Íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði - 01.01.2007, Side 67

Eigin(n) 65
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SUMMARY
Eigin(n) — the wayward adjective’
Keywords: historical morphology, language change, declension, analogy, adjectives,
pronouns, anaphoric reference
The adjective eiginfn) ‘own’ has a unique declension in Modem Icelandic (see Table
T). The paradigm consists of two forms only, eigin (or the homophone eiginn) and
nom.acc.neut.sg. eigið.
The word is rare in Old Icelandic texts, but its declension was apparently identical
W|th the declension of adjectives ending in -inn (see Table 2). A couple of likely
examples of undeclined eigin occur already in the 14th century. Subsequently eigin,
originally confined to a small section of the paradigm, was almost generalized. This
Was mainly a 16th century development. The declension of eigin(n) has thus broken
down in Icelandic, a notoriously conservative language. In the less conservative
faroese, Norwegian, Swedish and Danish the declension, as well as a semantically
ntore extensive use, has been better preserved.
An attempt is made to explain this curious fact. A small group of adjectives, the so
called „indeclinable adjectives", perhaps served as a model. But several other factors
may have influenced the development in various ways and to a varying degree:
ú) The adjective eigin(n) could in many instances be taken for the fírst part of
several compound words, e.g. eiginmaður, eiginkona, ‘husband’, ‘wife’.