Brendon--

>>If someone could get me information regarding the phonological
constraints, and typical spelling conventions in Old Icelandic, I
would be very grateful.<<

Could you be a bit more specific about what you mean by "phonological
constraints"? I'm guessing you mean things like where voiced and voiceless
consonants could occur, whether long vowels could occur in consecutive
syllables, etc. Is this for an class project or assignment? Are you looking
for ways that spelling does or does not reflect the underlying phonology?

Old Icelandic had voiced and voiceless interdental spirants (like Modern
English 'there' and 'bath'). There were two characters, <�> called edh
and <�> called thorn, to spell these. At first they were not clearly
discriminated. Many texts used only one of the characters. But eventually
"classical" Old Icelandic decided on <�> for initial position, and <�>
everywhere else. This is a spelling rule, but it is closely reflects
the distribution: voiceless in initial position, voiced everywhere else
EXCEPT (and this is where spelling and pronunciation diverge) where <�>
followed a voiceless consonant. My handbook (Gordon's Introduction to
Old Norse)says this voiceless variant was "rare," and unfortunately does
not list a single example.

Most likely the two belonged to a single phoneme, but the different phonetic
realizations were partially reflected in the spelling.

Hope that bit helps. Others here can no doubt tell you more, once we
know what you are looking for.


Gazariah