Etymology/meaning/onomatopoeic aspects of the word "Urth"

Lane Haygood · 24 Apr 2008, 18:18 · from 2008-April.txt.gz

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From: lhaygood at gmail.com (Lane Haygood)
Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2008 13:18:25 -0500
Subject: (urth) Etymology/meaning/onomatopoeic aspects of the word "Urth"
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	<20080424175901.E34EA4800C at diego.dreamhost.com>
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On Apr 24, 2008, at 12:59 PM, Mo Holkar / UKG wrote:
> At 18:20 24/04/2008, you wrote:
>> A question for the first-language speakers out
>> there: We have a discussion going on concerning
>> a proper rendering of the word "Urth" into
>> Czech, and would appreciate any comments
>> concerning the connotations the word has for a
>> native speaker, apart form the obvious "Earth".
>> An existing translation of The Shadow of the
>> Torturer has "Urzem?", which translates
>> literally as "Ur-Earth" (without the repetition
>> of the "r" phoneme or the "vowel-consonant[s]" syllable structure,  
>> of course).
>>
>> I did search for previous threads concerning the
>> topic, but the fact of the archive-site being
>> itself called Urth made it somewhat difficult.
>
>
> The main extra connotation is that Urth is the
> name of one of the Norns -- Verthandi and Skuld being the others:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norns
>
> Mo
>
>
> # ~ # ~ #
>
> WolfeWiki
> http://www.holkar.net/pmwiki/

So is it pronounced "Urdh," with the voiced [th] sound? (Sorry, I  
don't know how to reproduce IPA in plain text). The Norse is  
pronounced that way, but I've always pronounced "Urth" just like  
"Earth."

Also, the prefix ur- has an English meaning as well, meaning "older"  
or "elder," similar to the German. That is, however, at odds with the  
Norn-interpretation (Urdh is the Norn of Fate) and the idea that  
Severian's world is the future of our own. Though, perhaps to Severian  
at least, time need not necessarily flow in one direction.

Best,
Lane

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