# Norwegian: joëgt



## Schlabberlatz

> N’était-il pas possible d’exciter l’émulation des navires de commerce et de pêche, *joëgts* ou autres, à donner leur concours aux recherches, pendant qu’ils naviguaient dans les mers des Feroë et de l’Islande ? Jules Verne, Un Billet de Loterie


I have to admit I’m not even sure that it’s a word from a Nordic language. But since the novel is set in Norway and the word looks more Nordic than French (and I haven’t found the word in any dictionary of French), I guess it’s Norwegian. Or Swedish? Or Danish? If you don’t know French, here’s the context: Verne talks about *merchant ships and fishing vessels*, (which are?) *"joëgts" and others*. Maybe it’s a misspelling and should read "jøgt" instead, or "jœgt", or "jægt" or something similar?


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## raumar

Yes, it's Norwegian. The current spelling is "jekt", but "jægt" is an older spelling. It is a kind of small sailing vessel. 

Here is a Wikipedia article on it - it is in Norwegian, but the pictures will give you an idea of what it looks like: 
https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jekt


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## MattiasNYC

I don't think we have "ë" in any of the Scandinavian languages. The word resembles the Swedish "Jakt" or German "Jagt", both meaning "hunt". In addition the Swedish "jakt" can apparently mean "yacht", though I'm pretty sure a lot of Swedes use the English word instead. So with my limited French I'd say the word is actually French, like the rest of the text (and you can find "ë" online btw), and that it refers to a "yacht".


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## Schlabberlatz

Thanks for the speedy answers!

Sorry if I have confused you, MattiasNYC. The French don’t have the letter "ø", so in these old books it’s often transliterated as "oë". Also, it seems that Verne sometimes got confused by words from foreign languages and misspelled them. (As in this case: jægt --> joëgt, see raumar’s post. "Æ" / "æ" should have been in stock at French printing houses, see here: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Æ#Fran.C3.A7ais or here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Æ#French.)


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## raumar

I found a website about Jules Verne's travels in Norway and those of his novels that take place there. Most of it is in Norwegian, but there is also some information in English:
http://julesverne.no/

The author, Per Johan Moe, points out that Verne has misspelt some Norwegian place names, and that he has given some of the Norwegian characters German-sounding or rather odd names (such as Siegfrid Helmboë and Sylvius Hog). Moreover, "a conspicuous feature is that the texts use many creative variants to represent the Norwegian letters æ, ø and å" (my translation).


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## Schlabberlatz

Thank you!

"Siegfrid" is German-sounding and rather odd at the same time: it is – would you have guessed it? – the name of a young woman. Or maybe I should say that it’s _supposed_ to be the name of a young woman, whose real name is Sigrid?

I have noticed some of the creative variants to represent Norwegian letters. For example, the place name Mæl is spelled "Moel" by Verne. And then there’s "akloede", etc. Thanks again for your explanations!


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## raumar

Actually, Sigfrid is a female name in Norwegian - but it is unusual, and Sigrid is much more used. The problem here is the "ie", which looks unmistakably German  -- and this makes it even more odd, as Siegfried is a male name in Germany.


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## Schlabberlatz

Thanks again! This is valuable information. I had thought that Verne made a mistake, but now I think that he probably came across this name "Sigfrid" on his travels in Norway.


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## basslop

As pointed out by Raumar, Sigfrid is a rarely female name in Norwegian. However Sigfred is a male name which is more common. According to Wikipedia both names mean the same, Victory and peace. So they are actually the same name that exists in a female and a male counterpart.


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## Schlabberlatz

Thanks to you, too!


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