Icelandic patronymic pronunciation
I find the pronunciation of Icelandic highly regular and predictable on the whole, but male patronymics continue to puzzle me. The suffix "-son" is consistently pronounced with an initial /ʃ/ rather than /s/, for example here. Also, and possibly related, I'm unable to tell why the "son of Jón" would be written as "Jónsson" rather just "Jónson".
What rules govern the spelling and pronunciation of the initial sound in the "-son" suffix?
Parallels in other North Germanic languages might be interesting, too, as long as they throw some light on modern Icelandic.
1 answer
Regarding the two s in Jónsson, it is consistent across all North Germanic languages. It's simply the genitive case - the father's son.
That is: "Jón's son" rather than "Jón son" (indefinite article). Similarly, you'll have Jónsdóttir (Jón's daughter) and not "Jóndóttir".
From what I can tell (and this is speculation), single s "Jonson" spelling is some manner of Americanization, possibly the meaning of two s got lost along the way when US settlers from the Nordic countries adapted English as their native language.
As for the pronunciation, two s (or two of the same consonant in general) gives a shorter/sharper pronunciation. If not for that, you'd get "Jón son" with a slightly different and nonsensical meaning.
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