Scandinavian influence on Southern Lowland Scotch | Page 8

bein (stin and bin in O. Dan.).
9. CHARACTERISTICS OF OLD NORTHUMBRIAN.
The following are some of the chief differences between O. Nhb. and W. S:
1. Preference in O. Nhb. for a in many cases where W. S. has e.
2. A sometimes appears in closed syllable where W.S. has ?.
3. A before l + consonant is not broken to ea (Sievers §121.3, and Lindel?f: Die Sprache des Durham Rituals).
4. A before r + consonant very frequently not broken, cp. arm, farra. Breaking occurs more often, however.
5. E before l + consonant not broken in the Ritual (see Lindel?f).
6. E before r + consonant is broken and appears as either ea or eo, cp. eorthe, earthe.
7. A before h, ht, x (_hs_) becomes _??_. Sievers §162.1. In W.S. a was broken to _?ea_, cp. O. Nhb. sax, W.S. seax. This Lindel?f explains as due to the different quality of the _h_--in W.S. it was guttural, hence caused breaking; in Nhb. it was palatal and hence the preceding a was palatalized to _??_.
8. Nhb. umlaut of o is _?[oe]_. In W. S. it was e, cp. _d?[oe]ma_, _s?[oe]ca_, W. S. _d[-e]man, s[-e]can_. See Sievers §§27 and 150.4. Bouterwek CXXVII, and Lindel?f. This difference was, however, levelled out, Nhb. _?[oe]_ becoming also e, according to Sievers.
9. Special Nhb. diphthongs ei, ai, cp. heista, seista, W.S. hiehsta, siexta.
10. Influence of preceding w was greater than in the South. A diphthong whose second element was a dark vowel was simplified generally to a dark vowel (Lindel?f), e.g., weo > wo, wio > wu, cp. weorld > world, weord > word, etc.
11. W.S. t is represented quite frequently by _e_ or d, regularly so when combined with l, often so when combined with s. See Lindel?f above.
12. W.S. _e_ frequently appears as d in the North; the reverse also occurs. See Bouterwek CXLII-CXLV. In a few cases _e_ > t.
13. C before t where W. S. regularly has h. See Bouterwek.
14. Metathesis of r less extensive than in W. S.
15. Preceding g, c, sc did not cause diphthongation in Nhb. as often as in W. S.
16. Generally speaking, less extensive palatalization in Nhb. than in W. S.
17. Dropping of final n in infinitives in Northumbrian.
10. REMARKS. METATHESIS OF R.
The above characteristics of O. Nhb. will not only explain a great many later Scotch forms, but also show that a number of words which have been considered loanwords are genuine English. Sco. daw, "day," need not necessarily be traced to O.N. dagr. The W.S. _d?g_ gave Eng. day. _D?g_ is also the Northern form. Daw may of course be due to a in the oblique cases, but according to 2 dag may have appeared in the nominative case early in the North. This would develop to daw. Sco. daw, verb, "to dawn," is easily explained. W.S. dagian > dawn regularly, Nhb. dagia (see 17 above) > daw. The O.N. daga, "to dawn," is then out of the question. Sco. mauch, "a kinsman"; the O.E. form was _m?g_, which would have given may. In the North the g was probably not palatal. Furthermore a Northern form mag would regularly develop to maw, might also be mauch (cp. law and lawch, adj., "low," O.N. _lagr_). O.N. magr, "kinsman," may, however, be the source of mauch. Sco. hals is not from O.N. hals, but from O. Nhb. hals which corresponded to W. S. _heals_; Sco. hawse, "to clasp," (Ramsay, II, 257); comes from O. Nhb. halsiga, W. S. healsian. (Sco. hailse, "to greet," is a different word, see loanword list, part II.). Forms that appear later in standard English frequently are found earliest in the North (cp. §10). No. 13 explains some differences in the later pronunciation of Sco. and Eng. No. 12 is a characteristic that is much more common in Middle and Early New Scotch. Many words in this way became identical in form with their Norse cognates, cp. broder, _fad(d)er_, etc. This will be discussed later. No. 14, Metathesis of r, was carried out extensively in W. S. (see Sievers, 179), e.g., beornan "burn"; iernan, "run"; burn, "a stream"; hors, "horse"; forsk, "frog"; _terscan_, "to thrash"; berstan, "to burst"; fierst, "a space of time," (cp. Norse frist, Germ. _Frist_). This progressive metathesis of r is very common in the South. In the North, on the contrary, metathesis of r has taken place before ht in _frohtian, fryhtu_, etc. (Sievers, 179, 2). In addition to these a large number of words appear in Old and Middle Sco. differing from literary English with regard to metathesis, sometimes showing metathesis where Eng. does not. A list of words will illustrate this difference: thyrldom, "thraldom"; thirl, "to enthrall"; fryst, "first"; brest, "to burst"; thretty, "thirty"; thrid, "third"; thirl, "to pierce thirl"; gyrs, "grass"; krul, "curl"; drit, "dirt"; warsill, "to wrestle"; scart, "to scratch";