Shetland dialect

The Shetland dialect shares much with other branches of Scots, though the legacy of Norn, which died about 1800, is obvious still in place names, vocabulary, expressions and pronunciation.

One of the most distinctive features is the second person singular pronoun: friends, equals and family members are likely to be addressed as du instead of you.  (The plural form is you.)  After du comes the same part of a verb as would appear after he or she : e.g.: Du is daft if du believes him!

The objective form is dee e.g.:  I dunna laek dee.

Inanimate objects are often called he or she/shö. E.g.:
I lost dat book, or maybe Mam dumpit him.
Da new car? Shö's a lock faster.  (Shö is a local pronunciation.)

Some Shetland vowel sounds are common in Scandinavia, the most obvious being ö.  There are differences in pronunciation throughout the isles, mainly with vowels.  The distinctive short ae sound as in paet and spaek etc. is found in all areas.  Another noticeable Shetland-wide feature is the tendency to use  or t in place of English or Mainland Scots th, e.g.:
this    dis
that    dat
there dere

thin    tin
thick   tick
thrive  trive

When talking about the past, it is common practice to use the verb to be:
'Is du heard?' 'Yes, I'm heard'.

When using English, we say 'Shetland dialect' or just 'the dialect'.  'Shetlandic' is an English word, acceptable when speaking or writing English.  But, for dialect speakers among dialect speakers, the word is 'Shetland' (pronounced Shaetlan).  The name of the speech and the name of the islands are the same.

Shetland dialect today is alive and in daily use.  It belongs, for example, in the world of tankers, ferries and fairmin da sea: in the voes, gios, stackes, da banks broo, da shoormal, da tap fl'd, da waar and da tang, for example.  Gyells and flanns blow round our windmills, steekit mist stops the planes, the antrin moolie blocks roads.  We all buy our helly errands, try not to chuck bruck, and hope to avoid feeries.  And as for people: weel-laek, fanted-laek, aaful fine, braaly perskeet, or downright poor-amos - there's quite a lot to say!  Radio Shetland features dialect, the public flocks to dialect plays, concerts and poetry readings, and the 'Shetland ForWirds' committee, recently established in response to public pressure, aims to promote the continued use of Shaetlan as a lively spoken tongue.

To learn more about the history, background and present issues of Norn, Shetlandic and Scots please follow this link to John Magnus Tait's website: http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/wirhoose/but/

 

The Centre provides a national service. You can contact us if you would like more information about dialects of Scots.  We can give you information about dictionaries and books, provide contact details for dialect activists and experts and let you know about relevant events taking place round the country.  Feel free to phone us or send an e-mail if you can't find what you're looking for on the site.

This is a link to a webside dedicated to Shetland dialect and culture. Created by the Shetland dialect campaign group Shetland ForWirds, it contains education resources for all levels, information about Shetland literature and an online dictionary. The website is continually updated with news of language events and a Sayin o da Week feature.
Shetland ForWirds