Quote:
Originally Posted by TGS
A wild guess - does it have something to do with ducks and rivers? It reminds me a of the phrase from the north-east of England "oyer rammer ower 'ere" which means... would you pass me that hammer. Another, probably apocryphal, story is that people from the north west of Jutland and people from the north east of England can pretty much understand each other if they are each speaking in their own dialect.
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It could also have been written: "U'e å' æ' ø, i æ' å." ("Ude på øen, i åen." - "Out on the island, in the stream/river.") You got the second part right
It was your mention putting the article in the front of the noun - what really sets Western Jutland apart, is that they they don't use genders either - just 'æ' instead of 'en' or 'et'. I find find genders in other languages confusing, too.
... "oyer rammer ower 'ere" ... you just have to love dialects
(unless you need to understand them
). There as this French movie from last year I think, about a man, a postal employee, forced to move from the south to the north - they made a lot out of the fact that the local dialect is supposed to be incomprehensible.
That other story you mention, is probably apocryphal, but a lot of place names have survived in that area of England from the Viking age, from the time of
Danelaw. And there's Scottish dialect words, which I guess has common roots with Old Norse and that can be found in modern Scandinavian languages. For example, 'kirk' - 'kirke' (church), 'bairn' - 'barn' (child).
But there's an old Scottish dialect (as far as I remember), that's pretty close to Old Norse. I've heard an English teacher of mine, who could speak Old Norse, converse in that tongue with a Scottish guest teacher, who could speak that old dialect.