Talk:Austri, Vestri, Norðri and Suðri

Mythology: Norse mythology Low‑importance

	Mythology portal This article is supported by WikiProject Mythology. This project provides a central approach to Mythology-related subjects on Wikipedia. Please participate by editing the article, and help us assess and improve articles to good and 1.0 standards, or visit the WikiProject page for more details.MythologyWikipedia:WikiProject MythologyTemplate:WikiProject MythologyMythology articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.
	This article is supported by the Norse mythology work group.

Norse history and culture Low‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Norse history and culture, a WikiProject related to all activities of the North Germanic peoples, both in Scandinavia and abroad, prior to the formation of the Kalmar Union in 1397. If you would like to participate, you can edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.Norse history and cultureWikipedia:WikiProject Norse history and cultureTemplate:WikiProject Norse history and cultureNorse history and culture articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Origin of the cardinal direction names[edit]

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?[edit]

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