In hwi̇̄gən swɩglən a double assimilation appears (ví and e > wɩ, t and g > ꬶ). (Possibly a line of a song).
Häᶇa dâga fri̇̄sa frɔ̄ga
I wish it may be very gōȯit
and verə sɩ mōga (Yh.)
Given to me with following translation:
The day is breaking; I wish it may be very good and sober.
A Refrain.
Two lines of an old ballad-refrain handed down in Yelln.
Skɔuan ø̄rla grø̄n(a)
— — — — — —
Hwâr jå‘rtən (får ꬶä‘rtən) hangrū grø̄ngrēn ōrla (-lək)
or: Hwâr„ jå‘rtən„ (får„ ꬶä‘rtən)„ han grø̄n ōrla„ (-lək)„
After the decay of the Shetland-Norn ballads, this became attached to the Scottish ballad about King Orfeo.
The first and the last words in line 1 of the refrain are easily intelligible: the forest (is) green, O.N. skógrinn grœnn.
ørla might be O.N. “árla” = árliga, yearly (“the forest becomes green every year”), corresponding to the orla in the second part of the refrain, which is a normal, phonetic development from “árla”.
ørla, however, may quite reasonably be explained in a different way, viz.: as Icel. harðla, adv., much, because this very word appears in a line of the Icel. refrain (hon býr undir) skógrinn (-inum) harðla grœnn(a), the forest (is) very green, which evidently is to be classed with the above-mentioned line of the Shetlandic refrain.
“harðla” here might easily be changed to ørla in Shetlandic, because ø in the following word grøn, green, would act in an assimilating manner on the “a” in the root word.
The second part: Hwar jorten, etc., prob. means: Where the plant, “urt” (she, “hon”) becomes green every year. An explanation of jort as “the hart” would not tally with the latter half of the line; but jort from O.N. urt f., plant, is a characteristic, phonetical development in Shetland Norn, where a prefixed j is common before all vowels.
gru gren, grows green (O.N. gróa, vb., to grow). han seems to replace hon, she, as O.N. “urt”, is feminine.
grøn, gren can hardly be any other word than the adj. green.
orla here must rather be interpreted as yearly, every year, than in sense of early; when associated with “the plant becomes green", yearly has a more general relevance than early.
