Plurale stedsnavn, genusskiftet og forklaringsproblemet

English: Plural place-names, the gender shift, and the explanatory problem.

Abstract

The article discusses an unsolved problem in Nordic name research, namely the reason monosyllabic nouns in neuter take the plural suffix -ar or -ir in the nominative and accusative when they appear as topographical words in uncompounded place-names, which implies a transition to feminine or masculine inflection. Most scholars who have tried to explain this phenomenon have pointed to various analogies at the morpholog-ical level. In this article, it is suggested that such a morphological change can best be explained as a prosodic analogy, as a transition from a monosyllabic to a multisyllabic form is taking place, and this is a prosodic structure that, for a place-name, is much more functional and natural.