Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1964, Page 119

Shetland speech today
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upstartder (minister). It will be noticed that the sea equi=
valent is here (and in most other cases) of Norse origin
and a further grammatical characteristic of these taboo words
is the frequency of the survival of the Scandinavian suf«
fixed article in the Scotticised from as in klovin, tongs
(klovinn), eldin, fire (eldinn), birtin, fire (birtinn), fyorin,
shore^bait (fjáran), fyandin, devil (fjandinn). Apparently
the evil spirits were Scots who could be hoaxed by the
unfamiliar Norse name!
Norse too is the usage, much more flexible than in Scots,
of prepositious as adverbs, especially in the cases of at, til
and up, where Shetland has improved on Norwegian in
the number of possible locutions with various verbs, like
draw, come, geng, lay, set, etc. On the other hand the
Shetland vowel system is based on Scots, particularly the
Scots of the Tay and Forth areas from which the first lot
of settlers seem to have come to Shetland. As regards
consonants palatalisation, as in Norwegian, is universal in
Shetland, though not uncommon in Scots also, but palatal
l and n, no longer surviving in Scotland, is heard every*
where in the islands.
Perhaps the oddest feature of colloquial Shetland speech
is the use of the pronouns. In form these are Scots, though
the form shu, which appears alongside shó, appears to be
from the Old Norse demonstrative sú. Hibbert and the
writer in the Gentleman’s Magazine remark on the absence
of the neuter pronoun it, although in fact it does occur
once or twice in the passages they quote.
Yet it is certainly true that the commonest pronoun is
he used equally for personal and impersonal or inanimate
objects, especially in reference to weather and predicatively.
Association with Norwegian where det would normally be
used, hardly explains this. Nor again does Norse explain
such usages of the so^called ethic dative as in “du’s been
dee a dim” (you have been a long time), “he’Il be him a
banksígaet” (he’ll be as far as the cliffs), “haddin 'im a