l 2 orkney and shetland

8/13/2019 L 2 Orkney and Shetland

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Lecture 2.

English spoken in Orkney and Shetland

Orkney and Shetland, known as the Northern Isles, are the most northerly units

of land in the British Isles. The Shetland archipelago consists of well over 100 islands, 15

of which are inhabited. Orkney is much closer to the Scottish mainland, that is why the

Orkney dialect is less distinct form Scottish English.

There are many similarities between Orkney and Shetland with regard to history,

population structure, culture and language. The islands have been subjected to different

kinds of immigration: the Norse settlers first arriving in the 9th

century, the Scots

gradually taking over from the early Middle Ages onwards and the Dutch and German

tradesmen in the Hansa period. The Northern Isles today are modern British societies,

with execellent educational establishments and a highly developed infrastructure. S now

has a population of about 23,000 and O about 20,000.

Language

After the Viking invasion, O and S adopted the language of the Scandinavian settlers,

Norn, as a native language. Norn was the dominant language for at least 500 years, until the 14th

century when a variety of Scottish replaced Norn.

Today the dialects spoken in the Northern Islea must be described as varieties of Scots

with a substantial component of Scandinavian, manifested above all in the lexicon and in the

phonology and to a lesser extent in grammar.

The speech community is bidialectal with access to a choice of two forms of speech: a

form of Standard Scottish English and the other, a traditional dialect: Shetland and Orcadian.

Morphology, syntax and lexicon


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1. VERBS1.1.Verbal morphology

Somehoo hes never been da sam since he selled oot ta

yon oil company.

Somehow he has never been the same since he soldout to that oil company

A given verb may be strong in Standard

English, but weak in Scots.

He flipit up his trousers. (S)

he folded up his trousers

Regular verbs in the 2 and 3 form end in

ed, -it (S)/-id (O) ort.

aetttten/aeten

brakbrok/ bruikbracken/ broken

geng gogd wentgien gone g(y)aan going

There is great variation in the forms of

irregular verbs

O.

Sheus knittan.

Sheus deuan her knitten.

In contrast with Standard English, a

distinction in form is made between

verbal adjectives/ present participles andverbal nouns.

Du minds me aafil o dee grandfaider. (S)

The present indicative:

Thes ending is used not only in the 3rd

pers but also in the 2nd

after the informaldu (S) and thu/thoo (O)

So I grips and kerries her tada hoose

..

in the historic present, thes ending is

also used in the 1stperson sg.

.. .

I am we ir I wis we wir

Du is you ir du wis you wirHe is dey ir he wis dey wir

I hae/hiv we hae/hiv I hed we hed

Du hes you hae du hed you hedHe hes dey hae he hed dey hed

The present and past-tense paradigms of

the verbs ta be and ta hae in Shetland

dialect are:


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1.2.Agreement

Dis horses pulls weel.

An owld man commented: We wir boarn ta help idders.

Anidder character said: I winder what da idders wis boarn

for?

Plural nouns functioning as

subjects combine with verbsending in-s

Der a boat hoose yonder.

Der folk here fae Sweden and Norway.

In Shetland dialect der

corresponds to there is and there

are

They wir a coo.

Dey wir no money dan

A frozen form is also used for thepast tense there was/ there were

in O they wirand in S dey wir

1.3.Tense

I war paid him afore that (O).

Im been dere twartree times (S)

.

A remarkable feature unique to O and Sis the use of berather than haveas a

perfective auxiliary, not restricted to

verbs of motion

1.4. Modality

Hell no can deu that..

In Scottish English double modals are allowed tooccur. In contrast, in Shetland and Orkney

doubles modals do not occur with the exception

of structures containing can in the sense of be

able to in Od.

He bst til a come alang da banks.

.

Sh sood a hed a lamb.

She should have had a lamb.

( note the use of a, a form of hae have, aftercertain modal verbs)

bst had to, must

man mustmay,

sall (the 1stperson sg form is often contracted

toIs, the past form issood)

willcan, must and have toare also used

Well can stert cuttan the morn if hid bees

dry.

The subjunctive form beesis reported in (O).


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Well be able to start cutting tomorrow if it

is dry

1.5. Negation

Da fok fae sooth aye mention at dey canna understand

(S)People from the south (i.e. outsiders) always mention that

they cant understand.

Soodna we try dat?.

Am no ready yet.

.

As in Scottish English, verbs tend

to be negated by the independentword noor by the suffix na(e), the

latter typically found after modal

verbs and do.

2. Nouns2.1. Article usage

a uncan man (S)a strange man

The indefinite article is always a, beforevowels and consonants

gaan tae the kirk/ the skuil, makkan the dinner

(O)

da caald the cold (S)

dan cam da hairst

then came the autumn

The definite article is dain Shetland and they

in Orkney is used with a number of nouns withwhich it would not be used in Standard

English (names of seasons, meals, illnesses

and institutions)

2.2. Plural forms

Breider brothers, een eyes, shn shoes kye

cows

The kye, sir / the Keiser

The regular plural iss, but irregular

plurals are still often heard in Shetlanddialect

3. PronounsI me my/mi, mine(s)

Du (you) dee (you) dy/di, dine(s)

He him hisShui/ sh her her(s)

Hit hit hitsWe wis wir(s)

You you your(s)

Dey dem dir(s)

The forms of the pronoun in the N, Acc

and gen case in the Shetland dialect are.

For the 2nd

pers. Sg, there is a chice

between du(informal) andyou(formal)

O d has a similar pronominal system, the

only different forms being, thu/ thooand

hid.


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Come doon alang some nicht, lass, an tak dy sock.

Come (down) along some evening, girl, and bringyour knitting. (S)

Whars shoes is this? Mines.

Whose shoes are these? Mine.Da tide farder nort, he streams on da west side (S).

Hes blowan ap (S)

The wind is rising

The pronoun he for the masculine gendermay also refer to natural phenomena (tide,

wind) or tools. In the generic use herefers

to weather.

While lamp, fish, kirk, worldand some

time expressions are feminine:

He wis restin him (S) Reflexive pronouns are identical in form

with the pronouns in the accusative case.

The demonstrative pronounyon (yun)isused to indicate remoteness. Thedemonstrative pronouns this/ dis and that

/ dat are used in the plural as well as the

singular

The relative pronoun is always at. A

frequently used indefinite pronoun istwartree two or three several.

Word order

Sees du yon, boy? Shetland dialect still displays Scandinavianinverted word order and lack of do-support,

Geng du my boy! as well as overt-subject imperatives

The lexicon

The most striking element of the vocabulary of these two dialects is the Scandinavian

element, which is more alive in Shetland. Words related to the Scandinavian influence are close

to every-day life on the Northern Isles and include semantic fields such as:

- Flora and fauna: arvi chickweed, scarf cormorant- Traditional tools: tushkar spade, owskeri scoop- Weather terminology: bonfrost very severe frost- Colours: moorit light brown- Emotive adjectives: dles indolent, inbigget stubborn


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l 2 orkney and shetland

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