Íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði - 01.01.2003, Side 109

A Note on nokkurr
107
(3) a. the exemplar had nakkvat
b. the scribe’s own language had nokkut
c. during the copying process the scribe switched gradually from
copying character by character to replacing outdated forms by
current ones (either his own, or the current Norwegian practice)12
main difficulty with this set of assumptions is the rather short peri-
°d between the writing of the exemplar and AM 519 a 4° itself. Jón
Helgason in his introduction to the facsimile edition of Alexanders
Saga concludes from his comparison of the existing manuscripts of
Alexanders saga, that there must have been at least one lost interme-
diary between 519 a 4° and the translator’s manuscript. The dating of
the translation hinges on the correctness of the attribution of this trans-
lation to bishop Brandr Jónsson in the manuscripts AM 226 and Holm.
^erg. 4° 24. When indeed Brandr was the translator, then in all likeli-
hood the translation was made in the years 1262-1263. The manu-
Script AM 519 a 4° is dated according to the Register to ONP to 1280.
This means there is only a rather short time left between any copy of
!he original translation and AM 519 a 4°. Perhaps a detailed study of
the orthography of AM 519 a will shed more light on the attitude of
^he scribe with regard to his exemplar. At the moment I can only state
that the manuscript is far from homogenous in its orthography, with
tttarked differences between the middle part and beginning and end.
REFERENCES
t^andle, Oskar. 1956. Die Sprache der Guðbrandsbiblía. Orthographie und Laute.
Forrnen. Bibliotheca Amamagnæana 17. Munksgaard, Copenhagen.
'nnur Jónsson (ed.). 1925. Alexanders saga. Gyldendalske Boghandel, Copenhagen.
reinn Benediktsson. 1961-1962. Óákv. fom. nokkur, nokkuð, Lingua Islandica -
Islenzk tunga 3:7-38. [A considerably revised and extended version is published
as “The Modem Icelandic Indefinite Pronouns nokkur, nokkuð" in Hreinn
Benediktsson 2002: Linguistic Studies, Historical and Comparative, pp.
470-519. Editors Guðrún Þórhallsdóttir, Höskuldur Þráinsson, Jón G.
Friðjónsson and Kjartan Ottosson. Institute of Linguistics, Reykjavík.]
12
Although no one has disputed that this manuscript was written by an Icelander,
1 shows marked Norwegian influence; see Jón Helgason (ed.) 1966:xi § 4.