Tae ging til da skül

In Standard English the little word to has several functions and labels. As a so-called particle it is an infinitive marker and functions to flag up a verb: to speak, to eat, to be, to have. As a so-called preposition it indicates direction/target/goal/result/etc: go to the shop/speak to them/read to the end/etc. This directional function is the oldest of the two, but they started to merge in late Old English and early Middle English in the southern varieties. However, in Northumbrian OE they were kept apart: to weakened to ta(e)/te(h) (pronounced /ta, te, tə/) and functioned as the infinitive marker: tae spaek, tae aet, tae be, tae hae. The other functions were expressed by til from Old Norse til (directional preposition): tae ging til da shop/tae spaek til dem/tae read til da end. The forms and functions are also separate in the Scandinavian languages: att gå till affären/att tala till dem/att läsa till slutet/etc.

In Shaetlan the two forms and functions are still widely kept separate. However, there are regions where both functions have merged to tae in a pattern replication of Standard English. This change had already started when Jakob Jakobsen did his fieldwork in 1893-95. There might be a social dimension to the change: it is likely that those who were more exposed to Standard English through education and trade, etc. were those who started it. If so it is likely that the regions where the functions have merged to one form tae would overlap with regions with a higher number of merchants (eg Lerwick, Hillswick, Baltasoond, etc), whereas those areas that kept tae/til for different functions would overlap with traditional crofting regions (eg Tingwall, Cunningsburgh, etc).

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Photo by William Mewes licensed under CC0 1.0