Pronominal address in Icelandic

From You-Two to You-All

Bibliographic Data

ID2853441
AuthorsEinar Haugen (Harvard University Press, corresponding author)
Year1975
Volume4
Issue3
Pages323-339
Publication date1975-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLanguage in Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0047-4045 • E-ISSN: 1469-8013
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0047404500006709
OpenAlexW2118207350
LanguageEN
Citations received10
References cited22

The conservatism of modern Icelandic is a bromide so well worn that it is refreshing now and then to be reminded that Icelandic has in fact changed from that Old Norwegian which the settlers brought with them in the ninth century, and that it is not, in the words of a recent writer, 'eine versteinerte Sprachform' (Décsy 1973: 48). One striking change, which involves phonological, morphological, syntactic, and sociolinguistic problems, is that of the dual and plural pronouns of the first and second persons. Succinctly stated: ON vit 'we' dual and pit 'you' dual have become við 'we' plural and pið 'you' plural, while ON vér 'we' plural and pér 'you' plural have become 'we' honorific and 'you' honorific. A systematic shift of meaning has affected both pronouns, eliminating the dual meaning in favor of the plural, and the plural in favor of the honorific singular

Art · Dual (grammatical number) · Epistemology · Honorific · Icelandic · Linguistics · Literature · Meaning (existential) · Norwegian · Plural · Gender Studies in Language · History · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Linguistics and language evolution · Philosophy

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