First Grammar Treatise
The First Grammar Treatise is an Old Icelandic treatise on the Old Icelandic language .
This treatise was written in Iceland around 1150. The author is unknown. In linguistics he is called "the first grammarian" after his text. The treatise provides an accurate account of the Old Icelandic sound system and makes suggestions for a consistent and precise spelling of Old Icelandic. It is the only treatise of its kind in a medieval Germanic language.
Handwriting
The first grammatical treatise can be found together with the second, third and fourth grammatical treatise in Codex Wormianus , AM 242 fol., Written around 1350 , one of the main manuscripts of the Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson . The original title of the treatise is unknown. The name First Grammatical Treatise is a modern term.
method
The author identified the sounds of his language, i.e. Old Icelandic, in a way that structuralist linguists would use to identify phonemes , namely with minimal pairs . That is, the author clarifies the difference in meaning between words that differ only in a single sound. Example: sar “wound” (singular) versus sǫr “wounds” (plural).
He constructed example sentences in which these word pairs appeared so that the different meanings could be clearly seen. Example:
" Sar veitti maðr mér eitt, sǫr mǫrg veitta ek honum."
"A man inflicted a wound ( sar ) on me, I inflicted many wounds ( sǫr ) on him."
He identified nine vowels , six diphthongs and fourteen consonants .
requirements
Four new vowel graphemes
He suggests using the graphemes <ę ǫ y ø> for those vowels that can not be clearly represented with the Latin vowel graphemes <aeio u>. In detail, these are the following graphemes:
- <ę> for the i- umlaut of a
- <ǫ> for the u-umlaut of a
- <y> for the i-umlaut of u
- <ø> for the i-umlaut of o
In this way he comes up with nine vowel graphemes: <aeiou ę ǫ y ø>. The nine vowels can be long or short, nasal or oral.
Regarding the u-umlaut: see also Ur-Nordic language, section "Umlaut"
Long and short vowels
The acute (Latin [accentus] acutus ) marks long vowels.
Example: Sú kona gǫfgar goþ , er sjálf er góþ . - "The woman worships God ( goþ ) who is herself good ( góþ )."
Oral and nasal vowels
A dot on the vowel mark indicates the nasal pronunciation of vowels .
Example: Har vex á kykvendum, en hȧr er fiskr. - "Hair ( har ) grows on living things, but the shark ( hȧr ) is a fish."
The distinction between nasal and oral vowels disappeared in Old Icelandic before 1200 and is only rudimentary in the Icelandic Homily Book, Perg. 15 4 ° Kgl. Stockholm library, to be recognized. In the normalized spelling of Old Icelandic, nasals are not taken into account.
Long and short consonants
According to the Latin model, long consonants should be indicated with doubled graphemes. However, the author added the suggestion to use single capital letters instead of double consonants (e.g. N instead of nn ) because this could save time and space.
Example: Sá er mestr guðs uina , er mest vill til uiNa . - "The one is the greatest of God's friends ( uina ), who wants to work hardest for him ( uiNa )."
In the normalized spelling of Old Icelandic one writes vina and vinna .
Diphthongs
The author of the First Grammatical Treatise identifies the following six diphthongs :
- ouch
- ea
- egg
- eó
- ey
- uí
The author faces the same problems as modern linguists. His list contains both the generally recognized Old Icelandic diphthongs ( au , ei , ey ) and combinations of vowels with half-vowels ( ea = ja , eó = jó , uí = ví ).
Aftermath
The First Grammar is an example of the high scholastic level of Icelandic scholars. It is not known how great the impact of the First Grammar Treatise on medieval Icelandic spelling was. Its influence on modern Icelandic spelling is significant, however: When the New Icelandic spelling began to be standardized in the late 18th century as part of Icelandic linguistic purism , the First Grammatical Treatise served as a model. The normalization of the old Icelandic texts was also based on the First Grammatical Treatise.
literature
- Major scholarly edition: Hreinn Benediktsson, The First Grammatical Treatise, Institute of Linguistics, Reykjavík 1972 (University of Iceland Publications in Linguistics, 1).
- Scientific edition with English translation: Einar Haugen : First Grammatical Treatise. second edition, Longman, London 1972, ISBN 0-582-52491-1 .
- German translation in: Hans Arens: Linguistics - The course of their development from antiquity to the present. Volume 1, ISBN 3-8072-2077-1 ; Chapter 18.
Other early grammarians or grammars
- Auraicept na nÉces , from Ireland, 7th century, covers the Irish language, the oldest study of a Western European language
- Ælfrics grammar, around the year 1000, Latin grammar with old English texts
- Donatus , Ars Minor and Ars Maior, Latin grammars around 350
- Panini , ancient Indian grammarian