An Elementary Grammar of the Old Norse or Icelandic Language
George Bayldon
The varied and vigorous literature of ancient Scandinavia will amply repay the student for the labour which he can bestow upon it, and to facilitate his acquisition of the language in which it is embodied is the object of this work. With this view, I have aimed at the utmost brevity consistent with completeness and precision, avoiding all those elaborate details which can only interest the advanced scholar. Stating merely those rules which must necessarily be mastered, I have endeavoured through simplicity of arrangement and a practical system to present the general structure of the Icelandic tongue before the learner's eye, so that with ordinary application it will be easily comprehended; particularly by him who possesses the advantage of an acquaintance with some of its cognate branches. Wherever rules are laid down, they are so enforced by analogous examples selected from standard authorities, with a correct translation of the passages, as to show both the proper application of them, and the right meaning of the sentences.
The earliest poetry and historical sagas of the North furnish exhaustless sources of intellectual pleasure to the antiquarian and philologist. The traditions of Iceland, carried into that island by emigrants from the Scandinavian peninsula soon after its discovery, and imperishably preserved by them in written documents, are so closely connected with the history of Northern Europe as to render a knowledge of it incomplete without them. Many of the skalds travelled in foreign lands before the twelfth century, and as they were nobles and warriors, they were received by the kings, to whom they were often related, as friends and councillors; thus on their return to their native land they brought with them much historical matter which, since the Roman characters had been introduced with the Christian religion, was committed to writing. The value of some of these documents to English history is considerable, and besides confirming or adding to our stock of facts during its darkest period, they afford us very interesting views of the state of society, and of the manners and mode of living of the age in which they were composed (adapted from the preface).(Originally published 1870 in London).
Contents: ORTHOGRAPHY (Letters and Pronunciation. Consonants. Accentuation. Vowel-change). ETYMOLOGY (The Article. The Noun. Of the Adjective. Of Pronouns. The Numerals and their Inflections. Verbs. Uninflected Words. Particles. Adverbs. Prepositions. Conjunctions. Interjections. Formation of Words. Prefixes. Affixes. Composition). SYNTAX (Of Nouns, Adjectives, and Pronouns. On the Verbs. On the Particles. Of Ellipses). PROSODY (Alliteration. Assonances. Rhyme. Of the different kinds of Verse).
ISBN 9783862887187. LINCOM Gramatica 199. 139pp. 2016.