Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1979, Síða 128
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original, but is explicable also if the MS. was written at the time when the
merger was taking place.
Old long o is written a: uapn lrll, uapnum lr29, which indicates the
merger of 6 and d. Nott is consistently spelt with an o reflecting the earlier
merger of the nasal vowel p witlro.
e is once written ar. uæra lr34, possibly under the influence of the
Norwegian scribal convention which used æ for e and sometimes also for e
especially between v and r in which position e had perhaps been lowered.
The diphthong ei is normally written in this way: heijrenn lvl8, ueijre
lv29 etc., but it may also be represented by e: uejsi 2r23, mikillec lv37.
The diphthong ey is so written in hey[r]j)i 2r3, leynilega 2v8 etc.,
but appears as æ in nædder lr6.
The diphthong au is spelt either as a ligature or with the graph sequence
au: sacla/sum lr9, saclausuw lr 10.
The ratio of o to u in unstressed position is about 3:4, and of e and i,
about 4:1. æ stands for the unaccented e in three words: suara|ræ 2rl0,
uer})ær 1 r 16, gla&ær lr29.
For vocalic u, u is written in all but four of its more than 170 occurrences:
spvrjDu lr31, hvg]}e lv35, vr lr28, tavcum 2rl4. For consonantal u, u is
about three times as frequent as v. The cluster labial +1 is written pt rarely,
as epter lr31, lv34. But elsewhere it appears as ft: efter lvlO, 2r9, craftr
2r21, oft lvl9 etc. p is written for /in ep lrl3, lr31, and na/pn lr33.
The distribution of c and k gives no indication of the working of the
palatal rule. Both c and k are used before back vowels, front vowels, and
consonants: ceppaz 2v2, kirkio lr39, comet 2r21, kunnu lr8—9, cristenra
2r5, kristeNa 2r 14. In the cluster s + palatal, k occurs only in skirN 2r7, skirn
2r27 (but cf. scirn 2r5, 2r 14 etc.), elsewhere sc is used before back vowels
and front vowels: scyllde lv35, sciljte 2v5, scur^gojja lv26, scapajser 2r4.
Geminate k appears as ck (Jracker 2v6, ecke 1 r 12), c c (flocc lv7, noccorum
lv35) and k (gek lvl3). In the two occurrences before consonantal w, q is
used: in one of these cases the geminate form is indicated by the spelling cq:
cyqu[ende] lv40, necquers 1 vi 1.
In initial position only p is used. In medial and final position p and d
alternate freely in a proportion of about three occurrences of /> to one of d.
The use of/ in abbreviated forms accounts partly for this predominance.
The cluster tp occurs once: t>atj3an 1 v 13. The geminate form is once spelt
pd (me))dez lv33), but usually dd (e.g. nædder lr6) or d (e.g. medoz lv33).