Nordica Helsingiensia 54 PRELITERARY SCANDINAVIAN SOUND CHANGE VIEWED FROM THE EAST UMLAUT REMODELLED AND LANGUAGE CONTACT REVISITED Johan Schalin (med utförlig resumé på svenska) ACADEMIC DISSERTATION AKADEMISK AVHANDLING to be publicly discussed, by due som med tillstånd av Humanistiska permission of the Faculty of Arts fakulteten vid Helsingfors universitet at the University of Helsinki in framlägges till offentlig gransk- lecture hall 5, University Main ning i universitetets huvudbyggnad, Building (Fabianinkatu 33), on the sal 5 (Fabiansgatan 33) tisdagen 11th of September, 2018 at 12 o’clock. den 11 september 2018 kl. 12. _______________________________________________________________________ Nordica Department of Finnish, Finno- Finskugriska och Ugrian and Scandinavian Studies nordiska avdelningen University of Helsinki Helsingfors universitet 2018 © 2018 Johan Schalin, with publishers of original papers and the Department of Finnish, Finno-Ugrian and Scandinavian Studies, University of Helsinki. This book is number 54 in the series Nordica Helsingiensia, published by the Department of Finnish, Finno-Ugrian and Scandinavian Studies, University of Helsinki. Denna bok utgör nummer 54 i publikationsserien Nordica Helsingiensia. Publisher/Utgivare: Finskugriska och nordiska avdelningen Nordica PB 24 (Unionsgatan 40) FIN-00014 Helsingfors universitet Finland Printed in Finland by Unigrafia, Helsinki 2018 Tryck: Unigrafia, Helsingfors 2018 ISSN 1795-4428 ISBN 978-951-51-4386-0 (paperback/hft) ISBN 978-951-51-4387-7 (PDF) UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI, Faculty of Arts Department of Finnish, Finno-Ugrian and Scandinavian Studies Scandinavian languages Johan Schalin, 2018. Preliterary Scandinavian sound change viewed from the east: Umlaut remodelled and language contact revisited. Abstract In this compilation thesis the author pursues an improved diachronic phonological understanding of reconstructed pre-documentary Scandinavian language, with more in-depth consideration given to its vowel history, its eastern vernaculars and the lexical traces of contact with Finnic. Some of the main findings, notably those concerning the umlauts and the history of contrast in the vowel system, have implications for earlier Germanic vowel history beyond the study of Scandinavian. In the first paper, sound substitutions are systematically examined in Finnic borrowings of eastern Scandinavian appellatives that contained a descendant of the Proto-Scandinavian diphthong ai. It is shown that the occurrences in these borrowings of common Finnic ai, äi, ei and Estonian õi are not very useful to verify a Proto- Scandinavian chronology of the Scandinavian diphthong assimilation ai > æi > ei. In the borrowings *lëikka- ‘cut’, *këikku- ‘sway, teeter’ and *këit- ‘isthmus, embank- ment, demarcation’ a Late Proto-Finnic velar diphthong *ëi is reconstructed, which reflects a sound substitution earlier than the umlaut period. Clarity is sought regarding the features of the Scandinavian ‘palatal r’, a fricative which is argued not to have been palatal and hardly trilled. The focus in the second paper is on toponyms in present-day southern Finland, the etymologies of which have been claimed to represent borrowings between Finnic and Scandinavian from the Viking Age or earlier. An understanding of how phonological development of toponyms differs from that of appellatives is accounted for and a number of etymologies are evaluated against the best available knowledge of sound history and substitution practices. For example, the Swedish Kjulo (cf. Finnish Köyliö & Kiulo) is concluded to be a borrowing from the Early Finnish *Keül-, while the Old East Scandinavian *Tafæistaland is deemed to be autochthonous. Some light is shed on the nature of contacts between language communities, including the chronological and spatial context where such contacts may have occurred. In the third paper, a book chapter prepared with the cooperation of Frog, phono- logical and other arguments are invoked to discuss the oldest toponyms along the sea routes in present-day Åland, aiming to place them in their chronological context. New arguments are proposed to clarify a case emanating from a work by Lars Hellberg (1987), that a few of the oldest toponyms in the Åland archipelago might belong to a stratum of seafaring names, which can plausibly be dated according to the eastern route of the Viking Age. These would include Hammarland, Lemböte, Lemland, Lumparland and Åland, and possibly Styrsö, Järsö and Slemmern. The etymology of Åland and corresponding Finnish Ahvenanmaa is discussed at length and a new solution sought with this perspective. The Finnish word reitti < Early Finnish ‘(sea) route, path’ may have been borrowed in this era. In the journal article which constitutes the fourth paper, the research situation concerning i-umlaut is scrutinised and, based on internal reconstruction, the defectiveness of previous attempts to explain the distribution of fronting in the vocabulary is illustrated. In the paper, ill-fitting data are reconfigured to facilitate a phonological explanation for why ‘front umlaut’ (term preferred over “palatal umlaut” or “front mutation”) occurs variably in light-stem paradigms, even when least expected, as in the feminine abstracts in *-iþu (cf. Old Swedish dygþ ‘virtue’). A genuinely novel solution is proposed, based on the assumption that the contrast between Pre-Germanic */i/ and */e/ was upheld, not only in main stressed syllables, but also in syllables of relative prominence. A chain shift affecting the descendants of the proto-vowels is postulated and verified by their alterability in main stressed syllables when targeted by rounding umlauts and breaking. The same distinction and chain shift applied to trigger vowels and only descendants of Pre-Germanic */e/ triggered a front umlaut unconditionally. The overall aim of the fifth paper, also published as a journal article, is to pursue an adequate diachronic phonological analysis of pre-documentary Scandinavian umlaut and breaking. It tackles the problem of whether vocalic breaking, front umlaut and rounding umlaut may be described using the Contrastive Hierarchy Theory within a single coherent analysis of initially metaphonic regressive feature spreading. Expla- nations are given for cases where alleged anomalies occur in the distribution of vocalic breaking, front umlaut and rounding umlaut in Old Scandinavian vocabulary, whenever a short trigger vowel in a light second syllable had followed another light main stressed target syllable (CV.CV.-). These explanations are achieved by postu- lating a vowel system in such triggering positions, which was different from the system sustained by fully reduced syllables. It also describes a plausible chronology for those changes to the vowel system that were induced by umlaut and syncope. In the last section of the summary chapter, results attained in the papers are selectively compared and synthesised and some of their implications are highlighted. Topics discussed in further detail are the phonologisation of umlaut vowels and the features of the pre-documentary Scandinavian ‘palatal r’ (*z > z/ʀ > r). Implications that the theoretical analysis of papers [P4] and [P5] may have for the prehistory of Scandinavian dialect geography are illustrated and the close relation between East and West Scandinavian, seemingly leaving out Gutnish and Övdalian, is explained. An apparent plunge in the intensity of Scandinavian-Finnic lexical borrowing is placed in the same spatial and chronological context, which may be interpreted as examples of linguistic consequences of the climate disaster in the decade beginning in 536 CE. The five papers, each with different aims and methodology, have been published for different purposes. They all use diverse and imperfect evidence to improve phono- logical reconstruction and, where possible, etymologies. All papers concern sound systems during the millennium between the third and the thirteenth centuries CE and many relate to sound substitutions in borrowings between Finnic and Scandinavian languages. Recurrently, methodological issues are critically scrutinised. KEYWORDS: Proto-Scandinavian, Proto-Nordic, Old Swedish, Old Gutnish, Old Norse, Övdalian, diachronic linguistics, historical phonology, umlaut, front mutation, contrastive feature hierarchies, Finnic, Baltic-Finnic, loanwords, sound substitution HELSINGIN YLIOPISTO, Humanistinen tiedekunta Suomalais-ugrilainen ja pohjoismainen osasto Pohjoismaiset kielet Johan Schalin, 2018. Preliterary Scandinavian sound change viewed from the east: Umlaut remodelled and language contact revisited. (Skandinaavisten kielten äännehistoria esikirjalliselta ajalta itäisessä katsannossa. Uusi mallinnus umlautista ja uudelleenarviointi kielikontaktista) Tiivistelmä Tässä artikkeliväitöskirjassa tutkitaan skandinaavisten kielten äännehistoriaa ja näiden kielten kontakteja itämerensuomalaisiin kieliin 200-luvulta 1200-luvulle jKr. sekä sellaista aiheeseen liittyvää paikannimistöä, joka tukee muita tutkimuskysymyksiä. Historiallisen äänneopin keinoin ja itämerensuomeen lainattujen sanojen äänneasua hyödyntäen tavoitellaan täsmällisempää analyysiä esikirjallisen skandinaavin äänne- järjestelmästä ja sen muutoskuluista. Tutkimus esittää myös uusia päätelmiä kanta- skandinaavin vanhimmasta murrejaosta ja siinä 500-luvulta alkaen tapahtuneista muutoksista, joita varoen ehdotetaan yhdistettäväksi suureen vuonna 536 alkavaan ilmastokatastrofiin. Vuosikymmenen ajan jatkuvista katovuosista kärsi koko pohjoinen