Re: New to the list

On Sat, 17 Jun 2000, Oskar Gudlaugsson wrote:

>Funny thing is, not a single "yes" appears in any of the ancient texts (the
>Sagas).
I didn't mean it literally! I remember "ek vil (eigi) that, herra."
Of course, eigi = not. In English the yes and no would probably be
there.

>Only one "no" appears. In older language those words were
>non-existent or just developing. All yes/no questions were answered with
>something like "that is so", "I know", "he's here", etc (as in many many
>languages). Additionally, "sir" ("herra") is not common in Icelandic, even
>the old language. Honorifics are present but very rarely used. An honorific
>2.p. pronoun also exists (taken from the old plural; the old dual became the
>plural), but is used about as much as "thou" in modern English. You could
>say Icelandic is a very informal language. Foreign learners often complain
>that they even find it _rude_, due to excessive use of imperatives, and the
>absence of an honorific pronoun.
Fine with me: English has no honorific pronoun, and imperatives
(often involving nearly impossible sexual manoevers) are quite
common.

>>I suppose if I could remember "Where's the bong?" and "Where's
>>the pub?", I'd be all right.
>
>Hehe. Don't think you'd learn that from the Sagas. Though we shouldn't
>conclude that the Sagas are too formal; they often have a surprising amount
>of colloquiality and warm lightness to them.
But I know they _had_ them, and it seems attached to the house, to
boot! But I expect an Icelandic winter night is no time to be
wandering about outside searching for the loo.

Padraic.

>
>Kvedjur,
>Oskar
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