Gripla - 01.01.1977, Side 179

MODERN ICELANDIC U-UMLAUT
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in. Otherwise the above formulation predicts wrong results with the
krefja verbs (outside plural preterite indicative), where the first person
plural present is kref-jum (not kröf-jum), and preterite plural subjunc-
tive kref-ðum etc. (not kröf-ðum); with the vaka verbs, i.e. with those
é-verbs undergoing i-umlaut in the preterite subjunctive, cf. pret. subj.
vek-tum etc. (not vök-tum7)-, with the strong verbs, where the preterite
contains other vowels than ö, e.g. grafa ‘dig’, pret. ind. gróf- (not gröf-),
pret. subj. grœf- (not gröf-).
Supposing that the place at which the u-umlauted vowel is inserted
into the stem is determined in some independent way, the environment
of u-umlaut can be stated entirely in the morphological terms listed
above.
5. On /ö/ as the basic vowel of the u-umlaut altemation. The above
list of morphological environments (par. 4) in which ö, u are found in-
stead of a, is composed so as to imply that /a/ is the basic vowel from
which /ö, y/ are derived in appropriate contexts (presumably by aid of
morphological rules of the format /a/-> /ö/ and /a/-»/Y/). Yet this
is by no means necessarily the case. In principle /a/ can be basic in
some types, /ö, y/ in others. Alternatively, it may be that /a/ and /ö,
y/ are considered of equal standing, in some types at least. Even more
complicated situations can be imagined. Different speakers might have
different grammars in this respect. (It is a weak point of Oresnik 1975
that it assumes, without argumentation, that /a/ is the basic vowel of
all synchronic u-umlaut alternations.)
In the following instances it is possible that /ö/ rather than /a/ is
the basic vowel of the u-umlaut alternation:
Strong feminine nouns may have /ö/ as the basic vowel in the singu-
lar, and /a/ as the basic vowel in the plural. E.g. the lexical representa-
tion of gjöf ‘present’ may be: /gjöv/ in the singular, /gjav/ in the plural.
The morphological rule /ö/ -> /a/ produces the /a/ of the gen. sg. gjaf-
ar, and the morphological rule /a/-» /ö/ producesthe /ö/ of the dat.
pl. gjöf-um.8
7 Þorkelsson 1902:139 reports pret. subj. vakti (without i-umlaut in the root
syllable) from Skaftafellssýslur.
8 The hypothesis operating with two-stem lexical representations of gjöf nouns
predicts the following concerning loanwords into Icelandic and domestic nouns