LL-L "Language varieties" 2002.05.16 (03) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 16.MAY.2002 (03) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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 A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian L=Limburgish
 LS=Low Saxon (Low German) S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic Z=Zeelandic (Zeeuws)
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From: "John M. Tait" <jmtait at wirhoose.co.uk>
Subject: LL-L "Language contacts" 2002.05.14 (03) [E/S]

Gary wrote:
>
>I'm from Southern England and have never heard of
>'keek' - could it just be present in North English
>dialects?
>pps. could 'dunner' come from a Shetland/Orkney
>varient of 'thunner', or would the latter be
>pronounced 'tunner' there?

Although I personally would say 'thunder' when speaking Shetlandic, the
traditional pronunciation is 'tunder' My pronunciation of this
particular word, with initial 'th', I would attribute to Anglicisation -
though I'm not sure why it would affect this word when I say 'tin'
(thin), 'tick' (thick), etc. Normally in Shetlandic, initial 'th' [T]
(unvoiced, as in Eng. 'thin') becomes 't' - only voiced 'th' [D] (as in
Eng. 'there') becomes 'd'. However - unlike in most dialects of Mainland
Scots - the 'nd' would be unlikely to become 'n'. For example, in
Shetlandic I say 'hunder' (hundred), 'winder' (wonder) rather than
'hunner' and 'winner' as in North East Scots. I couldn't speak for
Orcadian, about which I am shamefully ignorant!

There is a curious development in Shetlandic of the word 'thing', where
the two forms - 'thing' [TIN] and 'ting' [tIN] have developed different
meanings, or at least, connotations. The 'thing' form is used with the
ordinary meaning, and the 'ting' form (which is the form one would
expect in Shetlandic) has a connotation of 'small thing', often used,
for example, of small animals or children: 'isn' hit juist a peerie
mootie ting' - 'what a tiny little thing it is.'

Note that the correspondences [T] to [t] and [D] to [d], while almost
regular at the beginning of words, do not happen in every position in
Shetland words, and there is some dialect variation. For example, I say
'baith' [be:T], both, and and 'boed' [b2:d], booth; but in other
dialects these can be 'baid' [be:d] (I don't know why the voicing
anomaly here) and 'beodh' [b2:D].

Though 'keek' is characteristic of most Scots dialects, Shetlandic and
North East Scots both use 'teet' (cp. eg. Swedish _titta_).

While I'm on a roll, one of the differences I notice between my accent
and that of my wife (a mainland Scot) is that she pronounces needle
[nidl] and beadle [bidl] (church officer) with the same vowel, whereas I
say [nidl] with a short and [bi:dl] with a long 'ee' sound.

John M. Tait.

http://www.wirhoose.co.uk

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