Re: RE : [tied] Re: North of the Somme

From: Brian M. Scott
Message: 49771
Date: 2007-09-02

At 2:12:00 PM on Sunday, September 2, 2007, tgpedersen
wrote:

> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Rick McCallister
> <gabaroo6958@...> wrote:

>> When did the pre vs post position dichotomy of articles
>> occur?

> I believe it's documented from the 16th century. Before
> that time many texts are law texts and they have no
> definite articles, like ON.

Eh? ON has both free and suffixed definite articles. Some
examples from Lokasenna:

Free-standing:

ketil inn mikla 'the great kettle' (acc.)
sveinn inn hvíti 'the white/shining lad'
sá inn lævísi Loki 'that the crafty Loki'
hendi inni hægri 'the right hand' (dat.)

Suffixed:

ulfinn 'the wolf' (acc.)
munnlaugin 'the basin' (acc.)

From Íslendingabók:

Free-standing:

Haraldr inn hárfagri 'Harald the fairhair(ed)'
konungrinn Haraldr 'the king Harald'
inir spökustu menn 'the wisest men'

Suffixed:

til vársins 'to the spring' (gen.)
drauminn 'the dream' (acc.)
landinu 'the land' (dat.)

Brian