Gripla - 01.01.1977, Page 184

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GRIPLA
pressionistically and on the basis of the OHÍ data—to be the more
generally used form in contexts where u-umlaut is expected is adduced
in the right column of (24b-e).
The alternation does occur in verbs whose present stems end in what
is written nk, see (24b) for examples, although forms with lacking alter-
nation can also be heard, with some verbs more, with others less often.
Verbs whose present stems end in what is written ng regularly experi-
ence the alternation /au—öi/. For examples see (24c). With the strong
verb hanga ‘hang’, /öi/ appears in the lp. pl. pres., /i[öi]n"«m, whereas
it is absent from the Northem weak pret. pl. h[au]ngdum etc. (not
h[ö\]ngdum, Jakob Benediktsson viva voce in March 1975), presum-
ably because another consonant follows ng in the preterite and the
forms belong to the type exemplified sub (24d).
Verbs whose present stems end in what is written ng + consonant
more often lack the alternation /au—öi/ than have it. For examples see
(24d). It is difficult to see what the generalization is. No altemation be-
fore ng + consonant? Why then slöngruð- (and slangruð-) of slangra,
as against angruð- (never öngruð-) of angral
The historical reasons for this unusual development are also unclear.
Bandle 1956:37 draws attention to the lack of u-umlaut in the relevant
forms of angra in Guðbrandsbiblía 1584. He treats angra as an isolated
case (because other examples of the type do not occur in his corpus),
and assumes that the lack of u-umlaut may be due to the influence of
verbs such as hátta, mála, which of course do not u-umlaut their root
vowels. I find this explanation too general.
6.2. The diphthong [ai] usually does not participate in any u-umlaut
alternations, see (25) for examples. There is, however, an exception to
(25) grœnn ‘green’, nom. sg. f. grœn, dat. pl. grœn-um
œra ‘drive mad’, lp. pl. pres. œr-um, lp. pl. pret. œr-ðum
gœi ‘guy’, dat. pl. gœ-jum
Sóraja Persian given name, oblique sg. Sóraj-u
this statement in standard Icelandic: In a considerable number of words
there is an altemation [öi—öq—ai—aqj, where the alternants beginning
with [ö] appear in the environments of u-umlaut, and the [a]-initial
alternants outside those environments. For examples see (26).
J