Á Borgarfirði eystri - á Borgarfirði eystra

Hvaða orðflokki tilheyrir eystra?

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to explain to which word class eystra with Borgarfjörður e.g in dat. Borgarfirði eystra, belongs? Is it an adjective, the comparative form showing an old declensional form in the oblique case, or an adverb? Both explanations make sense. On the other hand, eystri can only be the comparative form of adjectives in the modern declension which had establised itself in the 18th century at the very latest.

As already said, both explanations of eystra are possible but the former one gets support from many parallelisms in Icelandic where the old declensional form can be used in the oblique cases or not, so there are two possibilities. On the other hand, in the comparative degree form with all ordinary nouns, the development has not been the same because there is only one possibility. The adjectives in question are very few; they are all in the comparative and, as a matter of fact, their positive form is nearly always lacking.

All these morphological developments are analyzed and described i.a. in the light of theories of analogical change proposed by Kurylowicz and Manczak, as well as theories of the status of place names among proper names.