Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1975, Page 23

Faroese Bird-Name Origins
31
tjaldr, and indeed such affiliation is virtually enjoined upon
us by the ornithological facts. It requires no stretch of imagi-
nation to see in the turnstone a miniature oyster-catcher,
especially in flight when the pied pattern of the former be-
comes very distinctive. Moreover, there is the impugnable
testimony of its Faroese and Norwegian names: Far. fjøru-
tjaldur lit. ‘foreshore oyster-catcher’, Norw. sandtjeld lit. £sand
oyster-catcher’, further the admirably apt Far. tjaldursgræl-
ingur lit. ‘oyster-catcher’s gríelingur’, on this last element see
FBN, 30 f. We therefore propose to regard tildra, tildri as
derivatives of tjaldr and standing in the same relation to it as,
say, Norw. spildra ‘piece, strip (of wood)’ to spjald. In this
context we recall the Orkney form chaldro (above) which can
go back to ON *tjaldra or *tjaldri, postulates comparable to
the modern Icelandic forms under discussion.
In conclusion, it will not be entirely irrelevant to mention
Eng. teal, Middle Eng. tele, and the synonymous derivatives
in Low Ger. teling, Dutch taling, Frisian tjilling. The philology
of the continental words has recently been clarified by W. J.
Buma, 17s Wurk (1974), 91—93, and his findings enable us to
identify an onomatopoeic base of the same type as postulated
above for ON tjaldr, cf. next TPS. This is not to imply
that the assumed Scandinavian and West Germanic roots are
related in the strictly genetic sense. They are doubtless inde-
pendent, arising at different times, but owing their origin to
the same basic principle.
ÚRTAK
1 greinini eru blandað uppískoyti til ymist, sum høvundurin hevur áður
skrivað um føroysk fuglanøvn.
Sýnt verður, at krypilsont merkti upprunaliga ‘krikont’ (Anas crecca).
Noa-navnið stálkoka ‘kráka’ verður greint sum merkingarliga javnsett við
hitt sammerkta blábøka og sýnt verður, at súla er serlig nýtsla av orðinum
í upprunamerking síni ‘eitthvørt klovið’. Tjaldur verður tulkað sum fornt
ljóðherminavn, av einum stovni ■•'tel-, og fsl. tildra ‘tjaldursgrælingur’ sum
avleiðsla. Skyldur stovnur er eisini funnin í enskum teal ‘krikont’.