Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1964, Síða 164

172
Norn in Shetland
pronounced in the English fashion, for example, Lerwick
for Lerek or Leruk (it was once Lóruk), Whalsay for
Hwalsa, Bressay for Bressa, etc. When a Shetlander sees
a place=name written in Norse, he naturally mispronounces
it in English, although the Norse word is ready on his
tongue.
Jakobsen’s phonetics on which he bases his etymology,
are too strict. They are suitable for a pure language like
Norwegian, Faroese or Icelandic, but Shetland has come
under three influences, Norse, Scots, and English. On
occasion he gives phonetic value to an individual idiosyní
crasy or a mere mispronunciation. It was easy for his in*
formants to confuse quite unrelated Scots, English and
Norse words, and still easier to confuse their endings. An
example picked at random is the Old Norse word gaupn;
the hollowed hand, which is given in twentyífive different
phonetic spellings, complicated by three differentlyíspelt
Scotch words. Jakobsen’s explanation is convincing here,
but it is phonetics run riot, Shetland abounds with mala=
propisms, that is, words mispronounced. I have come across
such blatant examples as “chocolate” for sjá*klett and
“cinnamon” for the personal genitive Simunar.
Some of Jakobsen’s “Norse” words will be found in the
Scottish National Dictionary (now publishing), not as
exclusive Shetland words. Northern English, from which
Lowland Scots sprang, came so much under Danish and
Norwegian influence that Scots has a larger proportion of
northern words than English. Jakobsen, quite rightly, in»
dudes everything he can recognise as Norse. After all,
who is to say whether a Shetland placemame element is
Old Norse “hús” or Scots “hoose”.
Jakobsen was too late for the Norn and too early for
comparative placemame material. Only the Introduction
and a few volumes of “Norske Gaardnavne” had been
published, with “Gamle Personnavne” and “Norske Fjord*
navne”. His attempts to relate stream names in Shetland