OIcel phonology

OIcel u-umlaut

OIcel u-umlaut operates actively both at the phonological and morphological level.

underlying	result
[a -weak]	ǫ
[a +weak]	u

The latter is the result of the restrictive Weak.

Synchronic

Phonological

When an inflectional ending contains a u, each preceding a transforms as above.¹

• sag + ur → sǫgur
• kall + að + u → kǫlluðu
• gefand + um → gefǫndum

This does not however occur for affixed articles or pronouns

• hjarta + inu → hjartanu (not hjǫrtunu)

Morphological

Some paradigms of noun and adjective declension exhibit umlaut in the apparent absence of u. This is typically the result of a historic u that later disappeared (see below), but this should be regarded as morphologized by OIcel.²

Diachronic

Historically u-umlaut was much more widespread, affecting most unrounded vowels.³

• i -> y, e.g. singwan > syngva (from syngva)
• e -> ø, e.g. gerwan > gørva (alternate form of gera)
• a -> ǫ, e.g. landu > lǫnd (from land, see above)
• á -> ǫ́, e.g. sáru > sǫ́r (from sár)

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tidy | en | sembr

Footnotes

1. 2013, Norröne Grammatik im Überblick: Altisländisch und Altnorwegisch, §22.1 (rule 1) ↩

2. 2013, Norröne Grammatik im Überblick: Altisländisch und Altnorwegisch, §23 (rule 18) ↩

3. 2013, Norröne Grammatik im Überblick: Altisländisch und Altnorwegisch, §17.3 ↩