Using Shetland dialect on the forums

[Twerto]

[mod]Thread split from the Have a rant!!!! post.[/mod]

 

I know I'm probably in the minority here.. but posts made in the Shetland dialect,

 

Christ it takes 3 times as long to read.. then you have to read it again just to make sure your not about to insult someone unknowingly..

 

Is there a point to it?

 

Does it serve a purpose other than to annoy me?

 

It is rude..

 

There is a time and a place, and in the middle of serious topics is not the place imo.

[Styles]

^^^^^ Tanks fir dat Twerto, I will keen how tae do all me posts fae noo on.

[ex-isle]

I know I'm probably in the minority here.. but posts made in the Shetland dialect,

 

Christ it takes 3 times as long to read.. then you have to read it again just to make sure your not about to insult someone unknowingly..

 

Is there a point to it?

 

Does it serve a purpose other than to annoy me?

 

It is rude..

 

There is a time and a place, and in the middle of serious topics is not the place imo.

 

Haw haw haw ... pawsts atida dyaleck? Kwaar's du viest dim dan?

[ex-isle]

I know I'm probably in the minority here.. but posts made in the Shetland dialect,

 

Christ it takes 3 times as long to read.. then you have to read it again just to make sure your not about to insult someone unknowingly..

 

Is there a point to it?

 

Does it serve a purpose other than to annoy me?

 

It is rude..

 

There is a time and a place, and in the middle of serious topics is not the place imo.

 

Apologies for my earlier, facetious reflex response to your question. It was indeed rude of me, though I trust not unforgiveably so, to respond to a post written in one language in another language. There are so few arenas in which the native tongue of Shetland has any credibility, therefore I treasure the perhaps mistaken notion that this forum is open to it, and your 'rant' rather caught me off-guard.

 

However, I would like to point out that the matter of survival and revival of minority language is itself a 'serious topic', all over the world. In practising the writing of the Shetland tongue, as some Shetlinkers do, and no doubt will continue to do, they (we) are helping to preserve this old and, IMO, quite beautiful means of expression.

 

I most certainly don't intend to exclude anyone from the discourse, and would happily provide translation of any particular post that has perplexed you. Ideally, as you are a resident of Shetland, I would wish to engage your curiosity regarding the Shetland dialect, and hopefully win you over to the cause.

[da Trookir]

Ideally, as you are a resident of Shetland, I would wish to engage your curiosity regarding the Shetland dialect, and hopefully to win you over to the cause.

 

Wha's ers is du gyaan ta lik nixt boy?

 

(*** mod edit - excess quoting removed ***)

[Twerto]

^^ ç§ã¯ä»–ãŒå½¼/彼女好むãŒã€ç§ã¯åŽ³ã—ã望むã‹ã ã‚Œã‚’知らãªã„ã‚ãªãŸã®ã§ãªã„ã“ã¨ã‚’

[da Trookir]

^^ ç§ã¯ä»–ãŒå½¼/彼女好むãŒã€ç§ã¯åŽ³ã—ã望むã‹ã ã‚Œã‚’知らãªã„ã‚ãªãŸã®ã§ãªã„ã“ã¨ã‚’

 

I doot du kent whit dat ment aa richt dan

[Twerto]

yeah i do understand it, and when written in the right place I don't mind it at all..

 

but recently it has been creeping more and more into the whole forum and as I stated before I feel it takes longer to read and quite possibly excludes some people from being able to reply that may have had something to add should they understand what had/has been said.

 

Or is this forum becoming a clique for those who can only read/write Shetland dialect?

[da Trookir]

yeah i do understand it, and when written in the right place I don't mind it at all..

 

but recently it has been creeping more and more into the whole forum and as I stated before I feel it takes longer to read and quite possibly excludes some people from being able to reply that may have had something to add should they understand what had/has been said.

 

Or is this forum becoming a clique for those who can only read/write Shetland dialect?

 

Joost haein a peerie fun, nevir du leet.

 

(Translation: Just my little joke, don't mind me)

[ex-isle]

Trookir, du's weel named I am merely trying to be polite. Clearly something you don't prioritise all that highly ...

 

(*** mod edit - excess quoting removed ***)

[spencey7]

but recently it has been creeping more and more into the whole forum and as I stated before I feel it takes longer to read and quite possibly excludes some people from being able to reply that may have had something to add should they understand what had/has been said.

I would wholly encourage the whole of Shetlink to be written in dialect - If you can't do it here, where can you? There's no doubt that it's dying out - I personally know a great many town-dwellers who refused to even acknowledge that dialect existed...until they went south to uni, when they became big fans of "reestit mutton", "tautie soup","wirkin' wi da yows" etc etc. Although I do see your point Twerto (obviously, since this post isn't written in dialect), I think on the whole the use of dialect should be encouraged wherever possible.

 

And this is a million miles off topic. Sorry mods...

[ex-isle]

I would wholly encourage the whole of Shetlink to be written in dialect - If you can't do it here, where can you? ... Although I do see your point Twerto (obviously, since this post isn't written in dialect), I think on the whole the use of dialect should be encouraged wherever possible.

 

Isn't there some kind of translation program you could use, like that 'knapper' our Lithuanian expat was talking about on another thread?

[Fjool]

Writing in dialect is one thing, but simply writing English words in the way you'd pronounce them is something less. Most of what I see is the latter; folks writing the way they speak. All well and good but, I agree with Twerto here, a bit awkward to read.

 

I have no problems understanding spoken Shetland dialect but, when written down, it does slow the comprehension. Sure, it's possible to read it but nowhere near as easily as when it is spelled correctly. Never mind the fact that everyone has subtly different ideas on how something should sound.

 

Using Shetland words is cool. Spelling everything phonetically? Not so much. Vernacular is, in general, best saved for special occasions (such as poetry and Irvine Welsh novels), if you ask me.

 

Wood ya expekt ta see a Cokney fella roiting dahn eferyfing duh woi wot eed sahy iht? Nah, me old mucker, dat wood jus' mayke 'im look fik. Innit?

 

(And yes... this is all off-topic... I can't decide whether it should be merged elsewhere and, if so, where the best from a couple of choices is...)

[Ghostrider]

One of the points that came out of the "Shetland Identity" thread across on the "Shetland Life" magazine section, was that, at least some, non dialect speaking people want dialect speakers to use it regardless of whom they were talking with.

 

I guess it comes down to the old adage "you can't please all of the people all of the time". The big question now is how do we, dialect speakers, figure out which non-dialect speakers want to be spoken to in the dialect, and which want to be spoken to in English.

 

....an wi dat, I'll white me roadin and flitein furr eenoo.... (Translate = Rant over for now)

[Fjool]

At the end of the day, everyone is entitled to write and speak just exactly as they please. So long as the meaning is clear enough for the purpose, there's no real problem.