Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1970, Page 333

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per cent of them overall. In AM 564a, Hånds I and 2 show about 60 per cent
of d spellings, Hånd 3 about 15 per cent.
2.2. Use of vo for vd.
On f.l, the later form vo is used consistently, as also in the “progressive”
passages of the Gisla saga fragment; va appears once in a “conservative”
passage (pua, 5raI3) and once just before the beginning of one of them
(kvanar, 4va6). In Hånds 1 and 2 of AM 564a, vo is usual, but Hånd 1 has
three spellings with va (Elivaga, twice in a verse at 4rb40, S ua, lrbl, be-
ginning a column and chapter; also the traditional spelling sa for svå, at
a line-ending, 4vbl2); and Hånd 2 has one (uapn, 6rbl6). Hånd 3 shows
5 va spellings (e.g. s ua, 7val8), against only 3 with vo (e.g. s uo, 7va42).
2.3. vær for vir.
The spelling vær for vér, which results from a limited sound-change,8
is used consistently, except for the sporadic appearance of the -erj-ær
abbreviation (so «*). vær is also consistently used in Hånds 1 and 2 of AM
564a; Hånd 3 shows the word only once (7rb41), where the abbreviation
is used.
2.4. Parasite u before -r.
Interlinear 2 (“r-rotunda”), which implies -ur, but already occurs for
original -r in many 14th century Mss.,9 appears to indicate parasite u before
-r 4 times on f.l and 11 times in the remaining four leaves of AM 445c,I.
In AM 564a, it appears 19 times in Hånd 1 (e.g. skollott1, 2v41), 9 times in
Hånd 2 (e.g. kemi1, 5rbl), once in Hånd 3 (åndig1, 7ra26).
AM 445c,I shows 8 reverse spellings without an original u, in brodr
(lva38, 2ra24, 3vb20,41, 5va29), modr (4vb39), systr (lvb37, 3vbl6), and
one in (no)ckr (4ra41). In AM 564a, Hånd 1 shows fodr or fodr 4 times
(lral3,39, 4ral0,17, the last two at line-endings); Hånd 2 has dottr (5rb21,
6vbl), nåckr (6vbl4), fodr (6vb30); Hånd 3 has no spellings of this type.10
8 Bjorn K. IPorolfsson, op. cit., Inngangur, p. xv; also Sugos of Icelandic Bishops
(Early Icelandic Manuscripts in Facsimile, Vol. 7), ed. Stefan Karlsson, Copen-
hagen, 1967, Introduction, pp. 33, 50. Bjorn thinks the sound-change is probably
14th century, but Stefån remarks (p. 50, 3b4 and footnote 11) that it occurs already
in some Icelandic Mss. from the seeond half of the 13th century, and the Ms. he is
considering there (AM 221, fol.) dates from about 1300. It also seems possible
that it is a regional change, largely eonfined to the Western Quarter and the
Western half of the Northern Quarter (p. 33), including SkagafjarOarsysla, where
Hoskuldur Håkonarson was a priest.
9 Bjorn K. S>6r61fsson, op. cit., Inngangur, p. xxiv thinks the sound-change
itself took place in the 13th century.
10 See Stefån Karlsson: “Gomul hljoddvol i ungum rimum”, fslenzk Tunga,
Vol. 5, Reykjavik, 1964, p. 26, footnote 19, where he cites three Mss. from the
middle or the latter half of the 14th century in which nouns of the “family” class
show reverse spellings without u, but in which there is no other evidence of the
parasite vowel.