question. Sco. _mauch_, "a kinsman"; the O.E. form was _mæg_, 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"; _þerscan_, "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";