Mutual Comprehensibility, Reconvergence

[Steve Gustafson]

David L. White wrote:

> On a vaguely related point, what is the earliest evidence for the
> development of the post-positive article in Norse?  I do not recall that it
> is found in runic (before Roman-alphabet literacy).

My recollection is that it generally does not appear in Norse runic
inscriptions until around 1250 or so.  It does not appear often, either, in
verse.  It may have been spoken well before then, but the ritual and
formulaic nature of the runic monuments, or the density of expression and
hard metres of the poetry poetry, may have kept it at bay.

--
  Quae vestimenta
       induet misella
            in conviviis crastinis?