An Elementary Grammar of Old Icelandic

Helen MacMillan Buckhurst

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN:
  9781138966628
• eBook ISBN:
  9781317918790
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Linguistics
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

The first available Elementary Grammar of Old Icelandic in the English language, this book is primarily intended for the beginner. To this end, the greater part of the space is devoted to a detailed treatment of the inflexions and of such points of syntax as are likely to cause difficulties.

AN ELEMENTARY GRAMMAR OF OLD ICELANDIC

Chapter I

Introduction

§ 1. Iceland was colonised by settlers from Norway in the latter half of the 9th century. But it was not until considerably later that a written literature of the country came into being. The earliest literature was poetical, and was written down during a period extending, roughly, from 1120 to 1200. The prose literature began about 1120, and the best period of prose-writing was from about 1200 to 1400. The oldest prose MSS. date from about 1200, but many of the prose texts are extant only in MSS. of the late 14th or of the 15th century.

Old Icelandic is, therefore, the language spoken in Iceland from the late 9th century to the 14th century, and the language of an early poetical and a later prose literature. But what has come down to us is mainly the language of the 12th and 13th centuries, as it appears in MSS. of the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries.

§ 2. There is considerable variation in the spelling of early and late MSS., and between the forms of verse and prose; but any discussion of these has no place in an introductory grammatical sketch. In this book, only such forms will be dealt with as the beginner is likely to come across in the course of his reading.

§ 3. THE VOWELS OF OLD ICELANDIC.

The original short vowels of O.I. are: a, e, i, o, u. In addition to these we have y, ö (ǫ), ø, which are produced by mutation. The symbol ö is used in modern Icelandic to denote original ø and ǫ, and is used throughout this book, as it is common in editions of the Sagas and is employed in the Icelandic-English dictionaries.

The original long vowels are: á, é, í, ó, ú. The acute accent is used to denote vowel length. In addition to these we have ý,

, ǽ,

(ǿ), which are produced by mutation. But of these mutated vowels,

and

(ǿ) only appear in very early texts.

after about 1250 reverted to á (from which it had been derived), while

(ǿ) fell together in sound with ǽ during the 13th century, and in many texts the one symbol æ is now used to denote both original ǽ and original

. The original diphthongs are: au, ei, jó, jú; the diphthong ey is produced by mutation.

Mutation.

Mutation of vowels in Icelandic was of two kinds, palatal and labial. Palatal mutation was caused by a following i or j, r (from original z), and k or g followed by an original e. Labial mutation was caused by a following u or w. In many cases, the vowel or consonant which caused the mutation disappeared before Icelandic became a written language; w when retained became v. The results of mutation, and the relationship of the simple to the mutated vowels may be tabulated as follows:—

Original Vowels.	Palatal Mutation.	Labial Mutation.
a	e	ǫ (later ö)
e	(i)	ǿ (later ö)
i		y
o	ø (later ö) or e
u	y
á	ǽ	(later á)
í		ý
ó	, ǿ
ú	ý
au	ey
jú, jó	ý

Examples of Palatal Mutation.

(i) a > e. Sg. ketili (kettle), plur. katlar; adj. glaðr (glad), verb gleðja (gladden) ; gler (glass) from earlier *glar; taka (take), p.p. tekinn; draga (drag), p.p. dreginn.

(ii) o > ø. norðr (north), comparative nørðri.

(iii) u > y. stuttr (short), stytta (to shorten).

(iv) á > ǽ. mál (speech), mǽla (to speak).

(v) ó>

. dómr (judgment), d

ma (to judge).

(vi) ú > ý. fúss (eager), fýsa (to urge).

(vii) au > ey. hlaupa (to run), hleypa (to cause to run) ; auðr (empty), eyða (to make empty).

(viii) jú, jó > ý. krjúpa (to creep), 3rd sing. pres. ind. krýpr; brjóta (break), 3rd sing. pres. ind. brýtr.

Examples of Labial Mutation.

(i) a > ǫ> ö. This may best be seen in the various noun-declensions and verb-conjugations where the ending contains u or v, e.g. armr (arm), dat. plur. örmum; fara (to go), 1 plur, pres. ind. förum.

(ii) e > ø > ö. e.g. søkkva, sökkva (sink)...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Orginal Title Page
• Orginal Copyright Page
• Preface
• Table of Contents
• Chapter I. Introduction
• Chapter II. Nouns
• Chapter III. Adjectives
• Chapter IV. Pronouns
• Chapter V. Numerals
• Chapter VI. Adverbs
• Chapter VII. Prepositions
• Chapter VIII. Conjunctions
• Chapter IX. Verbs
• Appendix. List of Icelandic texts suitable for beginners
• Bibliography
• Index