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9 - Insular Varieties of English in Britain

9.D The Orkney and Shetland Isles

from Part I - English

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 October 2024

By
Jennifer Smith  and
Mercedes Durham
Edited by
Susan Fox
Susan Fox
Affiliation:
Universität Bern, Switzerland
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Summary

Centuries of contact between Older Scots and the Scandinavian language of Norn, coupled with geographic isolation, has resulted in the highly distinctive dialects spoken in the Orkney and Shetland Isles today. In this chapter, we document the socio-historical context which led to the formation of these dialects, and look to a range of studies which describe these dialects’ lexical, phonological and morphosyntactic forms. We note forms shared with other varieties of Scots but concentrate mostly on the highly localised features not found in mainland Scotland. In addition to broad comparisons between Orkney and Shetland, we also document the dialect diversity within each location. Finally, we turn to bidialectalism, and specifically how speakers may have access to two ‘codes’ in their linguistic repertoire, where Standard Scottish English is used alongside localised vernaculars, and how this might impact on dialect attrition in the coming years.

Keywords

ShetlandOrkneybidialectalismdialectdialect attritionScots
Type
Chapter
Information
Language in Britain and Ireland , pp. 258 - 266
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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References

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