Icelandic/Old Norse: merger of 1/3sg. preterite forms
Discussion in 'Etymology, History of languages and Linguistics
(EHL)' started by Gavril, Feb 3, 2012.    1. Gavril Senior
Member      English, USA     In Old Norse, the weak preterite
had distinct forms for the 1sg. and 3sg.:      ek sagða "I said"
vs. hann sagði "he said"      In modern Icelandic, the same verb
form is used for both persons (ég/hann sagði).      At what
point are these two forms thought to have merged? Could the
merger have been due to analogy with the strong preterite, in
which I think the 1/3sg. have historically been the same (as in,
for ex., ON ek/hann naut "I/he enjoyed", ek/hann dreif "I/he
drove")?   2. Merkurius Senior Member      Well most changes
(even though they were only few) took place around 1500 when so
called Siðaskiptin happened in Iceland. I would say these
changes happened around 1200-1500. I recommend reading (at least
trying to read) the following article. Even though it doesn't
completely answer your question.