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SUMMARY
The prehistory and the development of word forms like hagi, segja and lœgja in
Icelandic’
Keywords: Icelandic and Nordic diachronic linguistics, phonetics, phonology, metrics,
dialectology
This article deals with the prehistory and the development of word forms like hagi,
segja and lœgja in Icelandic. The main emphasis lies on the development of the Old
Icelandic fricative g in the position afler a vowel and before a front vowel or j, and on
the dialectal opposition of diphthongal and monophthongal pronunciation before g +
l’l e- in forms like hagi, bogi etc. Most scholars who have touched upon the subject
are of the opinion that in this position Old Icelandic g was a velar fricative, [y], until
11 changed into a palatal fricative in the 14th and 15th centuries; further, that this
change caused preceding short vowels to diphthongize (or tum into the corresponding
I°ng vowels). This article reaches different conclusions.
Since Proto-Nordic times, g was a palatal fricative, [j], in the position after a
vowel and before a front vowel or j. In Old Icelandic this sound had phonemic status
as demonstrated by oppositions like leigia : leiga and vígia : víga (in the forms leigia
and vígia <gi> stands for [[]). Later [j] changed into the semivowel [j]. This change
started about 1200, and it spread most rapidly in forms where [j] stood between a long
vowel (or a diphthong) and a back vowel, i.e. in forms like l(’gia, jleygia etc. Before
the change, [j] participated in various stem allomorphies together with [y] and [x], the
ahophones of /y/, cf. e.g. Olcel. sege Q], sagðe [y], sagt [x]. Afler the change, [j] had
replaced [j] in such stem allomorphies, which led to the phonemic reinterpretation of
J as a palatal fricative. At the time of the quantity shift, which mainly took place in
the 16th century and by which Icelandic lost distinctive vowel length, the first syllable
°f forms like hagi had to be lengthened. This could be done in two ways: either by