On the origin of the oldest borrowed Christian terminology in Icelandic

This article deals with the origin of the oldest core of borrowed Christian terminology still extant in Icelandic, i.e. those words which were introduced in Old Norse in the period ranging from the first evangelical missions in Scandinavia (9th c.) to the establishment of the archbishopric in Niðarós (1153). After a short introduction (1), a brief overview of the aforementioned historical period is given (2). The corpus, which consists of 45 words, is subsequently presented alongside its semantic classification (3), of which a chronological (text-based) reading is given. In the next section (4), particular attention is drawn to a sample of ten words, which have been chosen for their importance both from a historico-linguistic and etymological perspective. Special emphasis will be placed on addressing the role of Old Saxon in the dawn of Christianity in Scandinavia and Iceland and on revising some of the etymologies proposed by the three major Icelandic etymological dictionaries (AeW, IeW and ÍOb). In the last paragraph (5), it will be stressed that a methodology which rests upon historical, alongside linguistic and philological, facts is needed if one wants to better understand the cultural and linguistical background of a particular portion of the lexicon: here, the oldest part of the Christian borrowed lexicon is analysed as a particularly interesting example.Peer ReviewedRitrýnt tímari

The care for the mother tongue in mediaeval Iceland and beyond

This article examines the care for the mother tongue in the Middle Ages. The starting point of this discussion is given by a Festschrift article by Sverrir Tómasson (Málvöndun á miðöldum, 1998). In the present article more examples are given of the care for the mother tongue in mediaeval Iceland. Moreover, the phenomenon is put into a wider cultural frame, namely that of the Western European Middle Ages. Examples of the care for the mother tongue are given both from the Germanic world (England, Germany and Denmark) and the Romance world (Italy). The main tenet of this article is that the care for the mother tongue, seen as a process of acquisition and adaptation of foreign concepts to a language/culture, is strongly tied, for what concerns the Middle Ages, to the importance and wealth of the written tradition in Latin against that in the vernacular.Peer Reviewe

Creating a Norm for the Vernacular

The article deals with the birth of a linguistic norm in Iceland and Italy. The dis­cussion focuses on four works, which lay the foundations for the discussion of grammar and poetics in their respective vernaculars, namely Dante Alighieri’s De vulgari eloquentia and Convivio for Italian, and the First Grammatical Trea­tise and Snorri Sturluson’s Edda for Icelandic. A parallel between these four works is established, and the view that Latin has been little used in Iceland dur­ing the Middle Ages is challenged, also in accordance with both earlier scholar­ship (Lehmann 1937 and Walter 1976) and recent discoveries (Gottskálk Jensson 2002, 2004, 2009 and Marner 2016). It is argued that Latin is bound to have been used as a language of scholarship in Iceland as it was in Western Europe, although manuscript transmission seldom provides direct evidence in this respect. More­over, a view that takes into account the different weight that Latin as such had in the two different speech communities, Italian and Icelandic, is advocated. This approach rests upon the fact that, whereas in Italy there was an unbroken literary tradition in Latin from Roman times to the Middle Ages, in Ice­land Icelandic was the only language to be used until the Conversion, i.e. until the Latin alphabet was introduced. Thus, it is not surprising that the Icelandic ver­nac­u­lar was held in relatively higher esteem in Iceland, therefore leading to a rel­a­tively earlier and richer literary tradition in that language, whereas in Italy the ver­nac­u­lar had to be first raised in linguistic status in order to be used as literary lan­guage.Peer Reviewe

Jón Ólafsson from Grunnavík and the Icelandic language purism in the first half of the 18th century: A wordlist in ms. AM 1013 4to (fol. 37v)

This article examines aspects of Icelandic linguistic purism in the early 18th century, as revealed in a wordlist compiled by Jón Ólafsson from Grunnavík (1705–1779) and preserved in ms. AM 1013 4to (fol. 37v). After a brief introduction (§ 1), there follows an overview of the development of Icelandic language purism from its late-sixteenth-century origins to the first half of the 18th century (§ 2). The description of Jón Ólafsson’s life which follows (§ 3) highlights his genealogical links with Arngrímur Jónsson the learned (1568–1648), a pioneering figure in the purism movement. The next section (§ 4) explores the wordlist itself and is divided into three subsections. The first (§ 4.1) summarises Jón’s linguistic scholarship as a whole. The second (§ 4.2) presents a diplomatic edition of the list and an analysis of eight of its word pairs, which have been chosen for their relevance with respect to their formation and ideological background. The analytical approach adopted describes the words as single lexical units in accordance with the main tenets of loanword studies, and examines the list in the light of language policy and planning studies. The final subsection (§ 4.3) highlights the relationship between the wordlist and Jón Ólafsson’s most important work, i.e. the Icelandic dictionary (AM 433 fol.). The last section (§ 5) summarises the main points of the article and sets them within the context of pre-1750 Icelandic language purism. It will be argued that Jón Ólafsson’s work is of paramount importance in the development of Icelandic purist attitudes, both lexically, because of its close relationship with the principles set out by Arngrímur Jónsson in his Crymogæa, and in terms of the later history of the movement.Peer ReviewedRitrýnt tímari

Creating a Norm for the Vernacular

The article deals with the birth of a linguistic norm in Iceland and Italy. The dis­cussion focuses on four works, which lay the foundations for the discussion of grammar and poetics in their respective vernaculars, namely Dante Alighieri’s De vulgari eloquentia and Convivio for Italian, and the First Grammatical Trea­tise and Snorri Sturluson’s Edda for Icelandic. A parallel between these four works is established, and the view that Latin has been little used in Iceland dur­ing the Middle Ages is challenged, also in accordance with both earlier scholar­ship (Lehmann 1937 and Walter 1976) and recent discoveries (Gottskálk Jensson 2002, 2004, 2009 and Marner 2016). It is argued that Latin is bound to have been used as a language of scholarship in Iceland as it was in Western Europe, although manuscript transmission seldom provides direct evidence in this respect. More­over, a view that takes into account the different weight that Latin as such had in the two different speech communities, Italian and Icelandic, is advocated. This approach rests upon the fact that, whereas in Italy there was an unbroken literary tradition in Latin from Roman times to the Middle Ages, in Ice­land Icelandic was the only language to be used until the Conversion, i.e. until the Latin alphabet was introduced. Thus, it is not surprising that the Icelandic ver­nac­u­lar was held in relatively higher esteem in Iceland, therefore leading to a rel­a­tively earlier and richer literary tradition in that language, whereas in Italy the ver­nac­u­lar had to be first raised in linguistic status in order to be used as literary lan­guage.Peer Reviewe