Scandinavian influence on Southern Lowland Scotch: A contribution to the study of the linguistic relations of English and ScandinavianFlom, George T. (George Tobias)
History
Scandinavian influence on Southern Lowland Scotch: A contribution to the study of the linguistic relations of English and Scandinavian
Flom, George T. (George Tobias)
Scots language; Scots language -- Foreign words and phrases -- Scandinavian
This work aims primarily at giving a list of Scandinavian loanwords
found in Scottish literature. The publications of the Scottish Text
Society and Scotch works published by the Early English Text Society
have been examined. To these have been added a number of other works
to which I had access, principally Middle Scotch. Some words have
been taken from works more recent--"Mansie Wauch" by James Moir,
"Johnnie Gibb" by William Alexander, Isaiah and The Psalms by
P. Hately Waddell--partly to illustrate New Scotch forms, but also
because they help to show the dialectal provenience of loanwords.
Norse elements in the Northern dialects of Lowland Scotch, those of
Caithness and Insular Scotland, are not represented in this work.
My list of loanwords is probably far from complete. A few early
Scottish texts I have not been able to examine. These as well as the
large number of vernacular writings of the last 150 years will have
to be examined before anything like completeness can be arrived at.
I have adopted certain tests of form, meaning, and distribution.
With regard to the test of the form of a word great care must be
exercised. Old Norse and Old Northumbrian have a great many
characteristics in common, and some of these are the very ones in
which Old Northumbrian differs from West Saxon. It has,
consequently, in not a few cases, been difficult to decide whether
a word is a loanword or not. Tests that apply in the South prove
nothing for the North. Brate rightly regarded _leȝȝkenn_ in
the Ormulum as a Scandinavian loanword, but in Middle Scotch
_laiken_ or _laken_ would be the form of the word whether Norse or
genuine English. Certain well-known tests of form, however, first
formulated by Brate, such as _ou_ for O.E. _ea_, or the assimilation
of certain consonants apply as well to Scotch as to Early Middle
English. The distribution of a word in English dialects frequently
helps to ascertain its real history, and may become a final test
where those of form and meaning leave us in doubt. In the study of
Norse or Scandinavian influence on Lowland Scotch the question of
Gaelic influence cannot be overlooked. The extent of Norse
influence on Celtic in Caithness, Sutherland and the Western
Highlands, has never been ascertained, nor the influence of Celtic
on Lowland Scotch. A large number of Scandinavian loanwords are
common to Gaelic, Irish, and Lowland Scotch. It is possible that
some of these have come into Scotch through Gaelic and not directly
from Norse. Perhaps _faid_, "a company of hunters," is such a word.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account