An Etymological Dictionary of the Norn Language in Shetland/Characters
Explanation of marks and characters, especially those of phonetic script, used in the Dictionary.
The Shetlandic Norn words are recorded in a somewhat normalized form, in order to avoid the setting up of phonetic forms with special characters as the normal forms. Immediately after the normal form of the word, the pronunciation is indicated by phonetic symbols within brackets.
An asterisk (*) before a Shetlandic word denotes that it is obsolete; one before an Old Northern word denotes that it is not attested in the old literature[1]. A dagger (†) before a Shetlandic word denotes that the origin of this word is doubtful or not originally Norn.
Heavy italics denote that the word is Lowland Scottish in form. Such words have been given in the Dictionary when used in senses and applications which differ from Lowland Scottish and are in accord with the usage of the corresponding word in Old Northern or in later Scandinavian languages.
Words in inverted commas, within brackets [‘ ’], in sentences given to explain further the use of Shetlandic Norn words, are Standard English forms, or translations of Lowland Scottish (and Shetlandic) words.
Phonetic Characters.
1. Vowels.
i: almost as in Danish “hvid” or in English “we”.
ɩ: a sound between i and e; almost as in Danish “fisk” or Scottish “fin”,
e (close), a little more open than Danish e = ei in Scottish “rein”.
ɛ: a sound between e and æ = e in English “there”,
æ as Danish e, æ, in “hest, præst”. On Westside, in the neighbourhood of Sandness more open, between æ and ä = a in southern English “bat”.
ä: a sound between æ and a, almost as in English “man, hat”, but generally approaches somewhat to the ȯ-sound; see below ꜵ̈.
a: as in Danish; sometimes approaches ä, especially before a softened consonant, = the vowel in English “far”.
â: a long, deep, diphthongal a-sound, deep a with suggestion of å; approaches the Færoese diphthong åa. Only found in the isles of Yell and Unst. — In English (Lowland Scottish) words in Shetland, â is less diphthongal than in Norn words, and then signifies a deeply-shaded a-sound.
å: somewhat more open than Danish å, but not so open as e.g. the vowel in English “not”.
ɔ: a sound between å and o = the vowel in English “not”,
o (close), almost as in Danish “ost” or northern English “so”. — ô denotes a somewhat deeper, long o-sound, as in English “who”.
u: almost as in Danish “du, nu” = u in English “butcher”.
ø (close), almost as in Danish “rød”, French eu in “creux”. On Westside, especially in Sandness and Aithsting, more close, almost as short y in Danish, e.g. in “kyst, bryst”.
ö: open, almost as in Danish “(ørn) örn” = eu in French “peur”.
ȯ: a sound between o and ø (occas. somewhat more open, between o, and a sound bordering on ø and ö). Nearly = u in English “but”.
ɔ̇: more open than ȯ; approaching ɔ, but with a suspicion of ö.
ꜵ̈: a sound between ä and ȯ.
ʌ: almost — English “u” in e.g. “but”, but pronounced somewhat farther to the back of the tongue (more like a).
ə in a stressed syllable denotes a middle sound between e and ø; is found in various shades and occas. approaches ȯ, especially in the combination “wə”. In an unstressed syllable, esp. in endings such as -ək, -əm, it denotes the semi-sound e, shading towards ø = e in English “butter”.
i, ɩ, e, ɛ, æ, ä, a, å, ɔ, o, u, ø, ö, ȯ, ɔ̇, ꜵ̈, ʌ, ə, denote short vowel-sounds. A long vowel is shown by a line above it (i̇̄, ɩ̄, ē, ɛ̄, ǣ, ā, ɔ̄, ō, ū, ø̄, ȱ, ꜵ̈̄). For typographical reasons, however, a long å is not marked with a line, but is denoted by a doubling of the vowel [åå]. For â and ô see above. — Occas. in order to mark a contrast, an arc is placed above a short vowel, e.g. ă, opposed to ā.
A small superior ə after a (long) vowel denotes that the latter is diphthongal. ə, in this case, is a semi-sound which assumes the character of the preceding vowel — after ē, shading to ø (see above), after ō and ɔ̄, gliding towards å; after ū, shading to ȯ; occas. after i̇̄, and, in that case, almost like an e.
A small superior e or ə before i or ɩ denotes that the vowel is diphthongal by a prefixed e or ə, gliding towards i or ɩ. — An æ after ɛ̄ denotes a diphthongal ɛ̄, ɛ̄ ending in an æ-sound. — ə between two consonants denotes a toneless e, losing its function as a syllable.
A small superior i before d, t, l, n, g, k, when medial or final [e.g. breid, gȯit, gøit, beilg, ag·lȯvain·, aigl], and after one of these consonants when initial [e.g. diēld, gia‘lti, giȯsənd] denotes a weak softening, weaker than in cases where the consonant in question is distinguished by a special phonetic sign. i or ɩ in connection with r is more rarely found; note, e.g. brɩo (bro, vb.) with a weak softening of r. In e.g. “aiᶊu” and “fierdi”, i gives a suspicion of an i-sound, after and before the main-vowel
respectively. 2. Consonants.
d, t, l, n, are dental.
The stops p, t, k, are almost as strongly aspirated as in Danish. — b, d, g, are half-voiced.
l: almost = English l, slightly guttural, esp. when final.
r: lingual r, slightly rolled.
z: almost as in English, somewhat less aspirated.
ᶁ, ƫ, ᶅ, ᶇ, ꬶ, ᶄ, are dorsal and denote softened, palatal pronunciation of d, t, l, n, g, k. ᶁ and ꬶ as well as ƫ and ᶄ easily converge, e.g. a) ᶁēəld, ᶁeld, ꬶēəld, ꬶeld (written deld, djeld), b) ƫō and ᶄō (written to, tjo).
ᶊ: strongly palatalized s; with stress almost ᶊj (like No. sj), Eng. sh. — ᶎ: the corresponding voiced sound.
dᶎ and tᶎ are almost like English j and ch (e.g. in “jaw, church”) respectively, but more palatal after a vowel.
The spirants ð and þ are almost as in Icelandic; the first (ð), however, slightly more aspirated and nearer to þ (nearer Eng. th in “with, other”). þ as in lcel. “þing”, Eng. th in “think, teeth”. Shetl. ð and þ are esp. characteristic of Dunrossness (the south of Shetland). In other places in the Isles these sounds appear only sporadically in a few old words.
γ: spirant (“soft”) g as in Danish “dage”.
χ: open spirant k, as in Danish “magt”, = ch in Scottish “loch”.
ŋ: nasal sound of the palatal class (written ng, as in Danish “gang”).
ɯ: labial sound, a middle sound between m and w — m pronounced with the lips not quite closed.
A ‘ denotes a breath before a stop (p, t, k). — ‘l, ‘ᶅ, ‘m, ‘n, ‘ᶇ, ‘ŋ, ‘r denote voiceless l, ᶅ, m, n, ᶇ, ŋ, r.
An additional dot denotes that the accent is put on the syllable after which it is placed, e.g. a) bɛrfäᶅ·, bɛrsō·di, gȯrhərd· (gərhərd·) with stress on the second syllable (written bergfall, bergsodi, gordhird, respectively), b) at·avɛ‘ᶅ·ta, dā·gali̇̄·ən (written attavelta, dagalien, with equal stress on the first and the third syllable), bar·flog· (written barflog, with equal stress on the first and the second syllable). With variation of stress in the same word, e.g. bar·klâ· and barklâ· (written bar-claw). — Two dots and a single dot respectively denote main stress and secondary stress on the preceding syllable, e.g. bār··dasȯg·a, fær··dimɛt· (fār··dimɛt·, -met·), with main stress on the first, and secondary stress on the third syllable (written bardasoga, ferdimet). Conversely, e.g. in dun·lop·· (written doon-lop, -lup) with main stress on the second, and secondary stress on the first syllable.
- ↑ An asterisk before an Old Northern place-name in its original form, put after a Modern Shetlandic place-name form as an explanation of the latter, commonly denotes merely that the Old Northern form referred to is assumed to be the original one. The same applies to sentences in the Old Northern, given in explanation or translation of Shetlandic sentences.