Page:An Icelandic-English Dictionary - Cleasby & Vigfusson - 1874.djvu/24

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A. STRONG NOUNS, i.e. the more complex kind of Declension in which the gen. sing. ends in a Consonant.

B. WEAK NOUNS, i.e. the simpler kind of Declension in which the gen. sing. ends in a Vowel.

Remarks on the 1st Declension:I. heimr: words of this form are found almost in every column of the Dictionary, and are therefore usually only marked ‘m.’2. about half a score of masculine have a characteristic v, which appears before a vowel, hör-r, hjör-r, bör-r (poët.), söng-r, má-r, sæ-r, snjá-r (sjó-r, snjó-r), sör-var (poët., pl.); in dat. sing. hör-vi,...söng-vi, má-vi, sæ-vi, snjá-vi; in pl. hör-var, söng-var, snjó-var. The dat. in -vi is now obsolete, but the pl. is still used.3. remarks on the inflexion,α. the nominative: -r assimilates with the final radicals l, n, s: in words with long root vowel, ál-l, gál-l, hvál-l, hól-l, kjól-l, stól-l, fíl-l, hæl-l, þræl-l, flein-n, stein-n, svein-m, brún-n, dún-n, hún-n, ás-s, bás-s, lás-s, ás-s ... ós-s is dropped, as is the -r after a radical r, in ár-r, aur-r, hver-r, her-r, geir-r, leir-r, hör-r, mör-r, Þór-r, hamar-r, and thus the nom. becomes like the acc., ás, bás, ... ár, hver, hamar, etc.:—the r is dropped, in words like afl, gafl, skafl, nagl, vagl, fugl, karl, jarl, jaxl, lax, hrafn, stafn, ofn, stofn, þorn, vagn, svefn, þegn, geisl, gísl, háls, fress, sess, foss, koss, kross, þurs, dans, fans, angr, klungr, hungr, akr, hafr, sig, otr, lúðr, hrúðr, naðr, nykr, veðr (wether), vikr, gróðr, aldr, Baldr, galdr, öldr, meldr, arðr, hlátr, bólster, austr, lestr, bakstr, mokstr, apaldr.β. the genitive; graut-r, skóg-r, höfund-r have -ar in gen. as the 2nd declension.γ. the dative; some words of this declension drop the -i, but it is difficult to draw an exact line, as this use is rather a license than a law:—all the words in -leik-r, kær-leik (charitati), frið-leik (venustati), sann-leik (veritati); as also leik-r, fíl-l, kíl-l, skríl-l, (dat. fíl, kíl, skríl), hrepp-r, lepp-r: words with long root vowel and a final p or f, hóf-r, hóp-r, sóp-r: words with ei as root vowel, dat. hleif, Hm. 51 (but hleif-i, 140); sveip, meis, sveig, dverg (but dvergi, Ýt. 2), strák, snáp, skáp, bát, and bát-i (scapbae); Þór, kór, flór, bor, hor, from Þór-r, etc.; daun (odori), dún, Brún, hún, múl, múr, dúr, etc. for dún-i ... dúr-i, which are obsolete; so also búk and búk-i, dúk and dúk-i, múg and múg-i, reit and reit-i: those with a long vowel as final, e.g. jó, skó, ná, Frey, þey, from jó-r ... þey-r:—in masculine with a characteristic v the old dat. form is -vi, whereas the mod. drops both letters, thus dat. mör, hör, má, snjó, for the old mör-vi, hör-vi, má-vi, snjó-vi. Nouns with the inflexive endings -ingr, -ungr seldom drop the i, konung-i, búning-i: words with a radical r never, e.g. galdr-i, aldr-i, not aldr, galdr: the proper names of this declension very seldom drop it, e.g. Þorleif-i, Þorlák-i, Þorleik-i: dag-r, dat. deg-i, but as pr. name Dag. In old writers many of these apocopate forms begin to appear, e.g. Þór-i (the god) is only found in a single instance used by a poet of the 8th century; yet the decay of the dat. inflexion is a little