tala

Forms

tala f (genitive tǫlu) (weak ōn-stem)^[1] Verb: tala (preterite talaði, plural tǫluðu, past participle talaðr), weak verb.^[2][3]

Etymology

The noun is inherited from Proto-Germanic *talō (“speech, number”),^[1][4] which is also the source of Old English talu (“account, story”), Old Frisian tele, Old Saxon tala and Old High German zala (“number”).^[4][5] The Old English noun became the English word tale.^[4] It belongs with the neuter tal “number, reckoning, talk” and with telja “to count, tell”.^[6][7]

The verb is inherited from Proto-Germanic *talōną (“to reckon”),^[1] a verb made from the noun,^[8][9] with the cognates Old English talian (“to reckon, consider”), Old Saxon talōn (“to calculate”) and Old High German zalōn (“to count”).^[4][10] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon thinks its first meaning was “to pick out, enumerate”.^[10]

Further back the etymology is uncertain. Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon and Torp tentatively connect the root Proto-Indo-European *del- (“to aim at, reckon”) and compare Gothic 𐍄𐌰𐌻𐌶𐌾𐌰𐌽 (talzjan, “to teach”);^[10][11] Wiktionary sets up a root meaning “to draw, attract” and compares Ancient Greek δόλος (dólos, “trick, bait”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Menota's earliest record of the noun is tala in the Norwegian fragment NRA norr fragm 81 B, dated 1150–1250,^[12] and Larsson lists it in several of the oldest Icelandic manuscripts.^[13] In Eddic poetry the noun occurs once, in the Helgakviða Hundingsbana I, with the sense “conversation”: vilt tǫlo lengre? “do you want to talk longer?”.^[14][15] The verb is first found in the Norwegian fragment NRA norr fragm 52 of 1200–1250, with talar “speaks”.^[16]

Semantic evolution

The two strands of the Germanic word, counting and telling, both survive in the Old Norse noun: “speech, discourse” on the one hand, “number, reckoning” on the other, with an “account” of money between them.^[17][18] In the laws the noun is a claim or suit,^[19] and the phrase tala til is to raise a claim against someone, to accuse.^[20][19] The sense “bead” comes, according to Cleasby and Vigfússon, from counting beads while saying the Paternoster.^[17] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon treats the bead as a separate word, perhaps a loan from Latin.^[10]

The verb kept only the sense of speaking, whereas its Old English, Old Saxon and Old High German cognates mean “to reckon, count”.^[6][9] Hellquist compares the way German reden was made from Rede.^[9] Both noun and verb continue in Icelandic and Faroese tala and Danish tale, and the verb in Swedish tala.^[10][9]

Timeline

• 1150–1250 – the noun tala in NRA norr fragm 81 B.^[12]
• 1150 – tǫlu in the First Grammatical Treatise, by IcePaHC's dating.^[21]
• 1200–1225 – tǫlu in AM 677 4to.^[22]
• 1200–1250 – the verb: talar “speaks” in NRA norr fragm 52.^[16]
• 1210 – talaði, tǫluðu in Þorláks saga, by IcePaHC's dating.^[21]
• 1225–1250 – talaðe in DG 8 II.^[23]

Meanings

Noun

1. speech, discourse, conversation.^[3][17]
2. a number, tale, count;^[3][24] hafa e-n í þræla tǫlu, to reckon someone among slaves.^[3][24]
3. an account, reckoning, calculation.^[17][18]
4. (law) a claim, accusation or suit.^[19]
5. (grammar) number.^[3]
6. a bead.^[3][17]

Verb

1. to talk, speak; to talk something over.^[3][24]
2. to make a speech.^[3][25]
3. to record, tell.^[3]
4. tala við e-n: to speak with someone;^[3][2] tala um e-t: to talk about something.^[3][2]
5. (law) tala til: to raise a claim against someone, accuse.^[20][19]

Word family

• tǫluverðr
• tǫlustaðr
• tǫlustóll
• tǫlusnjallr
• talaðr
• tǫlugr
• talnaband

Descendants

• Icelandic tala^[1]
• Faroese tala^[1]
• Norwegian Nynorsk tale^[1]
• Norwegian Bokmål tale^[1]
• Old Swedish tala^[1]
• Swedish tala^[1]
• Old Danish talæ^[1]
• Danish tale^[1]

Related words

• tal
• telja

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Faulkes, Anthony (2011), A New Introduction to Old Norse III: Glossary and Index of Names, 4th ed., London: Viking Society for Northern Research, p. s.v. tala
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. tala
4. ^ a b c d Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 508
5. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 401
6. ^ a b de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 581
7. ^ Jóhannesson, Alexander (1956), Isländisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern, p. 490
8. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 400
9. ^ a b c d Hellquist, Elof (1922), Svensk etymologisk ordbok, Lund, p. s.v. tala
10. ^ a b c d e Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. tala
11. ^ Torp, Alf (1909), Wortschatz der germanischen Spracheinheit (Fick, Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der indogermanischen Sprachen, 4th ed., vol. 3), Göttingen, p. 158
12. ^ a b Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. NRA norr fragm 81 B
13. ^ Larsson, Ludvig (1891), Ordförrådet i de älsta islänska handskrifterna, Lund: Ph. Lindstedt, p. 327
14. ^ Gering, Hugo (1903), Vollständiges Wörterbuch zu den Liedern der Edda, Halle: Waisenhaus, p. col. 1027
15. ^ Gering, Hugo (1915), Glossar zu den Liedern der Edda, 4th ed., Paderborn, p. 176
16. ^ a b Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. NRA norr fragm 52
17. ^ a b c d e Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 623
18. ^ a b Fritzner, Johan (1886–1896), Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog, 2nd ed., Kristiania, p. s.v. tala
19. ^ a b c d A Lexicon of Medieval Nordic Law, Digital Humanities Institute, University of Sheffield, p. s.v. tala
20. ^ a b Hertzberg, Ebbe (1895), Glossarium, in Norges gamle Love indtil 1387, vol. 5, Christiania, p. 637
21. ^ a b Wallenberg, Joel C.; Ingason, Anton Karl; Sigurðsson, Einar Freyr; Rögnvaldsson, Eiríkur, Icelandic Parsed Historical Corpus, version 0.9
22. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 677 4to
23. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. DG 8 II
24. ^ a b c Baetke, Walter (1965–1968), Wörterbuch zur altnordischen Prosaliteratur, Berlin (digital ed. Greifswald 2006), p. 646
25. ^ Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 625