Talk:Austri, Vestri, Norðri and Suðri

Mythology: Norse mythology Low‑importance

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Norse history and culture Low‑importance

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Origin of the cardinal direction names

Does the words: North, South, East & West originate from these mythological dwarfs? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.73.218.33 (talk) 15:07, December 1, 2006 (UTC)

No, the other way around, I'd think. The English words derive from old Germanic roots, which in Norse mythology gave birth to the names of these dwarfs. 惑乱分からん 01:16, 27 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

i believe that may be the consensus position of etymologists, but the whole concept of the proto-languages is extremely speculative, so although it may be difficult to find established academics, or a consensus among academics, who support the notion which the IP user asks about, it is also very hard to dismiss it with any authority. __meco (talk) 16:31, 30 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

It's possible, alright, but the Prose Edda isn't believed to have been written before the 1200's, and there are no attested references to the dwarfs in any other source of Germanic mythology outside Scandinavia, whereas the words for the cardinal directions is believed to be Common Germanic. Occam's razor. 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 02:17, 15 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

"[...] but the whole concept of the proto-languages is extremely speculative" No, it's not. It's a foundational concept in linguistics. It's no more speculative than the existence of T. rex and other extinct creatures which cannot be directly observed, and whose properties have to be reconstructed from their remains (or, more directly analogous, the existence of ancestral creatures such as the Urmetazoan or the Urbilaterian). In fact, some effective proto-languages, such as Proto-Norse and Latin, are directly attested and ultimately provided the models on which the concept of proto-languages is based. --Florian Blaschke (talk) 20:14, 17 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Dwarfs but are they Giant Dwarfs?

How big are they, as it would seem the legend would not be 3ft dwarfs? --HalloHelloHalloHello (talk) 06:26, 30 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]