Voice Acting

[AelleCyning]

Hallå,

Jag arbetar för närvarande på en mod som heter 500 AD: den Mörka Medeltiden. Jag planerar att ha röst agerar gjort för det i gamla språk exakta perioden. Detta inkluderar Proto-Norse, vilket är ganska likt moderna skandinaviska språken. Jag undrar om någon skandinaviska människor skulle vara villiga att göra en del röst agerar i Proto-Norse för min mod?

Skål ta mig fan,
AelleCyning

Hello,

I am currently working on a mod called 500 AD: the Dark Ages. I plan to have voice acting done for it in ancient languages accurate to the period. This includes Proto-Norse, which is quite similar to modern Scandinavian languages. I was wondering if any Scandinavian people would be willing to do some voice acting in Proto-Norse for my mod?

Cheers,
AelleCyning


All hjälp uppskattas.

 

[Swissky]

Skål ta mig fan,

I'm 99% sure that this will bring bad luck.

I think that Urgrevling would most likely be the best fit with his grandeur education in linguistics, I'm however up for atleast trying some lines.

 

[AelleCyning]

Skål ta mig fan,

I'm 99% sure that this will bring bad luck.

I think that Urgrevling would most likely be the best fit with his grandeur education in linguistics, I'm however up for atleast trying some lines.

We have a rough idea of how it was pronounced. It's basically in between Old Norse and Proto-Germanic. I'd be happy to post some lines.

Though I used google translate for the post, I'm half-Swedish so I felt like sneaking in a reference. Skål ta mig fan!

Spoiler: Svenska

Vi har en ungefärlig uppfattning om hur det uttalades. Det är i princip mellan fornnordiska och Proto-Germanic. Jag skulle vara glad att skriva några rader.

Även om jag använde Google Translate för tjänsten, jag är halv-svenska så jag kände mig som smyger i en referens. Skål TA MIG fan!

 

[Swissky]

I think there's no need to speak Swedish, but I very much appreciate the effort.
Have you got any lines ready or must we find and construct them ourselves?

 

[AelleCyning]

I think there's no need to speak Swedish, but I very much appreciate the effort.
Have you got any lines ready or must we find and construct them ourselves?

God no, I've got two lines ready from an inscription. The rest I'll have to reconstruct, which should be easy since we know how it changed from Proto-Germanic.

Ek erilaz asugisalas muha haite, gagaga ginuga
(I, Earl of Asgisl, was named Muha, ga-ga-ga mighty-ga) (We're not sure what ga means, it's an abbreviation)

Ek biumi ainaz erila
(I am an earl)

 

[Untitled.]

Visste att det var något skumt med Aelle. Svenskheten skiner igenom.

 

[Swissky]

Literally my first try.

Visste att det var något skumt med Aelle. Svenskheten skiner igenom.

Han får titeln Ella Konung.

 

[AelleCyning]

Literally my first try.

Visste att det var något skumt med Aelle. Svenskheten skiner igenom.

Han får titeln Ella Konung.

Good, though the "i" should be more like the i in tin. I posted the Old Norse version, though... Whoops...

 

[Anarion]

Norwegian linguist, might be a good inspiration:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajgcXZS7wUM

Text here:
http://folk.uio.no/arnet/atlakvida.htm

 

[AelleCyning]

Isn't that in Old Norse?

 

[Swissky]

Urnordiska is Proto-Norse, Fornnordiska is Old-Norse.

 

[Anarion]

He has a video in Old Norse too, to show what changed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAdc0duf8hA

It's originally a text written in Old Norse, and the version he's speaking in the Proto-Norse video has been translated to reconstructed Proto-Norse by a Swedish linguist.

 

[AelleCyning]

Urnordiska is Proto-Norse, Fornnordiska is Old-Norse.

He's either speaking very late Proto-Norse or Old Norse.

 

[Anarion]

It says 5th century on his website. How do you figure it's late?

 

[AelleCyning]

Actual 5th century inscriptions are nothing like that.

5th Century: "Ek Hraþaz satido staina ... Swabaharjaz sairawidaz. ... Stainawarijaz fahido"
6th Century: "Ek erilaz asugisalas muha haite, gagaga ginuga, he...lija... hagala wijubi"
"Haidz runo runu falh'k hedra ginnarunaz argiu hermalausz ... weladauþe saz þat brytz uþarba spa"

In around 600-700 umlauts appeared, "az" endings were dropped "or sometimes turned into the big R letter that he has, that absolutely DID NOT EXIST before Late Proto-Norse"). He's speaking Late Proto-Norse, borderline early Old Norse. There were also never two consonants following each other in earlier Proto-Norse, as you can see above. Proto-Germanic "erlaz" became "erilaz" and then Old Norse "jarl". He's speaking a Proto-Norse where the long vowels of most unstressed syllables have gone (syncope), which was also later. My very first (erroneous, since it's 700's) example (ni solu sotu kni sax stain skorin or something like that) is closer to what he's speaking. Stainaz has become stain, kn has become n, the declensions are different.

 

[Anarion]

You don't think those are anything like this?

Frágun frókinano
if ferhwa wilði
gotanó þeuðanaR
golþé kaupan.

I think it's quite alike.

We can't possibly know exactly when z came to be the sound inbetween that and r, but it might have been around the 6th century. In transcriptions of Proto-Norse I've seen both z and R used.

There is a paper here, unfortunately in Norwegian, that seems to support the "between z and r" pronounciation. I've taken the liberty to translate the relevant passage:

The phonetic value of ʀ is disputed, but traditionally one has assumed ʀ to be a palatilized type of r. As mentioned above p. 16 Orrun Robinson (1992: 92–93) and ) og Harald Bjorvand (2010: 186–187)  think that ʀ might have been a palatized, rolled fricative)

http://folk.uib.no/hnooh/handbok/ekstra/Urnordisk/Urnordisk-OEH-2012-12-30-v-1-0.pdf

@Syncope
No, I think you'll find that the reconstructed Proto-Norse version is not syncopated. That's clearly seen when you compare the Proto-Norse text and the actual Old Norse text. There are also several examples of consonant clusters in attested Proto-Norse, so it's not a general rule that it avoids those.
Compare *Hagunan and HQgna, *unlíkato and ólíkt.

 

[AelleCyning]

"Frágun frókinano
if ferhwa wilði
gotanó þeuðanaR
golþé kaupan."

Yeah, not alike at all.

Are we really going to debate this? It's very annoying. You've put me off including Proto-Norse at all.

 

[Anarion]

Sorry if it's putting you off, I think it's a commendable initiative. But you are being a little cavalier about it, it's not a simple matter to reconstruct a dead language. Good luck all the same.

 

[AelleCyning]

Sorry if it's putting you off, I think it's a commendable initiative. But you are being a little cavalier about it, it's not a simple matter to reconstruct a dead language. Good luck all the same.

Never said it was, but I'm doing this for fun, I'm not a scholar*. Would you like to help me? You seem to be a linguist, it would be of great help. My area is Germanic and Celtic, not Norse.

*Not to mention I'm at a huge disadvantage. My main sources have been in English and French for all these ancient languages, since those languages interested English and French scholars. Proto-Norse seems only to be of interest to Scandinavians, so I couldn't find any works on it. Had to go off of five runic inscriptions of it. I don't even have the declensions, had to use the Proto-Germanic ones and shift the vowels appropriately. I've similarly ran into problems with Old Japanese (no English or French scholars are interested). Old Chinese is basically a lost cause. Ancient Greek has excellent English scholarly works on it, and dictionaries, and I had no trouble reconstructing sentences of it.

 

[Anarion]

I understand. It's still better to do things properly though, and some advice can go a long way for that. 
I don't think I can promise much help, I'm very lazy and tend not to see things to completion. I could do some proof-reading or give tips if you get stuck though, just let me know if you need a hand.