Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1971, Page 119

Faroese Bird Name Origins
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what is common in these respects to the species concerned.
If it is to be the colour, we object that four species less alike
couild scarcely be contemplated, or if it be the call, we submit
that the same objection is equally valid.
The philology of the above-mentioned duck name has been
treated in some detail (FBN, 10f., 20, Fróðskaparrit, xiii, 51f.)
and there can be not the slightest doubt that our Norse names
of this duok are ultimately based on spontaneous imitative
forms, having nothing what ev>er to do with Indo-European
roots. By the sarne toíken, these names canmot under any
circumstances be genetically conneoted with ON alka, to the
philology of which we may now turn.
We first consider whether this name is likely to be of ono-
matopoeic origin at all, i. e. does the voice of the razorbill
suggest a sound like alka or (if for the sake of argument we
accept the theory of a &-suffix) the above postulated base
':'ala-i With one accord the ornithological handbooks tell us
that the razorbill utters low guttural cries, as seems duly re-
flected in various onomatopoeic names. Characteristic examp-
les inolude Welsh dial. aron (M. Parry, Enwau Adar, 26) and
Eng. dial. murre, marrott (from Cornwall and Scotland respec-
tively, cf. C. Swainson, Provincial Names of British Birds,
218).
Having observed that many of its names are of onoma-
topoeic origin, one is then surprised to learn that the razorbill
is a rather silent bird. However, further enquiry into natural
history explains the apparent contradiction. Razorbills con-
sort with their near relatives, the more numerous and much
noisier guillemots. The two species are close enough in ap-
pearance to be indistinguishable at some little distance and
their cries are not dissimilar. Inevitably their names very often
become confused and, as the ornithological facts would suggest,
it is usually the name of the more prominent guillemot which
extends to the less conspicuous razorbill, e. g. Sc. Gael. langach
‘guillemot, razorbill’, a (naturalised) loan from ON langve
‘guillemot’. It is therefore likely that an onomatopoeic name