Page:An Etymological Dictionary of the Norn Language in Shetland Part I.pdf/119

Rh In hwi̇̄gən swɩglən a double assimilation appears (ví and e > wɩ, t and g > ꬶ). (Possibly a line of a song).

Häᶇa dâga fri̇̄sa frɔ̄ga I wish it may be very gōȯit and verə sɩ mōga

Given to me with following translation:

The day is breaking; I wish it may be very good and sober.

A Refrain. Two lines of an old ballad-refrain handed down in

Skɔuan ø̄rla grø̄n(a) — — — — — — Hwâr jå‘rtən (får ꬶä‘rtən)  ōrla (-lək) han grø̄n

After the decay of the Shetland-Norn ballads, this became attached to the Scottish ballad about King Orfeo.

The first and the last words in line 1 of the refrain are easily intelligible: the forest (is) green, skógrinn grœnn.

might be “árla” = árliga, yearly (“the forest becomes green every year”), corresponding to the  in the second part of the refrain, which is a normal, phonetic development from “árla”.

, however, may quite reasonably be explained in a different way, : as harðla,, much, because this very word appears in a line of the refrain (hon býr undir) skógrinn (-inum) harðla grœnn(a), the forest (is) very green, which evidently is to be classed with the above-mentioned line of the Shetlandic refrain.

“harðla” here might easily be changed to in Shetlandic, because ø in the following word, green, would act in an assimilating manner on the “a” in the root word.

The second part:, , means: Where the plant, “urt” (she, “hon”) becomes green every year. An explanation of as “the hart” would not tally with the latter half of the line; but from  urt, plant, is a characteristic, phonetical development in Shetland Norn, where a prefixed j is common before all vowels.

, grows green ( gróa,, to grow). seems to replace, she, as “urt”, is feminine.

, can hardly be any other word than the  green.

here must rather be interpreted as yearly, every year, than in sense of early; when associated with “the plant becomes green", yearly has a more general relevance than early.