An Icelandic Primer | Page 4

(to win),
unninn (won ptc.), svelta (to starve), soltinn (starved, hungry).
Final r is often assimilated to a preceding cons.
32. *-lr, *-nr, *-sr always become -ll, -nn, -ss after a long vowel or
diphthong, as in stÅll (chair nom.), acc. stÅl, steinn (stone nom.), acc.
stein, vīss (wise masc. nom. sg.), vīs fem. nom. sg., and in unacc.
syllables, as in the masc. sg. nominatives mikill (great), fem. mikil,
borinn (carried), fem. borin, ȳmiss (various) fem. ȳmis.
33. Words in which l, n, r, s are preceded by a cons. drop the r entirely,
as in the masc. nominatives jarl (earl), hrafn (raven), vitr (wise), þurs
(giant), lax (salmon).
34. If l and n are preceded by a short accented vowel, the r is generally
kept, as in stelr
(steals), vinr, (friend), sr becoming ss, as elsewhere.
35. r is kept after ll, and generally after nn, as in the masc. nom. allr
(all), and in bręnnr (burns).
36. z often stands for ðs as well as ts, as in _þēr þykkizk (ye
seem) = *þykkið-sk, Vest-firzkr_ (belonging to the West Firths) =
-*firðskr (fǫrðr, firth).
37. Inflectional t is generally doubled after a long accented vowel: fÄr
(few) neut. fÄtt (cp. allr 'all,' neut. allt), sÄ (I saw), sÄtt 'thou sawest.'
INFLECTIONS
Nouns
38. *Gender*. There are three genders in Icelandic--masculine,
feminine, and neuter. The gender is partly natural, partly grammatical,
generally agreeing with the gender in Old English. Compound words
follow the gender of their last element.
39. *Strong and Weak*. All weak nouns end in a vowel in the nom. sg.
and in most of the other cases as well. Most strong nouns end in a cons.

in the nom. sg.
40. *Cases*. There are four cases--nominative, accusative, dative,
genitive. All nouns (except a few contractions) have the gen. pl. in -a
(fiska, of fishes), and the dat. pl. in -um (fiskum). All strong masculines
(fiskr) and some strong feminines (brūðr, bride) take r[5] in the nom.
sg. Most strong feminines show the bare root in the nom. sg. with
u-mutation, if possible (Äst, favour, fÇ«r, journey). The nom. pl. of all
strong masc. and fem. nouns ends in r (fiskar, Ästir). The acc. pl. of
fem. nouns is the same as the nom. pl. (Ästir). The acc. pl. of masc.
strong nouns always ends in a vowel (fiska). The plur. nom. and acc. of
neuters is the same as the sing. nom. and acc., except that in the plur.
nom. and acc. they take u-mutation, if possible (hūs, houses, lǫnd,
lands).
[Footnote 5: Subject, of course, to the assimilations described above.]
41. The declensions are most conveniently distinguished by the acc.
plur.
Strong Masculines
(1) a-plurals
SINGULAR PLURAL
Nom. fisk-r (fish) fisk-ar Acc. fisk fisk-a Dat. fisk-i fisk-um Gen. fisk-s
fisk-a
42. So also heimr (home, world); konungr (king); ÞÅrr (Thor), acc.
ÞÅr, gen. ÞÅrs; steinn (stone), acc. stein, gen. steins, pl. nom. steinar;
hrafn (raven), acc. hrafn, pl. nom. hrafnar; þurs (giant), acc. gen.
þurs, pl. nom. þursar.
43. Dissyllables in -r, -l
, -n generally throw out the preceding vowel
before a vowel-inflection: hamarr (hammer), dat. hamri; jǫtunn
(giant), pl. nom. jǫtnar. kętill (kettle) and lykill (key) show
unmutated vowels in the contracted forms, as in the acc. plur. katla,

lukla.
44. Some nouns of this decl. take -ar in the gen. sing., especially proper
names, such as HÄkon, gen. HÄkonar.
45. Some nouns add v before vowels: sær (sea), gen. sævar.
46. The dat. sometimes drops the i: sæ (sea), ÞÅr. dagr (day) mutates
its vowel in the dat. dęgi.
47. Nouns in -ir keep the i in the sing., and drop it in the plur.:
SINGULAR PLURAL
Nom. hęlli-r (cave) hęll-ar Acc. hęlli hęll-a Dat. hęlli
hęll-um Gen. hęlli-s hęll-a
48. So also a number of proper names, such as Skrȳmir, ÞÅrir.
(2) i-plurals
SINGULAR PLURAL
Nom. stað-r (place) stað-ir Acc. stað stað-i Dat. stað stǫð-um
Gen. stað-ar stað-a
49. So also gripr (precious thing), salr (hall).
50. gęstr (guest) takes -i in the dat. sg., and -s in the gen. sg.
51. Those ending in g or k (together with some others) insert j before a
and u: bękkr (bench), bękk, bękk, bękkjar; bękkir,
bękki, bękkjum, bękkja. So also męrgr
(marrow), stręngr
(string).
(3) u-plurals
SINGULAR PLURAL

Nom. skjǫld-r (shield) skild-ir Acc. skjǫld skjǫld-u Dat. skild-i
skjǫld-um Gen. skjald-ar skjald-a
52. So also vÇ«ndr (twig), vÇ«llr (plain), viðr (wood). Äss (god) has
plur. nom. æsir, acc. Äsu. sonr (son) has dat. sg. syni, plur. nom. synir.
It regularly drops its r of the nom. in such compounds as Tryggva-son
(son of Tryggvi).
(4) r-plurals
SINGULAR PLURAL
Nom. fÅt-r (foot) fÅ“t-r Acc. fÅt fÅ“t-r Dat. fÅ“t-i fÅt-um Gen. fÅt-ar
fÅt-a
53. So also fingr (finger), gen. fingrar, pl. fingr; vetr (winter), pl. vetr.
maðr (man)