Íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði - 13.07.1981, Page 42

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Ásgeir Bl. Magnússon
author contends that all these instances suffice to cast some doubt upon the tradi-
tional phonological explanation of the vowel iengthening before /+consonant.
In the second part of the article the author discusses a similar phonological
change (diphthongization or tenseness) before certain consonants + /. He cites
various examples, variants Iike dutla:dútla ‘fiddle around’, kitla:kítla ‘tickle’, stigl:
stígl ‘wedge, flap’, typplingur.týplingur ‘rough sea’, vigla:vígla ‘confuse’, skjaplast:
skjáplast ‘err’, skjppiasf.skjóplast ‘err’, göglu-, goglumœltur.góglumœltur ‘mum-
bling’. The first element of these last forms are most likely from *gpglu-<*gagu-
lön, *gagalön, cognate with OE géagl ‘jowl, jaw’.
The author also suggests that Modlcel. gófla ‘a (chewed) mouthful, mouth-
piece’ stems from *gpfla<.*gabulön, *gabalön, and that it corresponds to OE geaf-
las ‘jaws’. He thinks that Modlcel. hógla ‘heap’ derives from *hogla<*hugalön, cf.
haugur ‘mound’, hár ‘high’ and the island name Hugl. In a similar way hrógla, f.,
v. ‘heap’ most probably stems from *hrog!a<*hrugalön, cognate with hrúga
‘heap’, hryggur ‘ridge’ and hró, n. «*hrnha) ‘hill’.
The author admits that he has not found examples of this change before con-
sonant +1 from the period before the mid-sixteenth century; he also concedes that
his material consists of scattered examples, in conrast with the words in which
lengthening before / + consonant took place. This fact indicates that the change
met with phonological resistance and so became sporadic only. The author, how-
ever, is inclined to believe that in cases like góglumœltur, skjóplast and probably
gófla this change might be old, even from the Oldlcel. period. He does offer no
further explanation of this change, but leaves the problem to Icelandic phono-
logists.