Íslenzk tunga - 01.01.1961, Page 101

ICELANDIC DIALECTOLOGY: METHODS AND RESULTS
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Fe [written with the /-rune] non jie sed /e semper scriptum, semper
scribendum et pronunciandum est. Je inculcavit vitiosa recentiorum
consuetudo, qua lahorant inter nostrates inprimis Septentrionalis quad-
rantis incolæ, adeo ut e Vocalem etiam je pronuncient; ah illis autem
ad alios longe lateque serpsit.
And further:
mer, ser legi vult Clariss. Vir Mier sier. Fateor nunc vitiose passim
ita pronuntiari, sed pessime. Omnes antiquæ memhranæ constanter
ahsque spurio hoc i Boreali tales voces ornnes scriptas referunt; nihil
est aliud mier sier quam prava consuetudo.
The Bishop’s statements apparently imply74 (1) that diphthongal
pronunciation was most prominent in the North, whence it had
spread to other parts of the country; (2) that the diphthongal pro-
nunciation was of two kinds, viz. with semivocalic [i] on the one
hand, and, especially in the North, with fricative [j] on the other;
and (3) that monophthongal pronunciation, probably the Bishop’s
own pronunciation, was still retained in some places [in the North-
West?, where the Bishop hailed from]. True, the Bishop’s statements
are far from being explicit enough, and their trustworthiness has
been called in question.70
A much clearer example is provided by the merger of the high
front round and unround vowels, y and i, short and long, as well as
of the diphthongs ey and ei. The earliest traces of this change are to
be found as early as the thirteenth century, in a few words, especially
those which frequently occur in unstressed position (e. g. jirir for
jyrir, ijir for yfir). Otherwise, there is no extensive evidence of this
change until the late fifteenth and the early sixteenth centuries, and
it is generally assumed to be over not later than the middle of the
sixteenth century.76 But recently it has been shown that in a manu-
script of a collection of ballads by the Rev. Gissur Sveinsson (1604—
74 Ibid., pp. 191f.
75 See, e. g., Þórólfsson, Um íslenskar orðmyndir, p. xiv, note.
70 See Bj. K. Þórólfsson, “Nokkur orð um hinar íslensku hljóðbreytingar
e je og y, ý, ey > i, í, ei,” Studier tillagnade Axel Kock (Supplement to Ar-
kiv för nordisk jilologi XLIV; Lund 1929), pp. 240—243.
ISLENZK TUNCA
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