Editiones Arnamagnæanæ. Series A - 01.06.2003, Page 176
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INTRODUCTION
13. x is written <x> in ‘vox’ 2/12, but <xs> before t + vowel in dat.
‘vexste’ 3/13.
14. <z> is written finally after dd, Id, nd, ll, nn and t: ‘Þoroddz’,
‘Þorualldz’, ‘landz’, ‘Hallz’, ‘allz’, ‘man(n)z’, ‘Fliotz’. Medially in
‘beidzlu’, ‘bledzaða’ (but also ‘blezaða’), ‘Giszurar’. The middle
voice ending is <zst>: ‘fanzst’, ‘wndrandizst’. The only superlative
forms are ‘fyrst(r)’, ‘npsta’.
15. <þ> is written initially and in compounds such as ‘alþyðu’ rb49.
16. Abbreviation marks are conventional but the superscript curl,
which begins as a firmly made flourish and ends as a hairstroke to the
right, is used for r and eir as well as for er and ir; e.g. generally in ‘er’,
conj. and verb, and in ‘huilickr’ 3/2 (rb29), ‘þe/r’ (at a line-end),
‘Msge/rss’. It also occurs for r/, ‘kr/stni’, ‘kr/ngdr’. The same curl is
used above <t> in abbreviated ‘t//’ (as commonly in charter hands of
the period). <*> is written for ur in ‘Sigludar’ 2/3, ‘foð: leifð’ 2/26. In
the ‘æ1’ abbreviation for eigi the superscript mark is made as a narrow
loop. Prep. forms are spelt out as ‘widr’ and ‘medr’; the latter is also
abbreviated as <m> with a tailed <3>-like figure clinging to the third
minim.
17. A point on or a little above the line (one-third to half letter-
height) is frequently but not consistently used as a sentence, clause or
phrase marker. A point marks the end of the Prologue 1/31 but the
chapter-end 2/27 and the sentence-end in 3/15 are marked by //. Where
a sentence-end is marked, the next sentence sometimes but by no
means always begins with a capital or small capital letter.
IV. Jóns saga Hand A: Notes on forms.
1. With a couple of exceptions family relationship nouns have expect-
ed forms (including nom. ‘son’). Dat. ‘mædr’ is reckoned to be rather
rare,9 while acc. sg. ‘fauðr’, ‘-foðr’ may be variously explained: final
<!> may be taken to stand for ur (cf. III 16 above); the form or the
spelling may be influenced by the dat. sg.; the form may be represen-
tative of a monosyllabic/ödr.10
9 Noreen, § 421, Anm. 1.
10 Stefán Karlsson, íslenzk tunga 5 (1964), 26, n. 19; cf. Noreen, § 420, Anm. 2. Ólaf-
ur Halldórsson, EIM XX, 15, finds the regular monosyllabic spelling of r-stem nouns-
in AM 62 fol. (including acc. sg. ‘fpdr’) an indication that “the scribe was not comple-
tely assured in distinguishing final -r and -ur.”