> I think what students need to understand about old pronunciation is
> this: there were many 'old norse' languages and just as many ways of
> pronouncing them. In Sweden, for instance, we had the Gautlandic of
> east and west, Swedish proper, Gutnish and others. In my opinion, it
> was the Old Gutnish that was the 'jewel of the east' - conservative
> like the oldest West Norse, but with a radically differing phonology
> and even usage. Danish was also markedly different in pronunciation,

Modern Faeroese has a very different pronunciation from Modern Icelandic, and even differs a little from its spelling,
but I am grateful that Hammershaimbs orthography became the norm - it makes learning to read Faeroese much easier after doing the work necessary to learn Modern Icelandic.
I really wish that Ivar Aasen had done the same for NyNorsk,
although I am also grateful for the work he did.

> and to some extent in usage and vocabulary, from West Norse. The way
> I see it, one of the main advantages of old West Norse is that it is
> considered to have been very uniform (einsleit). Because Faroese and
> Icelandic were once the same language as West Norwegian, matching on
> vocabulary and usage as well, we can get a fairly good idea of how
> it was pronounced by comparing the how these tongues are pronounced
> today and doing the math. Although it had the most complicated vowel-
> system (through more mutations) and the least speakers of any nordic
> tongue from the 9-10 centuries, West Norse is now by far the easiest
> tongue to reconstruct, as there is a firm basis for comparison. This
> is ironic, perhaps, given the numerical inferiority ;) Fortunately,
> West Norse was the most conservative branch, often markedly so. Only
> Gutnish equals its antiquity. Shamefully, Gutnish was neglected, set
> out to die and never used as a literary tongue. Our only book in the
> tongue was written in the early 14th century. Fortunately, it is old
> enough to give us some idea of the tongue in its golden age. I think

Bo Oscarsson has written a dictionary for the Jamska language of Jamtland (in Sverige).
It would be great if there was a Hammershaimb or an Ivar Aasen
to do for Gutniska and the other Svenska dialects
what has been done for Faeroese and NyNorsk.
Especially, making the orthography resemble Modern Icelandic or Old Norse where appropriate.

> we are very lucky, on the other hand, that Old Icelandic was used as
> a literary tongue in the west as early as 1100-1130, when the tongue
> was only slightly changed from its golden age.
>
> Vesið ér heil (pronun.: uesið êr hæil (short æ+i - between ei & ai ;)
>
> Konrad
>
> Regards,
> Konrad
>
>
> > Berglaug
>
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