Jakob Jakobsen

“ In one group of words the mutated form, with the support of the mother-tongue, has gradually displaced the non-mutated form; while in other cases the non-mutated form has remained, and the mutated form has been dropped. Even at the present day there are to be found in Shetland Norn many such words with double forms, a mutated form and a non-mutated form.
In most instances, in the later Norn, the i-mutation has been carried out; but in a large group of words it is not to be found at all. ”

“ On the other hand, short vowel occurs in, e.g.: bani. flag = flag3, slag = slag5, slagg. tari-crook. See below, granibane.
Alternation between long and short vowel is found in, e.g.: drâg and (doon-) drag. rāb and rab = rab1. Side by side with dagəli, dagali (which have regularly short a because a, ə between g and l is a later-inserted connecting vowel) go the forms dāgali, dâ·gali̇̄·ən.
Long a is found also in some cases before “r” followed by a consonant (esp. l, m, n) , e.g.: ārm; fārlək; kwārna fārna (see Fragments of Norn, conversation) ”

“ Formed in accordance with ga, the gall, L.Scottish form of the Eng. gall, sb.
ga’2, sb., something hard, pressed together; alternates sometimes with older gall, thus in the word gall-knot, now more commonly “ga’-knot”.
ca', in the form now used for to call, but in a couple of fragments of older language, half Norn, and half L.Scottish, kall [käᶅ] is used. In sense of to cry, of gulls, kall is commonly used; likewise in sense of a call; claim.
fall is called “fa’”, but in compds. the older form fall [fäᶅ] is found as the second part: bafall, bergfall, tungefall, occas. ”

“ This development doubtless began in the 18th century, at the time that Norn was passing out of use, and later continued during the 19th century, at which time Norn is only found mixed with Lowland Scottish. This development hardly dates further back than to the 18th century, as there are only comparatively few words with the äi form only; while i and äi alternate as a rule, “ai” gradually becomes more and more predominant. In not a few words, however, the i-form alone accurs. ”

“ As Shetland, for several reasons, must be assumed to have been colonized considerably earlier than the Færoe Islands and Iceland, and prior to the appearance of the i-mutation in Norse, and as such an insular dialect must in one respect and another end by going its own way, one can very easily suppose that, in spite of Shetland’s close connection with Norway, and the steadily maintained linguistic influence from that country, the i-mutation was never completely carried out in Shetland Norn. ”

“ There is no mutation in *ovaga, sb., from an original *aurvaka, f., Fær. eyrvøka. On the other hand, o is found for a in the place-name Voga [vɔga] , de hole o’ V. (Hubi, Fe.) , a piece of moist, muddy soil: originally doubtless *vaka, f.
Without u-mutation: raga, sb., woman.
ring [riŋ, reŋ] , knee-timber in the stem of a boat, goes back to the mutated form “rǫng” [from *rangu] in O.N., because short i and short u (o) often alternate in Shetlandic.
In a similar sense, sting [stɩŋ, steŋ] , mast (tabu-word, sea-term) has arisen from O.N. stǫng [orig. *stangu] , f., bar; pole. ”

“ In Foula an older “ljó” is partly preserved as ljū and (with secondary accent) ljo, e.g.: *ljūs [ljós] , *ljus (see Fragments of Norn, verse of a song) . *ataljos [*aptrljós] , attaljos.
For ljó > ᶅū and (with dropped palatalization) lū, see §§ 19 (note) and 39.
Mutation.
24. In a number of feminine words ending in a, and with a as the root-vowel, the u-mutation has found its way into the nominative [3] .
blɔka, blɔk, bloga [Icel. blaðka] , blokk and blokka. *bɔŋga [bang] . fjora, fjɔra [fjara] . flȯdərək, flōd (ə) rək1 [*flaðra] , fladrek, flodrek. fȯdək [fata] = fedek (fiddek) , etc. ”

“ The pronunciation [ȯ] of o in *fjorahwarf and partly also in fjoraskit, compds. with fjora, indicates that it is the mutated form fjǫru. In the same manner skodda [skȯda] with [ȯ] is doubtless a mutated form from O.N. skadda, f., like No. skodda, Fær. sködda.
fladrek and flodrek, limpets, patella: *flaðra. [flōd (ə) rək] may be developed from [flād (ə) rək] , without being due to u-mutation. [flȯd··rək·] , on the other hand, is rather a mutated form *flǫðra from flǫðru, [ȯ] not being regularly developed from a. ”

“ Voiced “th” in Eng. word has comm. become “d” in Shetl., e.g.: dat, de, dem, deir, dere, dis, bridder (brither = brother) , faider (father) , to gader, idder (ither = other) , midder (mither = mother) , neder (neither) , rader; blide. ”

“ Insertion of j.
ll (rl) commonly changes to ᶅ, nn and rn to ᶇ. Several examples of this change have been mentioned in preceding sections; see §§ 16—20, regarding vowel-changes before palatalized consonants. Softening of l, n and t, tt (d, dd) before another consonant has been exemplified in the same paragraphs. In a few cases ll, rl, nn, rn have remained unsoftened, e.g.: to ban (n) [banna] . hō·kɩl (l) ·in [hákerling] . hȯni-, həni- [horn, hyrni] , hinnispott. *mana [manna] (see Fragments of Norn, adages) , span [spann] , spann1. ”

“ No. and Fær dylla (No. dull, dyll, m.) .
flog3 [fᶅōg, fᶅog] , fljog, also flug, fljug, fljuk, fluch, vb., to clean thrashed, dried corn by flinging it out of one’s hand: O.N. fløygja, to let fly. The Shetl. forms spring from the root-form fljúga, vb., to fly. ”