Íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði - 01.01.1981, Side 26

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Ásgeir Bl. Magnússon
Kvœðabók séra Gissurar Sveinssonar, AM 147, 8vo. A. Ljósprentaður texti. B. Inn-
gangur eftir Jón Helgason. íslenzk rit síðari alda. 2. flokkur. 2. bindi. Kaup-
mannahöfn, 1960.
Orðabók Björns Halldórssonar = Björn Halldórsson. 1814. Lexicon Islandico-
Latino-Danicum. Havniæ.
Orðabók Blöndals = Sigfús Blöndal. 1920-1924. íslensk-dönsk orðabók. Reykja-
vík.
Orðabók Guðmundar Andréssonar = Guðmundur Andrésson. 1683. Lexicon Is-
landicum a Gudmundo Andreœ Islando. Havniæ. fSamin um miðja 18. öld.j
Orðasafn Schevings = Hallgrímur Scheving. Handrit. Orðasafn í afriti í Lbs. 283-
284 4to.
Stefán Einarsson. Handrit. Miðasafn í vörslu Orðabókar Háskólans.
Sveinbjörn Egilsson. Handrit. Ýmsar athugasemdir í handritinu Lbs. 447, 4»o.
Torp, Alf. 1919. Nynorsk etymologisk ordbok. Kristiania.
Torp, Alf, & Hjalmar Falk. 1909. Wortschatz der germanisclien Spracheinheit.
Göttingen.
SUMMARY
This paper surveys the evidence for the retention of rounding in the development
of Old Icelandic y, ý and ey. It is generally assumed that Old Icelandic y and ý
vvere high, front rounded vowels and the same was probably true of the second
component of the Old Icelandic diphthong ey. In the course of the history of the
Icelandic language these vowels normally lost their rounding and merged with f,
í and ei, respectively. In some instances, however, the feature of rounding was
preserved. Although there are hardly any cases of a rounded vowel in words where
there was originally an ý and rather few instances of retained rounding in the case
of ey, there are several examples of retained rounding of Old Icelandic y —
mainly in the form of u [y]. Most of the evidence consists of doublets where one
of the forms is frequently a dialectal variant.
Having discussed the evidence case by case, the author suggests that the follow-
ing (and in some cases also the preceding) consonants may have played a role here.
Thus the labials p, b, m, f seem to have contributed to preservation of roundness
of y — and r and l may have had a similar effect in some instances. Absence of
stress appears to have played a role too, although no absolute rules can be estab-
lished.
Háskóla íslands,
Reykjavík