I've talked with my brother, the computer geek-a-holic, and he's told me
that I can now send 8-bit ASCII code. Thanks, D!

And now to my response:

> Thank you all for the wonderful help and rather
> extensive language course. I don't want to sound rude
> but can someone please tell me what most of that meant
> in English?! I wasn't an English major by any means.
> And I've yet to actually know two major things from
> these messages; 1. What would I use to say Swiftaxe in
> Icelandic as a byname? 2.How do I pronounce it?

1. The name 'Snarøx' is recommended, but sounds strange to most people
who speak Icelandic.

2. Snarøx = SNAR in the English world 'snarl' and UE pronounced at the
same time with the U short and the E long, and then the X like the CH in
Bach or loch, but not CK in lock or kick. It's a softer sound than K,
like you're snoring softly.

One final note: read some of the old stories. Those will give you a much
better understanding of the times, and will help you fill in your
persona.

> You see I speak no other language but English and that
> badly. I speak American which any will tell you is not
> by any means a language of its own and a rip off of
> nearly every other! I would like to learn to speak Old
> Norse, of this I have no doubt. But I must learn from
> the very beginning. Starting with the absolute basics.
> It truly is unfair to start someone in the middle of a
> language and expect them to know how the Spanish trill
> their R! I am not trying to be disrespectful in the
> least but I'm so lost now that I'm considering
> changing my persona to an English man so I can say my
> own name!

That would be advisable... Most SCA-ers speak the languages from their
personae (in my experience), but it's not a requirement. I'd suggest a
name like Hawk (Haukur) or Thor's Stone (Thorsstein), as these are much
easier and have a more historic basis, which makes name justification at
Laurel level much easier, as these were (and largely, still are) fairly
common names.

Not being an SCA-type myself, however, I much prefer names that others
can say, such as my own: Ragin Bragisbjörn. I usually correct people on
my last name: people in the USA tend to pronounce the last five letters
as 'byo-urn' instead of the more correct single-syllable 'beerrn', so I
take the opportunity to gently educate them.

Learning Old Norse (a.k.a. Old Icelandic, in this case) will require a
large amount of study in language mechanics in order to understand how
certain differences are made. We categorize them into sections such as
'verb' or 'noun' or 'adjective', etc., so that we know how to organize
them into cohesive sentences.

As for the Spanish trill, it's typical for them to say all R's with a
slight trill, and most people have at least a little experience hearing
a Spanish person speak, so it was an assumption on everyone's part here
(my own included). If you don't know how they say their R's, then might
I suggest downloading some Spanish MP3's?

> So can someone please help me with just a simple
> spelling and BASIC pronunciation thereof of the name
> Swiftaxe.
> Sincerely,
> Snaebjorn

Did. Like it?

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