Editiones Arnamagnæanæ. Series A - 01.06.2003, Blaðsíða 214
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INTRODUCTION
<y> is <y5>, sometimes dotted. <æ> is made like <œ>. The er/ir curl is
usually an unbroken arc but can also be made as two curves meeting at
a top point on the left. <f> with this curl represents ‘fyrir', also found
written ‘fyrir'. A superscript <2>-like figure is used as an unexpected
abbreviation for ar. The oÆ-nota is usually made with a firm tilde at
the top; the bar through the shaft goes at a slight angle up from left to
right. <z> differs from it in often having the top lateral elongated in a
hairstroke to the right; it is not always barred.
11. Hand 5: Orthography. Vowels and sonants. (i) <a> is usual for a
and á, but <aa> (rarely <æ» is found more often than <a> in prep. á and
occurs in other monosyllabic stems: ‘haar’ (subst.), ‘hlaatr’, ‘aar(-)’,
‘Raaþ(-)’, ‘haalse’, ‘andlaat’, ‘einkamaal’, dat. pl. adj. ‘fæm’; also in
‘aabóte’ and ‘baaronar’ (the latter with a long first vowel is not a form
recorded in dictionaries). The vá combination remains in numerous in-
stances of the words svá, poss. adj. várr, pron. hvárr, but ‘uoru’ is reg-
ular, ‘suo’ frequent, and we find e.g. ‘kuoduz’, ‘kuomo’, ‘huorki’,
‘huorer(-)’.
(ii) <e> is written for both e and é. Before ng the former often ap-
pears as <ei>, ‘Eingland(-)’ (and by analogy ‘einsker’), ‘eingin’,
Teingi’, ‘feingu’. <ie> for é occurs only once, in pl. pron. ‘uier'. In
final syllables <e> and <i> are written with equal frequency.
(iii) <i> is occasionally marked by an accent but only as a diacritic.
Prep. í is written as <j> or <J> and the same letter is used initially in
proper names and a few other words, ‘Jnn’, ‘Jnnan’, ‘Jungfru’,
‘Jolum’, ‘jafnan’. No <i> is written in ‘hlea’, inf. 69va30.
(iv) o and ó are written <o>, but ó is sometimes distinguished by a
firmly made small curl above it, otherwise sporadically used to mark
modified <o> (ö). This mark, reproduced here as a normal accent, is
common in prep. ór, pret. fór, prep. mót(i), but found also in e.g.
‘aabóte’, ‘tók’, ‘skógi’. In endings <o> is not uncommon, in a ratio to
<u> averaging about 1:4.
(v) <u> is generally preferred for both vowel and sonant. Initial <v>
and <w> are rare, the latter noted only in abbreviated pret. ‘war' and
pron. ‘wer\ Between r and a following vowel v is written <fu>,
‘gerfuer’ 69rb26. No distinction is made between short and long u, but
the letter is written double in ‘uut’ 70ra36, probably to eke out the line
of which this word is second from last. Note ‘huorirteggiu’ (sic) 70va6
beside ‘huaratueggiu’ 70vbl3-14. Both <u> and <o> appear as the priva-