Íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði - 13.07.1981, Page 62

58
M. P. Barnes
4.3 Time Ago
This is a common but very restricted category. Except in one special
case fyri is always accompanied by síðan(i) and between the two words
we find temporal noun phrases (in my material only d0gum, mánaða,
mánaðum, árum, l0tu, tíð, mannaminni). The sense is time past mea-
sured in distance from the present (or occasionally some other point in
time) — English ‘ago’ (contrast 3.9 and 4.4). The síðan(i) is borrowed
from Danish where originally it was part of a separate construction (eg:
mange aar siden ‘many years ago’), identical in meaning with the one
found in all Scandinavian languages introduced by fyri(r), for(e) (eg:
fyrir tveim dögum, forœ mangœ aar) with which it ultimately became
confused to give modem Danish for . . . siden (Falk and Torp 1900:
326-7). A relic of the older common Scandinavian constmction is found
in the two phrases fyri stuttum, fyri kortum (cf. Icelandic fyrir löngu,
fyrir skömmu). Two examples of Time Ago fyri phrases will suffice:
(144) Fyri fjúrtan dpgum síðani varð barlast l0gd í bátin
(145) í Havnar kirkju fekk ein av skaldspgum W.H.’s fyri nógvum
árum síðani skoðsmálifð]: “Lortur og kloakkvatn”
4.4 Time (conjunctional)
There are three examples in my material in which fyri govems the
dative of a personal pronoun and means ‘before’ in a temporal sense:
(146) Tað hevur so mangur góður kríggsmaður fyri mær leikað við
gentum
(147) Hann svór so dýran, sum so mangur hevur gj0rt fyri honum
(148) Bj0m gj0rdi tað, ið aðrir hava gj0rt fyri honum
The reason for the scarcity of such examples seems to be that the
normal way of expressing ‘before me’ etc. (in time) in Faroese is by
means of the conjunctions áðrenn and fyrrenn followed by the nomina-
tive (the rest of the clause having been deleted because it would be
identical with the preceding one). Eg: Jógvan varð liðugur áðrenn (fyrr-
enn) eg. Since it is impossible in Faroese to say *Jógvan varð liðugur
fyri eg (contrast Norwegian: Jon blei ferdig f0r eg), fyri in (146-8) must
be classed as a preposition rather than as a conjunction, although its
function is no different from that of the conjunctions áðrenn, fyrrenn.