Shetland dialect

Not to be confused with the Norn language.

Shetland dialect
Shetlandic, Shetland, Modern Shetlandic Scots
Shætlan
Christine De Luca speaking Shetland dialect
PronunciationIPA: [ˈʃe̞tlənd̥]
Native toUnited Kingdom
RegionScotland
EthnicityScottish people
Native speakers
3,500 ("used at home") (2011)[1]
11,000 ("can speak")
Early forms
Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3(scz is proposed[2])
Glottologshet1241  Shetland Scots
Linguasphere52-ABA-aad
IETFsco-u-sd-gbzet
Shetland in Scotland
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Scots language
History
Dialects

Shetland dialect (also variously known as Shetlandic;[4] broad or auld Shetland or Shaetlan;[5] and referred to as Modern Shetlandic Scots (MSS) by some linguists) is a dialect of Insular Scots spoken in Shetland, an archipelago to the north of mainland Scotland. 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,[6] with a degree of Norse influence[7][8][9] from the Norn language, which is an extinct North Germanic language spoken on the islands until the late 18th century.[10]

Consequently, Shetland dialect contains many words of Norn origin. Many of them, if they are not place-names, refer to e.g. seasons, weather, plants, animals, places, food, materials, tools, colours, parts of boats.[11]

Like Doric in North East Scotland, Shetland dialect 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 Shetland dialect is a separate language from Scots is much debated.[12]

  1. ^ United Kingdom census (2011). "Table KS206SC – Scots: Can speak Scots". National Records of Scotland. Retrieved 8 August 2021.
  2. ^ "Change Request Documentation: 2024-007". SIL.
  3. ^ The Linguasphere Register (PDF). November 2012. p. 414.
  4. ^ The use of Shetlandic for the language occurs in, for example, James John Haldane Burgess (1892) Rasmie's Büddie: poems in the Shetlandic, Alexander Gardner; James Inkster (1922) Mansie's Röd: Sketches in the Shetlandic; T. & J. Manson; Jack Renwick (1963) Rainbow Bridge. (A collection of poems in English & Shetlandic.), Shetland Times; Jack Renwick, Liam O'Neill, Hayddir Johnson (2007) The harp of twilight: an anthology of poems in English and Shetlandic, Unst Writers Group.
  5. ^ "Modern Shetlandic Scots language and alphabet". www.omniglot.com. Retrieved 25 February 2020.
  6. ^ Catford J.C. (1957) Vowel-Systems of Scots Dialects, Transactions of the Philological Society. p.115
  7. ^ http://www.scotslanguage.com/Scots_Dialects_uid117/Insular_uid118/Shetland_uid675 The Main Dialects of Scots: Shetland
  8. ^ http://www.scotslanguage.com/Scots_Dialects_uid117/Insular_uid118/Orkney_uid1243 The Main Dialects of Scots: Orkney.
  9. ^ http://www.scotslanguage.com/Scots_Dialects_uid117/Insular_uid118/Insular_uid3422 The Main Dialects of Scots: Insular.
  10. ^ Price, Glanville (1984) The Languages of Britain. London: Edward Arnold. p.203 ISBN 978-0-7131-6452-7
  11. ^ Barnes, Michael (1984) Orkney and Shetland Norn. Language in the British Isles. Ed. Peter Trudgill. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p.29 states that a paper by Gunnel Melchers "lists the following areas of vocabulary as being particularly rich in Norn words: types of wind and weather; flowers and plants; animals; seasons and holidays; food; tools; materials and colours; movement; whims, ludicrous behaviour, unbalanced states of mind, qualities." But, as published, the paper he cites (The Norn Element in Shetland Dialect Today – A Case of Never-Accepted Language Death, in Ejerhed, E. and I. Henrysson (eds.) Tvåspråkighet. Föredrag från tredje Nordiska Tvåspråkighetssymposiet 4-5 juni 1980. Acta Universitatis Umensis. Umeå Studies in the Humanities 36. 254-261) does not include such a list.
  12. ^ ""Modern Shetlandic Scots"". Archived from the original on 7 February 2012. Retrieved 14 July 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link). Shetlopedia. Retrieved 14 July 2012.