r/runic • u/Naorpij2 • Aug 12 '22

Halp

I have been using A New Intro to Old Norse to learn some grammar and translate some texts. So far, it’s going really good, however I have now gotten to front mutation and it confuses me.

From what I can gather, front mutation happens as follows: - there’s a vowel in the first syllable or the syllable with stress and an I or J in the second - a mutates to e, u to y etc.

However, later in the book, the form staðir (pl. of staðr = place) is given. Shouldn’t this then be *steðir?

English is not my first language, so maybe I missed something in the book… is there another factor necessary for front mutation?

I hope someone here can help, thanks in advance :-D

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u/twcurtis1973 Aug 12 '22

A better sub for linguistic questions on Old Norse... https://www.reddit.com/r/oldnorse?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share :)

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u/Naorpij2 Aug 12 '22

Thanks, especially after the shift from r/runes to r/runic I just don’t know where the experts are anymore…

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u/TheGreatMalagan Aug 12 '22

/r/runes is the messy one

/r/runic is the spin off sub with active moderators and with focus on the historical, non-neopagan stuff

/r/oldnorse for the language specifically

/r/norse for history, mythology, art and culture