O.N. niga; O. Ic. hringr, O.N. ringr; O. Ic. fn appears in O.N. as bn or mn, e.g., O. Ic. nafn, O.N. namn (N.  Norse navn, nabn, namn).  Initial hv, which was a heavy guttural spirant, became kv in Western Norway, kv and khv in Iceland (though written hv still), e.g., O.N., O. Ic. hvelva, Norse kvelva.  O.N. o became oeae in Iceland, doma > doeaema.  O.N. oeaei became ei in Iceland, e.g., O.N. stoeaein > O. Ic. stein, O.N. boeaein > O. Ic. bein (stin and bin in O. Dan.).

  9.  CHARACTERISTICS OF OLD NORTHUMBRIAN.

The following are some of the chief differences between O. Nhb. and W. S: 

  1.  Preference in O. Nhb. for a in many cases where W. S. has e.

  2. A sometimes appears in closed syllable where W.S. has ae.

  3. A before l + consonant is not broken to ea (Sievers
  Sec.121.3, and Lindeloef:  Die Sprache des Durham Rituals).

  4. A before r + consonant very frequently not broken, cp.
  arm, farra.  Breaking occurs more often, however.

  5. E before l + consonant not broken in the Ritual (see
  Lindeloef).

  6. E before r + consonant is broken and appears as either ea
  or eo, cp. eorthe, earthe.

7. A before h, ht, x (hs) becomes oeae.  Sievers Sec.162.1.  In W.S. a was broken to oeea, cp.  O. Nhb. sax, W.S. seax.  This Lindeloef explains as due to the different quality of the h—­in W.S. it was guttural, hence caused breaking; in Nhb. it was palatal and hence the preceding a was palatalized to oeae.

8.  Nhb. umlaut of o is oe[oe].  In W. S. it was e, cp. doe[oe]ma, soe[oe]ca, W. S. d[-e]man, s[-e]can.  See Sievers Sec.Sec.27 and 150.4.  Bouterwek CXXVII, and Lindeloef.  This difference was, however, levelled out, Nhb. oe[oe] becoming also e, according to Sievers.

  9.  Special Nhb. diphthongs ei, ai, cp. heista, seista,
  W.S. hiehsta, siexta.

10.  Influence of preceding w was greater than in the South.  A diphthong whose second element was a dark vowel was simplified generally to a dark vowel (Lindeloef), e.g., weo > wo, wio > wu, cp. weorld > world, weord > word, etc.

  11.  W.S. t is represented quite frequently by eth or d,
  regularly so when combined with l, often so when combined with
  s.  See Lindeloef above.