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Shetland dialect


Shetlandic, usually referred to as (auld or braid) Shetland by native speakers, and referred to as Modern Shetlandic Scots (MSS) by linguists, is spoken in Shetland, to the north of mainland Scotland and is, like Orcadian, a dialect of Insular Scots. It is derived from the Scots dialects brought to Shetland from the end of the fifteenth century by Lowland Scots, mainly from Fife and Lothian, with a degree of Norwegian influence from the Norn language, which is an extinct North Germanic language spoken on the islands until the late 18th century.

Consequently Shetlandic contains many words of Norn origin. Most of them, if they are not place-names, refer to the seasons, the weather, plants, animals, places, food, materials, tools, colours (especially of sheep or horses), moods and whims or 'unbalanced states of mind'.

Like Doric in North East Scotland, Shetlandic retains a high degree of autonomy due to geography and isolation from southern dialects. It has a large amount of unique vocabulary but as there are no standard criteria for distinguishing languages from dialects, whether or not Shetlandic is a separate language from Scots is much debated.

"Shetland dialect speakers generally have a rather slow delivery, pitched low and with a somewhat level intonation".

By and large, consonants are pronounced much as in other Modern Scots varieties. Exceptions are: The dental fricatives /ð/ and /θ/ may be realised as alveolar plosives [d] and [t] respectively, for example [tɪŋ] and [ˈmɪdər] rather than [θɪŋ], or debuccalized [hɪŋ] and [hɪn], (thing) and [ˈmɪðər] mither (mother) as in Central Scots. The qu in quick, queen and queer may be realised [xʍ] rather than [kw], initial /tʃ/ ch may be realised [ʃ] and the initial cluster wr may be realised [wr] or [wər].


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