Gripla - 01.01.1977, Page 167

MODERN ICELANDIC U-UMLAUT
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whereas there is a comparable rule in the dative plural. A further
possibility is that an is assigned to the desinences (either because of the
strong association with the lexical items in the right column of (14), or
because -an- is a relatively common suffix), and these words conse-
quently form their own declension class, in which case there is no
problem as far as the type of u-umlaut is concerned, for then the stems
in question are monosyllabic.
Of the derived adjectives, including past participles, those in -aður
may undergo Initial umlaut. For examples see (15). Initial umlaut is
manifested, for instance, in the strong dative plural: kölluðum, öldruð-
um, etc. However, since in most such adjectives the stems of the lexical
items in the right column of (15) are readily identified with the stems
(15) Examples of adjectives in -aður
kallaður ‘called’, cf. kalla ‘call’
aldraður ‘elderly’ aldur ‘age’
gájaður ‘gifted’ gája ‘gift’
efnaður ‘well-to-do’ efni pl. ‘means, wealth’
hugaður ‘courageous’ hugur ‘courage’
preceding -aður, and since -að- is a common suffix in the language, it
is possible that at least some speakers analyze these adjectives as con-
taining monosyllabic stems followed by ad-initial desinences. For an
example of such an analysis cf. (16). Under this analysis the adjectives
in -aður do not display Initial umlaut and they form their own declen-
sional class.
(16) nom. sg. m. aldr+ aðyr nom. sg. f. aldr + yð
dat.pl. aldr + yðym gen.pl. a/dr+aðra, etc.
A weak argument in favour of the division aldr-aður rather than
aldrað-ur comes from past participles such as parrakaður ‘kept pent in’,
where the u-umlauted forms contain the stem parrök-, e.g. nom. sg. f.
parrökuð. If the adjectives in -aður contained Initial umlaut, we would
expect nom. sg. f. pörrukuð, a non-existent form. The cut before -aður
obliterates this difficulty: if the preceding stem is non-monosyllabic, the
stem undergoes the expected Final umlaut. However, the argument is
non-conclusive, for it could be argued that the adjectives like parrak-