--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, Scott Schroder
<speculum_terra_incognito@...> wrote:

>
>
> Part typo, part simple accident: "Eisteinnson" should have been

Beinteinnson, referring to the Eddic performance released by David
Tibet/Durtro.

Sveinbjörn Beinteinsson. I know it's a tricky for us English speakers
to remember which bit comes where... I always have a quick count of
how many 'n's and 's's there are in there before I click SEND ;-)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sveinbj%C3%B6rn_Beinteinsson


Old Norse (and Modern Icelandic) 'teinn' "a twig; a spit" is declined
like 'steinn' "stone" and 'sveinn' "boy". Sveinbjörn's patronymic
contains the genitive singular 'teins' to which is added the word
'son' "son". ('son' happens to drop the 'r' of the nominative singular
when used in patronymics.)


INDEFINITE "a twig"

.............SINGULAR....PLURAL

NOMINATIVE...teinn.......teinar
ACCUSATIVE...tein........teina
GENITIVE.....teins.......teina
DATIVE.......teini.......teinum


DEFINITE "the twig"

.............SINGULAR.......PLURAL

NOMINATIVE...teinninn.......teinarnir
ACCUSATIVE...teininn........teinana
GENITIVE.....teinsins.......teinanna
DATIVE.......teininum.......teinunum


I don't know if this helps to remember it, but the double 'n' in the
nominative singular is due to an assimilation which took place during
the transition from Proto-Norse to Old Norse. Proto-Norse *'tainaR'
became *'tainR', and the sequence 'nR' was assimilated to 'nn'.

The general rule is that 's', 'l' and 'n' + 'R' became 'ss', 'll' and
'nn' respectively in Old Norse: 'víss' "certain; wise", 'stóll'
"chair", 'steinn' "stone".

But after vowels and other consonants, Proto-Norse 'R' (presumed to be
a sound somewhere between [z] and [r]) survives in (Icelandic) Old
Norse as 'r': 'fiskr' "fish", 'konungr' "king".

Regular exceptions: there isn't any assimilation with 'lR' and 'nR'
after a short stressed syllable: 'stelr' "steals", 'vinr' "friend".
And there isn't any assimilation where 'll' and 'nn' were originally
double--that is, where 'll' or 'nn' belongs to the root of the word:
'allr' "all", 'fullr' "full" (Gordon: An Introduction to Old Norse, § 76).

On the other hand, where double 'nn' belongs to the root of the word,
it was sometimes dissimilated to 'ð' before 'r', as in the nominative
singular 'maðr' versus accusative singular 'mann'; nominative
masculine singular 'annarr' "other, second" versus nominative
masculine plural 'aðrir' "others". But the effects of this last change
are often obscured by analogy. So where early Old Norse had 'viðr'
"works", 'fiðr' "finds", later Old Norse texts tend to use 'vinnr' and
'finnr'. The 'nn' was restored by analogy with other parts of the
conjugation where there was no following 'r'.

'finna' "to find"
'ek finn' "I find"
'þú fiðr', 'þú finnr' "you find"

You're more likely to meet forms like 'finnr' in normalised Old Norse
prose texts, whereas you're more likely to meet forms like 'fiðr' in
early poetry.