Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1976, Blaðsíða 63

Faroese Bird-Name Origins
VI
By W. B. Lockwood.
Faroese Names for the Little Auk
We refer first to the convincing treatment of fulkohhi, -kuhhi
‘little auk’ by H. Hamre, Fróðskaparrit, xix, 117 ff., where
it is demonstrated that the original form will be fulkuhhi for
*fúlkuhhi lit. ‘stinking lump’. In this connection we may be
forgiven a reference back to our own contribution (Fróð., xvi,
104 ff.) and observe that the lines of development in the case
of imhrimil ‘great northern diver’ from original "'hímhrimi
(Fróð., xx, 43) and of fulkohhi via fulkuhhi from original
*fúlkuhhi are now seen to be exactly parallel. In both cases,
by a secondary shift, a bird name has been brought into asso-
ciation with a seal name. It goes without saying that the reduc-
tion of the originally long vowel in the first element shows
that both words go back into the Middle Ages.
The second welcome step forward is Hamre’s demonstration
that the second element in Far. (SuSuroy) hárafjertur ‘little
auk’, (Fugloy) hárufjertur, -fjarti, -fjarta (Faroese Bird Names,
66) actually means ‘fart’, cf. Norw. baarafjært, synonymous
-fis ‘little auk’ (/. c.). We study matters further in connection
with our previous contribution (Fróð., xviii, 187—7). The Nor-
wegian provenance of these names may now be taken for
granted with the implication that the Norwegian sense ‘little
auk’ will also have been the primary meaning in Faroese —
indeed this is the meaning in the earliest attestation ‘Barufiard’