From: Terje Ellefsen
Message: 7275
Date: 2006-10-09
>From: "akoddsson" <konrad_oddsson@...>
>Reply-To: norse_course@yahoogroups.com
>To: norse_course@yahoogroups.com
>Subject: [norse_course] Icelandic pronunciation and the mainland
>Date: Mon, 09 Oct 2006 15:10:56 -0000
>
>Ok, notice first that this language is called sognamålet. According
>to my source (who speaks it), it is pronounced sognamaúle (the t is
>here silent). The aú sound is identical to Icelandic á and occurs
>where the chanracter aa/å is found. Notice also the genitive
>plural 'sogna', over against Dano-Norwegian 'sogne'. Notice that the
>pronunciation is sogna, not songna (but written sogne), as is the
>case everywhere else in Norway (and Denmark), with the exception of
>a few neighboring areas to Sogn. Furthermore, note that long o
>(written ó in Icelandic) is no longer just a long version of short
>o, but a new diphthong (oú - the same sound as in Icelandic). Notice
>that a > á (aú) before nk/ng (as in Icelandic):laong taong baong
>(Ice: löng töng banki). Notice u > ú (written o in Sogn) before
>nk/ng: tong monk (Ice þung(ur) munkur) o here = ú. Notice ll > dl:
>kalla (pronounced kadla - as in Icelandic) - but this rule goes even
>further in Sogn than in Icelandic: 'kenna' is pronounced 'kenna' in
>Icelandic, 'kedna' in Sogn. Lastly, rn > dn is completed in Sogn,
>but not yet in Icelandic (headed that way though): born korn
>(Icelandic börn korn) are pronounced bodn kodn. Icelandic
>pronunciation of börn is something like bördn (but bödn is
>occuring). Notice also the comments in the link I provided about the
>dative, that it is still living in Voss, Sunnfjord, Sognfjøra, and
>in parts of Indre Sogn (all neighboring areas). Notice also nn > dn
>in many environments (se link). So, it is really not that surprising
>that folk thus speaking are often mistaken for being Icelanders who
>are speaking Norwegian. Lastly, notice also that this language just
>has stress on the first syllable (like Icelandic), and lacks the
>quality called 'tonefall' in Norwegian. This quality produces the
>unique sing-song effect in Norwegian dialects and is notoriously
>difficult to learn. There are many local variations and folk tend to
>find them charming, but can't reproduce them. In Soganmålet, there
>is the staccato instead (just like in Icelandic). Hearing Sognamålet
>has given me a whole new ideas about ON pronunciation history. Now,
>as we can see that Sognamålet and Icelandic agree on the consonants,
>and on the vowels so far, lets see where they disagree. Ok, au is au
>(au not aú, like Ice á/Sogn å, but a plus u - an original ON sound
>preserved in Sogn, but not in Icelandic, which says ey here). This
>one is tricky. aa/á and au are very diffent sounds in Sogn, but the
>first is = Ice. á, while au is an archaic survival of the original
>ON sound in this instance, which Ice. once had (after hearing it and
>comparing it to Ice. au (=ey), I can almost hear how the change went
>into effect, as they are quite close in a way, especially after loss
>of original ey in Icelandic (>ei, but written ey). So, essentially,
>there is one more diphthong in Sogn (both Ice. and Sogn have more
>than ON, which had only 3, but both also write only the 3 old ones
>as real diphthongs). ei is ei. _but_ (please note): in Icelandic not
>only is ey ei, but y is i and ý is í. Big changes? Well, some would
>call Icelandic pronunciation totally isolated and unlike ON. Not so
>fast. Many Norwegian dialect pronounce ey as ei, y as i and ý as í,
>including parts of Sogn, parts of Nordmøre, etc.etc., even though it
>is not a majority pronunciation. Thus, there is really _nothing_
>isolated about Icelandic prounuciation with the possible exception
>of au=ey (I am uncertain about this one, but will ask about it). So,
>one should note that the pronunciation preserved by the descendants
>of the last ON speakers in Norway agrees with Icelandic to a degree
>that is shocking, in near total contradiction on a very large number
>of point with the entirety of modern mainland Scandinavia. It should
>be obvious that West Norse was heading a certain way by the time of
>black death, and that the pronunciations that survived the black
>death (when most folk died, causing radical changes in society and
>language) in Iceland, Norway, and Faroes were extremely similar, and
>that not much separates them even today.
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