Page:An Etymological Dictionary of the Norn Language in Shetland Part I.pdf/38

 III.

The old Norse speech of Shetland shows in its vocabulary a close connection with the mother-tongue, Norwegian, a closer connection than that shown by Icelandic and partly by Færoese with the same language, the common mother-tongue of them all. This circumstance has a natural explanation in the fact that Shetland was situated so much nearer to Norway. Certainly the political connection between the Islands and Norway was severed by the mortgaging of the Islands to Scotland in the 15th century; but a close intercourse between Norway and Shetland was maintained for several centuries after that, especially through the trade connection with Bergen, while the connection with Scotland was very slight, even down to the 19th century.

The Shetland speech of the present day must be reckoned as falling under that northerly branch of Northern English which is called Lowland Scottish. Most of the words generally used in daily speech, as well as most of the inflectional forms, are Lowland Scottish. But the dialect of Shetland is saturated with an old Norse element, the numerous relics of the language formerly spoken in the Islands, the so-called Norn, which had been in use there since the Islands were peopled by the Northmen in the Viking-age, and partly in the period just preceding the Viking-age proper (800—1000), i. e. from the close of the so-called ancient Norse period till well into the 18th century. Then, Norn, after more than three hundred years of steadily increasing influence from Lowland Scottish, had become so strongly impregnated with the latter speech, that, except in possibly some outlying quarters of the Islands, it could no longer really be called Norn.

Of the words of Norn origin, more than ten thousand in number, that I succeeded in collecting in Shetland, not more than half can be said to be in general use at the present time. The other half may be divided, in the main, into the following two classes: 1) those words that have survived only in single districts or in single islands, and 2) those obsolete words that are only known, and occasionally used, by old people. Since my first and longest itinerary in the Islands, 1893—95, the number of obsolete words has steadily and uninterruptedly increased on account of the fact that since that time a great many people of the older generation have passed away, and a great part of their vocabulary has not been picked up by the younger generation.

Of the Norn words that are not in general use throughout