Ei uturvande lengjing av vokalen fyre burtfallen h etter r og l i nordisk

Abstract

In earlier scholarship on the older Nordic languages, it has been common to allow for a sporadic lengthening of the vowel before a Proto-Nordic h that is lost after r and l. This is supposed to be a case of so-called compensatory lengthening, where the lengthening of the vowel is caused by the loss of the consonant. This process is thought to have been carried through consistently in some words (e.g., svíri, fóli), but only optionally in others (e.g., fura/fúra, fyri/fýri). Important exponents for this view were the philologists Hugo Pipping and Adolf Noreen. Through a thorough examination of their evidence, based in particular on Old Norse metre and manuscript readings, this article argues that the lengthening rule is superfluous and uneconomical, and that this type of compensatory lengthening, caused by a consonant that was not adjacent to the vowel, most likely never took place in the older Nordic languages.