# Swedish: kjöld



## Pix'n

Hi there,

what's the English for the word _kjöld_? I read it in this sentence:
_men jag fann ej de sjuka så ömtålige för kjöld och värme_

My guess is that _kjöld_ is a different way to write _köld_ but I'm not sure because I haven't found any definition on the net.

Thanks


----------



## Tjahzi

You are right, _kjöld_ is the old spelling of _köld_. Both forms are pronounced [ɕœlːd].

For the record, the sentence sounds very old fashioned.


----------



## Alxmrphi

So what is the English word?


----------



## Tjahzi

_Cold_, n.


----------



## Alxmrphi

Tjahzi said:


> _Cold_, n.



Ahh I should have been able to guess that!
It did cross my mind but it looked a little bit too easy


----------



## Pix'n

Thanks Tjahzi.

Indeed, the text is a bit out of date. It was written in the 18th century ^^



			
				Alxmrphi said:
			
		

> So what is the English word?


Cold 

This is what I like in Swedish, if we have English and French basis we can easily understand a lot of words. In French köld sounds like cold 
Värme is another good example, it's quite close to warm in English.


----------



## Tjahzi

Indeed. 

Actually, _warm_ and _varm_ as well as _cold_ and _kall _(_kald _in Norwegian and Danish) are even closer examples. 
The _ö_ in _kjöld_ is most likely triggered in the same way as the _ä_ in _värme_. That is, in the process through which the adjectives were transformed to nouns (through the suffixation of a front vowel).

Also, Swedish has another noun for _cold_ namely _kyla _(which additionally coincides with the verb _to make cold _(not necessarily _freeze_)).

Finally, the most accurate translation of _köld_ is _coldness_, since it's exclusively used to denote _the occurrence of more or less extreme coldness _(and cannot be used to denote a minor viral illness, which is referred to as _förkylning_ (_for-cold-ing_, perfective prefix-root-noun making suffix)).


----------



## hanne

Tjahzi said:


> (_kald _in Norwegian and *kold in* Danish)


----------



## Alxmrphi

I wonder if this is due to the historical relationship between the languages, i.e. East Norse became Swedish and Danish, and they have _*kold*_ / *köld*, and West Norse became (among others) Norwegian and Icelandic have *kaldur* / *kald* (and West Norse -> Faroese which has the same word as Icelandic).

Maybe not, just applying history to data and making a (partially-educated) guess.


----------



## Tjahzi

Well, you are on to something there Alex. However, it's important to distinguish the adjective from the noun here. *Swedish* has the adjectives _kall_ and _kylig_ as well as the nouns _köld_ and _kyla_. They are slightly different in meaning, but are usually interchangeable and obviously cognates. Yet both forms have emerged. Why?

Another interesting issue that separates the Nordic languages is the treatment of the cluster [sonorant]+[stop]. Ironically, I don't remember it exactly, but in some Nordic languages, the one assimilated the other, in some it was the other way around and in some there was no assimilation at all. Just a few examples which might help us all to shed some light on the issue:

English/Icelandic/Danish/Norwegian/Swedish.

hold/halda/holde(?)/holde/hålla
cold/kald)/kold/kald/kall
man/maður*/mand/mann/man(n) - *the conjugated root contains _n _but no ð (I personally suspect that _a_ to have been nasal.)
hand/hönd/hånd/hånd/hand
struggle/kapp(?)/kamp/kamp/kamp
lamb/lamb/lam/lam/lamm
herring/síld/sild/sild/sill
wind/vindur/vind/vind/vind

In short, there seems to lacking a clear pattern, although Swedish seems to be the most eager to assimilate.

Please provide more examples and theories!


----------



## NoMoreMrIceGuy

For Icelandic:

n. Cold: kuldi
adj. Cold: kaldur/köld/kalt (m/f/n)


----------



## Dan2

Tjahzi said:


> In short, there seems to lacking a clear pattern, although Swedish seems to be the most eager to assimilate.


Note that a lot of syllable-final "d"s in Danish and Norwegian are present in the spelling but not pronounced, so the differences between those languages and Swedish, as spoken, are not as great as it appears from your chart.


----------



## Tjahzi

True. 

However, I'd say it's still an indication of that the process was faster in Swedish. I wonder how come English has been the most conservative here.


----------



## cocuyo

Many words ending with a d after n would often be pronounced without the d, both in Swedish and Norwegian; more so in some dialects. So even if spelled "hand", the pronunciation is often "hann", just as "hund" will be "hunn".


----------

