Editiones Arnamagnæanæ. Series A - 01.10.2003, Blaðsíða 99

Linguistic and textual features
81*
and that for ‘us’ (9) ‘hvs’ 4.22. The familiar superscript bar (‘nasal stroke’)
indicates omission of following (m) ‘hlidueggiunvm’ 4.23 or (n) ‘fann’
4.8, occasionally ‘vn’ ‘vcrmvndr’ 17.235. This bar may start with a curl
from above at the left.
Abbreviated words Many common words are abbreviated by the con-
traction bar referred to above, as ‘þess’ 5.4, ‘þv/at’ 17.96, ‘mdnnvm’ 4.36
and are not further noted. (In ‘mdmívm’ the bar tends to be over the last
letter only.) Other abbreviations (one example of each): ‘e1’: 'eigi' 4.13,
‘f3’: ‘fara' 4.2, ‘h’: ‘hann' 4.34, ‘hs’: ‘hö/ts’ 4.38, ‘ma’: ‘manna' 6.10,
‘m1’: ‘manni' 17.14, ‘mn’: ‘mann-’ 5.5, ‘m1’: ‘madr’ 7.4, ‘m’: ‘menn’ 4.30,
‘mz’ (the second element, which has a ‘3’ shape, is quite different from
Hand i’s ‘z’): ‘med’ 4.6, ‘þ1’: ‘þvi’ 17.19, ‘þ’: ‘þat’ 5.10 (occurs in full
17.28, 37), ‘þm’: ‘þe/m’ 5.10, ‘æ1’: ‘æigi' 4.32, ‘æ^’: ‘ær’ 4.25.
2. ORTHOGRAPHY
Vowels 01 e is sometimes written (æ): ‘ædr’ 17.138 (sole), ‘ær’ 25.17
(Fragment), ‘ærv’ 25.42 (these are all the unabbreviated cases), with the
addition of cases when an abbreviation or suspension is involved ‘æ(dr)’
4.2 - ‘ær’ 4.25 - ‘æn’ 17.201 - ‘æ(dr)’ 26.21 (x 48). ((æ> for e is sup-
posedly due to Norwegian influence.) i is often (j) in initial position or
after a break or next to a minim ‘j’ 4.9 - ‘jnnan’ 4.23 - ‘Þorarjnn’ 17.69. o
is once written (ö>: ‘gödvnvm’ 4.30. u is written both (u> (x ca 190) and (v)
(x ca 810); ‘v’ is used for expansions in the text.
á is mostly spelt (aa) ‘æ’ 4.2 - Taangr’ 4.15 (i e lengthening before ng) -
‘Knaattv’ 17.173 - ‘ai’ 26.20 (x ca 185; 64 of these are the independent
word(s) ‘aa’ but there is no tendency, as there is with the other scribes, to
confine this ligatured spelling to very short words). Exceptions, generally
(a>, are common where there is a final vowel in a stressed syllable, which is
the case with á, sá, þá, and ‘bra’ 25.35; some other cases of a single (a) are
‘natt’ 17.220, ‘Mars’ 25.47, ‘Ast-’ 26.11, 19.
For é, the number of spellings with (ie)/(je> is high ‘sier’ 4.4 - Tiet’
25.46 (x 26). A single (e> chiefly occurs where there is a word-final or
morpheme-final stressed syllable ‘ste’ 4.7 - ‘felag-’ 17.2, 88 - ‘fe’ 25.52 (x
10). Other exceptions to the spelling (ie> occur in the dative of personal
pronouns, mostly abbreviated ‘er’, ‘mer’ 17.30 - 26.10 (x 9), ‘ser’ 4.2 -
17.125 (x 8) (which word is, however, twice spelt ‘sier’ 4.4, 25.38), ‘ver’
17.35 - 26.16 (x 7) (also spelt ‘vie(r>’ 17.46 and ‘vier’ 17.29, 34 (twice)
(all), and ‘viær’ 17.30 (sole)). þér is usually spelt‘þr’ 17.31 - 26.14 (x 16)
(expanded 'þ/er’), which also indicates þeir. There are also cases where é is
contained in the ‘re’ abbreviation, here so expanded, as ‘frettar’ 4.1.