Letters of the alphabet

[Brus]

The Nynorn alphabet is listed in the first online lesson, but nowhere can I find the names of the letters. Has this been decided yet?

My suggestion:

Most can simply be the same as Icelandic. The problem letters are ð, ø, and å.

The letter ð is almost always silent in Nynorn, but in some combinations (-rd) may be pronounced as d. So I suggest "edd" for Nynorn.

The letters ø and å aren't in Icelandic. Since ø has a unique sound, the name is just "ø".

But å is pronounced identical to o, so what to do? I suggest "ring-å".

So the Nynorn alphabet I suggest:

a be de edd e eff ge ha i joð ka ell emm enn o pe err ess te u vaff ipsilon ø ring-å

(Aa Bb Dd (Ð)ð Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll
Mm Nn Oo Pp Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Yy Øø Åå)

[Ljun]

h and k should reflect the other norse names for these letters, (Icelandic hau & kau, Faroese hoa & koa, Danish/Norw./Swedish hå & kå) hence hå & kå in Nynorn.

joð makes no sense as it's pronounced 'jo' in Nynorn, so I suggest 'jodd' like in Norwegian and Faroese.

Icelandic vaff gives Nynorn vav.

Ipsilon should be spelled 'ypsilon' in Nynorn as well as y = i

ring-å is called 'bolle-å' in Danish (don't know about Norwegian/Swedish), but a ring is 'bjog' in (Ny-)Norn so 'bjog-å' would probably be more 'original'.

[Hnolt]

Brus wrote:

The Nynorn alphabet is listed in the first online lesson, but nowhere can I find the names of the letters. Has this been decided yet?

It's been under consideration (like many other things)

Brus wrote:

The letter ð is almost always silent in Nynorn, but in some combinations (-rd) may be pronounced as d. So I suggest "edd" for Nynorn.

I agree with you, in fact this is what the letter is called in Faroese where it's also silent.

Brus wrote:

But å is pronounced identical to o, so what to do? I suggest "ring-å".

Ljun wrote:

Ipsilon should be spelled 'ypsilon' in Nynorn as well as y = i

ring-å is called 'bolle-å' in Danish (don't know about Norwegian/Swedish), but a ring is 'bjog' in (Ny-)Norn so 'bjog-å' would probably be more 'original'.

Another option is to use the Faroese convention, where "y" is "seinna i", "ý" - "seinna í", "æ" - "seinna a" (seinna = latter). I think it makes sense. We could then call "å" "senni/senere a" and "y" "senni/senere i".
(I'm still undecided about the comparative degree of sen 'late').

[Klüver]

Do you really need the y? Sure, I know it's used in both Icelandic and Faorese, but at least in the latter, it often causes mistakes, and it has perhaps unintentionally reintroduced /y:/ in certain loanwords.

[Hnolt]

Hello Klüver, welcome to our forum!

Nynorn has got several superfluous letters, one of them being 'y'. The reason for having them is not least to distinguish between similar sounding words. In the beginning we were choosing between the "Svabo"(phonetic) and "Hammershaimb" (etymological) principle to base Nynorn orthography upon, something Faroe Islanders went through in the 1800's. For one reason or another, the etymological principle seemed to be more appropriate, giving more structure to the whole thing (although Faroe Islanders who have troubles with letters like 'ð', 'a'/'æ', 'i'/'y' etc. might be absolutely horrified to hear that). But Nynorn is not spoken by anyone, so we didn't see it as a big problem.

[Klüver]

Yeah, I know. And my experiences as a native Faroese speaker made me ask you that. Personally, I wouldn't mind a thing similar to Jakob Jakobsen's (yes, THE JJ) Broyting. I'll post the details of it here, if these are of interest.

Of course, a language not spoken at all, and let's face it, these are conlangs, so you're pretty much free to do whatever you want. I just follow this because I'm one of those people seriously saddened by the demise of Norn. but oh well... c'est la vie

[Hnolt]

[Àdhamh]

[Ljun]

[Klüver]

Reconlang. I like that!

Sure, I do see the etymological point of having <y> even in Faroese. I'm just wondering if it isn't just as 'practical' per se to just 'abandon' it and use <i> instead.