Musings on the Orcadian Dialect

I talked about the Orcadian dialect once, and then I talked about it again. A few weeks ago, I was doing a bit of casual research (read: reading a bunch of stuff on Wikipedia), and came up with a few links of interest.

The Orkney Communities website highlighted that 2010 was the Year o' Orkney Dialect, and they linked to an eBook of an old Etymological Glossary of the Shetland and Orkney Dialect. There's also an entire website dedicated to the Scots language, and it includes some discussion of the Orcadian dialect. I also found an interesting essay at the University of the Highlands and Islands' Centre for Nordic Studies' website that's worth a read.

My "casual research" - particularly the Wikipedia part - notes that, in actuality, Orcadians (and Shetlanders) used to speak a North Germanic language called Norn; Sigurd Towrie's indispensable Orkneyjar website has an article about Norn, as well as an article about the Orkney dialect.

I've stated repeatedly that I cut my teeth on the Orkney dialect by reviewing old Giddy Limit strips. Last week, I had my first experience with incomprehensible Orcadian speech in a long time while listening to a podcast from BBC Radio Orkney. They were interviewing some guy who had attended a local sporting event or something, and between being hoarse, mumbling, speaking in a particularly thick Orcadian accent, and a poor quality phone connection, I had zero idea what he was saying. I was about to be upset, but when his statement was over, both of the presenters commented on how it sounded as if he had been shouting a lot the previous day, and that made me feel better!