Íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði - 01.01.2010, Qupperneq 87

85
Rýnt í sögu fomafnsins hvorgi, hvorugur
other variants made their appearance, -g- and -ki-: *hvors-h -*• hvor(s)kis (at an early stage),
hvorn-gi -> hvor(n)gan (in the I3th century). The introduction of -g- and -h- was more or
less phonetically regular. Those variants did not spread to other parts of the paradigm like
'*&~i but survived for some time. Forms having those variants often had two inflectional
endings.
The contracted forms of the -ig-/-ug- adjectives started to disappear around 1300. The
two declensions, that of the pronoun and that of the -ig- adjectives, became more similar
than before (hvorigir, cf. auðigir). Subsequently, some changes occured in the declension
°f hvorgi, leading to a still greater resemblance to the -ig- adjectives (and the -ug- adjectives).
Of those younger changes the oldest seems to be hvor(n)gan -> hvorigan, dated to the
ntiddle of the i5th century. Other changes apparently took place in the lóth century,
hvor(s)kis (hvorgis) -> hvorugs (hvorigs), hvorgi -> hvorugur (hvorigur), hvorh -> hvorugt (hvorigt).
^ major i6th-century change in the declension of adjectives was that -ig- was superseded
by ~ug-. At that time the same development took place in the declension of hvorgi.
There was a tendency toward an increased similarity between the declension of hvorgi
a‘td the adjectives. One i6th-century change took another direction. This was hvorh ->
hvorhrt/hvorkert. The model for this curious change was probably the pronominal form
ekhrt/ekkert ‘nothing’.
Two old forms, nom.masc.sg. hvorgi and nom./acc.neut.sg. hvorh, survived into the
^th century. They were characterized by a clitic next to the root and a lack of inflectional
ending. These forms were by far the most common in the declension. Frequency is in all
Ptobability the explanation for their longevity.
The chronology of various changes in the development of hvorgi, hvorugur is summa
ttzed in fig. 1.
The development of the pronoun hvorgi, hvorugur is characterized by two major changes.
Ooe was the reordering of morphemes. The other was the adoption of -ig- (later -ug-) in
the declension. Both changes started early, probably already in the I2th century. Both were
active for about the same period, until shortly after 1600. There was an interplay between
those major changes, but they were still partly independent of each other. Some forms, e.g.
hvor(s)kis and hvorhrt, only belong to the first of those changes.
Despite the scarcity of examples three indications of dialectal differences have been
found: longevity of hvomugan (masc.acc.sg.) in the East, longevity of hvorh (neut.nom./
acc;sg.) in the Westfjords, and finally the emergence of hvorhrt/hvorkert around
Eyjafjörður in the North.
Kutrín Axelsdóttir
hlensht- og menningardeild
Hdskóla íslands
ýjo-Garði við S&mundargötu
IS-101 Reykjavík
katax@hi.is