Íslenzk tunga - 01.01.1961, Side 103

ICELANDIC DIALECTOLOGY: METHODS AND RESULTS
99
Ólájr vs. sólo (Óláfsdrápa 68 et passim). But in the so-called First
Grammatical Treatise, probably written in the second quarter of the
twelfth century, the distinction between nasal long Q and ó is still
maintained. The most natural explanation of the disagreement
between these two sources seems to be the assumption of a temporary
dialect difference, in the latter half of the eleventh and the first half,
at least, of the twelfth century, consisting in the presence vs. absence
of the distinction between nasal long Q and ó.
Similarly, in the beginning of the thirteenth century, we find the
distinction of p and </> preserved in some manuscripts which are con-
temporaneous, approximately, with some of those in which this
distinction is no longer maintained. Later, about the middle of this
century, we find the same for œ vs. œ. This implies the coexistence
of two systems, with or without these distinctions, which, most
naturally, is to be taken as evidence for temporary dialect differences.
But, of course, as long as it is not possible to locate these differ-
ences, this remains a malter of uncertainty.
IX
As stated earlier (p. 95), the present distribution of the principal
dialect differences—those that have arisen during the last two or
three centuries—clearly reveals two different central areas of dif-
fusion, where the changes underlying the present differences pro-
bably originated and from which these changes have spread, and are
spreading, in two, diametrically opposed, directions. On the one
hand, the centre of the kv-area. is in the North, whence it is spreading
to the South, by way of both the West and the East, the result being
mixed areas in the South-West and the East. On the other hand, lin-
mœli has its main centre in the South, and is spreading, by way of
both the West and the East, to the North, the result being the same
—mixed areas in the western part of the North and in the East. The
same probably holds true for the unvoicing of ð, l, m, n before p, t, k.