Íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði - 01.01.2004, Blaðsíða 67

Norn
65
(18) Ja‘rta, bodana komona ro‘ntona Komba
‘My heart (my dear), the boat (a boat) has come round “de
Kaim” [a hill in Foula] ’
Kwata ita?
‘What is that?’
Dæfnajör(n)a
‘Deaf ear!’
Although lexically the language the two men are speaking is Norn,
grammatically it is hardly recognisable as a form of Scandinavian: all
endings have been levelled to -(en)a irrespective of word class or func-
tion.
3.6 Place names
The place-nomenclature of Orkney and Shetland — modem coinages
apart — is almost wholly Scandinavian. Some examples are given in
(19) :
(19)a. typical island names are Foula, Papa Stour, Sanday, Westray,
Whalsay
b. among district names we find Cunningsburgh, Eshaness,
Holm, Sandwick, Stenness
c. farm names include Houseby, Kirbister, Skaill, Setter,
Stovabreck
d. natural features may be called clett, geo, nev, taing, voe, etc.
While place-names can offer only limited insight into the structure of
a language, they are the carriers of considerable amounts of lexical
and phonological information. They have, for example, been used in
attempts to determine from which particular part of western Norway
the ninth-century settlers hailed — not always with persuasive results
(Jakobsen 1928-32:xxxiv-xxxv; Stewart 1987:19-36). Phonologi-
cally the Orkney and Shetland place-names often duplicate the evi-
dence of other sources, but occasionally they provide striking confir-
mation of what these sources only suggest. The most telling example
concerns the change /0/ > /h/ in initial position. There is a hint of this