Re: Old Norse loans in Scottish

 Ah'm no fashed - ah'll dree ma weird

I am not worried I will conform to what fate has in store

 

Ah'll aye gang ma ain gait

I shall always go my own way

 

I was given these two for you  then she thought of

 

Ach he's naethin' at all ah've aye takken a skunner tae 'im

Oh he's nothing ( ?? nithing)  at all I have always disliked him

 

I find it is not the best to do - to hand you guys the problems - best to do a little

Research myself - over a cup of tea of course

Kveðja

Patricia

aka Frakin' Perfessor Higgins - youse !!

PS My Subject is as Glasgow as they are made !!

 

 

 

 

 

> --- "Patricia" wrote:
> > I am wondering if there are so many words still alive
> > in Scotland that originated in Old Norse ...

<eysteinn@.. .> wrote:

> Absolutely. I once came across an online list of ON words
> in Scottish (bairn, etc.) but I can't find it again. I'm
> sure llamanom can find it for us ...

Well, here's one:

Scandinavian influence on Southern Lowland Scotch by George Tobias Flom
http://www.gutenber g.org/etext/ 14604
http://www.gutenber g.org/files/ 14604/14604- 0.txt

Interesting to see a couple of examples of /ld/ for /ll/ (as in the
Orkney examples), `fald' = ON `falla' "to fall"; `hammald' "domestic"
= ON `heimöll', `heimill' "entitled, having a right to something,
having at one's disposal".

From the form of the word, at least, Scots `bairn' could just as well
have come from Old English as Old Norse. This would be the regular
development from either; compare Scots `airm' = Standard English
`arm'. The OE cognate occurs in Beowulf, for example, where it's not
likely to be a loanword (at least if the theories about an early date
are right). That said, the OED does speculate that the survival of
the word in the north might have been due to Scandinavian influence,
whether this was a matter of stopping the word from dying out or
actually reintroducing it. There are quite a few more words if
similar uncertain status. Sometimes the meaning might be a clue when
the form isn't clear, e.g. Scots `dree' = ON `drýgja' "perform, carry
our, practice; lengthen, eke out", but the OE cognate `dréogan'
"perform, commit; endure, suffer". "luve keeps nae nickstick (=tally)
o the wrangs it drees" (Corinthians 13:5 in Lorimer's New Testament).

I've seen a few online lists of Norse loans special to in Scots
English, beside the link above, but not all of them very reliable!

As Flom points out, the problem is complicated further by the fact
that the northern (Northumbrian) dialect of Old English is poorly
attested compared to the south-western (West Saxon), and because
Northumbrian often agrees with ON in precisely those ways in which it
differs from other dialects of OE. Some of these differences can be
seen even in the earliest Northumbrian texts, and therefore predate
Viking Age influence, e.g. the use of `til' in place of the southern
`tó' "to" (examples in Cædmon's hymn and the Ruthwell Cross
inscription) , although `til' takes dative in Northumbrian OE, rather
than genitive as in ON. Some other similarities have been obscured
over time by the loss of unstressed syllables in English, e.g. the
loss of final `n' in certain inflections: Old Northumbrian `kwomu'
"they stood" (Ruthwell Cross), ON `kvámu', `kómu', West Saxon
`c(w)ómon'. Flom even questions the decisiveness of the use of /k/
and /g/ and /sk/ in place of southerly /tS/, /dZ/ and /S/ as a guide
to Norse influence (e.g. `lig' for Standard English `lie', `brig' for
`bridge', etc.); since Old English spelling didn't distinguish between
palatalised and non-palatalised variants of these sounds, and so we
can't be sure that the northern dialects ever went as far with
palatalisation as the southern dialects did; it's usually only in
Middle English times that the difference shows up.

Some quotes from Lorimer's Scots New Testament:

"hailsed them frae a lang gate awa" (`hailse' = ON `heilsa' "greet";
`gate' = ON `gata' "way"). Greeted them from a long way away.
"Bi faith the Israelites gaed throu the Reid Sea as gin as if war
biggit laund" (ON `byggt land'). By faith the Israelites walked
through the Red Sea as if it was inhabited land.
"the place caa'd the Hairn-Pan" (brain-pan = ON `hjarnskál' "skull",
`hjarni' "brain", i.e. Golgotha). Not sure at what stage the vowel
would be at when it was borrowed, `ja' < `ea' < `e'.

Here are some more possible loanwords collected from the texts in
Graham Trulloch's A history of the Scots Bible:

faa = fá "get, obtain"
fe = `fé' "sheep" (but not necessarily a loan, since OE feoh > `fee'
had a similar range of meaning: cattle, wealth)
gar = gørva, gera "do, make"
hag = höggva "hew, hack"
nowte = naut "cattle" (the OE cognate `néat' survived in other dialects)
ryss "branch" = hrís "branch" (but also attested in OE in a compound,
so maybe native)
speir = spyrja "ask"
thrang "busy" = þröngr "narrow, close, tight; thronged, busy" (also
borrowed into Scots Gaelic as `trang')
tint = týnt "lost"

`lisk', `lesk' "groin" may be a Scandinavian loan (Da. lyske, Sw.
ljumske < MSw. ljuske), but the OED entry is mistaken in its claim
that this couldn't be from a hypothetical OE `léosca' (cf. Campbell:
Old English Grammar § 440); no palatalisation occurred when a back
vowel followed in Proto Old English, hence MnE `ask', etc. MDu.
liesche, f., Du. lies, f.

Lots of nice old words in the Border Ballads too [
http://www.borderba llads.gallowayfo lk.co.uk/ ballad.htm ],

"We shall hym borowe" (Adam Bell) = we shall save him, cf. ON bjarga,
OE beorgan. There are even some matches in specialised poetic
vocabulary, although here too loanwords can't always be told apart
from native survivals.

ON `brandr', OE `brand' "sword."

"the sword that's of the mettle brown" (Hughie the Graeme); "my bonny
brown sword" (Cospatrick) . ON `brúnn' "brown" could also mean bright
of metal: "beit ... brún ... egg" (Hrafnsmál). In Beowulf a knife is
described as `brád ond brúnecg' "broad and bright-edged. "

There, I hope that was worth the wait!

LN