This is page cv_b0114. Please don't edit above this dashed line. Thank you!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
i s, and em, are; em, lam; þessi, thi s; þetta, that; sex, s i x: sek, mek,
þek, sometimes instead of sik, mik, þik: nouns, elgr, an elk; sef, s ib;
brekka, brink; veðr, weather; nevi, a kinsman (Lat. nepos); nevi, a
neave, fist; segl, a sail (cp. segla); vetr, a wight; selr, a se a l; net, a
net; nes, a ne ss; el, a gale; messa, a mass (Lat. missa); hestr, a horse;
prtstr, a priest; þegn (O. H. L. 47); vegr, a way, honour; sel and setr,
shielings; verold, the world; vesold, misery: verbs, gera, to ' gar, ' to do;
drepa, to kill; bera, to bear; bresta, to burst; gefa, to give; geta, to get;
meta, to measure; kveða, to say; drekka, to drink; stela, to steal; vera,
to be; mega, must; nema, to take; eta, to e a t; vega, to weigh; reka, t o
drive; skera, to cut: participles and supines from þiggja, liggja, biðja,
sitja, þegit, legit, beðit, setið: preterites as, hengu, gengu, fengu (Germ.
gingen, fingen); greru, reru, srxeru (from gróa, róa, snúa): e if sounded
as é, e. g. hot, blés, let, réttr, léttr; even in the words, her, here; mér,
scr, þér, mihi, sibi, tibi; neðan (niðr), hegat ( -- hue); héðan, hence:
adjectives, mestr, flestr, þrennr, etc.: inflexions, -legr, - ly; -lega, - ly; -neskja, -neskr (cp. Germ, - i sc h); in the articles or the verbal inflexions, -en, -et, -er, -esk, etc. The e is often used against the etymology, as
dreki, dragon; menu, men (from maðr). In some other Norse MSS. the
two sounds are marked, but so inaccurately that they are almost useless,
e. g. the chief MS. of the Bad. S.; but in other MSS. there is hardly an
attempt at distinction. The list above is mainly but not strictly in
accordance with the etymology, as phonetical peculiarities come in; yet
the etymology is the groundwork, modified by the final consonants:
both old spelling and modern pronunciation are of value in finding a
word's etymology, e. g. the spelling drsengr indicates that it comes from
drangr; hærað and haer, troops (but her, here), shew that hærað (hérað)
is to be derived from hærr (herr), exercitus, and not from her (her), etc.
The Icel. idiom soon lost the short e sound in radical syllables, and the
long e sound (like the Italian e) prevailed throughout; there was then
no more need for two signs, and e, prevailed, without regard to ety-
mology. Some few MSS., however, are curious for using æ almost
throughout in radical syllables, and thus distinguish between the e in
roots and the e in inflexions (vide B below); as an example see the Arna-
Magn. no. 748, containing an abridgement of the Edda and Skálda and
poems published in the edition of 1852, vol. ii. pp. 397-494; cp. also
Vegtamskviða, published by Mubius in Sæm. Edda, pp. 255, 256, from
the same MS.; this MS. uses æ in radical syllables, but e or i in inflexions.
It is clear that when this MS. was written (at the latter part of the i^th
century) the Icel. pronunciation was already the same as at present. In
some other MSS. e and ce, and e and g now and then appear mixed up,
till at last the thing was settled in accordance with the living tongue, so
that the spelling and sound went on together, and CE (or g) was only used
to mark the diphthong; vide introduction to Æ.
B. SPELLING of e and i in inflexions. -- The Germans, Swedes, Danes,
English, and Dutch all express the i sound in inflexional syllables by e,
not i, as in Engl. y a í her, mother, brother, taken, bidden, hidden, heaven,
kettle; or in Germ., e. g. hatte, möchte, sollte, lange, bruder, mutter,
soltesf, himmel, etc.: in the earliest times of Icel. literature also it is
almost certain that e was used throughout: Ari probably signed his name
Are (en ek heitcr Are, tb. fine): Thorodd, too, seems to have followed
the same rule, as we may infer from several things in his treatise, e. g.
the words framer and frá mér, which would be unintelligible unless we
suppose him to have written framer, not framir: even the name of
Snorri is twice spelt Snorre in the Reykholts-máldagi, probably written
by one of his clerks. Some old vellum fragments may be found with
the e only; but even in the oldest extant, i is used now and then. The
reason is clear, viz. that the Icel. never admits the long e in inflexive
syllables, and in roots it never admits the short e, consequently the
same sign would not do both for roots and inflexions; hende, velle,
gefe have each two vowel sounds; therefore the short i was admitted
in inflexions; yet in most MSS. both e and i are used indiscriminately,
a. g. faðir and faðer, tími and time, manni and manne, kominn and
komenn, komið and komet, hihidin and hundcn, fjallit and fjallet; even
those that use i admit e if following ð or d, é. g. viðe, bæðe, liðe,
lande, but fjalli, vatni. As the spelling was partly influenced from abroad,
the e even gained ground, and at the time of the Reformation, when
printing became common, it was rcassmned throughout, and remained so
for nearly 230 years, when (about A. D. 1770-1/80) i was reinstated and
e expelled in all inflexions, as being inconsistent with the spelling and
ambiguous; but the sound has undoubtedly remained unchanged from
the time of Ari up to the present time: the English father, mother,
German vater, mutter, and lcd. fadir are, as to the inflexion, sounded
exactly alike.
C. INTERCHANGE of e and i. -- The adjectival syllable -ligr, -liga, is in
MSS. spelt either -ligr or -legr; in modern pronunciation and spelling
always -legr, -lega (Engl. -ly). |3. in a few root words e has taken the
place of i, as in verðr, qs. virðr (food); brenna, qs. brinna; þremr and
þrimr; tvenna and tvinna; ef, efa, efi, = if, ifa, ifi; einbirni and einberni
(horn): e has taken the place of a in such words as hnetr (nuts) from
hnot, older form hnøtr: so also in eðli and öðli; efri efstr from öfri öfstr: e and the derived ja make different words, as berg and bjarg, fell and
fjall, bergr and bjargar, etc.
D. DIPHTHONGS: I. ei answers to Goth, ai, A. S. â, Germ.
ei, Engl. a (oa or the like); in Danish frequently expressed by ee; in
Swedish and Northern English the diphthong is turned into a plain e and a,
which, however, represent the same sound: Goth, stains, A. S. stan, Swed.
sten, North. E. s to ne. The o sound is English-Saxon; the a sound English-
Scandinavian; thus the forms, home, bone, oak, oath, broad, one, own, more,
none, no, may be called English-Saxon, from A. S. ham, ban, etc.; the
North. E. and Scottish harne, bane, aik, ai/h, braid, ain, mair, /tain, may
be called English-Scandinavian: cp. Swed. hem, ben, ek, ed. bred, en; Icel.
heimr, bein, eik, eidr, breidr, einn, meir, neinn, nei; cp. also Icel. bleikr,
Swed. blek, North. E. blake, etc. The Runic stones mark the ei with a + i
or i simply, e. g. sti w or s tain. Old Norse and Icel. MSS. frequently for
ei give Æ i. II. ey is in modern usage sounded as ei, and only
distinguished in writing; in old times a distinction was made in sound
between ei and ey. Norse MSS. almost always spell 'ôy, and in Norway
it is to the present time sounded accordingly, e. g. iiyra, -- Icel. eyra,
sounded nearly as in English toil: the ey is properly a vowel change of
au: ey frequently answers to an English e (ea) sound, as heyra, to hear;
eyra, e ar; dreyma, to dream; leysa, to lease. In very old MSS., e. g.
Ib. (ai in the Ed. is a wrong reading from aj in the MS.), au and ey are
even spelt alike (aj or a;^), though sounded differently. In some MSS.
ey is also used where it is not etymological, viz. instead of ø or o, in such
words as hreyqva, seyqva, stcyqva, deyqvan, greyri, geyra, seyni, etc., =
hrökva, sökva, ... greri or grori, syni, e. g. the Cod. Reg. of S;em. Edda,
the Rafns S. Bs. i. 639
E. é is sounded almost as English y e (or y a); it is produced, 1.
by an absorption of consonants, in words as réttr, léttr, þéttr, sétti, flétta,
n'-tta, cp. Germ, recht, Engl. right; Germ. Icicht, Engl. light: or in fo,
kno, tré, hit:, sc (Icel. fe = Engl. / ee, Goth. / aih w, Lat. pe cws), etc. 2.
by a lost reduplication in the preterites, fell, grot, réð, h-t, blús, hot, gékk,
hékk, Ick, fékk, from falla, grata, etc.; in some old MSS. this é is
replaced by ie, e. g. in the Hulda Arna-Magn. no. 66 fol. we read fiell,
liet, hiet, griet, gieck, liek, cp. mod. Geim. fíel. hiess, Hess, etc.; perhaps in
these cases e was sounded a little differently, almost as a bisyllable. 3.
in such words as the pronouns vt'-r, þér or ér (you), niér, sér, þér (tibi):
the particles her (here), héðan (hence), hérað, vi'-l, el. 4. t' is also
sounded after g and k, and often spelt ie in MSS., gieta, giefa, kier, kierti;
this sound is, however, better attributed to g and k being aspirate. In
Thorodd and the earliest MSS. é is marked with ' just like the other long
or diphthongal vowels; but the accent was subsequently removed, and e
and é are undistinguished in most MSS.: again, in the 15th century
transcribers began to write ie or ee (mier or meer). In printed books up
to about 1770 the ie- prevailed, then e, and lastly (about 1786) (; (cp. the
5th and 6th vols. of Eél.): ë is an innovation of Rask, and is used by
many, but máttr, dráttr, and rettr, sléttr, etc. are etymologically iden-
tical, though the sound of K is somewhat peculiar: the spelling~/e is also
a novelty, and being etymologically wrong (except in 2 above) is not to
be recommended.
Ebreskr, adj. Hebrew, Skálda 161, 167, Stj. 26. Ebreska, f. the
Hebrew tongue, Ver. 11, Ann. (H.) 14.
eð, a particle, vide er.
eðal-, noble, in compds, borrowed from Germ, and rare.
EDDA, u, f. a great-grandmother, Rm. 2. 4; móðir (mother) heitir ok
amma (grandmother), þriðja edda (the third is edda), Edda 108: this
sense is obsolete. II. metaph. the name of the book Edda, written
by Snorri Sturluson, and containing old mythological lore and the old
artificial rules for verse making. The ancients only applied this name
to the work of Snorri; it is uncertain whether he himself called it so;
it occurs for the first time in the inscription to one of the MSS. of Edda,
vi/, . the Ub., written about fifty or sixty years after Snorri's death: Bók
þessi heitir Edda, hann hefir saman setta Snorri Sturlusonr eptir þeim
hætti sem her er skipat (vi'/, . consisting of three parts, Gylfagynning,
Skáldskaparmál, and Háttatal), Edda ii. 250 (Ed. Arna-Magn.); sva segir
i bók þeirri er Edda heitir, at sá maðr sem Ægir hot spurði Braga ... .
532 (MS. of the 14111 century); hann (viz. Snorri) samansetti Eddu, he
put together the Edda, Ann. 1241 (in a paper MS., but probably genuine).
As the Skáldskaparmál (Ars Poe'tica) forms the chief part of the Edda,
teaching the old artificial poetical circumlocutions (kenningar), poetical
terms and diction, and the mythical tales on which they were founded,
the Edda became a sort of handbook of poets, and therefore' came
gradually to mean the ancient artificial poetry as opposed to the modern
plain poetry contained in hymns and sacred poems; it, however, never
applies to alliteration or other principles of Icel. poetry: reglur Edda, the
rules of Edda, Gd. (by Arngrim) verse 2, Lil. 96, Nikulas d. 4; Eddu
list, the art of Edda, (id. (by Arni) 79; -- all poems of the 141)1 century.
The poets of the 15th century frequently mention the Edda in the intro-
duction to their Rimur or Rhapsodies, a favourite kind of poetry of this
and the following time, Reinalds R. i. I, Áns R. 7. 2, Sturlaugs R.,
Sigurðar þögla R. 5. 4, Rimur af 111 Verra og Vest, 4, 3, Jarlmanns R.