'non-natives' spikkin Shetland

[Muckle Oxters]

Dis came up in conversation da idder day. Somebody I was spikkin tae was sayin dat dey didna lik it when 'non-Shetlanders' tried to use dialect. Dir point seemed to be dat if dey couldna use it properly den dey shouldna use it at-all.

I disagree. I tink we da dialect in decline, particulary we young folk less liklee to use dialect, I think it is splendid dat folk born elsewhere tak an interest in it. If it is left tae wis 'thoroughbred' Shetlanders den da dialect will be dead in a generation or two.

It can sound a bit funny though!  

Whit do you tink?

[Colin]

I've been here 40 years and, as far as I can tell, I still speak pretty much the same as the day I arrived. 

I have to admit though, that some local words have crept in.

I tend to agree that newcomers(?) who try to speak 'Shetlandic' (?) can sound a bit funny..

Same can be true when done the other way around as well..

Puts me in mind of a young lady at an office answering the phone to a high flying BP exec that her boss was 'kinda busy this morning, but he would be here in a little start...'

 

[Roachmill]

I've only been here *checks notes* almost half my life and I still wince any time I utter something in dialect. I can read and understand it easy enough but, being fairly devoid of any regional accent, I tend to stick to Liz's English. I do suffer a real moral quandary of whether to use "eenoo" in conversation when it is very often a perfect and more efficient use of language.

I think the main exception to my rule here is whilst winding up my Better Half by attempting dialect in a posh voice. She loves that 

[Rasmie]

Some folk get on better with the dialect than others. In the eighties I was speaking to a Filipino bar lady who had a perfect Shetland accent. I remarked on it and she said " Da trouble is whan I spik English its idder Shetlan or Glaswegian, so da English fokk dunna seem me. "

I was queuing at the ATM a good few years ago, and a couple of East Europeans were chatting away using pidgin Shetland to communicate. I think one was Polish and the other Russian. "Hoo muckle are day payin at da catch eenoo" wan said.

[Colin]

3 hours ago, Rasmie said:

Some folk get on better with the dialect than others. In the eighties I was speaking to a Filipino bar lady who had a perfect Shetland accent. I remarked on it and she said " Da trouble is whan I spik English its idder Shetlan or Glaswegian, so da English fokk dunna seem me. "

I was queuing at the ATM a good few years ago, and a couple of East Europeans were chatting away using pidgin Shetland to communicate. I think one was Polish and the other Russian. "Hoo muckle are day payin at da catch eenoo" wan said.

It's just as well that they weren't trying to ask a Whalsay person then.. 

Edited February 24, 2021 by Colin

[Ghostrider]

Hits owreweel if dey can spaek it kinda haf kirsen, bit waur is want if dey canna.

Whin hits peewee instead o' peerie an bwuks instead o' bruks, an dey'll never better oot o' dat, fur da Ingleesh dey ken is nevir learned dem foo ta rowl r's, den best dey laeve hit alane fur hits dat'n ill ta ken. Dir Ingleesh is better understud, even be da laeks o' me it canna spaek it wirt ocht.

Edited February 25, 2021 by Ghostrider

[Muckle Oxters]

3 hours ago, Ghostrider said:

fur da Ingleesh dey ken is nevir learned dem foo ta rowl r's

Yis, dir 'saft arrrs*' seem tae be da main budder.

(*soft pronunciation of the letter 'r', rather than pliable buttocks)

[Colin]

"pliable buttocks".  Love it...

[admin]

We've added a poll tae da tap o da thread  

[peeriebryan]

A good friend of mine spiks broad Shetland wee an Argentinian accent and it's a thing o beauty!

[Muckle Oxters]

I winder if it works da idder wye aboot. Whit do English folk think o Shetlanders usin dir language? I tink we'll soond weirder tae dem dan dey do tae wis!

[peeriebryan]

I find how some non-Shetlanders* refer to the outer isles irksome, for example, "I was on Yell" or worse still, "I'm going onto Yell".

Surely it's "I was in Yell" or, "I'm going into Yell".

My theory as to why this sounds wrong is that you go 'into' a community', but you go 'onto' an landmass. Yell is a community, ipso facto you go into it.

This theory is kinda backed up by the fact you go 'onto' the mainland, and the mainland is too big to be considered as a community in itself.

Or something along those lines....!

*IMHO, a Shetlander can be through birth or choice

[Frances144]

@peeriebryan - it will be "The Shetlands" (*** shudders ***) any minute now!  A slippery slope.

[peeriebryan]

11 hours ago, Frances144 said:

"The Shetlands"

I think it’s quite sweet when folk say “The Shetlands”  

[Muckle Oxters]

I'm corrected twaree folk, and da conversation usually goes alany da lines o

Sooth person: "...The Shetlands..."

Me (with an accent): "It's actually Shetland"

Sooth person: "Shiitland?!! The land of shiit?"

Me: "The Shetlands is fine"

--

Apologies tae da admin folk - I'm bypassed da swear filter because it wis ruining my  anecdote by correcting Shiitland to 'Turdland'. I'm fly, so I added an 'ii'  

 

** admin edit - given the dialect context, your 'ii Shiitland' is permissible! **

Edited February 27, 2021 by admin