Íslenzk tunga - 01.01.1961, Page 74

HREINN BENEDIKTSSON
Icelandic Dialectology:
Methods and Results*
i
SEVERAL years ago an lcelandic scholar gave a lecture on the samc
subject as this present one, “Icelandic Dialects.” He started by
apologizing for the theme of his lecture, which, he said, he would
never have selected if it had not been suggested to him, since ‘in Ice-
land there are no dialects’.
It is, indeed—or has been—a fairly widespread opinion among Ice-
landers—not only laymen, but even among learned philologists—that
the Icelandic language is completely free from dialects. One of the
reasons for this opinion is undoubtedly the fact that people from any
two parts of the country understand each other without the slightest
difficulty. Another reason, probably, is the general opinion of most
Icelanders that, from the historical point of view, Icelandic is a con-
tinuous, indivisible whole, which has not undergone any noticeable
changes since the period of literary flowering in Iceland in the middle
ages. The alleged historical unity of the language through the ages
naturally leads to the assumption of complete synchronic unity at any
particular time during its development, also at the present time.1 On
* This article is a considerably enlarged version of a lecture delivered in the
University of Oxford on June 5, 1961, under the auspices of the Committee for
Foreign University Interchange.—The present survey owes much to the article
of K.-H. Dahlstedt, “íslenzk mállýzkulandafræði,” Skírnir CXXXIl (1958), pp.
29-63, especially to its rich list of references. Further, for information on several
points, I am indebted to Dr. Jakob Benediktsson, Mr. Ásgeir BI. Magnússon
and Mr. Jón Aðalsteinn Jónsson o( the Modem Icelandic Dictionary in the
University of Iceland.
1 For a short discussion of the general layman view on this matter, see Jón A.
Jónsson, “Lítil athugun á skaftfellskum mállýzkuatriðum,” Ajmœliskveðja lil