Jakob Jakobsen

“ The inhabitants of Conningsburgh are intelligent and lively and generally differ somewhat in appearance from most of the people of Shetland; they are rather shorter in stature and more squarely built as well as of a darker complexion, at least in the case of the older generation. This circumstance may be due to an ancient mingling of an original Celtic element with the Norse immigrants. The people of Conningsburgh have held firmly to old customs, and in no parish of Mainland has Norn persisted longer than in Conningsburgh ”

“ Old people who had good knowledge of the matters I wished to investigate, were often difficult to question, for, as a rule, they did not and could not have that comprehension of my undertaking which the younger people had, or quickly acquired. ”

“ The king of Norway sent his chamberlain across to Shetland to collect the “skat” (tax) due to the Crown. The chamberlain came to Fetlar, where the skat was collected at Urie (“Øri”) . To Urie the udallers came with the “teinds” or tithes they had to pay. They brought with them the “bismers”: ancient wooden steelyards. The chamberlain of course had his own bismer, which was considered standard weight, and on which he tested the udallers’ bismers. A udaller by the name of Jan Tait, while paying his butter tithe, was accused by the chamberlain of having a false bismer. ”

“ Yell is in reality more isolated than Unst, and this large island, with its still very rich Norn vocabulary, will certainly be the part of Shetland where the old dialect with its intermixture of Norn will maintain itself longest. ”

“ Sandness is divided, in regard to dialect, into Sandnessw. (that is, Sandness proper) and Sandnesse. (Snaraness) ; Aithsting into Aiw. (Fogrigert) and Aie., 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, Un., specially represented by Haroldswick, Norwick and Skaw. ”

“ It was from the younger generation that I collected by far the greater part of the Shetland Norn vocabulary presented in this dictionary. The younger people were thoroughly interested in my work, had a certain understanding of its scope, and they formed a needed link between me and the older people. The younger people did not, of course, themselves possess such a fund of Norn vocabulary as the older generation ”

“ In North Yell I got very special help from J. Fraser, carpenter, who had a most intimate knowledge of the old dialects of the district. To him I am indebted for the variant of the “Conningsburgh Phrase”, mentioned in “Fragments of Norn”; and to his daughter Margaret Fraser for the riddle in Norn about the melting snowflakes. Mr. Sandison, the merchant at Cullivoe, with whom I stayed part of the time, gave me good indirect help. — I also received good assistance from Wm. Brown, bookseller, a native of Fetlar, settled in Mid-Yell. ”

“ On the occasion of my visits to Shetlandic homes, especially evening visits which gave the best results, I often took up two definite subjects for discussion in one evening, in order to become acquainted with the older words and expressions connected with these subjects: as for example, everything belonging to the house, the daily activities, the activities peculiar to each season of the year: weather ”