Íslenzk tunga - 01.01.1961, Page 110

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HREINN BENEDIKTSSON
of the language, literaey can have been only a relatively insignificant
factor, except in conjunction with other elements.
Let me first mention—because it is most intimately connected with
ihe literacy—the influence, mentioned above, of the Church. There
is no doubt that the clergy, educated at the two Church schools, in
Skálholt in the South and Hólar in the North, have been a unifying
element in the linguistic development. Another old institution which
certainly has contributed to this uniformity is Parliament (Alþing),
which, from 930 to 1800, assembled regularly every year in Þing-
vellir, and was attended by a considerable, though somewhat varying,
and, on the whole, a gradually decreasing, number of people from
all parts of the country, in addition to the regular members.93
The opinion has also been expressed that the non-participation of
Iceland, from the Middle Ages on, in the rise of cities in Europe,
with all their cultural influence, was one of the main factors in this
matter.94 In fact, as late as a hundred years ago, Reykjavík was
only a small village. Above (p. 94), we saw the importance for dia-
lect development of the rise, in the East, at the end of the nineteenth
century, of coastal fishing villages, which had important contacts
with the South, as opposed to the comparative isolation of the Eastern
hinterland. As a matter of fact, a difference between Iceland and
most of Continental Europe—undoubtedly a very important differ-
ence—is that in Iceland the farms were always spread throughout
the country, never collected into groups; up to the present century,
rural or coastal villages or towns have never existed.
Last but not least, internal commutings within the different parts
of the country or between them, have, in spite of the size of the
country and the difficulties of travel, always been relatively lively
n3 See, e. g., F. Jónsson, Det islandske altings historic i omrids (Dansk-is-
landsk samfnnds smaaskrifter XI; Copenhagen 1922), pp. lOf. and 26; V. Guð-
mundsson, Island i Fristatstiden (Copenhagen 1924), pp. 58f.; J. Brpndum-
Nielsen, Dialekter og Dialektjorskning (Copenhagen 1927), p. 63.
94 See B. Hesselman, Huvudlinjer i nordisk sprákhistoría (Nordisk Kultur
III—-IV; Uppsala-Stockholm, Oslo and Copenhagen 1948), p. 13.