Shetlandic is a
dialectThe term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by scholars of language. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other...
of Insular Scots spoken in the
Shetland IslandsShetland is an archipelago in Scotland, off the northeast coast. The islands lie to the northeast of Orkney, from the Faroe Islands and form part of the division between the Atlantic Ocean to the west and the North Sea to the east. The total area is approximately 1,466 km²...
, north of mainland
ScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
. It is derived from Northern
ScotsScots or Lowland Scots is the variety of Germanic language traditionally spoken in lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster. It is not to be confused with Scottish Gaelic, the Celtic language varieties traditionally spoken in the Highlands and Hebrides....
with a degree of Scandinavian influence from the
Norn languageNorn is an extinct North Germanic language that was spoken on Shetland and Orkney, off the north coast of mainland Scotland, and in Caithness. After the islands were pawned to Scotland by Norway in the 15th century, it was gradually replaced by Scots....
, which is an extinct North Germanic language.
The other Insular Scots dialect is Orcadian, which shares more features with Shetlandic than with any other Scots dialect, perhaps because they both were under strong Scandinavian influence in their recent past (McColl Millar 2007:5).
Like
DoricDoric refers to the dialects of Scots spoken in the northeast of Scotland. The term Doric was formerly used to refer to all dialects of Scots, but is now reserved specifically for northeastern varieties.-Pronunciation and lexis:The main phonetic differences between Doric and other Lowland Scots...
in North East Scotland, Shetlandic retains a high degree of autonomy due to geography and isolation from southern dialects.
Shetlandic is a
dialectThe term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by scholars of language. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other...
of Insular Scots spoken in the
Shetland IslandsShetland is an archipelago in Scotland, off the northeast coast. The islands lie to the northeast of Orkney, from the Faroe Islands and form part of the division between the Atlantic Ocean to the west and the North Sea to the east. The total area is approximately 1,466 km²...
, north of mainland
ScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
. It is derived from Northern
ScotsScots or Lowland Scots is the variety of Germanic language traditionally spoken in lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster. It is not to be confused with Scottish Gaelic, the Celtic language varieties traditionally spoken in the Highlands and Hebrides....
with a degree of Scandinavian influence from the
Norn languageNorn is an extinct North Germanic language that was spoken on Shetland and Orkney, off the north coast of mainland Scotland, and in Caithness. After the islands were pawned to Scotland by Norway in the 15th century, it was gradually replaced by Scots....
, which is an extinct North Germanic language.
The other Insular Scots dialect is Orcadian, which shares more features with Shetlandic than with any other Scots dialect, perhaps because they both were under strong Scandinavian influence in their recent past (McColl Millar 2007:5).
Like
DoricDoric refers to the dialects of Scots spoken in the northeast of Scotland. The term Doric was formerly used to refer to all dialects of Scots, but is now reserved specifically for northeastern varieties.-Pronunciation and lexis:The main phonetic differences between Doric and other Lowland Scots...
in North East Scotland, Shetlandic retains a high degree of autonomy due to geography and isolation from southern dialects. Because of a large amount of unique vocabulary, and a degree of Shetland patriotism, it is sometimes treated as a separate language by its speakers.
1.1. Suprasegmentals
"Shetland dialect speakers generally have a rather slow delivery, pitched low and with a somewhat level intonation" (Graham 1993: xxii)
1.2. Consonants
By and large, consonants are pronounced as in Standard
Scottish EnglishScottish English refers to the varieties of English spoken in Scotland. It may or may not include Scots depending on the observer.The main, formal variety is called Scottish Standard English or Standard Scottish English...
(SSE). Exceptions are:
The
dental fricativeDental fricative or interdental fricative - non-sibilant coronal fricative.There are two basic types: - voiced dental fricative - voiceless dental fricativeA thibilant is a term occasionally found for an dental fricative....
s /ð/ (as in English 'mother') and /θ/ (as in English 'thing') are realised as
alveolar plosiveThe alveolar plosive is a consonant sound. Two kinds are distinguished:* Voiced alveolar plosive * Voiceless alveolar plosive...
s /d/ and /t/ respectively in initial and medial position (i.e. not at the end of the word).
Examples:
English 'thing' - Shetland
ting, English 'mother' - Shetland
midder.
1.3. Vowels
Shetland dialect is very rich in vowel sounds, which may even vary in different regions of the same island.
Vowel length is by and large determined by the
Scottish Vowel Length RuleThe Scottish Vowel Length Rule, also known as Aitken's Law after Professor A.J. Aitken, who formulated it, describes how vowel length in Scots and Scottish English is conditioned by environment....
, although there are a few exceptions (see Melchers 1991:468).
The following two charts summarise the most important vowels and diphthongs that are found in the central Mainland of the Shetland Islands as described by Graham (1993: xxiii).
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Sound
! English
! Shetland
|-
| /æ/
| man
|
flan (gust of wind)
|-
| /æ:/
| no real English equivalent, drawn-out, raised version of /æ/
|
claag ('cackle')
|-
|/a:/
| father
|
waar ('seaweed')
|-
| /e/
| men
|
hent ('gather')
|-
| /eɪ/
| main
|
faird ('afraid')
|-
| /ɪi/
| feet
|
creepie ('stool')
|-
| /ɪ/
| hit
|
wilt ('lost')
|-
| /ɔ/
| hot
|
mott ('mote')
|-
| /o:/
| moan
|
coarn ('small quantity'), often diphthongised into /o:e/
|-
| /ʊ/
| boot
|
cloot ('rag')
|-
| /ʊ:/
| choose
|
stoor ('dust')
|-
| /ø/
| no equivalent in English, like French
creux
|
böd ('booth')
|-
| /ø:/
| like French 'creuse', German
Öl
|
bröl ('bellow')
|-
| /ʌ/
| ton
|
dub ('bog')
|-}
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Sound
! English
! Shetland
|-
| /aɪ/
| time
|
kye ('cows')
|-
| /aʊ/
| cow
|
lowe ('flame')
|-
| /ɔɪ/
| boy
|
gloy ('straw')
|-
|}
2. Grammar
The grammatical structure of the Shetland dialect is mainly English, with traces of Norse and Scottish patterns (Graham 1993: xix).
2.1. Articles
The definite article is
da. There are a few instances where Shetland dialect (as in Scots) puts an article where English would not:
gyaan ta da kirk/da scole in da Simmer-- 'go to church/school in summer'
da denner is ready 'dinner is ready'
hae da caald 'have a cold'
2.2. Nouns
Nouns in Shetland dialect have grammatical gender beside natural gender. Some nouns which are clearly considered neuter in English are masculine or feminine, such as
spade (m),
sun (m),
mön (f),
kirk (f).
The plural of nouns is usually formed by adding -s, as in English. There are a few old plurals, such as
kye, 'cows' or
een, 'eyes'.
2.3. Pronouns
There are two kinds of personal pronoun in the singular. Beside the English form 'you', there is the familiar
du, mainly used when talking to friends, children or animals.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Familiar
! Respectful
|-
|
du
| ye, you
|-
|
dine, dines
| yours
|-
|
dee
| you
|}
The familiar
du takes the singular form of the verb:
Du is, du hes ('you are, you have').
These are all cognate with the old English "
thouThe word thou is a second person singular pronoun in English. It is now largely archaic, having been replaced in almost all contexts by you. It is still used in parts of Northern England, the far north of Scotland, and a handful of US towns...
", "thee", "thine" and "ye".
The English relative pronouns who, which, that, are represented by
at, as in
da dog at bet me... – 'the dog that bit me...'
2.4. Verbs
The past tense of the verb is formed by either adding -ed, -t, or -it, as in
spoot,
spootit (move quickly).
The auxiliary verb
ta be 'to be', is used where English would use 'to have':
I'm written for 'I have written'.
Ta hae 'to have', is used as an auxiliary with the modal verbs
could,
hed ('had'),
micht ('might'),
most ('must'),
sood ('should'), and
wid ('would') and then takes the form
a:
Du sood a taald me 'you should have told me'.
Auxiliary and monosyllabic verbs can be made negative by adding -na:
widna, 'would not'. Otherwise, the Scottish negative particle
no is used instead of the English 'not'.
4. Lexicon
Shetland dialect contains many words which come from the
Norn languageNorn is an extinct North Germanic language that was spoken on Shetland and Orkney, off the north coast of mainland Scotland, and in Caithness. After the islands were pawned to Scotland by Norway in the 15th century, it was gradually replaced by Scots....
which was spoken on the islands until the late 18th century (Price 1984: 203). Most of these words, if they are not place-names, refer to the seasons, the weather, plants, animals, places, seasons, food, materials, tools, colours (especially of sheep or horses), moods and whims or 'unbalanced states of mind' (Barnes 1998: 29).
Examples of Shetland dialect vocabulary can be found in the
Shetland Dictionary, a project by the team of the
Shetlopedia .
External links
- Wirhoose Very informative and detailed site on Shetland dialect, with text samples.
- http://www.lel.ed.ac.uk/dialects/nis.html McColl Millar's internet extension to 'Northern and Insular Scots' 2007, with recordings of regional dialect variants of the Shetland Islands
- ShetlandDictionary.com The online Shetland Dictionary that anyone can update. Contains over 2,000 words from the Shetland dialect
- Introduction to modern Scots: Insular Scots