Hi Riddlemaster,

Always a vowel, I think--certainly in normalised spelling. Have a
look at the Norse-Course Homepage:

http://www.hi.is/~haukurth/norse/

(It's in the links section.) Look under articles and you'll find
two different systems of reconstructed pronunciation. Click on
recordings, and hear some readings of ON poetry by Haukur. For
reference, another handy link is the SAMPA phonetic transcription
system.

At the time of the earliest texts, <y> was probably pronounced [y],
that is to say like the vowel in French <lune>, except that in Old
Norse there were long and short variants [y] and [y:], which we
write <y> and <ý>.

At some stage, the short high vowels [i] and [y] became less tense
in pronunciation, more like English <bin> and German <Hütte>
respectively. The SAMPA phonetic symbols are [I] and [Y]. But the
long high vowels [i:] and [y:] have stayed tense, like English
<been> and German <hüten>.

Next in Icelandic [Y] and [y:] were unrounded to [I] and [i:]
respectively. In other words <i> and <y> sound alike; both =
English <bin>. And <í> and <ý> sound alike; both = English <been>.

Stefán Karlsson says this unrounding began in the late 15th c. and
was completed in the 17th (The Icelandic Language, trans. Rory
McTurk). But according to Gordon & Taylor there is evidence for the
tencency already by the end of the 13th century (An Introduction to
Old Norse).

Hmm, I hope I haven't made that needlessly confusing. The Homepage
will explain it better, and more knowledgeably, and the recordings
should make things clear anyway...

Llama Nom



--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, "riddlemaster99"
<riddlemaster99@...> wrote:

>
> Dia daoibh again,
>
> Thank you so very much for the information on runes...
>
> I have another question. How would one go about pronouncing

the 'y'

> in norse (like in the workd ykkr)? Does it function like in

Welsh,

> or is it simply the 'ee' sound? Is it a consanant or a vowel? Or
> both?
>
> Sorry for the cascade of questions. I like to learn.
>
> Buíochas!