INTERNATIONAL praise has poured in for the world’s first bilingual primer of the grammar of the Shaetlan language.
The 119 page document is not a full grammatical analysis, but is instead meant to help a layperson understand the structure of the language spoken in Shetland.
“If we made it too jargony then it’s not accessible for anyone that wants to learn the language and that defies the whole purpose of it,” Professor Viveka Velupillai, a Shetland-based language expert affiliated with the University of Giessen in Germany, told The National. “We wanted to start with this accessible version, and we’ll go into the nitty-gritty details for the linguists in a separate version.”
Velupillai has written the first primer alongside Roy Mullay, a native Shaetlan speaker and colleague on the I Hear Dee language project.
A copy of the primer – which is available to view digitally on iheardee.com – is to be gifted to every primary school in Shetland to show native speakers that their language “is not wrong”.
“They have been told for so many generations that their language is wrong,” Velupillai says. “We want to show them that it’s just as elegant, and systematic, and predictable as any other language variety in the world.”
Written in Shaetlan and English, the primer has “put Shetland straight onto the linguistic map”. Velupillai says they have been “touched” by the response which has already led to invitations to lecture at international universities and recognition from bodies such as the UN, the Endangered Languages Project and SIL International.
READ MORE: A-List Star Wars actor revealed as Comic Con Scotland guest
The primer outlines some key features of Shaetlan grammar, highlighting interesting differences with English. Velupillai points to the fact that, in Shaetlan, objects have gender, as they do in other European languages. Uncountable nouns such as sand (saand in Shaetlan) or wool (oo) are “it”, while countable ones are either “he” or “she”. Newer words that have slotted into the language have also followed this rule. A phone is “she”, a pen drive, “he”.
English also uses “have” to form the present perfect (eg: I have seen the film), while Shaetlan uses “be” (A’m seen da film).
Velupillai says this difference often sees Shaetlan speakers told they are making a “mistake”, when they are simply following their own language’s rules. In fact, English’s use of “have” is “extremely rare globally”, the professor explains.
“It is English that is quirky, but we’re so used to it that everyone assumes it’s the default.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel