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Some Critical Notes on Old Norse Phonology
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 April 2026
Abstract
[The article deals with ten mooted questions, for which cf. the subheadings, and also attempts to advance linguistic methodology by a criticism of some views of leading writers on Old Norse grammar.]
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- Research Article
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- Copyright © 1930 Linguistic Society of America
References
1 Cf. R. Iversen, Norron Grammatikk (Kristiania, 1923) §139, Anm: ‘. . . . (jfr. got. walei = νel, dōmei = dœm). . . .‘
2 Cf. A. Heusler, Aisl. Elementarb2. §345: ‘, . . . tel<*tali (hier der i-Umlaut analogisch eingesetzt). . . .‘
3 Cf. A. Noreen, Aisl. Gramm 4. §538. 3.
4 Cf. Alexander Jóhannesson, Gramm. der urnord. Runeninschriften 110, No. 62.
5 Cf. Iversen, loc. cit.
6 Cf. Heusler, loc. cit.
7 Cf. Noreen §402 and Anm.
8 Cf. Noreen, loc. cit.
9 Cf. Iversen §192.2: Hjalmar Falk, PBB 14. 36.
10 Cf. Noreen §64.
11 Cf. Noreen §151, 6.
12 Of. Noreen §151, 1.
13 Cf. Noreen §97, 2; Iversen §23, 6; Ferd. Holthausen, Aisl. Elementarb. §33.
14 This is also Pipping's view; cf. Hugo Pipping, Inledning till studiet av de nordiska språkens ljudlära 179, §67d. Pipping, however, does not bring in the WGerm. parallels in support of his theory.
It should be noted that ai was not contracted to ά before secondary ON r <R(cf. Goth. maiza>ON meiri) but only before original r (cf. Goth, áir>ON ár). This fact proves that the contraction ai> ά was already completed when z had become R>r and lends support to the theory that this contraction was likewise completed before g had become h; cf. *aih>á:*air>ár with *staig>*staih>*steih[>sté]: *maiza > *maiRa > metri.
15 Cf. Falk and Torp, Norw.-Dän. Etym. Wtb. 1. 607–8, under Kvist I, II: ‘Zugrunde liegt die germ, wurzel *twis: siehe tvende. Dieses *twis, wozu *kwis eine sekundäre nebenform ist, gehört zum zahlwort to. . . . ‘
16 Cf. H. Sperber, Wörter u. Sachen 6. 31f.; E. Zupitza, Die germ. Gutturale 87, Nos. 19, 20.
17 Cf. S. Feist, Etym. Wtb. der got. Sprache2 292.
18 Cf. Heusler §125, Anm.
19 Cf. Noreen, Urgerm. Lautlehre §13, p. 51.
20 The form el-liga was reduced to el-la not through any phonetic process but as the result of contamination between the suffix -a (<Goth. ō) and the suffix -liga (<Goth, -leikō). See J. Sverdrup, Arkiv 27. 181 ff.; A. Kock, ib. 28. 178 ff.
21 Cf. Feist 27.
22 Cf. A. Fick, Vgl. etym. Wtb. der indo-germ. Sprachen 4 22, under alja.
23 The chronology of the vowels -i:.-e of the end syllable in han-i and deg-i is just the reverse of that which I have given; i.e., *dag-ē> *dag-e>deg-i>deg-e but *han-œ>han-e>han-i. I have, however, preserved the order -i:-e for both words because the combined palatalization did not take place until e had become i.
24 Cf. Noreen §74.
25 Cf. Iversen §15.
26 Cf. Heusler §64.
27 Cf. Falk and Torp 1.675, under Længe; Alexander Jóhannesson, Die Suffixe im Isländischen §45.5
28 Cf. Heusler §49: ‘Der Diphthong eu verrät α-Umlaut zu eo (>ió) im allg. nur im Westnord., und zwar, ähnlich wie im Altoberdeutschen, nur vor Dentalen, h und m’.
29 Cf. Noreen §106.
30 Cf. Pipping 135, 137.
31 Cf. Heusler §79. Heusler writes io (with dot beneath o) = original io (u-breaking of e).
32 Cf. Pipping 177, §66k, 5.
33 Cf. Heusler §168.
34 Cf. Noreen §222, Anm. 3.
35 Cf. Ludvig Larsson, Ordförrådet i de älsta isländska handskrifterna.
36 Cf. Heusler §178, Anm. 2: ‘Urn. bragđ “schwang” wurde wohl zu *brahþ, dann zu brá‘.
37 Cf. Iversen §121, 1: ‘. . . . her er pres. stammen utvidet med đ (“dental”-presens), mens grunnstammen viser sig i pret. sing, brá (<*brah, §30, 1).‘ Similarly Holthausen §239, 3. Noreen does not explain the form brá.
1 Cf. W. Streitberg, Got. Gramm 4. §133; also Hermann Collitz, ‘Das schwache Präteritum als Mischbildung’, PMLA 43. 598–9 (1928).
2 Cf. W. Streitberg, 'Gotica (1. z b d im Auslaut)', IF 18. 392: 'Kein einziger Beleg für b d aus altem f þ ist vorhanden. Ursprüngliches f und þ und ursprüngliches
and đ sind vielmehr überall streng unterschieden.'