{"id":3249,"date":"2011-04-01T08:00:34","date_gmt":"2011-04-01T07:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.widmann.org.uk\/?p=3249"},"modified":"2024-10-09T12:20:58","modified_gmt":"2024-10-09T10:20:58","slug":"scandinavian-language-found-in-tibet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/widmanniana.org\/blog\/scandinavian-language-found-in-tibet\/","title":{"rendered":"Scandinavian language found in Tibet"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\"\"<\/a>
\n
\nTibetan Armor<\/a>
\nOriginally uploaded by IslesPunkFan<\/a>
\n<\/span>\n<\/div>\n

It has just been accounced today that a Scandinavian (or North Germanic) language (i.e., a language descended from Old Norse, the language of the Vikings) has been found in Tibet.<\/p>\n

The language, called L\u00fcnm\u00f2n<\/i> by its speakers, is spoken in some remote Tibetan valleys by a tribe calling themselves the L\u00fcnp\u01d2n<\/i>.<\/p>\n

At a first glance, the language looks superficially like any other language in the region, but a large part of the vocabulary has clearly been derived from Old Norse in ways similar to the processes that created Modern Tibetan from Classical Tibetan<\/a>. In particular, consonant clusters and syllable-final consonants have been simplified radically, producing tones in the process.<\/p>\n

The phonology of L\u00fcnm\u00f2n is similar to that of modern Chinese, and it is therefore written in a notation similar to Pinyin:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
<\/th>\nLabial<\/a><\/th>\nAlveolar<\/a><\/th>\nRetroflex<\/a><\/th>\nPalatal<\/a><\/th>\nVelar<\/a><\/th>\nGlottal<\/a><\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
Nasal<\/a><\/th>\nm<\/td>\nn<\/td>\n<\/td>\nny<\/td>\nng<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Plosive<\/a><\/th>\naspirated<\/small><\/th>\np<\/td>\nt<\/td>\nch<\/td>\nq<\/td>\nk<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
unaspirated<\/small><\/th>\nb<\/td>\nd<\/td>\nzh<\/td>\nj<\/td>\ng<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Fricative<\/a><\/th>\n<\/td>\ns<\/td>\nsh<\/td>\nx<\/td>\n<\/td>\nh<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Approximant<\/a><\/th>\n<\/td>\nr<\/td>\n<\/td>\ny<\/td>\nw<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Lateral<\/a><\/th>\nvoiceless<\/small><\/th>\n<\/td>\nhl<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
voiced<\/small><\/th>\n<\/td>\nl<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

L\u00fcnm\u00f2n has six vowels: a, e, i, o, u, \u00fc<\/i>.<\/p>\n

There are four tones: Low plain (unmarked), high plain (\u00e1), low creaky (\u00e0) and high creaky (\u01ce). The high tones are generally used when the vowel in Old Norse was preceded by a voiceless consonant. For instance, ch\u00fc<\/i> “to break” comes from Old Norse brj\u00f3ta<\/i>, while ch\u01da<\/i> “joy” comes from Old Norse fryg\u00f0<\/i>. The creaky tones are used when the word in Old Norse was monosyllabic. For instance, singular s\u01ceo<\/i> “sheep” comes from Old Norse sau\u00f0(r)<\/i>, so it has creaky voice, but the plural s\u00e1o<\/i> comes from Old Norse sau\u00f0i(r)<\/i>, so it has plain voice.<\/p>\n

In general, the distinction between voiced and voiceless consonants in Old Norse is only surviving in the tones. The distinction between the plain and aspirated consonants in L\u00fcnm\u00f2n goes back to whether the consonant was preceded by another consonant. For instance, q\u01d0n<\/i> “cheek” is derived from Old Norse kinn<\/i>, but j\u01d0n<\/i> “skin” comes from Old Norse skinn<\/i>.<\/p>\n

As an example of the language, here’s a ritual song: p\u011b t\u01dc \/\/ ch\u011bn t\u00fc \/\/ x\u01d2n t\u01dc s\u00e1n \/\/ ya w\u00e8i y\u00e8n \/\/ son anzhi t\u01dc: \/\/ w\u011bn tao t\u00f2n.<\/i> Literally, this means: “cattle die.SG \/\/ friends die.PL \/\/ self die.SG likewise \/\/ I know.PRES one \/\/ that never die.SG \/\/ every dead judgment”, or “The cattle dies, the friends die, you yourself will also die; I know one thing that will never die: That every dead person will be judged.”<\/p>\n

This is clearly derived from a verse from the H\u00e1vam\u00e1l: Deyr f\u00e9 \/\/ deyja fr\u00e6ndr \/\/ deyr sj\u00e1lfr et sama; \/\/ ek veit einn, \/\/ at aldri deyr: \/\/ d\u00f3mr of dau\u00f0an hvern.<\/i><\/p>\n

It is currently not known how a Scandinavian language could end up in Tibet, but researchers surmise that it must have been a Viking ship that got blown severely out of course, after which the survivors married local women in Tibet.<\/p>\n

Update (2\/4): As many people have spotted, this was of course an April Fool’s joke. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tibetan Armor Originally uploaded by IslesPunkFan It has just been accounced today that a Scandinavian (or North Germanic) language (i.e., a language descended from Old Norse, the language of the Vikings) has been found in Tibet. The language, called L\u00fcnm\u00f2n by its speakers, is spoken in some remote Tibetan valleys by a tribe calling themselves the L\u00fcnp\u01d2n. At a first glance, the language looks superficially like any other language in the region, but a large part of the vocabulary has clearly been derived from Old Norse in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[159,113,117],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-en","category-humour","category-linguistics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/widmanniana.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/widmanniana.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/widmanniana.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/widmanniana.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/widmanniana.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3249"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/widmanniana.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13655,"href":"https:\/\/widmanniana.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3249\/revisions\/13655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/widmanniana.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/widmanniana.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/widmanniana.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}