Thanks Norman. Got to wonder just how the bere version....bygg...is pronounced in NOrway and in Orkney. Both the same?? On Sep 4, 2007, at 2:19 PM, Norman Tulloch wrote: > Steve Davie wrote: >> I learned that bere is still referred to as 'bygg' in Norway. I >> wondered if that word ever still pops up in Orkney, and further how >> it is pronounced. Bygg= bye-g or begg or bigg or beeg? hmm > > The word was certainly used in Orkney in the past. Gregor Lamb in his > "Orkney Wordbook" gives three meanings for the word "big": > > big 1 to build. Bigging 1 a building 2. anything built [also Scots; ON > byggia] > > big 2 big. Big end, the room in the Orkney two-teacher school in which > the big children are taught... > > big 3 barley [ON bygg] > > Others do indeed say that "bygg" means bere rather than just barley. > > There's a lot more on the word in the "Dictionary of the Scottish > Language" at http://www.dsl.ac.uk/dsl/ > Search for the word "big" and look at meaning 5. > > The word also occurs in some place-names. In "The Place-Names of > Birsay" Hugh Marwick refers to a few of them. For example, he writes: > > "In the 1627 report on Earldom Parishes... is the following: 'ane > littel > piece land in Birsay callit Bigquoy, not far distant from the kirk, > now > in the hands of Thomas Swintoune, minister, being designit to him for > his gleib.' Probable O.N. bygg-kvi 'bere (barley) quoy'; cf Bigland in > Rousay." > > Marwick also suggests that Bigbreck in Twatt tunship may well be > derived > from big (bere) + O.N. brekka, a slope. I very much doubt if the > word is > used now. > > Meg, I've just seen your message. Bigging, Newbigging and so on aren't > connected with bygg/big. See the first meaning given by Gregor Lamb > that I quoted above. Bigging just means building. See too this verse > from Burns's "To a Mouse": > > Thy wee-bit housie, too, in ruin! > It's silly wa's the win's are strewin! > An' naething, now, to big a new ane, > O' foggage green! > An' bleak December's win's ensuin, > Baith snell an' keen! > > > Norman Tulloch > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to ORCADIA- > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes > in the subject and the body of the message

stephen davie wrote: > Thanks Norman. > Got to wonder just how the bere version....bygg...is pronounced in > NOrway and in Orkney. Both the same?? I assume from the spelling "big" that the Orcadian pronunciation was with a short i, just as the word is normally pronounced in English. My Chambers Twentieth Century Dictionary (time I upgraded to the Twenty-First Century version?) indicates this pronunciation*, though it gives the spelling as bigg, which it says is "Six-rowed barley: sometimes bear". I don't know anything about the Norwegian pronunciation, I'm afraid. Norman T. *The i as in pin, busy or hymn are the examples the dictionary gives.