Gripla - 01.01.1977, Side 169

MODERN ICELANDIC U-UMLAUT
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in the language, beginning with the dative plural of the present parti-
ciple vocgndom (normalized vgkgndom) of vaka ‘be awake’ in the
(17) hafald ‘heddle of loom’, pl. höföld(um), also haföld(um)
kjarald ‘cask’ kjöröld(um) kjaröld(um)
kafald ‘thick fall of snow’ köföld(um) kaföld(um)
oldest extant Icelandic manuscript, AM 237a fol. (Benediktsson 1963a:
18); no doubt the development of the type is closely linked with the
history of Final umlaut. The type deserves to be treated separately
from the historical point of view. In Modern Icelandic the plurals
höföld etc. most likely cannot be deduced from any rules of the gram-
mar, but have to be memorized by the speakers of the language.
Another special type consists of the umlauted forms such as those
adduced in (18), q.v. The example jagur represents a type; other in-
(18) fagur ‘fair’: nom. sg. f. and nom./acc. pl. n. fögur, dat. pl. fögrum
mastur n. ‘mast’: nom./acc. pl. möstur, definite form möstrin, dat.
pl. möstrum
sjáaldur n. ‘pupil of the eye’: nom./acc. pl. sjáöldur, definite form
sjáöldrin, dat. pl. sjáöldrum
fjöður f. ‘feather’, gen. sg. fjaðrar: dat. pl. fjöðrum
klömbur f. (archaic) ‘smith’s vice’, gen. sg. klambrar, dat. pl.
klömbrum
gröftur m. ‘digging, burial’, gen. sg. graftrar: dat. pl. gröftrum',
alternatively without radical r
stances of the type are, magur ‘meagre’, napur ‘cold, chilly’, dapur ‘sad’,
vakur ‘ambling (of a horse)’, árvakur ‘early awake’. The stems of the
nouns and adjectives of (18) all undergo vowel syncope from the
synchronic viewpoint: In the non-contracted cases their stems end in
Cur, in the contracted cases in Cr, e.g. non-contracted fagur-, contrac-
ted fagr-. If the u-umlaut only operated in the contracted cases, these
stems would be normal: mastur, fjöður, gröftur (the variant with radical
r), the archaic klömbur, and the fagur type would be instances of mono-
syllabic stems undergoing u-umlaut, whereas sjáaldur, not being mono-
syllabic, would be undergoing the expected Final umlaut. What is
unusual about the stems of (18) is their non-contracted forms, which
undergo u-umlaut as if they were contracted, i.e. as if the u of ur were