Thanks for the detailed analysis! Really appreciated.
Regards,
Tom Wulf
Assoc. Prof. of Information Technology
College of Applied Science, University of Cincinnati
2220 Victory Parkway ML 0103
Cincinnati, OH 45206-2839
Tom.Wulf@...
http://homepages.uc.edu/~wulft
-----Original Message-----
From:
norse_course@yahoogroups.com [mailto:
norse_course@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of llama_nom
Sent: Wednesday, October 03, 2007 12:25 PM
To:
norse_course@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [norse_course] Re: pronunciation of some simple words
Hamarr í norðri helga vé þetta ok hald vörð!
The big question is, when?
In Viking times and into the 12th century, probably something like this:
All words stressed on the first syllable.
'þ' like 'th' in English 'think'.
'ð' like 'th' in English 'father'.
Look out for the acute accent over some vowels; this shows that they
were pronounced long. Vowels with no acute accent over them were
pronounced short.
'a' like the vowel in Northern British English 'man'.
'r' as in Spanish (strongly trilled/rolled initially and when double
'rr', otherwise a weaker trill or tap).
'í' like the 'ee' in English 'meet'.
'o' the vowel in French 'eau', a short version of the 'o' in German
'oder' = the first element of the diphthong in 'pole' in many sorts of
English including American General Pronunciation.
'i' in final unstressed position (as in 'norðri') like the 'i' in
English 'lid'.
'e' in 'helga' = the 'e' in English 'hell'.
And the 'l' in 'helga' would be like the 'll' in English 'hell' too,
but the 'l' in 'hald' was like the 'l' at the beginning of English
words = the 'l' in German 'halt' as opposed to the 'l' in English
'hold'. It might be hard to hear the difference because the two
sounds aren't in phonemic opposition in English [
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonemic ].
'g' in 'helga' would be like 'g' in Spanish 'algo' (like English hard
'g' EXCEPT that the tongue doesn't quite make contact with the roof
of the mouth).
'v' = English 'w' in 'way'.
'é' like the vowel of German 'weh' = a long version of the first
element of the diphthong in 'way' in many sorts of English including
American General Pronunciation and British English Received Pronunciation.
'e' in þetta' a short version of 'é'.
'tt' the doubling of the letter shows that you should pause slightly
longer before releasing the 't' than you would if there was just one
of them. In other words, doubled consonants have the same function in
Old Norse as in Italian.
'ö' like 'o' in German 'Gott', a short version of the vowel in British
English 'awe', a bit like the vowel in British English 'one'. This
letter should really be spelt with a hook under the 'o', but because
most computer fonts don't have "hooked o", we usually use the umlaut
(two dots) instead. The corresponding letter in Modern Icelandic is
spelt in this way with the umlaut.
_________________________________________________________
In the 13th century, 'v' became more like English 'v', and the
difference between the 'e' in 'helga' and that in 'þetta' disappeared
in Icelandic; 'ö' developed lip-rounding, becoming like the vowel in
German 'götter'. In Modern Icelandic, 'o' in 'norðri' has the sound
that the "hooked o" probably had in Viking times. In modern
pronunciation, the first 'a' in 'hamarr' has been lengthened, and the
final 'r' dropped; the 'g' is 'helga' has become [k], like the
unaspirated 'c' in English 'scar'; both examples of 'l' in this
sentence are now pronounced as the 'l' in English 'like'; there is a
puff of air before the 'tt' in 'þetta'; and the 'é' in 'vé' is now
more like English 'yeah' (still a long vowel, but more open and with a
glide like English 'y' before it). 'ok' has become 'og' with a long
'o' (as in Modern Icelandic 'norðri') and 'g' (as in Old Norse
'helga'). Academics in the English-speaking world usually use Modern
Icelandic pronunciation for Old Norse.
___________________________________________________________
Hmm, I probably included much too much detail there; oh well...
LN
> -----Original Message-----
> From: norse_course@yahoogroups.com [mailto:norse_course@yahoogroups.com]
> On Behalf Of wildhare13
> Sent: Tuesday, October 02, 2007 9:27 PM
> To: norse_course@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [norse_course] pronunciation of some simple words
>
> Not sure if you all are familiar with the hammer rite..
>
> I don't have pronunciation marks... but the words are
>
> "Hamarr i nordhri helga ve thetta ok hald vordh!"
>
> meaning "hammer in the North hallow and hold this holy-stead".
>
> My main questions are how to pronounce "ve thetta" and "vordh"
>
> my friend uses "vay theeeta"... I have read pronunciation guides in
> the back of several books which would indicate "vay thetta" (rhyme
> with forget-a).... and should "vordh" rhyme with "or" or "are"... and
> the dh is somewhere between a th and a z... is the "r" trilled a bit?
>
> I am sorry my message is scattered.. I am not very scholarly... but I
> am to perform this rite soon in the company of others, and I would
> like to say it correctly. I disagree with using a long e especially
> in thetta.
>
> thanks and it's nice to have these forums..
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