The trip to London
september 4, 2008
Hello my name is Aksel jansen and im 13 years old,
but today im going to talk about my trip to London,
last week i was in London and watch Arsenal – Newcastel And it was so fun afther that i went to oxsford street and went to nike store and buyed the new mercurial vapor Sl shoes.
Er de skoa fotballsko? ;p
Bra skrivd hvertfall
Hilsen marte
Kult as jeg har også lyst til og dra dit .men kult det der med skoa da man får aldri nok av sko jippi!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
Dear Aksel and others,
Hi! This may seem like an unusual comment, but I have a question for you Norwegian folks:
How do you pronounce the name “Aksel”?
In December my brother and his wife had their first baby, whom they named “Axel” at first, changing it to “Aksel” a day later! They pronounce it “AK-sell” (like the English word “axle.” (They live in New Jersey, U.S.) In Norway and Denmark, though, don’t you pronounce it “AHK-sell,” or “OX-sell”? The vowel sound is like the first “O” in “Oslo,” or in “Oz,” is this right? It’s like the vowel difference between the American pronunciation of “hot” and “hat.”
Another question, while I’m at it: I see in a Norwegian-English dictionary that “aksel” is also the noun for the English “axle,” “shaft,” or “spindle.” It must have a totally different etymology (word development) from the name, however, which comes from the Hebrew “Absalom” (a son of David).
Thank you for any reply you might have. By the way, I found this blog by Googling “Aksel.” By doing this earlier, I discovered the great Norwegian skier Aksel Lund Svindal–he’s incredible! He’s my favorite skier all of a sudden–I am following his progress through the World Cup season! Go, Aksel!
Hi, Peter!
I’m Thomas, Aksel’s English teacher and the creator of this blog (we update it as a school project twice a year), and I’ll try to help you (or at least confuse you further)
I would say your brother is basically right. There are variations because of dialect, but the AK-sell pronunciation is how we generally say it in Norway.
Where we live (a town called Porsgrunn) we pronounce the A-sound in AKSEL like the A in fAr or cAr, however, so that might be the reason for your confusion. Also our L is a bit different.
In the southernmost parts of Norway and in Denmark the A is like your brother would say it, but they use softer consonants, so it would probably be something like AGSEL (with your A).
By the way, we pronounce Oslo with an o-sound approximately like the one you might use in mOO or bOO.
I think you’re right regarding the different etymologi of the two aksels.
I found a Danish dictionary entry (modern Norwegian derives from Danish) which says AKSEL originally meant SHOULDER, so there is some confusion regarding the “non-Absalon” meaning of the word. In my dialect we would would call an English shaft or axle AKSLING, but keep in mind I know nothing about mechanics.
Also AKSE (pronounced like AKSEL without the L) means axis, so all these meanings might be connected to the centre of the circle in some way. Latin, maybe?
This was fun, I think i just missed the bus home!
-Thomas