Íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði - 01.01.2008, Page 132

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Alexander Andrason
(10)a. Ég er búinn að koma. > É15 búna koma.16
I am(lsg.) finished(m.sg.) ‘I have come.’ to come(inf.) I BÚNA come
b. Þú ert búinn að koma. > Þú búna koma.
you are(2sg.) fmished(m.sg.) ‘You have come.’ to come(inf.) you BÚNA come
c. Við erum búnir að koma. > Vi búna koma.
we are(lpf) fmished(m.pL) ‘We have come.’ to come(inf.) we BÚNA come
d. Þeir eru búnir að koma. > Þei búna koma.
they(3pl.m.) are(3pl.) finished(m.pl.) to come(inf.) they BÚNA come
‘They have come.’
Although the sequence Ég er búinn að koma may be reduced collo-
quially to É búna koma in SI, the omission of the verb ‘be’ does not
occur in the remaining instances in (10). Moreover, the auxiliary vera
cannot be omitted at all in the past tense in SI whereas it is common-
ly lost in PI as illustrated in (11):
(11 )a. Ég var búinn að koma. >
I was(lsg.) fmished(m.sg.) to come(inf.)
‘I had come.’
b. Þú varst búinn að koma. >
you were(2sg.) ftnished(m.sg.) to come(inf.)
‘You had come.’
15 The actual pronunciation of the speakers of P1 is reflected to some extent in the
spelling used here whereas the SI examples are given in standard spelling. Thus the
spelling é for ‘I’ in PI reflects the fact that the final velar fricative is not pronounced and
the spelling vi' the fact that the dental fricative is omitted in PI. While the standard spelling
does not reflect colloquial pronunciation of SI, which is often just é and vi' as in PI, it *s
always possible to use a more precise pronunciation in SI and retain the fricatives. This
occurs extremely seldom, if ever, in PI. In the database used here, the final consonant is
deleted in all instances where the pronouns ég and viö precede a verb or búna, whereas
this would not be necessary in SI. The different spelling conventions used here are meant
to reflect this difference between SI and PI. In general, however, no attempt is made to
imitate irrelevant phonetic characteristics of PI in the spelling used here.
16 The examples come form the database collected by the author during his teach-
ing experience at three companies in Reykjavík (Toppfiskur, Eykt and Grandi) in 2006.
É búna koma.
I BÚNA come
Þú búna koma.
you BÚNA come