Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1964, Side 156

164
Norn in Shetland
selves, yet all of them speak the Scots tongue more promptly
and more properly than generally they do in Scotland”.
2. Rev. John Brand (1701), a visiting church organiser,
who saw only the south of Shetland and Lerwick.
“English is the common language among them, yet many
of the people speak Norse or corrupt Danish, especially
such as live in the more northern isles, yea so ordinary it
is in some places that it is the first language their children
speak. Several here also speak good Dutch, even servants,
though they have never been out of the country, because
of the many Dutch ships which do frequent their ports.
And there are some who have something of all these three
languages, English, Dutch and Norse. The Norse hath
continued ever since the Norwegians had these isles in
possession. And in Orkney (as hath been said) it is not
quite extinct, though there be by far more of it in Zetland,
which many do commonly use”.
“It is observable that the names of the descendants of
the old inhabitants differ from the names of others now
numerous among them, for these only have a name without
a surname, save what is taken from their father’s name,
and by adding son or daughter thereunto, exemp. gra.,
Agnes Magnus Daughter, her own name is Agnes, her
father’s is Magnus, to which Daughter is added, which is
the whole denomination or designation under which a
woman goes, so Marion Peters Daughter, Laurehce Johns
Son etc., which they say is yet the Danish way of ex^
pressing and distinguishing names. And for further clearing,
if there be two men or women of the same name, they use
also to design them by the places where they ordinarily
reside, as Agnes Magnus Daughter in Trevister, so that she
may be discriminated from another woman of the same
name living in another place.
3. Sir Robert Sibbald (1711). (A compilation from vari*
ous Shetland informants).
“The natives are known from the incomers by their want