Gripla - 01.01.1977, Page 171

MODERN ICELANDIC U-UMLAUT
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forað ‘dangerous place’: nom./acc. pl. foröð (Final umlaut) and
foruð (Initial umlaut). My impression is that foröð is the normal
form, and foruð rare.
kastali ‘citadel’: dat. pl. köstulum (Initial umlaut), kastölum (Final
umlaut), and köstölum (höföld type). My impression is that
both köstulum and kastölum are equally used, whereas köstöl-
um is rare. In the compound word loftkastali ‘castle in Spain’
Initial umlaut prevails: -köstulum.
óðal ‘allodium’: nom./acc. pl. óðul (Initial umlaut) and óðöl
(Final umlaut). My impression is that óðul is more common
than óðöl.
banani ‘banana’: dat. pl. banönum (Final umlaut), bönunum (Ini-
tial umlaut), bönönum (höföld type), possibly also banunum.
My impression is that banönum and bönunum are equally used,
bönönum very rarely. The form banunum is reported in Ander-
son 1969; my informants do not use it.
altari ‘altar’. Here there is vacillation between the nominative/
accusative plural forms ölturu (Initial umlaut), öltöru (höföld
type), and altari (no umlaut). My impression is that ölturu is
the normal form, whereas the remaining ones are rare.
vesall ‘wretched’: nom. sg. f. vesöl (Final umlaut) and vesul (In-
itial umlaut; Guðmundsson 1922:94). My impression is that
vesöl is the normal form, whereas vesul is very rare.
3. The phonological environment of u-umlaut. This section describes
the phonological properties of the environments in which u-umlaut
shows up. It remains an open question whether the generalizations
adduced in the present section are linguistically significant, for I am not
aware of any arguments in favour of their significance. For a version
of the Modern Icelandic u-umlaut rule in which these generalizations
are expressed, and thus treated as linguistically significant, see Oresnik
1975.
Whether the reflex of Initial umlaut is /ö/ or /y/ depends on stress.
In stressed syllables /a/ alternates with /ö/, elsewhere with /y/. Ex-
ample: nom. sg. f. gömul of gamall ‘old’.
In a simplex word that contains more than one u-umlauted vowel the
instances of these can only be separated by consonants, i.e. such vowels