Íslenzk tunga - 01.01.1959, Page 44

42
PETER G. FOOTE
There is of course room for discussion about the evaluation of
some of these forms as Norwegianisms, but here it is only necessary
to point out the difficulty of reconciling Professor Seip’s idea of a
Norwegian original with what is known of the literary history of
the Jvs. text in 291 — quite apart from the hypotheses suggested
above. It will be noticed, for example, that there are not a few
examples of Norwegianisms in I (c) (hotvetna, e for ei, jt for pt,
Lindblad, Studier, 31, notes snch spellings and reckons on a progressive
mutation, apparently as an Icel. (dial.?) change. Seip, „Edda-diktning,“ 126,
says „en slik lydovergang er ukjent for islandsk," but one cannot dismiss the
possibility of a sporadic or dialect tendency until the material lias been fully
investigated. The evaluation of the use of y in 291 is difficult (cf. C. af Peter-
sens, XII—XIII): here, as in other texts, there is the possibility of confusion
due to the use of insular v and possibly lo the use of v for y in the exemplar,
as in other early texts; neither is it possible to explain the use of -y- for -í- after
h- in e.g. hinn pron. (9 exx„ 1 in -i-), hite (2 exx.), forms of vb. hitta (19 exx.),
cf. Noreen, 85—86, § 85, Anm.l. The examples of -iy- in stressed syllables
should, however, prohably be considered in connection with the same spelling
for -iu- in unstressed syllables before -m and -ng, cf. C. af Petersens, XIII,
which is not mentioned hy Seip. The following pretends to be a complete list:
þiliym, scipveriym, sjgkiym, Rikiym, viliy ver, flyiy ver, storvirkiym, beriymz,
miþiym (2), nauþsyniym, þriþiyl]- (4), 15 exx. in all. Tlie speliing -io- is used
before -m in similar positions in 27 exx., viz. 10 dat. forms of (ein-)hverr, 8
þyckiomz, 3 hyf.io(m), 3 vilio(m), beriomz, fylkiom (dat.pl.), krefiom; -iv- is
found in 3 exx., hvarvmtvecivm, heræyivm, sitiv ver. No other exx. of words in
-iung- are found. In all other instances of unstressed -io, final or before n, r
(46 exx. in all), the spelling is -io. Of the exx. of -io- before -m it is noteworthy
that 22 occur either after long g, k or in pron. hverr. The comparatively large
number of exx. of -iy- suggests that we have to reckon on a tendency to palatal
mutation hefore -m (after certain cons.?), though it is obviously unlikely that
the sound represented here by -y- was identical with that normally represented
hy y. The only parallel to such a change appears to he found in AM 645 4to
(ed. L. Larsson, lsldndska handskrijten n° 645 4° i den Arnamagnœanska
samlingen; Lund 1885), wliere before the -nn- of the suffixed article the normal
-io ending of the -iön stems is written -i0- 8 times, -ig- once, -io- twice; hefore
-n- of the article it is written -i0- once, -io- twice. There are 38 exx. of final -io
in words of the same class. Here a progressive mutation is reckoned on, see A.
Kock, „Zur behandlung des durch u entstandenen brechungsdiphthongs in den
altnord. sprachen," Beitrage zur Geschichte der deulschen Sprache und Litera-