Note to Anon (TGT) 6^III

[All]: Óláfr’s use of snarpr ‘rough, harsh, aspirated’ (for Lat. asper) in the preceding prose is ambiguous: the term is used of the word þurrum ‘dry’ (TGT 1927, 24), perhaps regarding the voiceless fricative <þ>, and later applied to hraustr ‘brave’, horskr ‘wise’ and the letter <h> (TGT 1927, 35). The present section on collisiones has no corresponding text in Donatus, but is elaborated in Hiberno-Latin commentaries in very different ways. The closest identifiable source for the present context is Sedulius Scottus (CCCM 40B, 334): Collisiones sunt, cum asperae consonantes in constructione sibi occurunt, ut est illud ‘si iuret auriga per lora, per flagella, per frena’ ‘Clashes occur when harsh [asperae] consonants occur in the same construction, as it is: si iuret auriga per lora, per flagella, per frena’. A broader sense for snarpr/asper, i.e. ‘harsh-sounding, difficult to pronounce’ (cf. TGT 1884, 322: asper) must be meant here. In Sedulius the collisiones may be in the consonant clusters -r fl- and -r fr- and in the present stanza -t b- in brot beggja and/or -ðr str- in brúðr strykvinna. Ms. W omits snarpir and SnE 1848-87, III (using W’s reading) suggests the collision is of -ðr str-.

References

1. Bibliography
2. TGT 1884 = Björn Magnússon Ólsen, ed. 1884. Den tredje og fjærde grammatiske afhandling i Snorres Edda tilligemed de grammatiske afhandlingers prolog og to andre tillæg. SUGNL 12. Copenhagen: Knudtzon.
3. SnE 1848-87 = Snorri Sturluson. 1848-87. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar: Edda Snorronis Sturlaei. Ed. Jón Sigurðsson et al. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Legatum Arnamagnaeanum. Rpt. Osnabrück: Zeller, 1966.
4. CCCM = [Anonymous] Corpus Christianorum. 1971-. Continuatio mediaevalis. Turnhout: Brepols.
5. TGT 1927 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1927b. Óláfr Þórðarson: Málhljóða- og málskrúðsrit. Grammatisk-retorisk afhandling. Det kgl. Danske Videnskabernes Selskab. Historisk-filologiske meddelelser 13, 2. Copenhagen: Høst.