Íslenzk tunga - 01.01.1961, Page 83

ICELANDIC DIALECTOLOGY: METHODS AND RESULTS
81
district. The final results are then presented in various statistical cal-
culations. The presentation also includes a careful examination of
the aberrant or suspicious cases, especially with a view to possible
connections—direct or indirect—with areas of differing pronuncia-
tion.
The method of statistical calculation, which is so characteristic of
this investigation, and, as was mentioned earlier (p. 76), of other re-
cent investigations as well, naturally leads to the attempt at 100 %
exhaustiveness in the selection of informants.27 We shall see that the
principle of statistical calculations, and the consequent attempt at
exhaustiveness, are not unnatural under the prevailing linguistic
conditions in Iceland. But in view of the fact that, e. g., Reykjavík,
the capital, has grown, within the last hundred years or so, mostly by
influx from other parts of the country, from a village of about 1000
inhabitants to a town of about 75000, it is clear that characteristics
of pronunciation here have not the same dialectological significance
as in the rural districts. The same applies to most of the other towns,
especially in the South-West. The examination of a smaller group of
informants might be expected to have given no less important results.
The choice of age group, too, is surprising. In traditional dialecto-
logy, children of ten to thirteen years of age are not considered the
most reliable informants; on the contrary, at this age, language may
be said to be still in the stage of final molding. Instead of, or in addi-
tion to, this age group, we should have wished an equally profound
study of the pronunciation of other age groups, especially old people
(above sixty). This would have provided a basis of comparison, and
would undoubtedly have led to conclusions of importance for
Hnguistic history.
Let me add, in order to emphasize the changes in the distribution
of population that have recently taken place, that at the beginning of
this century (in 1901) about 20 % of the population lived in towns
and villages of more than 300 inhabitants, and about 80 % in the
27 We also find this method in Einarsson, “Icelandic Dialect Studies_,”
although it is tliere less developed, the data being far less exhaustive.
ÍSLENZK TUNCA 6