Íslendingabók (2)

Grammar by sagas | Íslendingabók | Verbs

We began our study of Íslendingabók with some basic grammar, about verbs in Old Norse. Let's practice with a short exercise.

We've said that the dentalsuffix -ð- helps mark the preterite. Let's try to find all the finite verbs in this short passage, i.e. all verbs conjugated in the present or preterite tense. By skimming through, we can spot a number of forms that might be suspected of having a dentalsuffix.

Ísland byggðist fyrst ór Nórvegi á dǫgum Haralds ins hárfagra, Hálfdanarsonar ins svarta, í þann tíð, at ætlun ok tǫlu þeira Teits, fóstra míns, þess manns, er ek kunna spakastan, sonar Ísleifs byskups, ok Þorkels, fǫðurbróður míns, Gellissonar, er langt munði fram, ok Þuríðar Snorradóttur goða, er bæði var margspǫk ok óljúgfróð, er Ívarr Ragnarssonr loðbrókar lét drepa Eadmund inn helga Englakonung. En þat var átta hundruð ok sjau tigum vetra eftir burð Krists, at því er ritit er í sǫgu hans.

Ingólfr hét maðr nórrænn, er sannliga er sagt, at færi fyrst þaðan til Íslands, þá er Haraldr inn hárfagri var sextán vetra gamall, en í annat sinn fám vetrum síðar. Hann byggði suðr í Reykjarvík. Þar er Ingólfshǫfði kallaðr fyr austan Minþakseyri, sem hann kom fyrst á land, en þar Ingólfsfell fyr vestan Ǫlfossá, er hann lagði sína eigu á síðan.

byggðist, munði, byggði, lagði are indeed preterite verbs.

bæði i “er bæði var margspǫk ok óljúgfróð” is something else. How do you know? Well, first of all, in this proposition, er is clearly the finite verb. This is the present tense of the verb to be, which you could learn right now.

ek em
þú ert
hann/hon/þat er
vér erum
þér eruð
þeir/þær/þau eru

What is more, bæði is a frequent form you might want to be able to recognize. It is far from being a verb. bæði is the neuter plural form nominative and accusative of the determiner báðir, meaning both.

Back to our verbs with an obvious dentalsuffix -ð-. byggði and byggðist differ only in that the second carries the suffix typical of mediopassive, an Old Norse form expressing, among other things (here) the passive.

munði, byggði, lagði are the preterite of weak verbs, while some are strong. -i is the common 3rd person preterite inflection for these weak verbs, which form the preterite with dentalsuffix -ð-, -d- or -t-, depending on the final stem sound.

lagði forms from the infinitive leggja (identical to the 3rd person plural present), which demonstrates a characteristic vowel shift from the root vowel -a- (in lag-) to -e-. This shift occurs due to i-umlaut, a systematic sound change triggered by the presence of the -j- elementone of the fundamental phonological processes in Old Norse, affecting numerous verbs and other word classes and one of the fundamental phonological processes in Old Norse, affecting numerous verbs and other word classes.

And as far as munði is concerned, it is of a rather special kind. Its preterite is that of weak verbs, here the dentalsuffix is clear. But its present tense is shaped like the preterite of strong verbs!

In this instance, muna does in the present tense:

ek man
þú mant/manst
hann/hon/þat man
vér munum
þér munuð
þeir/þær/þau munu

What features of the conjugation of strong preterite verbs stand out here? First of all, a vowel change in the singular with respect to the infinitive - not triggered by the presence of a -j- (or anything else) in the continuation of the word in Old Norse, but the residue, the heritage of an earlier vowel change - potentially triggered according to other rules by certain combinations of consonants and vowels, but the trace of which has been lost as letters have “fallen out” over time. Next, the typical endings of strong preterite verbs, namely -∅, -t, -∅, -um, -uð, -u.

We shall pause here for a moment, and resume a little later our reading of the tales of Iceland, which, we shall learn, was first installed in Norway during the reign of Harald Fair-hair, son of Halfdan the Black.