Orð og tunga - 01.06.2010, Síða 117

Margrét jónsdóttir: Beyging orða með viðskeytunum -ing og -ung 107
til hins gjörvalla. Reykjavík. Heimspekilegt kvæði.
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Reykjavík. Strindbergsútgáfan.
Lykilorð
söguleg málvísindi, beygingarfræði, orðmyndun, áhrifsbreytingar
Keywords
historical morphology, declension, word formation, analogy
Abstract
The declension of derived nouns with suffixes -ing and -ung. Historical development.
In this paper, some problems in the history of noun declension will be addressed,
i.e. the evolution of feminine nouns formed with -ing and -ung, and the attempt is
made to elucidate some of its features.
The main results of this inquiry are as follows. In Medieval Icelandic, words
formed with the affix -ing normally had no ending in the accusative, but the end-
ing -u in the dative case. However, from that period we have examples accusatives
ending in -u. This indicates that already in that period, the declension in -ing had be-
gun to follow the analogy of the great majority of feminine nouns, where dative and
accusative had the same form. Later, this declension became the regular one, albeit
with one exception. But until recent times, we have examples of the ancient declen-
sion of feminines in -ing. It is to be noted, however, that the most recent examples are
confined to formal or ritualized language use.
In the literature, there is no consensus on the idiosyncracies of feminines in -ing
and -ung in the medieval language. In the 16th century, however, a difference as-
serts itself clearly in such a way that the words in -ung have no ending in the dative-
accusative, as evidenced by the majority of sources since that period. In the contem-
porary language, there are indications that the distinction may be obsolescent, that
words with the suffixes -ing and -ung might be adopting one and the same declen-
sion. The tendency isn't new, as evidenced by written sources.