Íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði - 01.01.2021, Side 163

Old Norse, e.g. herði, hrýfi. It is noteworthy that Torp even assumes that the īn-
stem *lengi ‘length’ (cf. Germ. Länge < *langīn-) was replaced by the iþō-forma-
tion OI/ON lengð and lengi was used as an adverb only.
The chronological timeline should be reassessed in some other cases. For
instance, in the discussion of the word pair avaricia – ágirni, OI ágirni is said
to be “a derivative of the adjective ágjarn ‘greedy, avaricious’”. On these grounds
Matteo considers this to be a rather late formation possibly on the basis of avari-
cia. This statement, however, is slightly misleading as the adjective ágjarn is a
form of the literary period showing breaking of short */e/ to /ja/, whereas the
noun ágirni is directly based on PGmc. (and NWGmc.) *gern- which displays
short /e/ as its root-vowel. In my view, there is a stronger argument in favour of
an old formation ágirni which is due to older i-umlaut /e/ > /i/. This is is a com-
mon Northwest Germanic feature prior to the operation of Nordic breaking (cf.
Schulte 2018:52). As the candidate vaguely (but certainly correctly) concedes on
p. 191, “[t]he possibility remains, however, that both ágirni and ágirnd are old for-
mations.” Comparative evidence could be added to support this view; Gothic has
corresponding formations in -īn-, e.g. gairnei (fem.) ‘wish, desire’ and faihu-
gairnei (fem.) ‘avarice, greediness’ as well as OHG gernī ‘devotion, attention’ (cf.
Casaretto 2004:288).
My general concern in this connection is this: How reliable are the factors?
Further I would like to ask whether the chronological assessment can be tuned
or improved in several cases, and, more importantly, whether it is possible to
achieve more transparency and consistency regarding the diagnostic criteria,
which impinge, among other things, on the choice between necessity loans and
prestige loans.

4. The Eastern World and Eastern loans
Among the loans addressed in the thesis, the Eastern World should be pro-
nounced more clearly (cf. Introduction, p. xxix). In chap. 3 on “Treatises” (e.g.,
Algorismus), I miss a reference to Persian loans such as algebra, algoritme, algor -
ismus, and further astronomical and mathematical terms which have an Eastern
origin. Russian and Persian play a prominent role not least in the terminology of
chess (cf. Nedoma 2014; Schulte 2017). As early as 1962, Matras noted that the
long vowels of OI/ON mát and skák could have been directly derived from
Persian eshāh māt (lit. ‘the King is dead’) or, alternatively, from Middle Low
German schāh und māt. Byzantium is clearly reflected in the runic inscriptions of
the Viking Age and there has been some systematic documentation of the overall
material recently (cf. Källström 2016). The Viking Age is known for its large coin
import from Eastern Europe (the territories of present-day European Russia,
Belarus and Ukraine) and the number of Kufic dirhams (Islamic silver coins) in
Sweden alone exceeds 88,000.
Comments from the first opponent 163