Gripla - 01.01.1982, Page 197

AN OLD ICELANDIC DIALECT FEATURE 193
2. Considerations from the standpoint of historical phonology.
I take iæ-spellings to reflect a feature of the fourteenth century
spoken dialect, viz. the geographically limited pronunciation of [æ:] æ
as [iæ:]. As assumed by Stefán Karlsson 1960 §19.61 and by Hreinn
Benediktsson 1977:42 fn. 1, the diphthongal pronunciation must have
arisen through the diphthongisation of œ to iœ.
The diphthongisation of æ to iœ scored relatively much success in hæ,
væ, and some success in næ, lœ, þæ, sœ, snæ, klæ, tvæ, bræ, but appar-
ently none in pæ, fæ, mæ, tæ, dæ, etc. (The groups kæ, gæ, often spelled
as kiæ, giæ in the fourteenth century, are of course ambiguous in that
here the i can mark the palatal pronunciation of k and g.) The diph-
thongisation of œ to iœ never made it past its INCIPIENT stage: it was
ABORTIVE.
The fact that iæ was preserved for the longest time in the place-name
elements bær and lækr may be due to the palatal character of the seg-
ments that follow iæ in some case forms of bær and lækr, notably in
their genitive singular (bæjar, lækjar), a case form frequently used with
compound place names. Notice that the iæ-spellings of Perg. 4:o nr. 16,
on which see (21) above, are also of this kind. (I owe the observations
of this paragraph to a personal communication from Stefán Karlsson,
1982.)
Beside the rising diphthong iæ there is a competing and eventually
victorious pan-Icelandic reflex of æ, namely the falling diphthong æi
(later [ai]). The relationship between iæ and œi (i.e. whether they are
parallel reflexes of œ, or one has arisen from the other) is not clear,
largely because the absolute chronology of the first appearance of œi
has not yet been determined:
(1) Scholars have traditionally taken the inverse spellings such as
dæginn for daginn as proof that æ had become a falling diphthong. The
oldest spellings of this type date from the middle of the fifteenth century
(Hreinn Benediktsson 1977:42 fn. 1). These inverse spellings prove that
the falling diphthong that arose from æ had reached its modern value,
[ai], by the time that the spellings appear. The diphthongisation process
may have started much earlier, see next paragraph.
(2) Another possible terminus post quem for the existence of the
falling diphthong that had arisen from œ are spellings such as æi, ei for
‘æ’. The spelling æi occurs frequently in hand 1 of Króksfjarðarbók
(AM 122 a fol., Sturlunga saga, written about the middle of the four-
Gripla V — 13