6.631, About Modern Old Norse...

[The Linguist List]

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LINGUIST List:  Vol-6-631. Sun 30 Apr 1995. ISSN: 1068-4875. Lines: 72
 
Subject: 6.631, About  Modern Old Norse...
 
Moderators: Anthony Rodrigues Aristar: Texas A&M U. <aristar at tam2000.tamu.edu>
            Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan U. <hdry at emunix.emich.edu>
 
Assoc. Editor: Ljuba Veselinova <lveselin at emunix.emich.edu>
Asst. Editors: Ron Reck <rreck at emunix.emich.edu>
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1)
Date: Thu, 27 Apr 1995 18:37:03 +0200 (MET DST)
Subject: Re: 6.595, About Modern Old Norse...
 
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1)
Date: Thu, 27 Apr 1995 18:37:03 +0200 (MET DST)
From: Jardar Eggesboe Abrahamsen (jardar at nvg.unit.no)
Subject: Re: 6.595, About Modern Old Norse ...
 
 
As I (and other Norwegians) keep receiving questions about the small
village in the Norwegian mountains where the people still speak Old
Norse, I just want to tell the Linguist list once more that I mailed my
message on the FIRST OF APRIL. It was a joke, OK?
 
However, I want to comment two messages, first the one from Leo
(CONNOLLY at msuvx2.memphis.edu):
 
) For those who are not "students of Nordic languages": Jardar Eggesboe
) means approximately 'dwelling at the edge of the earth' in Old Norse, while
) Abrahamsen speaks for itself.  The Old Norse motto in the signature means:
) 'Loki told the first lie today. (My saga of the lying tongue.)'
) And Jo,tunheimr was where the giants dwelt.  Neat.
 
Jotunheimen really _is_ a mountain area in Norway. And my name _is_ Jardar
Eggesboe Abrahamsen. (Eggesboe is the family name of my mother and the
name of my own small village; Abraham was the name of my father's great
grandfather; my first name Jardar was "Jardharr" in Old Norse, a
masculine a-stem, and so not the genitive of "jo,rdh" (=earth).) The
motto in the signature has been correctly translated.
 
Some days later Paul Kerswill (llskersl at reading.ac.uk) wrote:
 
) Dear April Fools,
)
) This 'new' old dialect of Norwegian has at least one precedent. My
) mother (a student at Oslo c. 1948) tells me that a professor of Norwegian
) nearly had a fit when he heard a student from some western fjord using
) the apparently long since defunct /dh/ (voiced dental fricative) in words
) like _tid_, _fjord_, etc. The student had apparently worked out where to
) put this sound, and the good professor was taken in.
 
That is no joke. I am from that area of Sunnmoere and Nordfjord where we
still pronounce postvocalic /d/, like _tid_ (time) and _saud_ (in writing:
sau; means sheep), not however after /r/ (fjord), as Old Norse /dh/ was
assimilated by it. Right where I live it is a plosive, but only one ferry
(yes, I live on an island) away from my village they still use the
fricative (mostly old people of course, but I myself have recorded some
children using it).
 
Jardar Eggesboe Abrahamsen
jardar at nvg.unit.no
 
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