Gripla - 01.01.1982, Page 196

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GRIPLA
occurrence of its seven iæ-spellings can stem from the exemplar of that
part of the manuscript, so that iæ-spellings were probably a mere ortho-
graphic archaism in AM 180 b fol.
Most instances of iæ-spellings in the six manuscripts occur where
stem-initial ‘bæ’ and ‘væ’ would be expected. In fact, three of the six
manuscripts contain such examples only. AM 396 4° and Perg. fol. nr.
12 VI stand apart each with a single instance of iæ in ‘nær’, and AM
180 b fol. with a single instance of iæ in ‘þær’. Thus there are two iæ-
spellings in ‘nær’ and one in ‘þær’, as against over twenty in ‘bæ’ and
‘væ’.
1.4. General conclusions about the philological sections.
(I) The iæ-spellings occur in northern documents and manuscripts,
and to lesser extent, in documents and manuscripts connected with the
Breiðafjörður region. In addition, iæ-spellings occur in six manuscripts
that have so far not been located.3
(II) The iæ-spellings are a fourteenth century phenomenon. Later
occurrences — with the exception of instances in AM 180 b fol. the
later occurrences are to be found in the (place) names of the documents
only (see section 1.1 ad finem) — can be explained away as archaisms.
(III) The iæ-spellings are by far the most common in the combina-
tions ‘væ, bæ’; they occur also in ‘næ, sæ, læ, þæ, klæ, snæ, tvæ, bræ’.
(IV) In none of the documents and manuscripts — except in the
document sub (1) — are the iæ-spellings the predominant or only
spelling of ‘æ’. This vowel is usually represented by æ or e.
(V) The iæ-spellings do not occur in Old Norwegian documents and
manuscripts, and are thus typically Icelandic. In fact, at least one philo-
logist, Rindal (1981:*32-*33), has already made use of iæ-spellings
when arguing for the Icelandic character of the manuscript Perg. fol.
nr. 12 VI.
Much of the above had been observed by Stefán Karlsson long be-
fore me: ‘The use of iæ for æ — especially after the labials v and b —
is found in a few scribes of northern documents from the 14th century
and later, and in a few manuscripts which, in so far as they can be
located at all, also come from the north’ (ed. 1967:24).
3 The manuscript AM 126 4° (legal material, including Jónsbók), which con-
tains at least one iæ-spelling, in biæia 34v9, came to my attention too late to be
considered in the present paper.