Íslenzk tunga - 01.01.1961, Síða 84

82
HREINN BENEDIKTSSON
rural districts. But at present (in 1959) the figures are reversed;
about 81 % are in towns and villages, and only about 19 % in the
rural districts.28
Guðfinnsson, of course, was aware of this, for, treating the ques-
tion of tense vs. lax occlusives, he says that his investigation shows
the pronunciation, not so much ‘as it is at present, but rather as it is
gradually becoming’.29 And, besides, it is of course important to
have detailed knowledge of the pronunciation in the capital ‘as it is
becoming’, because of the influence it will inevitably exert on future
linguistic development in Iceland. But precisely for this reason, it is
regrettable that an equally thorough collection of material from the
oldest generation has not yet been made, since there is reason to fear
that, after a generation or so, much information will be lost for ever.
V
The most important phonetic differences are as follows, with limits
of distribution according to Guðfinnsson:30
1) Harðmœli (‘hard speech’ I vs. linmœli (‘lax speech’), i. e. tense,
aspirated vs. lax, unaspirated, often partly or wholly voiced, short
occlusives in medial or final position after (long) vowels. E. g.,
medially, tapa ‘to lose’ [tha:pha] vs. [tha:þa]; láta ‘to let’ [lau:tha]
28 Nov. 1, 1901, the total population was 78470, of which 15551 lived in towns
and villages, and 62919 in the rural districts. Dec. 1, 1959, the total population
was 173855, of which 140932 lived in towns and villages, and 32923 in the rural
districts.
28 Mállýzkur, p. 160:
... eins og hann [hinn almenni framhurður Reykvíkinga á lokhljóð-
um] er nú, heldur eins og liann er atS verSa.
30 See, especially, Breytingar, pp. 16—22 and 23—30.—See the adjoining
map, in which, for the first three features, the approximate boundaries of the
respective areas are shown; for each of the other four, the distribution of the
more limited of the two opposing traits is plotted, very roughly, on the map. Of
the third feature a map is presented by Bj. Guðfinnsson, “An Icelandic Dialect
Feature: The Pronunciation of hv- and kv-,” Philologica: The Malone Annivers-
ary Studies (Baltimore, Md., 1949), p. 357.