Page:An Etymological Dictionary of the Norn Language in Shetland Part I.pdf/116

CVIII Variant forms:

kallɩn aa bam bər$ə$l luta kuᶊᶊa hə‘ltər skɩə‘ltər ondər a kåŋgalū.

(about a man sitting upon the top of a house, and seeing a mouse in under a heather-bush).

ka$ə$lɩ in a bambɩrrəl he$i$‘ltər te$i$‘ltər lēdi kȯᶊᶊən ondər kɔŋgalū.

The cat (bȯᶇᶇa) was sitting on the top of the corn-stack; the mouse came out of the corn-stack and ran in under a heather-bush; the man was laying down sheaves. (Klebergswick, Haroldswick, ) Mrs. Peter Anderson, Klebergswick.

Bȯᶇᶇa sat upo happəna tərl cryin’ oot for båmba bərl kom and see häi‘lki rɩnnɩn æftər skäi‘lki raamētəna skūi.

Unst ( to Mrs. Robertson, Walls.)

kalla ɩnn a bamba bɩrl baa hɩ‘lka tūni lēdi ko hɩ‘lka tɩ‘lka runnɩn undɩ kåŋgalū.

(Naani Bruce, Burrafirth, ) A man, sitting on the top of a corn-stack, is calling in to his wife, that he saw a mouse running in under a heather-bush.

. “The farmer sits on the top of a high heap.”

is doubtless bóndi, farmer. “bóndi” elsewhere is found in the forms and  in Shetland, but with reference to the definition given: “man or cat on a hay-stack”, , cannot here, as elsewhere, be the word child. It may have been developed from “bóndi” in the same way as *, - (*) has been developed from hundinn, the dog, by assimilation of nd to nn which has then been liquified.

As the verse is supposed to be a riddle in which figures a man or a cat, together with a mouse, and as that which has to be guessed must not be mentioned by its proper name, the farmer here can scarcely be an actual farmer or head of a family. The expression then may stand as a designation for the cat.

, high, pointed pile, evidently the same word as Lowland Scottish tappie-tourie (-toorie),, “any thing raised very high to a point” (Jam.), and quite suitable as a periphrasis for “hay-stack”.