VI.
The words embodied in the Dictionary can, with single exceptions, be traced back to Old Norse, in some instances to Primitive Norse, partly by direct comparison with the vocabulary presented in Old Norse, partly by comparison with parallel words in later Northern languages, especially Norwegian.
In regard to a small portion of the Shetlandic vocabulary here embodied, it cannot be definitely determined whether the words spring from O.N., or are loan-words from English, particularly Northern English, and Scottish (Lowland Scottish) dialects. Northern English, from which Lowland Scottish has evolved, is saturated with a Northern, especially Danish, linguistic element, that goes back to the Viking age.
I have, in such doubtful cases, elected to include the material concerned. Where it was a question of words that were common in O.N., and that had followed the usual (Shetlandic) phonetic rules for Shetland Norn, there was indeed no reason for omitting them. And, even in cases where the words did not follow the phonetic rules of Shetland Norn, but were Lowland Scottish in form, doubt might exist, as Norn has been exposed, during so many centuries, to a strong influence from Lowland Scottish, on account of which approximations to the latter speech have occurred, both in the meanings and in the forms of the words.
Several Shetlandic words, although they are English (L.Sc.) in form, must be regarded as of Norse origin on account of their diffusion in Northern languages, especially in Norwegian, Færoese and Icelandic; and, when such words are either not found at all or are found only very sporadically in Lowland Scottish or in English dialect, they are included in this Dictionary. This applies, for example, to “dorrow” from O.N. dorg, in Shetlandic developed in English words ending with -orrow (-orough), corresponding to O.N. -org, as English sorrow, O.N. sorg, English borough, O.N. borg. Where Shetlandic words have meanings that are partly Northern, partly English-Scottish, all the meanings are usually given except those that have come in, or must be considered to have come in, very recently from standard English. On the other hand, a form such as “goul, gowl”, vb., to cry, howl, has not been entered, although it corresponds rather to O.N. gaula (goula) and No. gaula (goula). In Lowland Scottish the word has the same form as in more recent Shetl., in Jam.: goul, gowl. But in Shetl. Norn “au, ou” regularly change to o (commonly with prefixed j: jo), occasionally to u or ø. Now a
