The Irregular Declension of the Old Norse Noun Mær “Maiden"

8/11/2019 The Irregular Declension of the Old Norse Noun Mr Maiden"

1/6

TilE IRRE GIJ

LAR DECLEN

S

ION

OF

THE

O

LD

KOII.

SE

NOUN

fR

'MA

IDEN'

The Old No"", noun 101 , 'maiden' (Gol hk '0

...

1 bo: loDg.

primarily to the

~ h o . j 6 - s ~ m ~

and loS such

;t ~

r

esu

la.

in

its

infteClion in

aU

ases

uee

pt the nom. sing., where the e

nding-

'

hu >ten borrowed f.om th. long j6-slcms. Only one oth. .

r.ho.l1'd-. I

.m

in Old Nor.., has .imilady . d d ~ d th. , ,,,nding in

Ih.

nom

. ng namdy

Pi'

'ma'd-..,.vant ,' .ka ldie fo.m fo r Pi

(Golhic

pi",


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Il.

1 til. nnm. s i n ~ . had undt'l ont a regular phonetic develop

ment flom P. N.

",an-j-

(Gothic .. wilhout Ihe addition

of the rotlSl)Jlanlal ending _R of the O. N. long j6.-sLtrn., "' .

should in this ca.., have had the form ' ",., (ef., r. g., ey 'i.Jand'

-H. But $iuCt tht form ...ty doc. not occur until ".ry

~ I . ,

we mu. , ,11m.

Ihal ' . , ill

n(lt

the ~

g u l r phonetic form

bUI ,\

later

analoginl form

. ftrr

tbe mood of

Ih.

~ g u l a r short

j,,-, tema which did not add r (.R) in the nom.

sl

ng., such ,

fo r instance,

J

'island.'

lithe

tndin/t

-R

had

bun

added 10

tht

nnm . ing.

after

the

period when , D u ~ i had

~ n

regularly rcdueed to "" Y . ..

should in this ca.S have had in O. N. the form -

""

Po not "'otr.

T h c r e f ,

. . .

musl.Mume th at the O. N. fo.m

1< ,. wa

s devel

oped directly Irom P.

N. ,u ,,; R

and

that therdore lh. -,

in '' had a

lr

eady bun added in p r ~ h i

t o r i c

timO S.

Th

e ,..,dunioR

1 P. N.

'dlllli.R to

"'ctr

oilers.

50 fa

r

a t

J

can

see. no serious difficulti..,; thus

'allll...;R> all R>

' ,4-R>

maR> """.

The unaccenled ; after the shon root

5yUab

l.

,n . . . .

1 ..1

btfore il could modify (i.e umlaut) tbe radical dipht hong

u ~ the II of

Ih.

radi

a l

diphthong all ( ...all.R)

' .

1

loot bc:fo,e

it

could

un t

any influence (i.e

.....

umlaut) upn

the

preceding

sho

rt vo ...

el'

d,

olherwise

lhe

rn ultant compensativ. long

vo

....1 would ha,'c

~ n

an

q

nstead of 4; this 4 became

~

thru

tb.

influence

01

the immediately follo

..

ing

R'

i. .

the

_called

Rumlaut).

Th

e queslion no

.. a rm

a t

to

..h

the . h

on j l .

l tem

,In

and

} f

mould

ha""

brrowed the . (R).eoding of

Ih.

long

j4-. te

m.

in

th.

nom

.

ng. Since ooth

'tt

. 'maiden' and

PI

m . i d _ ~ v a n t ' d.not.

the female

U;t it

i. r sonabl. 10 & Sume

tha I Ihe

analoty bc:t..

een the..,

Iwo

,,'ord. and Ihe loog jlJ-

stehl.

wa

s due to the facl th&t ..ords btlonging 10 lhe long j6-

CI.

r: .......

A lC. Ik iJ1l.

ADm.

1

0

.

' .1., ' ..,j; R>,o/t. ~ i GoIlI, 14..,q,.; d . Norem. Aitl.

G . ......,;t' .I6J. l,

' 0 _


3/6

'

s(ems mOre ohen denoted woman or the female 5eK than di


4/6

an ;-stem,' had in the ~ n t i r e i n ~ u l a paued over into (hej6-

inflection. We may a5Sume then In analogy in f

orm btt

w n

th

e

h o r l

jl-stem

D ~ . , . ,

..

(

R)

and

Ihe long

I e m

' b Iji+R

by

.earo

n of the

identily 01

meaning btlweell I h ~

IWO

words .

T h bet mu.t abo bt

taken

into con";deralion that of the

j6-

. term., which wen rsoni6ed or used .. maiden names, by

far the gr

uter

proportion

btlong

s to the long s

tem.

and COIl$C .

quently

add ..

. to

th

e

nOm.

sing., such as, for instance,

Ihj>r,

Frf/W, Gttjw,

If;]d

r,

II

... Ri . dr, Jlrtljw

and

the

compou nds

end .

ing in

"(fl . l

jw

,

..

,

u/>r,

.,

.

w,

i i i

. ,

w ~ P r

(el.

R

a'

.

.,. jIr,

16-/.

1 ',

Si, . p. , I J w , }o ~ p B. ,... .. ]d. , j J w ~ J w , etc .) .

T he Ilc t Ihen

thai

such . l.


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01 the nom. ,ing. in the 10 1 e m 5 ~ m to

t...

lelt a, a ,ign

for denoting the fem ale s t I . From these noUn l (such

as

'''p.r,

M/1

4 ,

etc.) the

-.

_R)

spread

as

I.

regular

AiJd;

If we a ume that it wa. during thi. prdU' I rie

p"Tiod

Ih

al

' ...w;..(R) borrowed its ..R from the 10ngj6-items, then

the other case forms (i.e. , other than the nom. sing

.)

of the

word could not have bun affected by this analogy, since

at

th is

time tbe endings for both long and short j6-. lcmS were mOSI

probllbly Ihe Nome (except in Ihe nom. sing.). This a

. .

umption

may .

up ain

. .hy the noun

'Ir

' did not in the "th.r tas pass

Ove r inloth .

infl

ection of

th

e ongj '_sttml .

But t H n if Iht borrowing of Ih. _R in o

"'Gllu_

o -{ R) b.d

occurred

at

a laler

p"T

iod

. .

hen the

.j -

of

th

e suffix syllabI.

"Cf. II

...... Ai

".

I o . , ~ , 1

21

4.


6/6

'

had ,I,..,ady

bn

d r o p J l f l l . f t ~ r a lo"g syllable

( i . ~ . ,

at the time

when M l d - j ~ R had alrudy become

hiMo

R), we should

hardly have expected lhe borro

ing

of case endings (on the

pact of the sho

rt

j k tems) 10

be

enended beyond lb. nom.

sing., in.o.srnuch as

t b

R_ending of the nom. sing. ( .. .........

R)

"' . . in iuelf ~ u f f i c i . n l

10

ch aracterize the noun IS denoli,,

the

female leI, " vc, asainst all ot h short j6-Jlem, . .hieh did not

denote the female suo Borrowing of case endings was olien

confined

10

one or mOre castS wlillo,, levelling lb. whole

d.dension."

Wheth.r lhe -R in ''' ...

i

R wu >orrowed from the long

jl-s

lems befo.e the lime when Ibis _R had kcome ~ c n e ... i.td

. . the nom

. ~ .

ending

fo

r 1h. long j" .. tcms, il io, of coun .

imJ>05.'ible 10 determine. But it .

urn.

mos t likely

that

1hi

.

was

th . case (i.e. , thaI ..ulli. became

~ ~

~ f o r e the time

...hfn,

f,

g., k,; ,_ became o.rip;.Ii'), ~ a U K of the fac t that the

analogy in qUe"ion had iU

sti

rling point in nouns

of

th

e

i_

dk

n

Moo

d. o/i , de J u.

In

(1uch

lIS

hr4p

IIU

ftC.) .

This assumption is aU the mOre pbusib

fe

in that such nOuns

.... re

oo

melimu identical io muning ",ith

'

The Irregular Declension of the Old Norse Noun Mær “Maiden"

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