Brian,

Thanks so much! So what is your final recommendation then?

Mark

--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, "Brian M. Scott" <BMScott@...> wrote:
>
> At 4:05:03 AM on Tuesday, March 23, 2010, servupro wrote:
>
> > --- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, "Hrafn"
> > <nikolai_sandbeck@> wrote:
>
> >> I guess a better translation would be:
>
> >> þar get aðeins verit einn
>
> > Thank you so much!
>
> > It was my understanding that statements of existence of
> > the sort 'there is...', 'there are...' place the subject
> > or topic first, with no blank pronoun or adverb as in
> > Modern English. Thus Margar sagnir eru... means 'There are
> > great stories...'. Contrast Þar er nú hǫfuðstaðr...
> > 'There is the capital...'; þar always has a specifically
> > locative connotation and is not equivalent to 'there' in
> > Modern English existential 'there is/are...'
> > constructions.
>
> I believe that this is correct.
>
> > Truly impersonal constructions arise in the
> > order Verb (+ Adverb) + Object.
>
> The verb needn't be first.
>
> > I couldn't find get, aðeins or verit in of the
> > dictionaries I could find, but how does your version
> > translate back to English?
>
> <Aðeins> is a later form of <at eins> 'only, but'; <verit>
> is the neuter past participle of <vera> 'to be, to exist'.
> <Geta> with the past participle of a verb V has the sense
> 'to be able to V'. But I think that here I'd use <mega>,
> which has a flavor of 'permitted' as well as 'possible':
> <At eins má einn (vera)>. I've parenthesized <vera> because
> I'm pretty sure that it can be omitted: elliptical
> constructions with <mega> in which <vera> or <göra> are
> understood seem to be fairly common.
>
> Brian
>