It always looks to me as if v and u and w are somehow - "interchangeable" vaxa has links with wax - in the sense of a person "waxing wroth"  in O/E - and it may be wrong - I am maybe sure it is wrong of me - but a dash of "I guess" sometimes works and if you are not sure of it - then it can be underlined until  help drops by
I have seen v and u interchangeable in Latin - besides the straight lines of a V lent themselves to carving  better - as the soft lines of the U were best suited to a quill pen.
Transcriptions and Translations will suffer every time
Patricia
 
-------Original Message-------
 
From: llama_nom
Date: 16/08/2007 13:12:25
Subject: [norse_course] Re: Thanks, LN!
 
--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, "Fred and Grace Hatton"
<hatton@...> wrote:
>
> So  is "vart" a negative suffix, which is what I guessed - but still
> couldn't do much with?  The thing almost as hard as trying to
translate the
> poetry is any word that starts with "v."
>
> For me it is like the apprentice who is sent to get the left-handed
hammer.
> I go to the the extremely brief "v" section of the dictionary and
there is
> never anything remotely resembling anything that might fit.
> Grace
 
To say nothing of the Æ : Œ section(s), or Ö and Ø...  More
V-weirdness to look out for: in some manuscripts from the later Middle
Ages, an analogical 'v' was written before rounded vowels in certain
words, e.g. 'vurðu' and 'vóx' for 'urðu' (preterite 3rd pers. ind. pl.
of 'verða') and 'óx' (preterite 3rd pers. ind. pl. of 'vaxa').  In
fact, Hauksbók has: 'Vurðu þeir Karlsefni ofr(liði) bornir.'  This was
a result of Norwegian influence on the scribes' spelling, and -- as
far as I know -- didn't affect Icelandic pronunciation.  According to
Stefán Karlsson "there appears to have been a lively demand in Norway
for reading matter from Iceland," so professional scribes tailored
their spelling to that readership.  Another Norwegianism you see a lot
of in manuscripts from this time is the loss of 'h' before 'l' and
'r': 'uid þetta ottast Sk[r]eling[ar] [ok] liopu undan a skip sin';
'þat Re,rdist [ok] u[a]r þat einfe,tingr'.
 
 
 
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