Conference turris::scandia

There are a huge number of English words of Scandinavian origin:
	boat	b�t
	coal	kol
	ale	�l
	eel	�l
(Of course, the actual origin is likely to be further back in
the history of the Germanic languages).

My favorite along this line traces a long path, where words wandered
back and forth:

The Old Icelandic word "skyrta" means a "kirtle or coat."
It went into English, becoming "skirt".

Then, there was a sound change in the (East?) Scandinavian
languages, whereby the "sky" sound was pronounced like English "sh".
In Swedish, the word is now written "skjorta"

After the sound change, "skjorta" was exported again, becoming English
"shirt".

Meanwhile, English "skirt" (or perhaps "kirtle") went to Scotland (or
perhaps Icelandic "skjorta" was exported again), becoming "kilt."

Finally, "kilt" went back to Sweden, becoming "kjol", where it means "skirt".

Martin.

    To add a few more,
    
                     help      hjelp
                     fish      fisk
                     drink     drikk
                     telephone telefon
                     book      bok
                     paper     papir
                     milk      melk
                     list      liste
                     snow      sne
    
    There are many more, some old words and some new that has come
    from english after our world became so "small" with all this modern
    ways of traveling, not like in the good old days when Leif Erikson
    discovered "Vinland" (America) in his viking ship.
    
    Svein.
    

    Except that it's Leifur Eriksson;  he's Icelandic.  His father was
    Norwegian.
    
    	bless :-)

    Well if you say so. After all it took another Icelandic to write
    the first history book on Norway. That beeing Snorre. At school
    we had to read this in its original language "old norwegian" which
    is close to (I think) the Icelandic language of today. 
    
    Svein (who is a norwegian even if he lives in France)
    

    From: [email protected] (Bj|rn Lisper)
    Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
    Subject: Re: Cognates
    Date: 2 Nov 90 14:05:23 GMT
    Organization: Swedish Institute of Computer Science, Kista
 
    In article <[email protected]> [email protected]
    (Peter Herman x5495) writes:

   )The whole topic of cognates (words from different languages from the
   )same root) raised by the "communication" discussion got me thinking of
   )some of the amusing "sort of" homonyms (same sound, different meaning) or
   )close  to homonyms between Swedish and English. A few of my favorites:
 
   )Word		Swedish         English
 
   )BARN		Child		Farm building
   )FULL		Drunk		Sated (as in after a big meal)
 
    It's original meaning is of course "no space left" in both languages,
    and then it has been transferred in two slightly different ways.
 
   )AKTUELL	        Current		Factual, real (Actual)
 
   )The last one always amused me and caused me to do a double take when 
   )seeing posters on the tunnelbana for someone's AKTUELL LP (sp?) meaning
   )their current record as opposed to really a record! (I guess some
   )people are easily amused :-) ) 
 
   I am, too. What about this:
 
   FART		        speed		well, you know what...
 
    A "fartkontroll" at a Swedish highway is therefore something else than
    an English-speaker may be led to think. Another one is
 
   PIGG/PIG	        lively,
			feeling well    swine
 
    However, there are some subtle, dangerous ones that can cause real
    problems when trying to communicate. A common source of trouble is
    "eventual", which in English means that something surely will happen,
    we just can't tell exactly when. The Swedish word "eventuell", on the
    other hand, means "possible", which is not quite the same! These are
    mixed up very often.
 
    )			...The second caused some amusement at
    )my expense when, after consuming a meal of a great deal of both fresh 
    )caught torsk and good wine, I told my hosts that I was full.
 
    Which reminds me about a cousin of mine who lived in India for some
    time when being a kid. Once she got sick. A servant tried to give her
    some apparently very disgusting medicine, at which she cried: "no, I'm
    pig today!"
 
    I also remember one occasion when I was happily talking about the seals
    of the Baltic Sea being intoxicated, when I meant poisoned...
 
    Bj|rn Lisper	(Bj"orn Lisper)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
    Subject: Re: Cognates
    Date: 3 Nov 90 19:25:44 GMT
    Organization: ERBE DATA AB, Jakobsberg, Sweden
 
    How about:
 
    SEX		Six		What Jesse Helms doesn't like
    BRA		Good		Breast support
 
    Told by a female friend.
 
-- 
Robert Claeson                  |Reasonable mailers: [email protected]
ERBE DATA AB                    |      Dumb mailers: rclaeson%[email protected]
                                |  Perverse mailers: rclaeson%[email protected]
These opinions reflect my personal views and not those of my employer.

    From: [email protected] (Olle Furberg)
    Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
    Subject: Re: confusing cognates
    Date: 13 Nov 90 20:03:11 GMT
    Organization: Swedish Institute of Computer Science, Kista
 
  >Another tricky word is "rolig". In swedish it means fun or nice or something
  >like that. In danish it means quiet, boring, slow ...
 
    And in norwegian it means calm. When a Norwegian says
 
    Ta't roligt!
 
    we swedes don't think of it as "Take it easy" but rather as "Be
    funny!", "Enjoy it!"
 
 
    Summary:
 
                      Danish         Norwegian      Swedish
 
    Roligt    =       Boring         Calm           Funny