Íslenzk tunga - 01.01.1963, Page 108

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GUSTAF LINDBLAD
Lately, two Norwegian scholars, A. Moltsmark and D. A. Seip (see references
in footnotes 2 and 3), have asserted that this useful distinction of quantity is
not maintained consistently in a single extant manuscript, and Holtsmark seems
to be of the opinion that such consistent distinction was not aimed at either by
the scribes of the epoch or by the anonymous author of the FGT: The author of
the FGT — following the practice of certain Latin grammarians in the use of
the apex — intended vowel length to he marked only in those cases where mis-
understandings might otherwise arise, i. e. where the omission of the acute would
lead to graphic confusion of distinct words (e. g. in jár ‘misfortune’ vs. jar
‘ship’). Seip apparently does not assume any connection between the FGT and
the frequent use of the acute mark to denote vowel length in Icelandic spelling;
this agrees with his general evaluation of the FGT as a work of little importance.
These divergent opinions have prompted me to make a renewed and closer
examination of the problem.
The result of this examination, for Old Icelandic, is that in the Annales
rcgii (MS no. 2087 4:o in the Old Royal Collection in the Royal Lihrary, Copen-
hagen = AnR), vowel length, in diphthongs (au, ei, ey) as well as in simple
vowels, is marked by the acute, with almost complete regularity. This is true
for the Icelandic parts of this MS where space permitted the insertion of the
acute. In the Latin parts, on the other hand, the acute occurs almost exclusi-
vely over an i next to an m, n, or u, i. e. in a sequence of letters otherwise diffi-
cult to identify. This manner of writing is found in the Icelandic parts as well.
The same use of the acute is found in the fragments, daling from ahout 1225,
of the oldest version oj the Saga oj Saint Olaj (MS no. 52 in the State Archives,
Oslo = OHfr), but with slightly less consistency: long vowels have the acute in
80% of their occurrences. High frequency of the acute for vowel length is
characteristic also of the large and important lcelandic Book oj llomilies (Perg.
4:o no. 15 in the Royal Library, Stockholm = StH) from about 1200. This is
true for six of the seven scribes of this codex. One hus marked long vowels and
diphthongs by the acute in 71 and 73% of theiroccurrences respectively, another
in 70% for bolh groups etc. According to iny calculation on the lmsis of exam-
ples taken at random, the average figures for the whole codex are 63% for the
simple long vowels and 59% for the diphthongs. In StH, as well as in OHfr, the
frequency of the acute in any other position is extremely low — below 1% of its
total occurrences.
There can be no doubt thal the methodical annalist who composed AnR con-
sciously aimed at distinguishing long and short vowels in writing. This remains
obvious even if it is true thal in some cases — or in about 10% of its occur-
rences in this MS — the acute mark is used in a different function, which at
tliis time was common in the different West-European orthographies with the
exception of Icelandic, viz. as a purely graphic sign over the letler i.