Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1964, Page 4

12 The Personal Impact of Jakobsen in Shetland and Orkney
Mr Nicolson told me that it was while giving him one
of his first lessons that Jakobsen realised for the first time
the big difference there is between the East and West sides
of Shetland in the pronunciation of the vowel ø. Jakobsen
was surprised to find Nicolson perfectly able to pronounce
y in the Scandinavian way, instead of finding it difficult,
and yet not only quite unable to pronounce ø properly
(instead of finding it easy), but steadily pronouncing it
like y. Yet Jakobsen knew that plenty of other Shetlanders
pronounced ø quite naturally in their own speech. The
explanation was that Nicolson belonged to the West Side.
This difference in pronunciation still prevails today.
When in 1929 and 1930 under the inspiration of Poul
Niclasen contact between Faroe and Shetland was renewed
socially and in sport, a group of young men, of whom I
was one, resolved to take up the study of Danish in order
to foster the contact as much as possible. The man we
went to for help was William Ratter, mentioned above,
who for several winters in his home coached us first in
Danish, then in Norwegian.
This proved to be an unconscious preparation for the
teaching of Norwegian in the Lerwick night school to meet
a local demand created by the Second World War and
greatly increased contact with Norwegians. I was the first
teacher of Norwegian, for one winter, in the Lerwick night
school, and in my class were two British Army security
men whose duty it was to deal with Norwegian refugees.
Norwegian has been a regular subject in the Lerwick
night school ever since, usually taught by a Norwegian,
as at present.
One of the two Army security men who started to learn
Norwegian as described above, an Englishman named
Ronald Popperwell, continued to study it to such purpose
that he is now Lecturer in Norwegian in Cambridge Uni*
versity.
All this may appear to be a digression, but I put it on