Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1971, Síða 118

126
Faroese Bird Name Origins
cønsiderable relevance for the etymological explanation of the
primary name álka, as we shall soon see.
Álka ‘razorbill’
There is no doubt that here is the Old (West) Norse name
for this well-known species, cf. Icel. álka, New Norw. alke.
The prototype is ON alka (pula, see Fritzner), the antiquity
of which is confirmed by its presence as a loan word in Sc.
Gael. (f)alc and Northern Eng. auk. Swed. alka, Dan. alke are
modern borrowings from West Norse. We ignore here an
alleged Old English cognate ealce, quoted in some works. This
problematic word, of uncertaán meaning, appears in H. Mid-
dendorf, Altenglisches Flurnamenbuch, 1902, whence via Bei-
blatt zur Anglia, xiii, 359, it became incorporated in F. Holt-
hausen, Altengl. etym. Wb., so acquiring an undeserved status.
The etymological dictionaries usually regard the name as of
ancient onomatopoeic origin, occasionally as a term denoting
colour. In illustration of these typical views, it will suffice to
quote from the remarks by De Vries, Altnord. etym. Wb.:
alka ‘meervogel, alca’. . . .mit in Tiernamen gebráuchlichem
■fe-suffix *ala-, *alla~, vgl. aschw. alle, alla, all, ala, al. . ..
nschw. alfagel, nisl. hávella ‘fuligula glacialis’ — kyrnr. alarch
‘schwan’. . . .weiter lat. olor ‘sohwan’, gr. elea ‘sumpfvogøl’,
elorios ‘wandervogel’, mir. ela ‘schwan’, vgl. auoh lat. alcedo,
gr. halkúon ‘eisvogel’ — Unter hinweis auf elptr, glpt, kunn
man auch diese vogelnamen auf eine idg. wzi. ::'o/ ‘farbe-
bezeichung’ .... zuriickfiihren — Man verbindet auch mit
einer homonymen wzl. mit der bedeutung ‘schreien’.
Such argumentation is truly lamentable, if only for the fact
that it whole-heartedly ignores natural history and the prin-
ciples of name giving. If it is to be held that ON alka con-
tains the same root as found in the name of the long-tailed
duck (i e. Swed. alfagel, Icel. hávella — also of course Far.
ógvella) and traceable to other Indo-Buropean languagas, not-
ably in words meaning ‘swan’ and ‘kingfisher’, in reference
either to colour or call, then one is certainly entitled to leam