Talk:tölva

Old Norse

According to this discussion forum, tölva comes from the Old Norse word for their compass-like unit, talwôn. I don't recognize ô as a letter in the Old Norse alphabet, but I know that ǫ is hard to write using normal keyboards and sometimes is replaced my other letters (like ô). Some words with ǫ in Old Norse are now spelled with ö in Modern Icelandic. Tal also exists in modern Icelandic (meaning number) and vǫn seems to be an Old Norse word (I searched for it). Could talwôn (or talvǫn) be the origin of the word, or is it just a myth? 85.166.5.220 17:58, 7 January 2009 (UTC)

Given that the word was coined in the modern era, I would not expect the vowels to be switched around if it was from that origin. Random changes like that happened in the old days when people were mostly illiterate, but not often today. Soap 22:00, 28 August 2010 (UTC)

To the originator of this thread: The form **talwôn seems to be a reconstruction of the word in Proto-Germanic, which was the predecessor of all the later Germanic languages, including Old Norse. The Old Norse form of the word would have been **tǫlva. The double asterisk in front of the forms indicates that these words did not, in fact, exist in these languages. As Soap says above, the word is indeed coined in modern times. It is based on the existing words tala and völva (from Old Norse vǫlva). The reconstruction that you cited (Proto-Germanic **talwôn) is a fair reconstruction of the word if it indeed did go so far back, but alas, it does not. – Krun (talk) 14:24, 20 March 2018 (UTC)

Quotation

• @BigDom, could you please add a quotation here (with its translation, ideally)? —Μετάknowledge^{discuss/deeds} 23:48, 11 March 2018 (UTC)
  • I'll try and get around to it today. BigDom 09:48, 15 March 2018 (UTC)
  • @Metaknowledge Sorry it took a bit longer. I've just added three random quotations from the last 50 years. BigDom 16:05, 16 March 2018 (UTC)

    @BigDom: No worries, there really wasn't a rush. Thanks! —Μετάknowledge^{discuss/deeds} 17:18, 16 March 2018 (UTC)