Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2018 August 22
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August 22 edit
walan in Beowulf (Old English) edit
The Sutton Hoo helmet#Beowulf page discusses the word wala (or walu), which appears in Beowulf at line 1031 as walan. The manuscript reading is said to offer grammatical problems (e.g., note on lines 1030–1), and has traditionally been emended to wala or walu (e.g., note on line 1031). I would like to add a note to the article on the helmet about this, but am struggling to conceptualize the differences (seeing that one is a "strong feminine" noun, for example, as opposed to a "weak masculine," offers a specific answer that still leaves me confused). Could someone please explain why walan is incorrect; why wala or walu would solve this problem; and what the substantive differences are between wala and walu? Thanks! --Usernameunique (talk) 01:48, 22 August 2018 (UTC)
- I have no knowledge of Old English and no Old English dictionary. My first language is German. The nucleus of the intransparent Old English description of the helmet is: heafodbeorge (head-protection, helmet) wala (ridge, crest) heold (held). With the words alone we do get a glimpse of the meaning of the sentence, but we do not understand it. In Modern English (an analytic language) word positions matter in a sentence: (1) helmet : held : crest and (2) crest : held : helmet are different. In Old English (an inflected language like Latin or German) word positions have little grammatical meaning, but word endings matter in a sentence. So I understand that in the Old English sentence there are two possibilities: (1) helmet+oblique (accusative) ending : held : crest+nominative ending or (2) helmet+nominative ending : held : crest+oblique (accusative) ending. Whether helmet is the subject of the sentence as it stands in the manuscript and crest the object or crest the subject and helmet the object is hard to decide even for experts, for held can be active or passive and for the gender and the inflection properties of both words heafodbeorge (helmet) and wala (crest) are unknown. --87.154.84.100 (talk) 22:46, 23 August 2018 (UTC)
360 noscope edit
What does this term mean? 46.132.185.160 (talk) 04:23, 22 August 2018 (UTC)
- 360 No Scope, definitions:
- —2606:A000:1126:4CA:0:98F2:CFF6:1782 (talk) 08:58, 22 August 2018 (UTC)