Editiones Arnamagnæanæ. Series A - 01.10.2003, Blaðsíða 75

Linguistic and textual features
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certain words ‘læyna’ 19.30 - ‘husfræyia’ 31.30 - ‘o kæypiss’ 45.37 (x
12), but <ey) forms too occur for most of these words; <au> appears for
traditional ey in ‘Aurbygg-’ 36.58, 38.29, 50.41, and ‘kaupti’ 44.6.
The diphthong ei is <æi) in ‘ræið’ 28.4; this spelling is reflected also in
the representation of eigi, which may appear as ‘ei’ 24.13 - 49.10 (x 29),
‘æi’ 29.50, 32.37, 38.91 (all), or ‘æigi’ (written ‘æ1’) 19.29 - 50.30 (x 132).
The verb eiga appears as ‘æiga’ 32.73, 44.52 (all).
It is a not infrequent practice of this scribe, to express já by <ea> or <æa>
‘aseá’ 28.36, ‘bearins’ 32.98, ‘bearinns’ 32.99, ‘bæainn’ 19.5 (perhaps a
slip of the pen, c/‘bæinn’ 19.10), ‘forseall’ 28.6, ‘hea’ 31.54, Tea’ 28.11,
sjá (demonstrative, noun and verb) ‘sea’ 21.5 - ‘sæa’ 34.127 - ‘sea’ 48.85
(x 23), ‘sealf-’ 25.6 - ‘sealfr’ 50.32 (x 17). All such words are, however,
overwhelmingly written with <ia). jó is <eo> in ‘seonlaus’ 48.43 (sole),
otherwise it is <io> as expected.
Specific combinations The change from vá to vó is frequently evident in
forms of svá ‘suo’ 21.10 - 50.36 (x ca 150), ct ‘sua’ 19.38 - 46.21 (x 20);
‘sua’ occurs only once after 38.13. svá may be abbreviated either ‘sa’ or
‘s0’. Elsewhere the <ua> spelling was retained by the scribe.
Vowels in unstressed syllables The front vowel in a final syllable is
always <i>; the back round vowel occurs rarely as <o>, usually when
following an <o> in the previous syllable ‘foro’ 41.119 (sole), ‘komo’ 42.6
(sole), ‘kono’ 47.78 (sole), but also ‘skn/o’ 28.25 - 49.41 (x 8), ‘skn/om’
36.37, 45.72 (all), ‘skn/ot’ 32.99, 40.51 (all); otherwise such words have
<u>. ‘uoro’ does not occur; ‘o’ has been used in expansions of words like
‘komo’, ‘kono’, ‘skulo’. Medially <u> is frequently used, as ‘kolluðu’ 30.7,
Taugu nautr’ 32.107, ct ‘forostu' 27.26, ‘fðronautr’ 45.89. ‘þa/móg’ occurs
41.88 and ‘sogurt’ (from svá ggrt) 47.64; ‘dyrynum’ 26.82 is probably a
slip of the pen.
Non-final unstressed i is absent in ‘hey<i)t’ 32.122, ‘hey<i>nu’ 32.134 (ct
'heyit’ 41.65, ‘heyinu’ 41.56, 67); these might be scribal slips, but the
double occurrence in the same base word suggests some significance.
The ending -ja is occasionally written <ea> or <æa> ‘sækea’ 40.14,
‘uilea’ 38.29, 44.27, ‘uilæa’ 34.145 (all)
Consonants As a rule <þ) is used initially and <ð) non-initially, but, as in
other older manuscripts, <þ> is not uncommon medially. The occurrences
are ‘suiu/rþ/ng’ 26.6 - ‘hofþ/«gi’ 32.53 - ‘Heiþaruigs’ 50.7 (x 48). The
first letter of the second half of a name in -þórr may have any of three
forms: (d), <ð), <þ> ‘Halldorr’ 50.21, ‘Halldoru’ 50.19 (all); ‘*Bergðorr’
(MS ‘Brergðorr’) 38.80 - ‘Bergðori’ 38.83 - ‘Steinðors’ 43.2 (x 5);
‘Steinþor’ 25.56 - ‘Bergþorr’ 38.9 - ‘Steinþors’ 50.18 (x 27). In the