Íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði - 01.01.2023, Page 99

Jón Helgason (1929:101) shows that in the ONT, án governs the accusa -
tive (as án hjartans grunn in the Preface to Romans) and the genitive (án
ávaxtar in Matthew 13:22), which is compatible with the data in Table
3. However, it is important to note that in these translations, most exam-
ples of án occur with the genitive. The GOT data are very similar to
those of the ONT. In the GOT, án is not used with the accusative, but
one dative example is attested (án allri dvöl ‘without all delay’ in Samuel
17:21). The following are examples of the use of the genitive in each
translation (11a–b).
(11)a. Og allir hlutir eru fyrir það gjörðir, og án þess
and all things are for that made and without that(G)
er ekkert gjört hvað gjört er.
is nothing made what made is
‘All things were made by him; and without him was not anything
made that was made.’ (John 1:3)
b. Án þíns vilja skal enginn hræra hönd eður fót
without your(G) will(U) shall no-one move hand or foot
í öllu Egyptalandi.
in all Egypt
‘without thy will shall no man lift up his hand or foot in all the land
of Egypt.’ (Genesis 41:44)
In the context of Norwegianisms, it is not very likely that such genitive
use is directly due to Norwegian influence. By the first half of the 16th
century, Norwegian had already lost the genitive as a lexical case, includ-
ing prepositional case (e.g., Berg 2015). However, the possibility cannot
be excluded that the translators, Oddur Gottskálksson among others, had
access to Old Norwegian medieval manuscripts. Considering that these
Bible translations were important for the survival of Icelandic and had
considerable influence on the development of the language (e.g., Jón G.
Friðjónsson 1994), the high frequency of án with the genitive in these lit-
erary works might have been a driving force for the change in the prepo-
sitional case of án.

Case government of the Icelandic preposition án 99