Íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði - 01.01.1982, Síða 305

Ritdómar
Kristján Árnason. 1980. Quanlity in historical phonology: Icelandic and related
cases. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 234 pp.
0. Introduction
The volume, appearing as No. 30 in the Cambridge Studies in Linguistics series, is
primarily devoted to the history and the present-day status of quantity in Icelandic,
placed against the background of simi'ar phenomena in other Germanic languages, with
a sprinkle of Latin and Grcek. Árnason sets the stage by considering the situation
in the modern language (Chap. 2: Quantity and stress in Modern Icelandic) and then
provides a broader perspective by looking at quantitative developments in Faroese,
Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Gothic, German, English, Latin and Greek (Chap. 3:
Length and quantity in related languages). The remaining three chapters trace thc devel-
opment of quantity in the history of Icelandic (Chap. 4: The development in Icelandic),
take up the problem of explanation in diachronic linguistics with special refercnce to
the Icelandic situation (Chap. 5: Explaining the changes) and finally wind up by dealing
with the problem of interpreting durational phenomena in phonological theory, again
with special attention paid to the Icelandic casc (Chap. 6: Length and quanlity in phonol-
ogy). This lucidly written and highly readable monograph is a significant contribution
both to Germanic linguistics and to phonology at large. Although much of what follows
will be critical of Árnason’s specific solutions and interpretations, I want to stress at
the outset that the volume deserves to be taken seriously, not only by students of
Icelandic but also by those working in general linguistics. The intricacies of Icelandic
have turned it into a Ianguage of linguistic civilisation and familiarity with some of
its problems is bound to enhance the appreciation of similar problems in other langua-
ges. As for the critical nature of this review, I believe the reader is better served by
having the weak points of the monograph exposed and discussed rather than by seeing
it lavished in praises, which it otherwise deserves. The review consists of two parts:
in section 1 I will concentrate on the situation in Modern Icelandic and in section
~ I will comment on Árnason’s handling of historical developments and its general
diachronic implications.
!• The length rule in Modern Icelandic
The basic linguistic facts appear very simple: stressed syllables in the modcrn language
exhibit the same quantitv and are all long (or heavy). This syllabic quantity is due
to the distribution of segmental length which follows strict rules: with a long vowel,
the consonantal coda is short and, conversely, with a short vowel the coda is long