Blak

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Published Jan 1, 1962
Christian Matras

Abstract

In the paper above a survey is given of the different Scandinavian and other Germanic names for 'buttermilk'. There are no traces of a common word in the Western Scandinavian languages in their older stages, the only surviving older words are Norw. saup, n., Icel. á(f)ir, f.pl., and Far. blak, n. — Alexander Bugge showed (Vesterlandenes Indflydelse, 1904, p. 358) that the Faroese word was borrowed from Gaelic.

It is suggested in the present paper that blak is derived from *blaðak (from Gaelic bláthach) and contracted to one syllable after the disappearing of ð (in the 16th cent). It is difficult to explain that the former vowel in the Faroese word is short, but long in the Gaelic equivalent. In the appendix it is demonstrated that the word kjarni, m. 'churn' is a ghostword, owing its existence to a wrongly interpreted word in the Thomas Saga: kjarnamjolk — corresponding to lac amygdalorum (literally 'almond milk') in the Latin source.

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Section
Linguistics