Modern Icelandic (Volume 12); An Essay

This historic book may have numerous typos or missing text. Not indexed. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1919. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... MODERN ICELANDIC When the Norwegian colonists settled in Iceland during the ninth and tenth centuries they found the country unoccupied, if we except the few Irish anchorites who had established themselves there on the southeastern coast, and who soon left, since they were unwilling to live together with heathen people. Thus the Norwegian tongue received no admixture in the new home from native sources; though a few Celtic words were introduced by the colonists who came from or by way of the British Islands and Ireland, but most of these disappeared again from the language. The physical conditions of the country were similar to those of the Norwegian home of the settlers, if anything less multiform, and hence required the same or even a more restricted vocabulary. The change of abode consequently had little influence upon the richness of the language, as there was no need for neologisms or expressions for new and previously unknown conditions. The dialect which became prevalent in Iceland was that of the southwestern districts of Norway, whence the greater number of the settlers came. The language of this early period is known from the oldest skaldic and Eddic poems,1 and probably differed in no perceptible degree from the tongue as spoken in Norway at the time. There soon developed, however, various peculiarities in the speech of the Icelanders, which distinguished them from their kinsmen in Norway. These changes, slight in the beginning, grew and became more distinct and numerous as time went on, and are noticeable in the earliest literary records, but it was long until they reached such a stage as to make difficult the intercourse between the two peoples. The introduction of Christianity in the beginning of the eleventh century required new additions to...