First Grammatical Treatise
The First Grammatical Treatise is a treatise on the Old Icelandic Old Icelandic language.
This essay was written in 1150 in Iceland. The author is unknown. In linguistics, he is called after his text " the first grammarian ." The paper provides an accurate representation of the Old Icelandic sound system and makes suggestions to consistent and accurate spelling of the Old Icelandic. It is the only treatise of its kind in a medieval Germanic language.
Handwriting
The First Grammatical Treatise is found together with the second, third and fourth grammatical treatise in 1350 written Codex Wormianus, AM 242 fol., One of the main manuscripts of the Prose Edda Snorri Sturluson of. The original title of the treatise is not known. The name First Grammatical Treatise is a modern term.
Method
The author identified the sounds of his language, the Old Icelandic, would identify in a way, with the structuralist linguist working phonemes, namely with minimal pairs. That is, the author illustrates the difference in meaning between words that differ in only one sound. Example: sar "wound" (singular ) from sǫr " wounds " (plural ).
He constructed example sentences in which these word pairs occurred, so that the different meaning clearly appeared. Example: Sar veitti Madr mér EITT, sǫr mǫrg veitta ek honum. - "A man brought me a wound ( sar ) in, I brought him many wounds ( sǫr ) at. "
He identified nine vowels, diphthongs six and fourteen consonants.
Receivables
Four new Vokalgrapheme
He suggests that graphemes < ę ǫ y ø > to use for those vowels that
- < ę > for the i- umlaut of a
- < ǫ > for the u umlaut of a
for the i- umlaut of u - < ø > for the i- umlaut of o
In this way he comes to nine Vokalgrapheme:
For u - umlaut: see also Urnordische language, the " umlaut "
Long and short vowels
The acute accent ( acutus, aigu accent ) marks long vowels.
Example: su kona gǫfgar goth, he he sjálf Goth. - " The one woman worships God ( Goth ), which is itself good ( Goth ). "
Oral and nasal vowels
A point on the vocal character denotes the nasal pronunciation of vowels.
Example: Har vex á kykvendum, s h r ȧ he fiskr. - " Hair ( har ) grows on living organisms, but the shark (h ȧ r) is a fish. "
The distinction between nasal and oral vowels disappeared in Old Icelandic before 1200 and is still in its infancy in Icelandic Homilienbuch, Perg 15 4 ° Royal. Stockholm Library to recognize. The normalized spelling of the Old Icelandic nasals are not considered.
Long and short consonants
Long consonants are to be indicated by the Latin model with doubled graphemes. However, the author added the proposal, instead of double consonants easy to use capital letters (eg N instead of nn), because you can save time and space.
Example: Sá he mestre GUDs Uina he mest vill til UinA. - "He is the greatest of God's friends ( Uina ), who work the hardest for him ( UinA ) want."
The normalized spelling of the Old Icelandic to write vina and vinna.
Diphthongs
The author of the First Grammatical Treatise identified the following six diphthongs:
- Au
- Ea
- Egg
- EO
- Ey
- Uí
Here, the author faces the same problems as the modern linguist. His list includes the generally accepted Old Icelandic diphthongs ( au, ei, ey) as well as combinations of vowels with semi-vowels ( ea = yes, Eo = jo, Ui = ví ).
Aftermath
The first grammarian is an example of the high scholastic level of Icelandic scholars. It is not known how great was the influence of the First Grammatical Treatise on the medieval Icelandic spelling. His influence on modern Icelandic spelling, however, is significant: When in the late 18th century, the spelling neuisländische began to normalize within the Icelandic language purism, the First Grammatical Treatise served as a model. The normalization of the Old Icelandic texts was based on the First Grammatical Treatise.