--- In
norse_course@yahoogroups.com, "AThompson" <athompso@...> wrote:
> Thanks LN for clearing that up.
>
> Now that you have pointed it out, I find that Gordon has hidden away
in his grammar the 'clue': viz Para 151 "in poetry the enclitic
negatives -a, -at, -gi were used, as in vas-k-a 'I was not'; hef-k-at-
ek 'I have not'"
>
> Now, if the line had been something like saurs vargi vant, I
wouldnât have had any trouble and that seems to me to scan just as
well J
I may be wrong, but I don't think that -gi, -ki would be used with a
verb. As I understand it, VAR-A is acceptable because the two short
syllables are considered metrically equivalent to one long one (either
due to a long vowel or a closed syllable).
saurs vara vant, er várum
1 + '1' + 1 + 1 + 1+1 = 6
But *VARGI would count as a long syllable followed by a short one,
which would give a total of seven syllables in the whole line. Here's
what Pilar Fernández Álvarez has to say on -a, -at, in Antiguo
Islandés III Morfología, 26--hopefully I haven't mangled the original
Spanish too much. My comments in square brackets:
"Verbs with the negative suffix -a, -at are an obsolete construction.
They are only used in poetry, in legal texts and old sayings.
"This suffix appears with:
"The copulative verb "to be", preterite-present verbs (especially á,
mun, skal). With strong verbs and with certain weak verbs of the 3rd
and 4th conjugations: hafa, lifa, gera. It appears very rarely with
weak verbs of the 1st and 2nd class.
"It is common with the indicative and imperative. Very rare with
subjunctive and never with infinitive.
"It is common with the singular of all persons, with the plural of the
3rd person, but rare with the 1st and 2nd persons.
"It is rare with the reflexive: þóttisk-a, erumk-a, komsk-a, etc.
"-at (<*aitt, cf. Gothic 'ainata', neuter of "one"), and -a (<*ain,
cf. Gothic 'ain', alternative form of the neuter of "one") can appear
interchangeably: skal-at, skal-a. -at is prefered when the following
word begins with a vowel, and -a when it begins with a consonant.
[This is not a fixed rule: erat svá, sékka ek = sé + k + a, þoriga ek
= þori + k + a, see below for an explanation of the assimilations in
these last two examples.]
"After a vowel the -a- of the negative suffix is dropped leaving -t, -
ð: vitu-ð, eigu-t, standa-t. In a few instances, -a is used: koemj-a,
bítj-a. In verbs with -j-, this remains: segj-a-tu, kvelj-at. In
verbs which end in a long vowel, the -a- [of the suffix] is not
dropped: kná-at, sá-at.
"In the 1st person singular, the personal pronoun is inserted between
the verb and the negative suffix: á-k-at, em-k-at. If the verb ends
in -gg, assimilation results: *hygg-k-at > hykkat. Even after a long
vowel, the 'k' may be reduplicated: sé-kk-at, má-kk-at. The pronoun
can be repeated too: sá-k-at ek, má-k-at ek. In weak disyllabic
forms, the -k- > -g-, thus: bjargi-g-a (note that the 1st person sg.
ending -a > -i-).
"The 2nd person sg. pronoun 'þú' is assimilated later: ert-at-þú > ert-
at-tu.
_______________________________________________________
1st sg. em-k-at var-k-at
2nd sg. ert-at-tu vart-at-tu
3rd sg. er-at (es-at) var-at (vas-at)
3rd pl. eru-t váru-t