Shaetlan isna “local English“

Shaetlan is a bilingual plaess; ivvri Shaetlan spaeker growes up spaekin Shetland English firby. Da term ‘Shetland English’ is a standirt term øsed baith in an oot o academia tae refer til da local accent o (Standirt) English. De’r a gret quantity o Standirt Englishes aroond da wirld, da laeks o Australian English, Canadian English, Ghanaian English, an dem. Ithin dis big plaesses de’r varieites o English fir peerier districts. Ithin da UK de’r da macro areas laek, fir example, Scottish English, Welsh English, an Irish English. Ithin Scottish English we hae fir example, Orcadian English, Shetland English an Caithness English. Dis Englishes hae a odds mainly in accent, no lexicon or grammar. So hit’s impoartant no tae mix up Shetland English (linguistically a accent o da language kent o as English spokken aroond da wirld) wi Shaetlan (linguistically anidder language in its ain richt). As shün as a Shaetlan spaeker comes apø onybody wi a non-Shaetlan voice, wi dat sam dey code-switch ti’ Shaetlan English. Linguistically dis is shaan idda prosidy (da intonation or "melody" o da language) an idda vocabulary an grammar an aa. Fir example, da average Shaetlan spaeker will jüst ging aheid an code-switch da Shaetlan utterance

We’ll see dee in a peerie start / Yun eens yunder / I’m haed denner / He’s a stervation / I dunna ken / A’m gyaan haem

til English (wi a Shetland accent)

We’ll see you in a bit / Dose wans dere / I’ve haed lunch / It’s freezin cold / I don’t know / I’m goin hom

whin comin apün a non-Shaetlan voice. Hit’s a mistak at’s aft maed fir veesitors tae mak oot at dey ir hearin Shaetlan, whin really da Shetlander is no bein rude an is _knappin_ (spaekin Shetland English) wi dem. Fir a splendid study on Shaetlan/English code-switchin, see Karam (2017).

Reference:

Karam, Kerry. 2017. Knappin: Standard versus dialect speech modification in Shetland. Aberdeen: University of Aberdeen PhD dissertation.