I think it would be useful to get an understanding of how to differentiate between those two sentences.  We should be able to express it grammatically regardless of commas, since those don't appear in spoken language.

ek em Lukr faðir þin
ek em faðir þin er Lukr heitir

?

On Fri, Mar 19, 2010 at 12:10 PM, rob13567 <nielsenjava@...> wrote:

 

When I first heard of Star Wars in Old Norse, I imagined I might be
reading familiar phrases from the movie. This got me thinking what
"Luke, I am your father" (I know that's not an exact quote, but it will
do) would like in ON. Would it be something like the following?

Lukr, ek em faðir þin.

(Admittedly, I invented "Lukr.")

Also, did Old Norse use commas? I know that the normalized texts (or
whatever they are called) use commas, but I am referring to the form in
which the sagas were first written. The reason I am asking is that
English uses commas to set off direct address. Did original ON use
commas similarly, and if not how would they distinguish between two
sentences such as:

I am your father, Luke. (Talking to Luke)

I am your father Luke. (Luke the father is talking)

Thanks.

Rob