Re: Q- and P- Celtic

Thomas Leigh scripsit:

> When I was in Scotland -- and associating with militant Scots
> activists :-) -- I was given to understand that Shetlandic was
> one of the dialects of Scots. Though now, in more than one
> place, I've seen it classified as a separate entity. Either of
> you know more about that? I'm curious.
Well, it's an extreme case of a dialect or a marginal case of a
different language.

Sociolinguistically, you have a sort of nested linguistic imperialism:
people who speak Shetlandic think of it as distinct from Scots, whereas
people who speak Scots think it's a mere dialect of it -- basically
the attitude of Scots-speakers and English-speakers, respectively, to
Scots!

To my mind, a telling detail is the fact that Shetlandic and Orcadian
can't be fitted into the traditional diaphonemic spelling of Scots,
and (in the case of Orcadian at least) have their own traditional
orthography.

Consider this continuum from Standard English to traditional Shetlandic:

i. I've booked all those who were wrongly parked.
ii. I'v booked aa those at wir wrongly parked.
iii. I'v bookit aw thae wha wur wrangly parkit.
iv. I'v booked aa dem at wis wrangly parked.
v. I'v beukit aa thaim at wis wrang parkit.
vi. I'm bookit aa dem at wis wrang parkit.

(ii) is basically English with some Scots features; (iii) is literary
Scots (i.e. English words, Scots phonology); (iv) is hypothetical literary
Shetlandic, analogous to (iii); (v) is broad Scots.  Characteristically,
that (vi) is set off from the others by its different syntax:  the
present perfect is made with "be", not "have".

> By the wey, Padraic, I didna ken ye haed sic an interest in the
> guid mither tung! Hou braw it is tae ken thair's ither fowk oot
> thair on wir wee listie apairt fae masel at appreiciates hit! :)
Oh, he's not the only one.

--
"While staying with the Asonu, I met a man from     John Cowan
the Candensian plane, which is very much like       jcowan@reutershealth.com
ours, only more of it consists of Toronto."         http://:www.ccil.org/~cowan
        --the unnamed narrator of Le Guin's _Changing Planes_

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