Íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði - 01.01.2023, Blaðsíða 83

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handrit.]
Wolf, Christian A. 1977. Sveinbjörn Egilsson’s Grammatical Writings in Lbs. 456, 4to: An
Edition and Commentary, with Special Reference to Rask. Ph.d-thesis. University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Lykilorð: stafsetning, stafsetningarsaga, íslenska
Keywords: spelling, spelling history, Icelandic

summary
‘Rasmus Rask’s spelling for Icelandic’

The Danish linguist Rasmus Rask (1787–1832) wrote the first modern grammar for Ice -
landic (published in 1811), edited the first modern dictionary (Björn Halldórsson’s diction -
ary in 1814), was among the founders of the Icelandic Literary Society and published
numerous editions of Old Norse texts. He was also an important contributor to the stan-
dardization of Icelandic spelling in the nineteenth century, especially with the publication
of his Lestrarkver, ‘Spelling book’, in 1830. In this article I look in detail at Rask’s spelling
proposals for Icelandic. Some of his suggestions, like the use of the letter ⟨ð⟩ became a part
of the modern spelling of the language. Others, like the use of the letter ⟨è⟩ and the differ-
entiation of ⟨r⟩ and ⟨ur⟩ in endings, were popular for a while but later fell out of favor.
Other radical innovations by Rask like the use of three different accent marks above vow-
els (⟨´⟩, ⟨`⟩, ⟨ ^⟩) were unsuccessful. His most important contribution was probably in
standardizing the usage of letters like ⟨z⟩, and ⟨n⟩/⟨nn⟩ where it had been unclear before
and in his focus on using Old Icelandic as the basis for the spelling and not the modern
pronunciation of the language.

Jóhannes B. Sigtryggsson
Stofnun Árna Magnússonar í íslenskum fræðum
Eddu, Arngrímsgötu 5
IS-107 Reykjavík
johannes.b.sigtryggsson@arnastofnun.is
Rasmus Rask og íslensk stafsetning 83