Gripla - 01.01.1977, Síða 176

172 GRIPLA
(23) annar-hver ‘every other’: nom. sg. f. önnur-hver, dat. pl. öðrum-
hverjum
annar-hvor ‘one of two’: nom. sg. f. önnur-hvor, dat. sg. m. öðr-
um-hvorum
annar-tveggja ‘one of two’: nom. sg. f. önnur-tveggja, dat. sg. m.
öðrum-tveggja
allur-saman -samall ‘complete, undivided’: nom. sg. f. öll-sömun,
öll-sömul, dat. pl. öllum-saman
As is well known, Modern Icelandic distinguishes between long and
short /ö, Y, a/ (and other vowels). The phonetic differences between
the short and the long variety of each pair are not negligible, at least as
far as /ö/ and /y/ are concerned; Pétursson (1974:105 and passim)
has ascertained experimentally that short /ö, y/ are more open (often
considerably more open) than their respective long counterparts. Yet
from the functional point of view there is no detectable difference
between the long and the short variants of these sounds. In root-initial
syllables the u-umlaut results in /ö/ regardless of whether it alternates
with long or short /a/, and regardless of whether /ö/ is of the same
quantity as the alternant /a/. Cf. bakari ‘baker’ versus bökurum, ax
‘ear of com’ versus öx, gamall ‘old’ versus gamla versus gömul versus
gömlu, etc. In root non-initial syllables the vocalic quantity is almost
invariably neutralized and realized as short. The structure of such
syllables does not influence the choice of the u-umlaut reflex, although
this can only be illustrated for the VC type: héröð versus héruð. With
the VCC type the illustration cannot be made because there are no
reliable examples of the reflex /y/ alternating with /ö/ before more
than one consonant in unstressed syllables. (The altemation /arn—öi/
treated in par. 6.1 involves only short /au/ and short /öi/, which is due
to the fact that the non-anterior nasal consonant appears only in closed
syllables; all other vowels are also invariably short before non-anterior
nasal.) In view of the above, the quantity problems are ignored in the
present paper as irrelevant to the matter at hand.
4. Morphological environment of u-umlaut. Both mono- and poly-
syllabic stems susceptible to u-umlaut undergo it in the same morpho-
logical environments. The type of umlaut (whether Initial, or Final, or
a third variety) does not depend on the morphological environment, but