Orð og tunga - 01.06.2009, Blaðsíða 152

142
Orð og tunga
Key words
place names, declension, compounds, word history
Abstract
In the first part of „Klambrar saga" (Orð og tunga 10:61-93) the morphological devel-
opment of the common noun klömbur (fem.) 'tightness; narrowness' was described.
In this second part the emphasis is on the place name.
Three farms in Iceland have the name Klömbur in sources from the fourteenth
century onwards, one in the South of Iceland, now totally destroyed by inundation,
and two in the North, one of which is now abandoned. All three were located in some
kind of narrowness in the landscape.
The place name Klömbur had the same declension as the common noun until
about 1800. Then it was replaced in the South by Klambra (fem.), but in the North
Klömbur has frequently been treated as a plural form, dat. Klömbrwn, gen. Klnmbra.
During the last two centuries the declension has been quite uncertain and confused.
A small farm with the name Klömbur was established in Reykjavík in 1925, but lasted
only for a few decades. Its name was transplanted from the North and almost from
the beginning declined as a plural noun, either as Klömbur (fem. plur.) or, more fre-
quently, as Klambrar (masc. plur.). This development is in accordance with a well-
known tendency elsewhere, cf. the names Eiöar, Gásar, Laugar, etc.
Finally, a mention is made of the place names Klembrur and Klömbrur in the neigh-
bourhood of Innri-Hólmur at Akranes as well as some compound place names having
klambra(r)- or klömbru- as its first member.
Baldur Jónsson
Tómasarlmga 22
107 Reykjavík
baldur@hi.is