Gripla - 01.01.1977, Page 157

MODERN ICELANDIC U-UMLAUT
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baggi ‘pack’ böggull ‘parcel’
kanna ‘explore’ könnuður ‘explorer’
(c) Uninflected constituents of compound words. Admittedly a word
like sögustaður of (lc), q.v., can be related to saga on the level of de-
scriptive word formation, as it unquestionably is in historical word
formation, but I doubt that the phonological representation of the com-
pound begins with /saqy/ or /saq + Y/, so that /ö/ were due to the
synchronic u-umlaut rule.
(d) Derived lexical items displaying the alternation /a—ö/ and-or
/a—y/ in their derivational paradigms. For instance, förull of (ld),
q.v., is related to fara in historical word formation, and may be so re-
lated in descriptive word formation as well. But I doubt that the
phonological representation of its stem is /far + y1/ and its /ö/ due to
the synchronic u-umlaut rule.
2. Kinds of u-umlaut. It is practical to treat umlaut in monosyllabic
stems and in polysyllabic stems in separate paragraphs. In polysyllabic
stems I distinguish between Final and Initial u-umlaut.
2.1. U-umlaut in monosyllabic stems. The only u-umlaut alternation
found in monosyllabic stems is of course /a—ö/, never /a—y/; see
(2a). Those stems having a monosyllabic and a non-monosyllabic shape
on the phonetic level, behave as true monosyllabic stems as far as their
monosyllabic allomorphs are concerned; see (2b).
(2) (a) Stems which are always monosyllabic
barn ‘child’, nom./acc. pl. börn, dat. pl. börn-um
gata ‘street’, oblique sg. göt-u, nom./acc. pl. göt-ur, dat. pl.
göt-um
hvass ‘sharp’, nom. sg. f. and nom./acc. pl. n. hvöss, dat. pl.
hvöss-um, etc.
(b) Stems having mono- and polysyllabic allomorphs
farinn ‘gone’, several weak cases förn-u
akur ‘field’, dat. pl. ökr-um
hamar ‘hammer’, dat. pl. hömr-um
annar ‘other, second’, dat. sg. n. öðru, cf. nom. pl. m. aðrir