Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1982, Page 100

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Faroese Bird-Name Origins
hardly be doubted that this is the older term and therefore,
not surprisingly for a bird name, considerably differentiated
in form both as between Germanic and Slavonic as well as
within the two linguistic groups themselves. Without a doubt
this word goes back to the Old European period. Pr.Gmc.
*swanaz, on the other hand, is seen to be a later, purely Ger-
manic development; it shows only minimal variations in form
in the various descendent languages. We suppose that a name
of this nature most likely arose as a fowler’s term.
Okn ’swan’ and related matters
We recall that Far. okn is a corrupt form which has been
associated with ON álpt, hence the presumed sense ’swan’. In
this connection, we further refer to the toponym Oknadalur.
As explained in FBN, 57f., this name cannot be taken as evi-
dence for okn ’swan’. We now think that, after all, Okna-
must stand for original *Opna-, i.e. with characteristic com-
position vowel from ON opinn ’open’, the name ’Open Dale’
being explained as a dale open at one end, a name applicable
to the three dales in question. We now view the sporadic West
Norse change of p to k in the combinations pn, ps, pt, in a
somewhat different light. The change, evidenced e.g. in Far.
vákn beside original vápn ’weapon’, is certainly ancient having
been present in Viking times, as proved by the earliest datable
occurence (1086 A.D., five times in Domesday Book) Loctus
for literary loptloús ’upper room, etc.’ and also by Sc.Gael. ucas,
ucsa ’mature coalfish’, a loanword from Norse, presupposing
OWN ''uksi beside recorded upsi (W.B.L., Namn och Bygd,
lxvi, 54f., Scottish Gaelic Studies, ix, 128—31). We may there-
fore argue that the change was widespread in the earliest
Faroese; as well known, dale names in the Faroes can be
assumed to go back to the Settlement in the 9th century. In the
event, 'cOpna- was changed to Okna- in spite of its original
transparency etymologically, just as in Loctus above.
It will now be appropriate to consider Far. opna (ON ~)
both as a verb ’(to) open’ and as a noun lit. ’opening’, but in