Page:An Etymological Dictionary of the Norn Language in Shetland Part I.pdf/34

XXVI me very extensive help. Mrs. A. Goudie, who by birth belongs to Sandsting, gave me much information about that district, which I did not manage to visit personally.

For the west of Du. I will mention the two brothers Henderson, of Scousburgh; and for the south of Du., Gawin Gadie and Wm. Young, of Scatness.

My next visit, after another short stay in Lerwick, was to , the most northerly and the largest parish on Mainland, and the district which, after the North Isles, gave me the richest result. Among those who assisted me with information, I will mention, in connection with North Roe, the most northerly part of the parish, the Jamieson family at Brebister, as well as the young intelligent James Inkster, of Huland. Mr. Jamieson was of Unst descent. To his three daughters I am specially indebted for a large vocabulary of words belonging to North Roe. For Eshaness, Nm$w$., I will name the fisherman Arthur Anderson, at de Punds; on the west side of Nm., south of Eshaness, Thomas Hawick, at Nibon; and in the southerly and south-easterly parts of Nm., Andrew Robertson, at Taften, “Sulem” (Sullom); and Robert Williamson, at Bardister.

Within the scope of the Northmavine dialect, I have specially distinguished between the following branches: Nm$n$. (with its central point in North Roe), Eshaness (a special part of the west of Nm.), Nm$w$., the west of Nm. in a narrower sense (to the south of Eshaness, with its central point in the south-west), Nm$s$., particularly Sullom in the south, and Bardister in the south-east. Incidentally mention may be made of Uyea, in the north-west of Nm., Collafirth, and Ollaberry in the east of Nm.

In the case of the Delting dialects, I distinguish between East Delting, De$e$. Mossbank; and West Delting, De$w$. (especially Voe), with which is reckoned also the island of Muckle Roe.

The Lunnasting and the Nesting dialects are both divided into a northerly and a southerly branch. Vidlin represents the northerly branch of the Lunnasting dialect, and Skelberry the southerly. The district-names North Nesting and South Nesting agree fairly well with the linguistic distinction drawn between Nesting$n$, and Nesting$s$.

The districts Walls, Sandness, Aithsting and Sandsting are embraced under the name “The Westside”. All four districts have certain prominent linguistic characteristics in common (which will be mentioned later) and might therefore be said to form a linguistic unit. Sandness is divided, in regard to dialect, into Sandness$w$. (that is, Sandness proper) and Sandness$e$. (Snaraness); Aithsting into Ai$w$. (Fogrigert) and Ai$e$., or Ai. proper (Ai., W. Burr., Clousta). To the Westside in a wider sense, we assign also the island of Papa Stour, in the north, and Foula, far to the west, each with its own linguistic peculiarities.

In the case of the Unst dialects, a distinction is here made between areas where the lines of demarcation are very strongly marked: a) the northerly, U$n$., specially represented by Haroldswick, Norwick and Skaw. The more westerly Burrafirth (U$bu$.) differs only slightly from the districts named, but falls under U$n$. in a wider sense.