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Nynorn in general, Shetland Mainland and Foula&Westside Nynorn
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Fjorek - Life

Tue Apr 03, 2012 9:40 pm

I found an interesting word in the Nynorn dictionary: fjorek

In Faroese stories the Trolls have a saying when they can smell humans: “Fjør mítt, fjør mítt, her luktar av kristnamanna blóði” My ‘fjør’ my ‘fjør’, I can smell the blood of Christians

No one in Faroe knows what ‘fjør’ means, and the Faroese dictionary explains “fjør mítt” as ‘saying of trolls’.

But when I checked Vigfusson’s Old Icelandic dictionary, I found this:

FJÖR, n., dat. fjörvi, mod. fjöri, [Ulf. renders GREEK by fairvus; A. S. feorh, pl. feoru = life; Hel. firah; obsolete in Engl., Germ., Swed., and Dan.] :--life,

This word is also obsolete in Faroese, so it’s interesting to find it in Norn (even if only in a pet name):

fjorek nm. pet name for a little child: oh du piri fjorek! darling, my little life!

So here we have an interesting word for ‘life’ to use in Nynorn ;)

Re: Fjorek - Life

Tue Apr 03, 2012 9:59 pm

This is a genuine Norn word, fjorek or fjørek (may be we should rather use the latter one in Nynorn?).

The word fjör is still used in Icelandic in the sense 'life' = activity, joyfulness, líf og fjör is often said when a joyful event (involving many people) is going on.
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