Íslenzk tunga - 01.01.1963, Blaðsíða 126

124
HREINN BENEDIKTSSON
straight type occurring only after Z (mainly in forms of the word
old), i. e. after / only, the two types are interchangeable.
4) In the shape of the letter y. On p. 50, with 12 ex., we find “only
the later type of y with the right-hand stroke curving to the left” at
the top.10 On p. 51, on the other hand, 7 out of 13 ex. “are of the
older type with the right-hand stroke showing a strong hook to the
right.”11
It is, indeed, true that a division into two sections on the basis of
the four differences enumerated, broadly speaking, holds for the six
pages examined by Blaisdell. But if we examine the rest of section II,
we find an entirely different situation. It appears from the list of fea-
tures above that the most reliable, because the most consistent, cri-
terion is the shape of the letter g. Therefore, special attention is due
to this feature.
Pp. 61 and 62, taken as an example, are written with the black ink
of section II, but they have regularly g of type I (47 ex.), with only
one example of g II (aldrege 62:1). Likewise, of the 106 ex. of þ,
the great majority is of type I (with straight vertical stroke). There
is no clear example of þ II, and only a very few questionable exam-
ples. The remaining two criteria, on the other hand, sliow the charac-
teristics of section II, though the agreement is not very close. The
distribution of straight and rounded d is the same as on p. 51 (the
two types being interchangeable after l only), with three exceptions
(straight d in standa 61:1 and kyndel 62:2 14). There are two exam-
ples of the older type of y (with the right-hand stroke curving to the
right; y/er 61:3, kyndel 62:10), but this type is proportionately
much less frequent than on p. 51 (only 2 out of 18 ex., against 7 out
of 13 on p. 51).
On p. 58 we still find a different situation, especially as regards
1,1 lbid., p. 305.
11 Ibid. — About the successive forms of y, see Spehr, Der ursprung, pp. 50
—56.