segja

Forms

segja (singular past indicative sagði, plural past indicative sǫgðu, past participle sagðr) (weak)^[1] Present segi, segir, past sagði, past plural sǫgðu, past subjunctive segði, imperative seg, past participle sagðr;^[2] Cleasby and Vigfússon also note a present segr and doubtful forms sagat, sagaðr.^[2] Runic spellings: sæhia on a Bergen rune stick,^[3] sehþi and sahþi for sagði.^[4][5] Some manuscripts of the poetry have seggja;^[6] Finnur Jónsson takes it for a younger formation.^[6]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *sagjaną (“to say”),^[1][7][8] which also gave Old English secġan, Old Frisian sedza, Old Saxon seggian and Old High German sagēn.^[7][9][10]

Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon finds the inflection irregular, a mixture of two classes of weak verbs, and sets up Proto-Germanic *sagwēn beside a present *sag(w)jō;^[11] Falk and Torp likewise derive the infinitive from *sagēn and the present from *sagjō.^[12] De Vries cites Mezger's study of the verb as an old weak verb of the first class.^[13]

The verb is usually traced to Proto-Indo-European *sekʷ- (“to say”),^[1][10] the root of Lithuanian sèkti (“to tell”), Ancient Greek ἐννέπω (ennépō, “to tell, relate”) and Latin inquam (“I say”);^[11][13] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon calls the origin not fully certain.^[11] De Vries suggests that the root may have meant “to see, to show” before “to say”, which would connect it with sjá (“to see”);^[13] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon also allows a link with that verb and seggr (“man, warrior”), from *sokʷ-.^[11] Wiktionary derives the Germanic verb from an iterative *sokʷ-éye-ti or a stative formation.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

IcePaHC's first token of the verb is sagði in the Icelandic Homily Book, which it dates 1150,^[14] and Menota's oldest dated texts with it are the Norwegian fragments NRA norr fragm 81 A and B of 1150–1250, with segir and segja.^[15][16] A Bergen rune stick that Rundata dates to about 1170 already uses it in a private message: kann ek segja þér, sem þú mant reyna af mér “I can tell you, as you will learn from me”.^[3] Rundata normalises the Rök stone's sakum (800s) as a form of the verb, but gives the form to another lemma as well, so it does not date the word.^[17]

Semantic evolution

The basic sense is “to say, to tell”, with a person told in the dative and the thing in the accusative; impersonal segir “it is told” is the usual formula of saga narrative.^[18][19] In the laws segja is the verb of formal statements: to declare, to bring a charge (segja sǫk), to give a judgement, and the lawspeaker's recital of the law (segja lǫg, segja upp lǫg).^[20][18][21] With prepositions and adverbs it forms many phrasal verbs: segja frá “to relate”, segja fyrir “to foretell, to prescribe”, segja til “to inform of”, segja upp “to proclaim; to give notice of an end”.^[18]

The verb lives on as Icelandic segja and Faroese siga, and in Swedish säga and Danish sige.^[11] Hellquist explains the Swedish g as an analogical restoration in a form that had become säja.^[22]

Timeline

• 1150 – sagði in the Icelandic Homily Book, by IcePaHC's dating.^[14]
• 1150–1250 – segir, segja in the Norwegian fragments NRA norr fragm 81 A and B.^[15][16]
• c. 1170 – sæhia on a Bergen rune stick, by Rundata's dating.^[3]
• c. 1200 – sehþi “said” on the Danish inscription DR 373.^[4]
• 1200–1225 – segja, sagði, segisk in the Icelandic manuscript AM 677 4to.^[23]
• 1400s – sagði on the Gotland inscriptions G 336 and G 337.^[24][25]

Meanings

Verb

1. to say, to tell; impersonal segir “it is told”.^[18][19]
2. to call, to name someone something (segja e-n þjóf “to call someone a thief”).^[19][21]
3. to declare solemnly, in an oath.^[18]
4. (law) to declare formally: to bring a charge, to give a judgement, to recite the law, to declare oneself in or out of a community.^[18][20]
5. to signify, to mean.^[18]
6. with prepositions: segja frá to relate;^[18] segja fyrir to foretell or prescribe;^[18] segja til to inform of;^[18] segja upp to proclaim, to give notice of an end.^[18]
7. segjask: to say of oneself, to declare oneself.^[18]

Descendants

• Icelandic segja^[1]
• Faroese siga^[1]
• Norwegian Nynorsk seia^[1]
• Old Swedish sæghia^[1]
• Swedish säga^[1]
• Old Danish sæghiæ^[1]
• Danish sige^[1]

Related words

• saga
• sǫgn
• sǫgull

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 518
3. ^ a b c Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. N B535
4. ^ a b Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. DR 373
5. ^ Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. Or Barnes8
6. ^ a b Finnur Jónsson (1931), Lexicon Poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis, 2nd ed., Copenhagen: S. L. Møller, p. 486
7. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 311
8. ^ Köbler, Gerhard, Altnordisches Wörterbuch, online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary database copy)
9. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 9388
10. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
11. ^ a b c d e Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. segja
12. ^ Falk, Hjalmar; Torp, Alf (1910–1911), Norwegisch-dänisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg, p. s.v. sige
13. ^ a b c de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 467
14. ^ a b Wallenberg, Joel C.; Ingason, Anton Karl; Sigurðsson, Einar Freyr; Rögnvaldsson, Eiríkur, Icelandic Parsed Historical Corpus, version 0.9
15. ^ a b Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. NRA norr fragm 81 A
16. ^ a b Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. NRA norr fragm 81 B
17. ^ Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. Ög 136
18. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. segja
19. ^ a b c Baetke, Walter (1965–1968), Wörterbuch zur altnordischen Prosaliteratur, Berlin (digital ed. Greifswald 2006), p. 521
20. ^ a b Hertzberg, Ebbe (1895), Glossarium, in Norges gamle Love indtil 1387, vol. 5, Christiania, p. 543
21. ^ a b Hægstad, Marius; Torp, Alf (1909), Gamalnorsk ordbok med nynorsk tyding, Kristiania: Det norske samlaget, p. 365
22. ^ Hellquist, Elof (1922), Svensk etymologisk ordbok, Lund, p. s.v. säga
23. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 677 4to
24. ^ Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. G 336
25. ^ Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. G 337