Studia Islandica - 01.06.1960, Page 22

SUMMARY
The writer has examined some features of the orthography of
the manuscripts of Þjóösögur Jóns Ámasonar I—V (Reykjavík,
1954—58), which he edited together with Bjarni Vilhjálmsson.
This edition embodies a faithful reproduction of the inflexions and
word-forms employed by the various scribes, many of whom were
unschooled country people from all over Iceland. Any informat-
ion on the speech of the scribes indicated by their orthography
beyond what the printed text shows is presented in notes and com-
ments at the end of each volume. Most of the MSS date from the
years 1860—1870. In addition to the points under discussion, there
are many peculiarities in these MSS, both of accidence and phono-
logy, that are worthy of research. In this paper it is pointed out
in which MSS divergences from the usual orthography occur, and
the district from which each scribe originated is indicated the first
time he is mentioned.
Confusion between initial fricative hv and plosive kv (e.g. Jcvar
for “hvar”, hvöld for “kvöld”) occurs in MSS from the North and
the North-East (i.e. from Dalasýsla to Múlasýsla), which is a some-
what smaller area than the one in which fcn-pronunciation now
prevails. There is evidence of this pronunciation from the 18th
century onwards.
There are a few examples of spelling which indicate a confusion
between unaspirated (voiceless) b, d, g, and aspirated p, t, k, re-
spectively when these consonants occur after vowels medially or
finally. Most of these examples are found in manuscripts origin-
ating in districts where the unaspirated plosives are prevalent to-
day. Some might be spelling mistakes. The spellings skucksint and
snökksinnis might be evidence of the guttural plosive gg being
preaspirated where it was not to be expected. Examples of this pro-
nunciation have been known in Eskifjörður (in the East of Ice-
land) down to the present day. In a manuscript from the South,
the form optnaöist occurs instead of “opnaðist”, and a scribe from
Strandasýsla writes sopnaöi for “sofnaði”.
The writer has found many examples of a confusion between g
and fc on the one hand and gj and kj on the other, before a final