Íslenzk tunga - 01.01.1961, Page 106

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IIREINN BENEDIKTSSON
although the density of population in the rural districts has de-
creased, it is unlikely that it was ever much more than six or seven
per square mile. At any time, the population has been fairly evenly
spread over the whole populated area, and thus, roughly speaking,
it is spread in a circular band with an outside circumference of more
than 2000 miles, if we follow the broad outline of the coast, and a
width that seldom exceeds twenty miles (from the coast).
In Iceland there are numerous natural barriers to communication,
impassable rivers, mountain ridges, sands, deserts, even within the
inhabited areas—barriers which one would a priori have expected
to produce a much more extensive dialect splitting. But, in spite of
the natural barriers, the language has remained almost as uniform
as a language spoken within an area of its size ever can be. What are
the causes of this uniformity? The question has been much debated,
and several answers given, but. none of them, of course, is wholly
convincing.
It seems likely that the causes underlying the present uniformity
of Icelandic must, to a large extent, be the same as those of another
important characteristic of the language which has long attracted
attention, viz. the relative historical stability of the language:
Although, during its history of about one thousand years, the
language has undergone more important changes than the average
non-specialist Icelander is inclined to realize or admit, it is clear that,
compared with its related neigbours in the same period, Icelandic has
undergone only small and insignificant changes.
The starting point of the development is undoubtedly of prime
importance. We know the exact date (or rather the year) when the
first permanent settler came to Iceland from Norway (874), as well
as the period of settlement—the last quarter of the ninth and the first
half of the tenth century. There is no doubt that, already at this time,
the Norwegian language was divided into several dialect areas.
Although most of the settlers came from West Norway, we have
records of settlers coming from almost every county in Norway.
Almost every variety of Norwegian was therefore brought to Iceland.