Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1964, Blaðsíða 158
166
Nom in Shetland
7. Arthur Edmondston, doctor in Unst (1809).
“Zetland has been united to Scotland above three hundred
years; and pure Norse or Norwegian is now unknown in
it. It has long been wearing out; and the change appears
to have begun in the southern extremity, and to have been
gradually extended to the northern parts of the country.
The island of Unst was its last abode, and not more than
thirty years ago several individuals there could speak it
fluently. It was preserved, too, for a considerable length of
time, in Foula, but at present there is scarcely a single
person who can repeat even a few words of it.
“The present Ianguage of the islands is certainly English;
but good English, although well understood, is rarely
spoken. I do not mean this observation to apply to the
accent merely, but to the employment of words, and the
construction and idiom of the English tongue. The common
dialect is a mixture of Norwegian, Scotch, Dutch and
English. There are many words peculiar to Zetland, and
persons versant in the phraseology of the different parishes
would find no difficulty in maintaining a conversation which
would be altogether unintelligible to an Englishman, or
even to a native of the low parts of Scotland.”
8. Christian Ployen, Amtmand in Faroe (1839).
“The language in Shetland is now exclusively English,
but mixed with many words of Norse origin, and which
I would not have easily understood if I had not known the
Faroese tongue. It is on the whole only a poor sort of
English the Shetlanders speak, and they are certainly more
difficult to understand by a native of England than by
a Dane who speaks English. The dialect is moreover diffe*
rent, and in some parts of the country was very difficult
to understand. It is not only the foreign words that make
the Shetland tongue difficult to make out, there is besides
a peculiar accent, a rising and falling of the voice, which
is by no means unpleasant, and which the Faroese also
employ when they talk their own dialect”.