Beyging orða með viðskeytunum -ing og -ung

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Abstract

In this paper, some problems in the history of noun declension will be addressed, i.e. the evolution of feminine nouns formed with -ing and -ung, and the attempt is made to elucidate some of its features.

The main results of this inquiry are as follows. In Medieval Icelandic, words formed with the affix -ing normally had no ending in the accusative, but the ending -u in the dative case. However, from that period we have examples accusatives ending in -u. This indicates that already in that period, the declension in -ing had begun to follow the analogy of the great majority of feminine nouns, where dative and accusative had the same form. Later, this declension became the regular one, albeit with one exception. But until recent times, we have examples of the ancient declension of feminines in -ing. It is to be noted, however, that the most recent examples ar confined to formal or ritualized language use. In the literature, there is no consensus on the idiosyncracies of feminines in -ing and -ung in the medieval language. In the 16th century, however, a difference asserts itself clearly in such a way that the words in -ung have no ending in the dative-accusative, as evidenced by the majority of sources since that period. In the contemporary language, there are indications that the distinction may be obsolescent, that words with the suffixes -ing and -ung might be adopting one and the same declension. The tendency isn't new, as evidenced by written sources.

One important factor in the history of the declension of these nouns seems to be the affixed article. Its presence may have been influential where the ending -u was generalized in the accusative. In this paper, the declensional history is studied century by century, utilizing original sources as well as lexica and dictionaries.