Hi BerLaug,
I have also noted the great variation in, for example, the final
-i versus a final -e. My first idea connected with that, is
that when I see modern Icelandic references, it is always
"Snorri", whereas in Norway the normal form is "Snorre".
I have also seen a final -e like that in some of the older
MSS. I wonder if it could not also be a matter of dialectal
differences - differences that grew stronger as time went by.
Best
Xigung
--- In
norse_course@yahoogroups.com, Berglaug Ásmundardóttir
<berglauga@...> wrote:
> Might it not be that he's simply using the oldest spelling rules for old
> icelandic (not norse), say, they first grammarians spelling? It sure
looks
> to me as if he's using the oldest Icelandic vowel system I learned.
Haukur
> may remember this better than I do (since I was the one drawing
little comic
> series about evil umlauts chasing innoccent vowels, in class), but
using e
> for i in an unstressed syllable was commonplace at least until the
twelfth
> century, I think, because of the complicated vowel system. At that
time, i
> was closer to í than it later became, and the unstressed frontal
unrounded
> vowel was closer to the stressed vowel e than i (that is, it was
written e
> because that sound was phonologically closest to an [I] sound). I'm
not sure
> about the others, but æ (an open e, often written with a hooked e) was a
> part of the vowel system at that time, it's the i-umlaut from a. And
o was
> used for u in unstressed syllables, and even where it is stressed, o
and u
> have a sligt tendency to get in each other's way (a mess caused (I
seem to
> recall) by the language's indecision about a-umlaut). And what have
you got
> against two e's in ellefo? It's spelled with two e's in modern
icelandic,
> you know. (although the unstressed o has changed to u). Using the first
> grammarian's spelling (at least in vowels, not so sure about
'hásteflingar')
> seems like rather good practice to me, not at all an error.
>
> Again, this is just a suggestion, I'm hoping that Haukur will shed some
> light on the matter
>
> Berglaug
>
>
> >
> > That's a lot of misspellings.
> > Did Lass make as many misspellings for the other Germanic languages?
> > I noticed that the copyright is 1994,
> > but can you verify that this is the first edition,
> > and not just a new printing with the first edition
> > being, say, 1904, or something like that?
> >
> >
> > In a message dated 11/21/2003 2:25:11 PM Eastern Standard Time,
> brahmabull@... writes:
> >
> > >
> > >
> > > Greetings!
> > >
> > > I am an amateur, interested in Old Norse as part of early
Germanic. I
> > > have been reading Roger Lass's <Old English: A historical linguistic
> > > companion> (Cambridge: 1994) and find it helpful in getting
control of
> > > some basics.
> > >
> > > There are some misprints or mistakes in the book, and one whole
class
> > > of them involves Old Icelandic. Can anybody tell me what these forms
> > > represent? Oldest attestations, or maybe a mnemonic scheme for
learning
> > > the paradigms? I have Gordon's book, which I take as my authority.
> > >
> > > 1. Lass has /e/ for /i/ wherever this appears in the dative singular
> > > masc and neut. Even /deg-e/, where he explains the stem change
is due
> > > to i-umlaut. For i-stem gestr Lass gives nom. pl. gest-er and
acc. pl.
> > > gest-e.
> > >
> > > 2. The u-stem example is even stranger:
> > > sg.
> > > N sun-r for son-r
> > > G son-ar
> > > D syn-e for syn-i
> > > A sun for son
> > > pl.
> > > N syn-er for syn-ir
> > > G son-a
> > > D sun-um
> > > A sun-o for sun-u
> > >
> > > BUT a dative -i for foet-i (with oe=ligature)
> > >
> > > 3. Here is the present conjugation of bera
> > > sg
> > > 1 bær-a
> > > 2 bær-er
> > > 3 bær-e
> > > pl
> > > 1 bær-em
> > > 2 bær-eÞ
> > > 3 bær-e
> > >
> > > I understand from Gordon that ö (hook o) to á and then i-ulaut to æ.
> > > So why /e/ for /i/ in all the endings?
> > >
> > > 4. Last thing: for '9' and '10' Lass gives OIc nió and tió,
instead of
> > > the expected níu and tíu; '11' is ellefo for ellifu.
> > >
> > > This is not an exhaustive list! I am going to write all these up for
> > > the author, but before I can do that I would like to have some
idea his
> > > reasoning.
> > >
> > > Thanks,
> > > Gazariah
> > >
> > >
> > > A Norse funny farm, overrun by smart people.
> > >
> > > Homepage: http://www.hi.is/~haukurth/norse/
> > >
> > > To escape from this funny farm try rattling off an e-mail to:
> > >
> > > norse_course-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
> > >
> > > Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to
> > > http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
> >
> >
> > A Norse funny farm, overrun by smart people.
> >
> > Homepage: http://www.hi.is/~haukurth/norse/
> >
> > To escape from this funny farm try rattling off an e-mail to:
> >
> > norse_course-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
> >
> > Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
> >
> >