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!

Finding Sources on the Dhofar Rebellion

I've written extensively about my dissertation about the Dhofar Rebellion. During my initial weeks at my new job, I was basically being paid to do nothing while I waited for a project to be assigned to me. One thing I did to pass the time was to try some new search strings in order to find minor sources about the conflict. The situation in which I find myself is that I've already procured either soft or hard copies of most of the major sources about the conflict. That leaves me to cast a much wider net in order to find minor sources. A couple of searches yielded some unexpected results, primarily in volume of sources but also some new information (to me, at least) in a few specific cases. Here are some of the sources that I found:

Miscellaneous Books

The Clouded Lens: Persian Gulf Security and U.S. Policy, pp. 21

Britain and Oman: The Dhofar War and its Significance

Coup D'état Oman by Ray Kane

Dangerous Frontiers: Campaigning in Somaliland and Oman by Bryan Ray

Oman's Insurgencies: The Sultanate's Struggle for Supremacy by J.E. Peterson

Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum

Nessen Papers - Q&A about SQBS Meeting with President Ford

Memorandum - SQBS Meeting with President Ford

Memorandum - Letter from SQBS to President Ford

Defense Technical Information Center

Irregular Pen and Limited Sword - PSYWAR, PSYOP, and MISO in Counterinsurgency

Understanding the Complexity of Reconciliation, Reintegration, and Amnesty for the Enemy in Counterinsurgency Warfare

The Fight for Oman 1963-1975

Revolution from a F.A.R. - The Cuban Armed Forced in Africa and the Middle East

The Ascendance of Iran - A Study in the Emergence of an Assertive Iranian Foreign Policy and its Impact on Iranian-Soviet Relations

Strategic and Operational Implications of Iranian Military Operations in the Iran-Iraq War

Desert Guerrillas - Psychological, Social and Economic Characteristics of the Bedouin which Lend Themselves to Irregular Warfare

Insurgency and Counterinsurgency

The Role of the Operational Commander in Counterinsurgency

Revolution or Realism - United States-Iran Relations in the Post-Cold War Era

The Iranian Revolution - A Case Study in Coercive Power Consolidation

The Question of Iranian Occupation of the Islands

Security Efforts in the Arab World - A Brief Examination of Four Regional Organizations

Determinants of Iranian Foreign Policy - The Impact of Systemic, Domestic and Ideologic Factors

Insurgency in Iraq - A Historical Perspective

Saddam Hussein's Grand Strategy During the Iran-Iraq War

Why Insurgents Fail - Examining Post-World War II Failed Insurgencies

Oman - Reform, Security, and U.S. Policy

Lions in the Path of Stability and Security - Oman's Response to Pressing Issues in the Middle East

Working “Through, With, and By” Non-US Actors to Achieve Operational-Level Security Objectives

US Strategic Interests in Iran and Saudi Arabia

Greece and Oman - Successful Anglo-American Counterinsurgencies Viewed from Current American Counterinsurgency Doctrine

Short of General War: Perspectives on the Use of Military Power in the 21st Century

A Line in the Sand - A Historical Study of Border Security During Insurgencies

United Kingdom Use of Salalah Port, Sultanate of Oman for the Movement of Military Explosives

Yemen - A Different Political Paradigm in Context

Key Considerations for Irregular Security Forces in Counterinsurgency

Coping with a Nuclearizing Iran

Operations at the Border - Efforts to Disrupt Insurgent Safe-Havens

Defeating David - Looking Beyond a Matched Strategy

The Integration of Information Operations into Army Operations During Periods of Unstable Peace and Insurgency

Closing the Security Gap - Building Irregular Security Forces

Locals Rule - Historical Lessons for Creating Local Defense Forces for Afghanistan and Beyond

Iran - Illusion, Reality, and Interests

Iran - U.S. Concerns and Policy Responses

Generation of Combat Power by Insurgents - An Historical Analysis

Military Support to Indirect Security and Stability Surge Operations

Khomeini's Incorporation of the Iranian Military

Fighting the Global War on Terror Tolerably - Augmenting the Global Counter Insurgency Strategy with Surrogates

The British Approach to Counter-Insurgency - Myths, Realities, and Strategic Challenges

The Organizational Imperative - Theory and History on Unity of Effort in Counterinsurgency Campaigns

Hearts and Minds - Its Evolution and Relevance to Counterinsurgency Campaigns

RAND Corporation

The Soviet Union and Iraq Since 1968

Improving U.S. Air Force Readiness and Sustainability

In addition, one particular search led me to this notification, which then pointed me toward hundreds of declassified diplomatic cables at the National Archives and Records Administration's archival databases. The story of how that came about will be posted to the JTS blog soon.

My next goal is to search the Marine Corps' website, which has already yielded a few results. More to come as this particular project continues.

Catching My Breath

I feel awful for having neglected this blog for so long. That said, I've had pretty good reason. Here are a few of the things that have taken priority over blogging.

1) I moved across the country and started a new job. The trip itself was disruptive enough, but then there's getting the new digs set up, and running errands, and... Yeah. That was the first thing.

2) Since I arrived at my new base of operations in June, Lady Jaye has visited twice, for a grand total of nearly three weeks. While I got a few posts typed up during those visits, overall blogging time was pretty limited.

3) In addition to Lady Jaye's visits, I flew back West for two different Lady Jaye-related events on the West Coast - a total of about nine days when you combine travel days and time on the ground. I wasn't really in a position to write much of anything during those two blocks.

4) Given that I only have a few hours of leave on the books, those two trips back West required me to work some ridiculous hours at work - as in, ten-and-a-half hour days at a forty-hour-a-week desk job. I may get to the point where I can prep blog posts from work, but I'm not there yet.

5) In addition to the aforementioned items, I'm lucky enough to have moved to an area where I already have a pre-existing friend base. One of my best friends from college lives about an hour drive away, one of the guys I worked with back in 2007 was in the area for about six weeks, and I've had a couple of other friends who either live in the area or were in town on business. So, unlike my early months in Hampton Roads when I knew basically no one, or pretty much the entire time I lived in California, my immediate post-arrival social schedule has been much busier than I would have originally predicted.

The good news is that I've been in a position to collect news articles and have some cool adventures, and a lot of it's been documented in one way or another. I'm not due to fly back West for a little while, nor is Lady Jaye due to fly our here for a while, so both those constraints and the related ridiculous work schedule will calm down for awhile. This should give me an opportunity to catch up on some of the items I've been wanting to post. so, if you're an occasional reader and you've been disappointed with the sporadic content, stick with me and I'll get to posting what will hopefully be some thought-provoking stuff in short order.

Having Been Otherwise Occupied...

I've barely posted to this blog since moving. That's not by design; rather, it's because I've been insanely busy. I've only been in my new digs for a few weeks at this point, and I've had all sorts of things to get sorted out.

Lady Jaye spent about a week and a half out here, so I obviously prioritized her over blogging. Shortly thereafter, I started putting in some pretty major hours at work in order to take a couple of days off to fly back home, and I'll be doing that for the next few weeks as well for the same reason.

I've tried, with limited success, to work on my two current research interests: writing the history of the Orcadian Gordon Highlanders of the First World War, and continuing my research on the Dhofar Rebellion. That has included futher efforts to explore the Hornbeam Line; I've also located a handful of additional Dhofar-related locations, to include six (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) sites that appear to be associated with the Damavand Line, a later fortification that was manned by the Imperial Iranian Task Force. So, that's chewed up some time.

And really, the biggest thing that's taken up my time has been work, and like I said, the hours have been abnormal because of some of the commitments I've had. They've been worth it, but I do expect for things to settle down a bit by the end of this month, at which point I should be back to posting two or three times per week.

The Road Trip: By the Numbers

Alright, I've arrived at my destination. Although I'm still in the process of getting everything sorted out, I wanted to drop in for a moment.

Owing to some car trouble, it was a real white knuckler of a drive. It took me about four full days of driving (for a total of five days of travel - I made a couple of social calls) across more than 3200 miles of roads in thirteen states. I fueled my vehicle fourteen times, paid a total of $558.33 for a total of 153.709 gallons of fuel during the course of the trip. The average price was $3.65 per gallon, with the cheapest being in St. Joseph, Missouri ($3.299 per gallon) and the most expensive in my hometown ($3.919 per gallon). I averaged 20.8 miles to the gallon. The highest elevation I reached was 8571 feet, right here, east of Laramie, Wyoming. The furthest north I got was right here, outside Hermiston, Oregon, while the furthest south I got was right here, in St. Louis, Missouri.

So, like I said, I'm still getting everything sorted out. In about a week, I should have things pretty well put together, which should allow me to get back into some sort of routine, which should help me to blog more consistently. Check back soon.

This is a Test

Update

Well, I've finally landed a position, so I'm in the process of relocating - hence the scarcity of posts over the last couple of weeks. I may have a chance to post a few items relating to the move as it's taking place, but I'll be mostly incommunicado for the next couple of weeks as I move and get settled. Stay tuned.