it wouldn't. the vocabulary of the
modern day bible is strewn with words borrowed from other languages, some of
those had already been adopted in old icelandic times, but maybe not old norse
times, depending on when you start differentiating between old norse, norse and
old icelandic. so, how would one deal with those. the syntax is different. and
it's not always systematically different, you'd need a very good 'feeling' for
old norse to translate the word order and the expressions correctly. and what
about loanwords that existed in old norse but do not any more? what do you do
about those? use them, disregard them? try to make your text as purely 'norse'
as possible? but then you're not truly using the language as it existed back
then. and what spelling would you use? no norseman would ever have used 'samræmd
stafsetning forn', what all the books use now. and you can't very well use their
own spelling, because there is no such thing? so what? and the word forms, while
often predictable, are not set in stone. there are ways of saying things in old
norse which you'd never think of, from having learned it through books and a
whole differnt linguistic background.
ok, think of it like this. do you
think a translation i did, an icelander, of a norwegian book, into english,
would be a good translation? i know english quite well for a foreigner, and
norwegian too. but you wouldn't choose me to translate between the two, because
it would turn out all funky. why? because i may know both languages, but i view
them through the medium of icelandic. the word order in my head is icelandic, so
is my way of thinking. there are subtle differences of perception and expression
between all languages, no matter how related they are. and yet, i have access to
piles of spoken english and norwegian, and have travelled to where they're
spoken, and that's something you'll never have with old norse.
and besides, the bible is a bloody
big book!
so, yes, i suppose you could
translate the bible from icelandic into old norse, but only if you accept the
fact that it will not be accurate, it will never be the old norse the norsemen
would have written or used, so, whatever is the use in deliberately making a
book that is a lie? why would you want to do that, and what possible use could
it have?
berglaug
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, February 13, 2004 4:40
AM
Subject: RE: [norse_course] Re: Old Norse
Bible
I'm simply saying that taking a modern Icelandic Bible
and changing it to Old Norse should be relatively easy (or easier than Modern
English to Old English), since the language hasn't changed that much in the
800 years since it was spoken, whereas English speakers couldn't understand
the English of 800 years ago.
James
--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, "James R.
Johnson"
<modean52@...> wrote:
> Can't we take the modern
Icelandic version, change the -ur endings
to -r,
> and nearly have it
be ON? Work backwards from what we have?
>
>
James
>
Hi James,
How about changing "you" to
"thou"/"thee"
and you'd have Shakespearian English? Try it
with your
last 10 emails, and see if you think
it sounds like
Shakespeare!
Xigung
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