Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1982, Page 101

Faroese Bird-Name Origins
109
Faroese specialised to denote the two pages visible in an opened
book, a sense also known in Icelandic. In the case of the verb,
it is arguable that the change of p to k did not establish itself
owing to the ever-present connection with the adjective opin
’open’. In the case of the noun, one could hardly more obvi-
ously be dealing with a book word, hence the strong suspicion
that here the literary tradition militated against the change.
There remains opna ’cow seal’, a term which (to the best of
our knowledge) has not yet been etymologised. It is possible to
analyse opna as a substantivisation of opin ’open’ in the spe-
cialised sense of ’giving milk’ (Pouslen, Føroysk-Donsk Orða-
bók. Eykabind). That being so, opna is idiomatically ’milker’,
doubtless a term proper to seal hunter’s parlance. It will be a
relatively recent creation, at all events arising after the change
of p to k had ceased to operate.
ÚRTAK
Lerkur er komið um danskt úr fornum eystur-norðurlendskum *laiwrikia,
sum er at rekja aftur til samgermanskt *laiwezikón, ið man hava merkt
‘sangari’. Svala merkir upprunaliga ‘kvísl’, ið sipar til kloyvda ella sýlda
velið. Svanur merkir bókstavliga ‘ljóð’; navnið er ikki elvt av málinum,
men av veingjasuðinum hjá fuglinum, Cygnus musicus. Víst verður eisini
á, at svanur er yngri navn enn isl. álpt. Okn er bronglað navn og hevur
einki samband við staðarnavnið Oknadalur, sum eftir øllum líkindum er
upprunaliga *Opnadalur, sbr. vákn < vápn.