Rit (Vísindafélag Íslendinga) - 01.06.1970, Blaðsíða 344

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Þá mælti Justínus: Mun eigi mál at ganga til matar? Nei, sagði hun, tefla
skulu vit enn ok reyna meir. (Mírmans saga, Riddarasögur 1872:186).
‘Hafi þér eigi svá mælt, at þér skyldið hafa sekðir eða sjálfdœmi?’ Egill kvað
svá vera. (Bandamanna saga, ÍF 7.336, 1936).
Bgðvarr mælti: ‘Eigi skulum vér renna.’ Bersi svarar: ‘Ekki ætla ek þat,’
segir hann, ‘ok munum vér hér bíða.’ (Valla-Ljóts saga, ÍF 9.252, 1956).
... ‘er eigi þat Þrándr, at sveinar þessir sé synir þeira Brestis ok Beinis, er þér
drápuð fyrir skommu ?’. ‘Ek hygg víst svá vera’ sagði Þrándr. (Færeyingasaga
1927:12).
This shows that there was some fluctuation in the usage.
It should be noted that the examples without já or nei
follow a certain pattern. The answer contains either svá or
þat, which refers to the negative question or statement, the
truth of which is either affirmed or denied. This may be
compared with a few cases where the negation is simply
repeated:
Jarl mælti: ‘... Er eigi þat, at þú vilir svíkja mik?’ ‘Eigi,’ segir Karkr. (Óláfs
saga Tryggvasonar, Heimskringla, ÍF 26.297, 1941).
‘Skulum vér nú eigi hlaupa á þá, meðan er þeir stíga af baki?’ ‘Eigi,’ sagði
Sturla. (íslendinga saga, Sturlunga saga 1946:1.431).
‘... eða eru þær eigi giptar?’ ‘Eigi,’ sagði hann. (Bandamanna saga, ÍF 7.339,
1936).
Egill svarar: ‘Eigi mun at síðr drekka mega.’ Sveinninn svarar: ‘Eigi, herra.’
(Spgur Danakonunga 1919-25:84).
1.3. This usage may be an innovation in Icelandic. In that
case, it must antedate the thirteenth century. But it seems no
less likely that this is an old usage which has persisted in
Icelandic. In the other Germanic languages, however, this
usage seems not to occur. Among the European languages, it
occurs in Russian, in questions without li, e.g. Vy ne znakomy ?
JVet, znakomy (Ekblom 1945:192). And there are two examples
of this usage in the Old Irish Wiirzburg glosses (Stokes-
Strachan 1901-03:1.504, 563, with a reference from the former
example to the latter; a contrary example is found on p. 525).
But this usage occurs in some non-European languages,
e.g., in Amharic (Leslau 1962:147-148), Eskimo (Rasmussen