Page:An Etymological Dictionary of the Norn Language in Shetland Part I.pdf/97

Rh, *, , ,

,, , , , -hunkers, , *-fera, sb., granbet, vb., grotlekrabb, sb.

,, (the first part of  ), , and, and , , ,, , ,

In the, the Celtic element is predominantly Cymric, in this instance Pictish. The Pictish element is pre-Northern.

In the spoken language the case is different, for one finds there only a very small number of Cymric words, but relatively many Gaelic words, belonging to very different periods and, in great part, to later periods. While the Gaelic words and names in Shetland may date partly from ancient times, and partly from later periods with Lowland Scottish (which contains a large Gaelic element) as an intermediate link, the Pictish element in Shetland is very ancient, and is pre-Northern.

Gradually, as the Scots from Ireland, in the course of centuries of conflict, got the upper hand of the Picts in Scotland, the earlier Pictland, the Picts were forced back, and undoubtedly some of them from the North of Scotland emigrated to Orkney and Shetland. But these Island-groups had already, a long time previously, probably during several thousands of years, been peopled by Celts (Picts) emigrating from the nearest mainland, “Pictland”. This last name is contained in Péttlandsfjǫrðr, nowadays called “Pettlandfirth” by the common people in Orkney and Caithness, in English misspelt Pentlandfirth, the fairway between Scotland and the Orkney Isles. The name Pettland contained in “Pettlandfirth” has sometimes been construed as referring to the Orkney Islands, but this is hardly correct. , the Orkney Isles had, even then for a long time, another name: Orcadian, latinized Celtic adopted by the Northmen, Orkneyjar; and, , Pictland was the natural name for Scotland before the Scots became masters of the country; and, later, for those parts of Scotland, where the bulk of the Pictish inhabitants had taken up their abode, particularly the north-east. , a name ending in “-land” appears less appropriate to the Orkney Isles, whose chief island, Mainland, is not so large and prominent in relation to the other islands as the Shetland Mainland in relation to the other Shetland Islands. “Hjaltland”, the proper and original name for the main island, can therefore be used, with greater warrant, as a name for the whole island-group, collaterally with “Hjaltlandsoyjar”.

Celtic was spoken in Orkney and Shetland in ancient times, and long after Northmen had settled there. It was gradually displaced by Norse in proportion as the number and power of the immigrating Northmen increased, and not all at once. But, while the Norn,