First Grammatical Treatise

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The First Grammatical Treatise is an anonymously-authored 12th century work on the phonology of the Old Norse or Old Icelandic language. It was given this name because it is the first of four grammatical works bound in the Icelandic manuscript Codex Wurmianus.

The First Grammatical Treatise was of great interest to some mid-20th century linguists, since it systematically used the technique of minimal pairs to establish the inventory of distinctive sounds or phonemes in the Icelandic language, in a manner reminiscent of the methods of structural linguistics. It is also notable for revealing the existence of a whole series of nasal vowel phonemes, whose presence in the Icelandic language of the time would otherwise be unknown.

[edit] Significance

This work is one of the earliest written works in Icelandic (and actually in any North Germanic language). It is a grammatical work dealing with Old Norse, in the tradition of Latin and Greek grammatical treatises, generally dated to the late 12th century, though some have dated it to the early 13th because many authors have wanted to attribute it to Snorri Sturluson.

The Treatise is important for the study of Old Norse, as it is a major text showing the state of the language just prior to the age of the Norse Sagas. It also provides a comprehensive study of both the grammar, as seen by the speakers of the language themselves, and the pronunciation of the language, to the extent that it created an Icelandic alphabet derived from the Latin, and more adapted to writing on paper or parchment than the older, epigraphic Runic alphabet that was made for shorter carvings on wood or stone. This alphabet included þ (derived straight from the runes) and ð as well as diacritic indication of vowel length and a "buckled o", at the time an independent phoneme, but by now merged with Ö. See Icelandic alphabet.