Phrasemes

A phraseme or set phrase is a fixed expression that consists of more than one word, but that functions as one unit. The choice of words in the expression is fixed, and the order of them is also fixed. You can't split the phrase. Very often they translate into another language as one word. For example, in StE 'all of a sudden' or 'of course' the words can only sit in that order, and can't be split by other things (eg not *sudden of an all/*all, however, of a sudden... or *course of/*of, I would say, course,...). These StE phrasemes can be replaced with 'suddenly' and 'certainly'.

Shaetlan has a number of two-word phrasemes that neatly translate into one StE word, such as:

▪︎whit wye (StE 'why', not "what way"):

— Whit wye is he no comin? ('Why isn't he coming?' not "what way is he not coming")

Something like *whit is he no comin wye? would be ungrammatical in Shaetlan.

▪︎whit laek (StE 'how', not "what like"):

— Wait till du sees what laek it looks ('wait until you see how it looks' not "wait until you see what like it looks")

Something like *wait till du sees whit it looks laek would be ungrammatical Shaetlan.

▪︎peerie mootie (StE 'tiny' not "small very")

— He wis jüst a peerie mootie dug ('he was just a tiny dog')

Something like "he wis jüst a tiny peerie dug" would not be Shaetlan but StE with a Shaetlan loanword (peerie). The second element in the phraseme (mootie) does not tend to work on its own, so something like *a mootie dug would sound odd.