Whin tae øse hit an whin tae øse it

Shaetlan haes twa forms at baith translates tae StE 'it': hit an it. Da wyes da twa o dem is øsed isna fairly da sam. Da form hit kerries mair emphasis an is wint tae be øsed as "dummy" subjects athin impersonal sentences laek

Hit will come clear laetter.

whaar 'hit' doesna refer tae onythin in parteeklar. Firbye dat, hit is da default form in whit's caaed "cleft sentences". Cleft means "dividit, spleet" an a cleft sentence is een at's bøn spleet, so at ee pairt is moved tae anidder poseetion fur tae gie mair emphasis, laek in

Hit wis fir da soup at I cam.

Hit wis becis dey wir gotten gluffed at dey jamp.

In a corpus o spokken Shaetlan wi mair as 316,000 wirds by far an awa da maist o da hit-forms wis øsed as impersonal dummies an in clefts (fir dem at's statistically mindit: X2=59.76, df=1, N=3,805, p<.00001***).In idder wirds, "hit" haes a saeperit grammatical function fae "it". Tae no differentiate atween hit an it - so, eider tae onny øse hit aawye, or onny it aawye - wid be a hypercorrection at hoids dis grammatical refinement in Shaetlan an wid mak da language mair laek StE. Firbye dat, hearin "hit" øsed aawye can be gratin: hit maks it soond contrived becis aathin soonds owerly focused an emphasised.

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Pictir by Julie Dennison