8/11/2019 The Irregular Declension of the Old Norse Noun Mr Maiden"
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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 _
8/11/2019 The Irregular Declension of the Old Norse Noun Mr Maiden"
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'
s(ems mOre ohen denoted woman or the female 5eK than di
8/11/2019 The Irregular Declension of the Old Norse Noun Mr Maiden"
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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.
8/11/2019 The Irregular Declension of the Old Norse Noun Mr Maiden"
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'
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
'
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