Íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði - 01.01.2004, Page 61

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dialects) may have been largely replaced by Scots (see below). The
principal sources are the following:
(7) a. an Orkney Lord’s Prayer published by Wallace (1700:68-9; no
manuscript exists and the printed version therefore represents
the primary text)
b. a Shetland Lord’s Prayer
c. a list of thirty words from Shetland
d. a thirty-five stanza ballad from Shetland
The last three were collected by George Low in 1774 and are found in
the manuscript of his A Tour through the Islands of Orkney and
Schetland (printed in Low 1879, the texts in question on pp.104—14).
Beyond this there exist only a few isolated snatches of Nom from the
period when it can be supposed still to have been a living language. The
earliest, the Orkney greeting <goand da boundæ> ‘good day sir’, occurs
in a description of the Orkneys written probably in the second half of the
sixteenth century by one “Jo Ben” (Marwick 1929:xxiv, 224).
The Orkney Lord’s Prayer is as follows: 1
(8) Favor i ir i chimrie,
Helleur ir i nam thite,
gilla cosdum thite cumma,
veya thine mota
vara gort o yurn sinna gort i chimrie,
ga vus da on da dalight brow vora,
Firgive vus sinna vora
sin vee Firgive sindara mutha vus,
lyv vus ye i tumtation,
1 In the originals, both the Orkney and the Shetland Lord’s Prayer are given as
prose. It is perhaps of some interest to compare this Orkney text to the oldest pre-
served version of the Lord’s Prayer in Faroese (cf. Evangelium Sankta Matthœussa ...
1823:24); Feájir vaar, tú sum ér ui Himlunun! haillit vœri Navn tuit! Kómi Ruigji tuit!
Skjé tuin Villie, sum ui Himmalinun, so ogsó aa Jorini! Gjév okkun ui Deá okkara
daglia Brei! O forlaad okkun okkara Skjild, sum víd forlaada Skjildnarun okkara! O
lai okkun ikkje inn ui Fruistilse! Men fruja okkun fraa tui Onda! Thui Tuit ér Ruigje
o Méje o Harlihaid ui Evihaid! Omin.