Shetland,[1] fir ordinar caaed (auld or braid) Shaetland[2] bi native spækers, is spakken idda Shetland Islands be-nort mainland Scotland an is, læk Orcadian, ee dialect o Insular Scots. Hit comes fæ da Scots dialects brocht til Shetland fæ da end o da fifteent century bi Lawland Scots, mainly fæ Fife an Lothian,[3] wi a peerie grain o Scandinavian influence fæ the Norn leid dat wis spakken on da islands till da late 18t century.[4]
As ee result, Shætlandic hæs a wheen wirds fæ da Norn leed. Maist o daim, if day ir no plæss-næms, refers ta da seasons, da waddir, plants, beasts, plæsses, maet, materials, tøls, colours (especially o sheep or horse), møds an whims or 'unbalanced states o mind'.[5]
Læk Mid Nortren Scots (Doric) in Nort Æst Scotland, Shætlandic hæs ee hie degree o autonomy wi its geography an isolation fæ sootren dialects. Bekkis o a lairge amoont o unique wirds, an a degree o Shætland patriotism, hit's whiles treatit as a sindry leed bi its spækers.
"Shetland dialect speakers generally haes a kin o slaw delivery, pitched law an wi a somewhit level intonation".[6]
Consonants
Consonants is maistly pronunced the same as in ither Modren Scots varieties. Exceptions is:
The dental fricatives /ð/ an /θ/ micht be sayed as alveolar plosives /d/ and /t/ respectively,[7] for example [tɪŋ] an [ˈmɪdər] insteid o [θɪŋ], or debuccalized [hɪŋ] an [hɪn], (thing) an [ˈmɪðər]mither (mither) as in Central Scots.
The qu in quick, queen an queer micht be sayed /xʍ/ insteid o /kw/
Initial /ʧ/ch micht be sayed /ʃ/
The initial cluster wr micht be sayed /wr/ or /wɘr/.[7]
Vouels
The unnerlyin vouel phonemes o Shetland Scots based on McColl Millar (2007) an Johnston P. (1997). The actual allophones micht differ frae place tae place.
Vowel 3 is aften retracted or diphthongised or mey sometimes be realised /i/.[8]
Vowel 7 micht be pronunced /u/ afore /r/ an /ju/ afore /k/ an /x/.[9]
Vowel 8 is aften merged wi vowel 4,[10] aften sayed /ɛ/ or /æ:/ afore /r/.[11] The realisation in the cluster ane micht be /i/ like in Mid Northren Scots.[12]
Vowel 15 micht be pronunced /ɛ̈~ë/[13] or diphthongist tae /əi/ afore /x/.[14]
Vowel 17 aften merges wi vouel 12 afore /nd/ an /l r/.[11]
Vouel lenth is bi an lairge determined bi the Scots Vouel Lenth Rule, tho the ar a puckle exceptions.[16]
Tae some extent a lot o spellins haes been uised for tae represent the varied pronunciation o the Shetland varieties.[17] Forby, the uiss o the apologetic apostrophe for tae shaw 'missin' English letters haes been joukit.[18] On the hale the lieterar conventions o Modern Scots is applyed, if no consistent-like, the main differs bein:
The /d/ an /t/ realisation o wha is for ordinar /ð/ an /θ/ in ither forms o Scots is aften written d an t insteid o th.
The /xʍ/ realisation o the qu in quick, queen an queer is aften written wh.
The /ʃ/ realisation o initial ch, for ordinar /ʧ/ in ither Scots dialects, is aften written sh.
The letters j an k insteid o y an c, influenced bi Norse spellin, the first ane aften uised for the semivouel /j/, especially for the palatalised consonants in wirds like, Yuil written Jøl, guid (guid) written gjöd or gjüd, caibin written kjaebin, kist written kjist etc.[19]
Leeterar Scots au an aw (vouel 12 an whiles vouel 17) is aften representit bi aa in written Shetlandic.[19]
Leeterar Scots ui an eu (vouel 7) is aften representit by ü, ö, or ø influenced bi Norse spellin.[20]
The grammatical structur o Shetlandic tends tae follae that o Modern Scots, wi a bit Norse (Norn) influence an featurs skared wi Staundart Inglis.[21][22]
Airticles
The definite airticle the is pronunced [də] aften written da in dialect write. Like Scots, Shetlandic pits a airticle whaur Staundart Inglis widna:[23][24]
gyaan ta da kirk/da scole in da Simmer-- 'gaun tae the kirk/schuil in the simmer'
da denner is ready – 'the denner is ready'
hae da caald – 'hae the cauld'
Nouns
Nouns in Shetland haes grammatical gender aside natural gender.[25] Some nouns that's considert neuter in Inglis is masculine or feminine, like spade (m), sun (m), mön (f), kirk (f).
The plural o nouns is for ordinar formt bi addin -s. Thare's a puckle unregular plurals, like kye, 'cous' or een.[26][27]
Pronouns
Shetland distinguishes atween personal pronoons uised bi parents whan speakin wi bairns, auld fowk speakin wi yunger fowk, or atween friends or equals an aw[28] and thae anes uised in formal situations an whan speakin wi superiors.[29][30] (See T–V distinction)
The familiar forms is thoo (thou), pronunced [du:], aften written du in dialect write; thine(s) (thy) pronunced [daɪn(z)], aften wrote dine(s) in dialect write; thee, pronunced [di(:)], aften wrote dee in dialect write; contrastin wi the formal forms ye/you, your and you.
The familiar du taks the singular form o the verb: Du is, du hes ('ye are, ye hae').
Like Scots, the relative pronoon is that,[31] pronunced [dat] or [ət], aften written dat[32] or 'at in dialect write,[33] as in
da dog at bet me... – 'the dug that bait me...'
Verbs
Like Scots, the past tense o waik verbs is formed bi aither addin -ed, -it, or -t,[34][35] as in spoot, spootit (muve quick).
The auxiliary verb ta be 'tae be', is uised whaur Scots wid uise 'tae hae':[36]
I'm written for "I'v written".
Ta hae is uised as a auxiliary wi the modal verbs coud, hed ('had'), micht, most ('maun'), sood ('shoud'), an wid ('wad') an syne reduced tae [ə], aften written a in dialect write:[36]Du sood a taald me 'ye sud'a telt me'.
Like Scots, auxiliary an monosyllabic verbs can be made negative bi addin -na:[37][38]widna. Itherwise, the Scots negative no.
The øse o Shetlandic fir da leid occurs in, fir example, James John Haldane Burgess (1892) Rasmie's Büddie: poems idda Shætlandic, Alexander Gardner; James Inkster (1922) Mansie's Röd: Sketches in the Shetlandic; T. & J. Manson; Jack Renwick (1963) Rainbow Bridge. (A collection o poems in English & Shetlandic.), Shetland Times; Jack Renwick, Liam O'Neill, Hayddir Johnson (2007) The harp o twilight: an anthology o poems in English an Shetlandic, Unst Writers Group.
Melchers, Gunnel (1991) Norn-Scots: a complicated language contact situation in Shetland. Language Contact in the British Isles: Proceedings of the Eighth International Symposium on Language Contact in Europe, Douglas, Isle of Man, 1988. Ed. P. Sture Ureland and George Broderick. Linguistische Arbeiten 238. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer. p.468
ShetlandDictionary.com The online Shetland Dictionary that anyone can update. Contains over 2,000 words from the Shetland dialect
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