LL-L: "Language varieties" 04.JUL.2000 (01) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 04.JUL.2000 (01) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: john feather [johnfeather at sceptic1.freeserve.co.uk]
Subject: Language varieties

In view of Criostoir's previous comments on some thoughts of mine I begin
by
declaring that I do not make the following statements wantonly or lightly.
Whether I make them inadvisedly only time will tell.

Criostoir wrote:
>It has been pointed out that, fundamentally, Norse and Old English were
not
that different: compare OE 'Ic selle the that hors the draegeth minne
waegn.' and
Norse 'Ek mun selja ther hrossit er dregr vagn mine.' Despite an inability
to register quantity, nonetheless Norse speakers would be understood by Old

English speakers and vice versa.<

I accept that it is often said that [Old] Norse and Old English were not
that different, and even that speakers of each language could understand
the
other. But is this true?

1. In "The Life and Times of the English Language" Robert Claiborne writes:

"the two languages were quite similar (they had been separated for less
than
a thousand years); they may even have been mutually intelligible in part."

2. The two sentences given as examples appear to me very different. Can we
assume that a "ciepend" and a "kaupmathr" without linguistic training would

recognise the similarity of the spoken forms? Can we assume that
intelligibility would be as great if talk turned to old women? (I commented

once before on the  exaggeration of the similarity between English and
Frisian by careful selection of terms.)

2a. Since my knowledge of both Old Norse and Old English is very limited, I

should be interested to know what versions of the languages the examples
are
in. I assume the first is classical Icelandic of the 14th century and the
second is standardised Wessex, based on Alfred's 9th century usage.

3. Further to 2, even if the printed words are similar, was the
pronunciation? Consider the difficulty of understanding some regional
accents even when the speaker is using standard vocabulary and grammar.

4. Further to 2, the Slavonic languages are very similar to a linguist but
the degree of mutual intelligibility seems to be low for native speakers. I

offer two pieces of anecdotal evidence from Polish speakers I have talked
to.
a) One thought that Russian - unlike Polish - was not a Slav language.
b) Another could see no connexion between the Polish word "chleb" and the
Bulgarian "Xlab", both meaning "bread".

John Feather johnfeather at sceptic1.freeserve.co.uk

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