf. Goth.gen.pl. in -ono of fem. n-stems), with the
> root
> > > vowel separated from the nasal consonant by the intervening -jô-
> .'
> > >
> > > Seeing these etymologies should underscore the importance of
> this
> > > type of modern linguistic research to the accurate phonological
> > > representation of Old Norse. Given the advances that have been
> made
> > > in this type of research, we should one day be able to achieve
> the
> > > following: 1) produce a dictionary and printed texts in Old
> Norse
> > > where nasality is indicated by regular and elegant means 2)
> produce
> > > a standardized ancestor for Old Norse for comparative and
> literary
> > > purposes, one which would be a tremendous help in understanding
> why
> > > Old Norse is the way it is and why it is sometimes so confusing
> and
> > > difficult to learn.
> > >
> > > Regards,
> > > Konrad.