The spelling of the best Old Icelandic manuscripts

The orthography of Jón Þorkelsson

Abstract

Icelandic orthography was in flux at the beginning of the 19th century but scholars like Rasmus Kr. Rask and later Konráð Gíslason and Halldór Kr. Friðriksson put forth orthographical rules, either based on etymological principles or on the modern pronunciation of Icelandic. Aft er fi erce debates the former school won in the second part of the 19th century. This article describes the orthography of a 19th-century Icelandic scholar, Jón Þorkelsson (1822–1904). He was the rector of the only college in Iceland, Lærði skólinn (Reykjavik Grammar School) and a respected Nordic scholar and lexicologist. In this paper I investigate Jón Þorkelsson’s spelling in his various writings in the later part of the 19th century, esp. æ/oe, -r/-ur and the simplifi cation in spelling of long consonant  before other consonants, and make a case that his spelling was neither based on etymological nor pronunciation principles, but rather on the spelling of the best Old Icelandic manuscripts. This shows how important Icelandic medieval manuscripts were in the standardization of Modern Icelandic spelling in the 19th century.