Page:An Etymological Dictionary of the Norn Language in Shetland Part I.pdf/117

Rh The meaning in the second line is obscure. The old man (*, man) in great excitement? and   means hurry-scurry or excitement. “käᶅɩ” might also be accepted as kalla,, to call, cry; but if this definition should point back to the cat, the latter has, at any rate, not seen the mouse. The two first lines must go together, considering the rhyming of and.

, and “Ladyco” may denote the mouse. The verbs  and  doubtless mean to trip, walk lightly and quickly ( hultra, hykla and høkla,, to trip, , , tylta, , to walk lightly), and must then denote the movements of the mouse. “hilkie toonie”, tripping in the farm-yard or in the home-field, near the house., may be the same word as kuse,, sometimes bug-bear (=  kuse), master, sometimes name for various kinds of beings both large and small: vermin; beetles; worms; bears; wolves (Rietz). In Shetlandic this word would easily be merged in (calf), young cow, which might possibly explain “co” in “ladyco”.

and, “lady”, stand as a closer definition of , , “co”. It can hardly be a question of lady, as and  preferably must be explained from one and the same primary form. may have arisen from hlaða,, barn, hay- or corn-barn, with anglicising of a [ā] to e [ē];  lade, , barn. then might be a *, *, developed from hlǫðu, of “hlaða” (  forms, such as “loda, ludu”, besides “løda”, a barn, by assimilation of vowel). The periphrasis "barn-animal", animal living in a barn, would be a suitable periphrasis for “mouse”.

under a, under a heather-bush, “roonin oondie conggaloo”, has run under a heather-bush, runninn undir *konglu. , in this verse, is handed down in sense of heather-bush, but is doubtless a periphrasis.

bā hɩ‘lki tuni probably means the cat sneaking about in the field (the tun) near the farm-yard. may be an abbreviated form of Lowland Scottish badrans (baudrons, bathrons),, cat, also used in Shetland, where it is pronounced [bādrəns]. , in that case, is here doubtless a verb denoting the cat’s gait, corresponding to the above-mentioned as a periphrasis for cat. , halka,, to slide, haalk , , “smyga sig in, fram” (Ri.), to sneak in.

may be lœða,  løða [lø̄a],, tabby,  *lœða.

in (variant a) must be the same word as in  (variant b). It may stand for * and be developed from a form *lóða without i-mutation = lœða.

As, in variant c, to the connection must denote the cat, and as, in the other versions, as a substantive or verb, must correspond to this , and moreover as  , to walk on tiptoe, connected with  in the main version, corresponds better to the cat’s gait than to that of the mouse, , in the combination, and , in the