Shetland Dialect

[Pooks]

I was telt about an alleged incident dat happened in a Shetland school no dat lang ago. Apparently da head teacher "reminded" da idder teachers "not to let the children speak Shetland". So I'm afraid dis rascism is obviously still wi wis.

 

It is a sad fact that this is the case. It should at least be brought to their attention, as part of a History project or something else.

[Guest Anonymous]

i think you need to learn both, good shetland when your home

good english for when you go south, normaly known as a good telephone voice.

[Pooks]

good english for when you go south, normaly known as a good telephone voice.

 

I remember dis fae when I worked sooth. Me midder phoned me wan day and telt me I wis 'Tokking' and to 'gie it up'!

 

You get used to 'talking' in the way you do depending on the surroundings you are in. There are very few Shetlanders who speak in true Shetlandic tongue when there is a Sooth-moother amongst the crowd. That's the way of life.

[Guest perrie-lipper]

Depending on your cultural heritage, and upbringing you develop your own accent, being taught English is a good thing, although it is not the most common spoken langage, it comes in close second. There is a need of pride involved to your place of birth and how you view your accent is part of that. If everyone spoke the same what a dull place it would be, im very proud of my Shetland accent and would never change it regardless of anything. So should anyone want to teach it, the answer would be fantastic.

[Guest Anonymous]

There isn’t anything really unique about the words used in the Shetland dialect. I can guarantee you that around 95% of words commonly used that people think are “Shetland†are actually old Scots. You could have a conversation with anybody on the mainland in your broadest Shetland tongue and they’d still know what you were on about. John Graham’s Shetland dictionary is basically a rewrite of any Scots dictionary. For truly unique Shetland words, most of which are never completely dead, try Jakobsen’s Shetland dictionary.

 

However, the Shetland accent is unique and people should be encouraged to speak it. Don't want us all to end up sounding like a bunch of neds

[Guest Anonymous]

A lot of them are actually old english. (althought there's a good case that much of that arrived with the vikings in the first place) There are a few hamlets around Newcastle ending in 'bigging', the odd 'muckle' in placenames in the same area and as far south as the New Forest, taking the ponies off to let the grazing recover is called 'winter haining' - all words I previously thought of as Shetland.

 

The Shetland dialect is part of the Nordic/Germanic family of languages and subject to the same organic changes as all forms of speech. I don't suppose anybody from Hackney or Sunderland sounds like their ancestors of 100 years ago might have done either.

 

And if that sounds like a rather clinical approach - I still think it's worth keeping up. Nothing to do with cultural identity or folk traditions - I just happen to like it.

[Guest Anonymous]

Old Scots/ English, just depends how far back you want to go. I was really dissaponted to find out "peerie" isn't a Shetland word. I heard it used in a Caithness folk song on the telly the other week.

 

It's pretty ironic that Shetland, perceived by many as an anti-Scots place, is in fact one of the last strongholds of its old words.

 

p.s. I'm from Sunderland and sound like my ancestors from 100 years ago "Wye aye man, haway the lads"

[Pooks]

I can understand if you want to keep yourselves from being known but can you please try and pick a semi-unique guest name? That last few posts started to get confusing. Unless of course you are one and the same with alter-egos in which case carry on!

[Guest Anonymous]

Here are some interesting Shetland names I found last night in my Shetland and Faroese dictionaries(the Faroese spellings are 98% right - I don't have my list to hand just now so I'm doing it from memory). Shalder(Faroese Tjaldur), Brigdi/Basking shark(Faroese Brugda), Neesik(Faroese Nisa), Clock/beetle(Faroese Klukka), hund/dog(Faroese hund), Cat yugl/owl(Faroese Ugl). And they try to tell us that we no longer have any Scandinavian links or connections???.

[Kevin]

I feel brawly strongly aboot da Shetland dialect, I dunna change da way I spik when i'm in shetland, I tink onybody comin tae bide here wid need tae mak an effort tae understand da way we spik.

 

I also tink it should be taught in schools, dey teach knitting in schools,it's no been very benificial tae mony folk I ken, maybe dey could substitute knitting lessons for dialect lessons?

 

I wis in Iceland last year an discovered a braw twartree similar words, I've just been searchin online an fun dis eens

 

kelp = þang (þ being pronounced "th" i tink, sounds a bit lik tang)

smoke = reykur (Reek)

child; kid = barn (I thought it wis pronounced more lik "barun" ie Bairn)

 

I also mind me old man sayin he'd seen a fire engine in Norway we "Brand Slokker" on da side o it, a definite link there!

 

I'm sure there's mare, hae a look at dis website if ony o you are at all interested in dis.

 

http://www.dicts.info/2/english-icelandic

[Wheesht]

What is a Shetland dialect?

 

Is the Ness version, the Lerwick version or the Whalasy version the "standard"?

[Kevin]

What is a Shetland dialect?

 

Is the Ness version, the Lerwick version or the Whalasy version the "standard"?

 

Good point, It depends whar you come fae, but they all have common words surely, but there's tons of different dialects within da one, (no sure if dat makes sense?)

[Njugle]

Yeah, it makes sense. I don't think we need a "standard" version to be identified, do we? The Shetland Dictionary is a worthy source but the regional variations add to the charm o' it.

 

I personally like coming away from a conversation every noo and den thinkin' "what the **** is a _____ ?" And having to find out! It makes a small island a bigger place.

[turrifield]

There isn’t anything really unique about the words used in the Shetland dialect. I can guarantee you that around 95% of words commonly used that people think are “Shetland†are actually old Scots. You could have a conversation with anybody on the mainland in your broadest Shetland tongue and they’d still know what you were on about. John Graham’s Shetland dictionary is basically a rewrite of any Scots dictionary. For truly unique Shetland words, most of which are never completely dead, try Jakobsen’s Shetland dictionary.

 

However, the Shetland accent is unique and people should be encouraged to speak it. Don't want us all to end up sounding like a bunch of neds

 

It dosen't really matter where words come from it's where they end up being used that counts (e.g. Gadgie is a Scottish word that originates from India) and the that fact that alot of Shetland words were used in scotland is because scotland expirienced similar cultural influences as Shetland i.e. Scananavian.

 

I disagree that you could speak broad Shetland to anybody on the mainland(I assume you mean Scotland)

I lived in Aberdeen where I had to temper my accent a bit but I now live in Edinburgh and found when I first moved here that almost no body could understand me and I still have to remind my self to adjust my speach.

[Guest Anonymous]

Is the Ness version, the Lerwick version or the Whalasy version the "standard"?

 

LOL....My thoughts exactly, I was just wondering if the signposts would read "Lerrook", "Lerwik", or and we've always known it at the Ness, "Lerik".

 

Teaching it is a nice idea, but totally unworkable IMHO, pronounciations and in some cases actual words are radically different from one family to the next, never mind one district to the next. Besides, just how many teachers curently hired in Shetland's schools could speak it themselves?

 

A basic overview of the dialect combined with other aspects of Shetland culture and heritage included in schools, I think could only be a good thing, but as far going any deeper in to learning it, the time tested method of learning it off family and friends cannot be improved upon.