Re: Kråka's word laboratory
Posted: Mon May 13, 2013 10:41 am
Hi Rogapl
Shetland Nynorn HAND is pronounced /hanʲd/ due to palatalization (more about palatalization: ). "hanjd" is not the final orthography for hand (as it has been discussed somewhere on the forum before I think), and the latter should be used. Hnolt, tell me if I'm wrong.
As for the morphological change from O.N. hönd to (Ny)norn hand, it can be seen in most continental Scandinavian dialects : Swedish and some Norwegian dialects have hand, while Danish and other Norwegian dialects have hånd. O.N. hand is also recorded in Cleasby/Vigfusson Icelandic-English dictionary. This change may be due to phonological mutation, or assimilation with case inflections (hönd becomes handar in Gen. Sing. and handa in Gen. Pl.). Note also that in modern Icelandic, hönd (nom./acc. sing.) is sometimes (wrongly) replaced with hendi (dat. sing.).
In all languages, old words are the ones who suffer the most from phonological/morphological changes. The other day, my Icelandic teacher told me about the word kýr ("cow") which most Icelanders do not decline correctly, using forms that do not exist in "proper" Icelandic. The same process may have taken place in other Scandinavian languages where kýr has become ku (kú being acc./dat. sing. for kýr) . I'm no expert in linguistics, but I assume that a similar process may be the reason for hönd becoming hand in some Scandinavian languages.
Hope it helps
Shetland Nynorn HAND is pronounced /hanʲd/ due to palatalization (more about palatalization: ). "hanjd" is not the final orthography for hand (as it has been discussed somewhere on the forum before I think), and the latter should be used. Hnolt, tell me if I'm wrong.
As for the morphological change from O.N. hönd to (Ny)norn hand, it can be seen in most continental Scandinavian dialects : Swedish and some Norwegian dialects have hand, while Danish and other Norwegian dialects have hånd. O.N. hand is also recorded in Cleasby/Vigfusson Icelandic-English dictionary. This change may be due to phonological mutation, or assimilation with case inflections (hönd becomes handar in Gen. Sing. and handa in Gen. Pl.). Note also that in modern Icelandic, hönd (nom./acc. sing.) is sometimes (wrongly) replaced with hendi (dat. sing.).
In all languages, old words are the ones who suffer the most from phonological/morphological changes. The other day, my Icelandic teacher told me about the word kýr ("cow") which most Icelanders do not decline correctly, using forms that do not exist in "proper" Icelandic. The same process may have taken place in other Scandinavian languages where kýr has become ku (kú being acc./dat. sing. for kýr) . I'm no expert in linguistics, but I assume that a similar process may be the reason for hönd becoming hand in some Scandinavian languages.
Hope it helps