The Loom Of Language

230 The Loom of Language
impoitaiiL gumipatical consequence which will appear at a later stage
(p 264) The haul (? as m t*oat is generally the sound which concsponds
to the symbol in Geiman, Dutch, and Danish In Swedish ins usually
softened to out jy sound unless lollowed by a buck vowel (a n\fathery
aw in law, oo in hook} Swedish spelling does not reilect this softening,
but m Danish and Norwegian the softened// is tcplaccd by GJ, J or I,
and in new Norwegian^ is substituted for the soit# after o (Swedish
or Gexman o roughly equivalent to our n in \hnk} Ihus m German
eye is Augc, in Swedish it js o^t and in Noiwegian 0yc So also way is
Wc% m Get man, vag in Swedish, vq m Danish, m m Noiwegiun In
many Lnghsh words of I eutomc ongm the // lu's softened JP this way,
and V or W ate now its %riavestoms in the written language The Y
may stamp a diphthong as in CMC or ^uns or u may br ecjuivalent to
the soft Scandinavian (J or Gf as in v^//<w (Cicrman //<*, Swedish
^//) A IF m place oi // tutns up m the pan*cutcm?c word for bird
(Swed fdgdi CJcitnan V^cl) \v\u\\ we now spell as/n¥c/, as also m
bmo (S\ved,, hdgc, (German Ho^cn)
In a large class of hn^hsh woids, tb coniHuution ;;// is completely
silent The combination on<nnally stood for a breathy sound repre*-
sented by </i m (Jcrman, and still prouoniucd *s su< Is m Suns 'Ihus
the Scots words for nMtt «+nd li»ht are dost* to ihe Gcimim Nacht
and Licht This sound, which Ins disappeared m 5tn'thsh elsewhere,
is almost absent m Scandinavian, Thus the Scandinavian word for mght
is natfi and Ijw, for light (Swedish) or /ys (I)amsh and Norwegian)
So far as the consonants cue concerned, the changes horn w to v and
from J? to t9 or from o to </, arc the sound-rJnfts which arc most impor-
tant to anyone who aims at learning Norwegian <>r Swedish- They arc
illustrated by*
INOUMI SWH)lSn I,N<rUM3( SWIDISH
waggon v<\<\n thick tjotk
water vati<vn tint I tjuv
weak vck Unn uinn
week vcTk.i thmg nag
wild v»Ui think uhika
wise vts thousuiul tusen
wtnk vctk three trc
world vmkl thread tnkl
waim varan tin one tion
way vji« thumb unuinc
weather v*idcr
well v8l
west vaster