Regarding your question about “tal” ...

 

“Speech”, as in “The Prime Minister’s Speech”, “Statsministerens Tale”, is “Tale” in Danish.

En tale, a speech, talen, the speech, was originally a feminine nound, now common gender.

The verb “at tale” means “to speak, to make a speech”.

 

In Swedish, “att tala” translates Norwegian “å snakke”.

 

“Samtale’ in Norwegian and Danish, “samtala” in Swedish, means conversation.

 

The noun “Tale”, “speech”, was “talæ” in Old Danish, “tala” in Old Saxon (although it may also mean “tally, accounting”), “tale” in Middle Low German, “zala” in Old High German (also “tally, language”), “talu” in Old English (also means “conversation”), “tale” in Modern English.

 

The Danish verb “tale” is cognate with Old Saxon “talōn”, Middle Low German “talen”, Old High German “talōn”, Old English “talian”.  But these non-Nordic words almost all mean “tally” or “pay” or “reckon”.  “Tally” or “count” is “telja” in Modern Icelandic.

 

(Source for the Danish cognates: Dansk Etymologisk Ordbog, Niels Åge Nielsen)

 

From: norse_course@yahoogroups.com [mailto:norse_course@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of elliot.holland@...
Sent: Monday, August 05, 2013 8:44 PM
To: norse_course@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [norse_course] Selected Sentences for August 5th

 

 

•Bolli segir þá: "Hvað er nú Snorri?

--Bolli says then "What is now Snorri"

--Bolli then asks "What is Snorri now?"

•Síðan reið Snorri í Hjarðarholt með nokkura menn.

--Then rides Snorri to Hjarðarholt (shepherd's wood) with some men (dat.)

•Halldór tók vel við honum….

--Halldór received him well.

•Halldór … bauð honum þar að vera.

--Halldór offered him to be (stay) there.

•Snorri kvaðst heim mundu ríða um kveldið ….

--Snorri says (himself) home would to ride at the evening.

--Snorri says that he would ride home in the evening.

•Síðan taka þeir tal*…

--Then take they conversation.

--Then, they took up talking.

*Do you happen to know of any scandinavian cognates with >tal< I only know >mál< as in >bøkmál< and >snakke< "talk" and >Språk<, but then >tal< happens in dutch "taal". I can't think of anything in German or English, either. Did it just so happen that this was lost in all west germanic languages except Dutch and all north germanic languages except Icelandic? I don't know anywhere to look up something like this.

•…lýsir Snorri yfir erindum sínum….

--Snorri illuminates over his errand (dat)

--Snorri makes light of his purpose/business.