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Initial h Before l, n, r in Old Icelandic

A Type of Associative Consonant Groups

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2026

Albert Morey Sturtevant
Albert Morey Sturtevant*
Affiliation:
University of Kansas
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Extract

Initial h before I, n, r disappeared in ONorw. at a preliterary date but was regularly retained in Olcel. (cf. Noreen §289). In Olcel. this initial h- was often lost, or an initial h- was often added to I, n, r, through association between words having initial hl, hn, hr and words having initial l, n, r. This associative process was due to resemblance in meaning or in form aside from the initial consonants in question. After the loss or the accretion of initial h- had become established between certain words or word groups there developed a general feeling of uncertainty as to whether a word should begin with hl or l, hn or n, hr or r. Most cases of this type of general confusion are naturally found in the Late Olcel. period, yet several instances may be cited in the classical period; which shows that the process was even then well under way. For the classical period I may mention the following examples: Hniflungr (Elder Edda) for Niflungr, rār ‘damp’ (Elder Edda) for hrār, hrjā for rjā ‘wrestle’; for the Late Olcel. period hnezla (for nezla) ‘button loop’, hniᵭra (for niᵭra) ‘to lower’, reᵭr (for hreᵭr) ‘genitals’, hreifr (for reifr) ‘glad’, hrifsa (for rifsa) ‘to rob’, ringja (for hringja) ‘a round pail’.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 3 , Issue 3 , September 1927, pp. 169 - 174
Copyright
Copyright © 1927 Linguistic Society of America

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References

1 Works to which reference is made throughout this paper are : Cleasby-Vigfússon, An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford, 1874. Falk and Torp, Norwegisches-Dänisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg, 1910. Fick, August, Vergleichendes Etymologisches Wörterbuch der Indogermanischen Sprachen 4, Göttingen, 1909. Fritzner, Johan, Ordbog over det gamie norshe sprog, Kristiania, 1886. Larsson, Ludvig, Ordförrådet i de älsta islänska handskrifterna, Lund, 1891. Noreen, Adolf, Altisländische Grammatik 4, Halle, 1923.

2 It is not certain which of these two forms is primary but the greater frequency of the form rjā (without initial h-) favors this form as primary.

3 Cf. George T. Flom, ‘A Group of Words from Hávamál I in the Light of Modern Norwegian and Icelandic Dialects’, Scan. Studies and Notes 1. 251–73.

4 ON rjōð a is not derived from *reuð-an as Falk-Torp (2. 925, s.v. rydde) and Fick (351, s.v. rud 2) maintain.

In the first place, ON rjōða never occurs in the meaning ‘reuten, räumen’ which these scholars attribute to it. It is not recorded in any of our ON dictionaries in this sense but only in the sense of 'to redden (with blood)' and therefore should be connected with the stem *rauð- 'red'; cf. ON rjōðr, rauðr ‘ruddy, red.‘

In the second place, ON rjōða never appears with initial h-, which would most likely have been the case if it had belonged to the (h)ryð ja group.

Again, the fact that the verb hrjōða never appears without initial h- indicates that between these two verbs, rjōða and hrjōða, there was no semantic contact, i.e. that rjōða never meant ‘to clear out’; but compare (h)ryðja ‘to clear out’ ihrjōða,

5 The ON verb (h)roða is not recorded under the head of *ruð-ōn either by Falk-Torp (2. 925, s.v. rydde) or by Fick (352, s.v. ruda).

6 Fritzner records a verb ræla but with uncertain meaning, so that this verb cannot be utilized in our discussion.

7 In WGerm. this reciprocal relation is not so much in evidence because here at the very earliest period a tendency existed for initial h- to disappear before l, n, r, whereas in Olcel. initial h- regularly remained (and still remains in Mod. Icel.) before l, n, r.

In OHG (cf. Braune, Ahd. Gramm. 4 §1531) when this tendency first appeared, the reciprocal nature of the analogy was still in evidence; cf., e.g., in the Hildebrandslied, wer, welīhhes, werdar, ringa without initial h- (which still existed before w and r, as the alliteration shows) and gi-h-ueit, bi-h-rahanen, h-rūmen with spurious initial h-. Later when initial h- before these consonants disappeared, the tendency to add an initial h- before these consonants correspondingly decreased.

For conditions in OE, see Siever's Angs. Gramm. 3 §2171–2; in OS, see Holthausen, As. Gramm.2 §217; in both these dialects the reciprocal relation was about the same as in OHG.

As an example of spurious initial h- due to association with a definite word (parallel to the cases which I have pointed out in Olcel.) I may mention MHG (h)eischen (> NHG heischen) ‘to demand’; associative word heizen ‘to command’.