Editiones Arnamagnæanæ. Series A - 01.10.2003, Blaðsíða 53

Linguistic and textual features
35*
41.84. OI y is always <y> except in ‘fir/r’ 41.92. The front mutation of á
(classical OI æ) may be <e> ‘metti’ 41.7 - ‘amelis’ 47.9 (x 20), or <æ>
‘næst’ 41.1 - ‘ætla’ 41.85 - ‘næst/r’ 45.14 (x 14), or <§> ‘m§tti’ 41.96
(sole). The front mutation of ó (classical OI œ) is most often <0> ‘f0rt’
41.32 - ‘b0ttv’ 46.20 (x 15); it is also written <e> ‘tekiz’ 45.21, ‘tilteki’
45.30, ‘bendr’ 45.75, ‘ferðv’ 46.20 (written with <*», ‘sekia’ 47.7, ‘reða’
47.10 (all), or <ð> ‘verkfðr’ 41.27 - ‘bðndr’ 45.3 (x 4; for ‘bðndvm’ 45.74
see above). The indistinct characters in *b[0]’ 41.8, ‘nor[0]n/r 41.12, ‘harð-
f[0]rliga’ 41.29 and ‘r[0]ddi’ 41.32 are filled in here in accordance with the
scribe’s majority usage. OI y, whether front mutation of ú, jú or labial
mutation of í, is always spelt <y>. The front mutation of the diphthong au is
<ey> except for the cases of ‘hæyþeRÍr’ 41.41, ‘hæyfi’ 41.42 (ct ‘hey’
elsewhere, as 41.62; cf similar occasional shifting in W Tæyna’ 19.30 -
‘hræyttu’ 42.72 (x 10)).
The labial mutation of a (OI q) may be spelt <æ> ‘Da/gvrðar’ 41.13 -
‘ika/s’ 45.6 - ‘la/gðv’ 47.9 (x 28) or <av> ‘ilavg’ 41.2, ‘stavfvðv’ 45.24,
‘lavg’ 46.3 (all) or <ð> ‘mðrgvw’ 41.6 - ‘hðfþv’ 47.6 (x 26) or <o> ‘solo’
41.19,‘ork’41.31 (all).
The labial mutation of e (OI 0) is written <e> ‘rero’ 45.23 or <0> ‘r0ro’
46.11 or <ð> ‘tóg’ 41.49. The case of ‘rero’ is not particularly significant
since the past pl. indic. of róa is often subject to analogy with the e of the
sing.7
The labial mutation of e from earlier a (OI 0) is variously <e> ‘glegliga’
41.70, ‘exar’ 45.9, 12 or <a/> ‘a/xi’ 45.17 or <0> ‘g0rt’ 47.4, and <ey> in
‘steykt’ 47.4 (supine of causative stQkkva < *stankwian).
It emerges that the reflexes of OI q and 0 usually do not overlap. The ex-
ceptions ‘a/xi’ 45.17 and ‘tðg’ 41.49, however, imply that these phonemes
had fallen together in the scribe’s language.
The fracture of e (OI ja) is as usual <ia>; its labial mutation (OI jg) may
be spelt <io> ‘fiolskrvðig’ 41.25 - ‘miok’ 47.2 (x 11) or <ia/> ‘ja/rp’ 41.44
(sole) or <ið> (probably) ‘glysgi[ör]n’ 41.17 (sole).
The ‘archigrapheme’ <o> is used for q (as well as for o and ó), but not for
0; the archigrapheme <e> is used for 0 (as well as for œ, æ, e, and e), but not
for q. Graphs used for æ are frequent for classical OI œ, but inverse
spellings, e g of <ö> for æ do not occur. q is represented by <av>, <a/>, but
inverse spellings (e g <ð> for au) do not occur.
The reflexes of OI æ and œ are usually kept apart, but the six exceptions
mentioned above indicate that these phonemes had fallen together in the
7 See Noreen 1923, § 77.3.