Xigung-

What font are you using?

Larry M

xigung wrote:

> I tried to look into the difference between the definite and
> indefinite forms of nouns. Here are some examples from Heimskringla:
>
> "Ef þú vilt hafa vináttu mína þá leggðu allan hug á að
> maðurinn sé
> eigi drepinn fyrir sunnudag."
> ( If you want to have my friendship, put your whole mind to it, that
> the man is not killed before Sunday ) -- a definite person is in
> danger here.
>
> "En hinn göfgi maður mælti við hann: "Farðu til Ã"lafskirkju þeirrar
> er í Lundúnum stendur"
> (And the magnanimous man said to him: "Go to their Olaf's Curch that
> stands in London ) -- here the form is definite, because of the
> definite article "hinn" which has to go before the noun when an
> adjective (göfgi) is used as additional determination.
>
> "Þar féll Margaður konungur og hver maður er honum fylgdi, ungur og
> gamall."
> (There king Margadur fell, and every man who followed him, young as well
> as old) -- here the proper name Margadur has a determing effect upon
> konungur. An article is not necessary. Upon maður the word hver
> (every) also acts determining. In that case an article is also not needed.
>
> Well, there are quite a few examples in Heimskringla, 576 with maður,
> to be exact, and only 10 with maðurinn. But it is difficult to draw
> any quick conclusion from this, but for the obvious, since in
> many of the cases maður has been determined by some other
> determinative than the postfixed article, such as hinn, sá or hver.
>
>
> The statistics for konungur vs. konungurinn in Heimskringla is
> 3519 vs. 29.
>
> En er Haraldur hinn hárfagri var konungur í Noregi þá byggðist
> Ísland.
> Það var eitt sumar er Agni konungur fór með her sinn á Finnland,
> gekk þar upp og herjaði.
> Aðils konungur kom með her sinn til Saxlands.
> "Húskarla," segir hann. Konungur mælti: "Hve marga viltu þá eiga?"
> En um morguninn er menn vöknuðu þá fór konungur til fjalls og mælti
> við Brúsa: "Hér skal nú gera bæ ...
> Hann var þar nær og svarar, spurði hvað konungur vildi honum.
>
> Síðan töluðu þeir konungurinn og Sveinn marga hluti í einmælum.
> Konungurinn tók það ráð að hann fór upp á Heiðmörk á fund
> Hræreks konungs
> Þá þótti honum konungurinn svara: "Þá skaltu með mér fara."
> Þá mælti Kár af Grýtingi: "Hví fer konungurinn nú svo? Vill
> hann enn
> eigi blóta?"
> "Vel hefir konungurinn alið oss.
>
> I am not sure if I can extract some definite rules from this.
> But it seems to me that in some cases you can refer to the king
> either as konungur, or as konungurinn, and that it does not matter
> much. In any case, it is not difficult to translate to correct
> English, even if there is not always a fixed formula for which
> form to use in ON.
>
> Xigung.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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