Da Waddir Wan | Shetland Dialect Film | Shetland ForWirds

Film created by Jonathon Bulter and Lauren Bulter for Shetland ForWirds.
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Website: www.shetlanddialect.org.uk/
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[@timbo66]

As an southern Englishman who likes the Ann Cleeves Jimmy Perez stories, this was glorious to hear. What a beautiful dialect.

[@PanchoChiekrie]

As a Scot who grew up down south I love how Scandinavian the words and accent sound. ❤

[@cemera1599]

I love their rolled Rs like in Scandinavian languages, it gives more life to the words

[@Greggorious123]

Definitely a slight Scandinavian twang to the accent.

[@slaterslater5944]

And the words. Autumn is "höst" on Swedish..

[@sgjoni]

Slightly…? I feel like it´s almost half way to Icelandic 😂

[@dan74695]

@@slaterslater5944 Shetlandic also has "war" for spring, and it's "vår" in Swedish, Norwegian and Danish. In Dalarna in Sweden, they have "wår".

[@iainanderson6775]

Shetland was the last place to be included as part of Scotland. It was still Norwegian until the 1400s

[@tomdonnelly6156]

I think the Western Isles' accent sounds much more Scandinavian - due to the Norse Gael influence. Shetland sounds very like Doric, the version of Scots spoken in the North East of Scotland. There are some Scandinavian origin words in this video but not as much as you might expect, it's overwhelmingly Scots.

[@Sindrijo]

Luvlí veedjó! I'm Icelandic and Shetlandic is so cute! hairst = haust, doontöm -> töm = empty? (as in emptying the sky?) bairns = börn, flukra = (snjó)flygsur = big fluffy snowflakes, another word we use for it is 'hundslappadrífa' = dogs-paws- löf = lófi

[@robertfry6783]

Thanks that’s so interesting. Google translate did the rest for us English speakers!

[@autumnphillips151]

“If you don’t like the weather, just wait five minutes” is exactly what’s said where I’m from in the U.S. as well.

[@JBobjork]

As a swede its fun to listen to all the Nordic words. "While its fine here nu" "The væder" "Get in or ut" "Gå ut for a walk" "Häng me washing ut"

[@aarongoldman301]

Absolutely awesome! I love how this accent is at the same time hard like Scottish accent should be and melodic in a Scandinavian way,

[@sigil5772]

I was just thinking the same. Tune out and, apart from some clearly Scottish sounds, you could be listening to Norwegian

[@jpilegaaard1278]

I love this accent…its half Scandinavian

[@danjames4086]

I'm off to Shetland in a couple of weeks....really hope I get to hear thus dialect.

[@halltorafridleivsdottir2161]

"Flukra" sounds similar to "flykra" in Faroese, which means "snowflake" 😍 (pronounced "flee-kra")

[@sundromos9456]

And then there's just the word "flake", which I suspect is common in origin to both. Flukra could then be "flaky snow"? The etymology of "flake" is interesting... in Old English, *flacca = "flakes of snow."

[@toade1583]

@@sundromos9456 Of course Old English and Old Norse were related as they were both Germanic languages, but flukra definitely comes from Old Norse as in the Middle Ages, the Islands of Orkney and Shetland spoke an North Germanic called Norn up until the 1700s where the gradual move to speaking Scots fully had completed as before Norn had Scots(Which also has a ton of Old Norse influence, even more so than Standard English) influence, but was still it's own language. Today, the dialects of both islands contains a lot more words of Scandinavian origin than even Mainland Scots due to the people originally being Old Norse/Norn speakers who switched to speaking Scots.

[@magnusgranskau7487]

It's fnugg in Norwegian, but you would say snow first as in snøfnugg

[@lesleylehane7715]

This had me in tears, it’s beautiful ❤

[@angelaaltman864]

Lovely video. Thanks ♥️

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Love it!

[@galerussell1710]

This was delightful, makes me want to be there but I would need an interpreter.

[@Juleesuz]

I really enjoyed this. I am from the United States and I was talking with a friend who I met online and I wanted to hear a little bit about Shetland life. I found this particular film fun to watch as I love all of the weather terms. I learn about the weather and study the weather as a hobby. My husband has gone to school to formally learn in University. He has taught me and my son so much. I will show my son this video soon. Very educational. Thanks for producing and sharing!

[@suburbohemian]

That's it! I'm snagging some of these to describe the 'wadder' here at Los Angeles Beach Cities cus we deffo get some of this and don't have enough good American words for it!

[@1972mccormack]

Haily puckles ....... Love it

[@MrKorton]

Hairst is the same word as the icelandic word for autumn "haust" and german "herbst" ...and english "harvest". 😀

[@timoloef]

true. I'm dutch and it made total sense to me too.

[@grahamfleming8139]

General Scots hervist.

[@dan74695]

It's "haust" in Norwegian as well. It's "høst" in Danish, and "höst" in Swedish.

[@inMuro]

dutch: herfst

[@forbesmeek6304]

Scots, hairst.

[@CHRISTOPHER011]

I would love to live in the shetlands

[@fuckweedMegafayce]

Beautiful accidental find, this video

[@matthewtopping2061]

The little girl has a notably more "standard" accent. As an American, I can understand her a lot better than anyone else in the video.

[@johnearle1]

They say flat cam for calm waters in Newfoundland. Newfoundland has a capricious climate. We’ve got loads of expressions for whatever Mother Nature throws at us.

[@pipermoonshine3281]

I family, my late family..they have since passed on..but anyway..they were from a small area in NC and y'alls dialect sounds very similar to them. I had no problem understanding you. the area that my family was from had a word for very calm water..slick cam..i swear I heard you say that and I knew exactly what you meant.

[@toade1583]

Appalachia was traditionally settled by largely Scottish immigrants who at the time, would have spoken the Scots dialect of English( this was before Standard education so the Scottish, Northern, and Southwestern varieties of Received Pronunciation or Standard Southeast British English weren't a thing yet).

[@alexbowman7582]

Lingua Franca, most languages would be such before modern radio and television.

[@TheMrChugger]

The old lad literally sounds Icelandic. Mad how there's a little enclave of Vikings still in the UK

[@edwinvanderkooij8713]

Funny, I heard "hearst" or something like that, it means autumn in English. It is written "herfst" in Dutch, pronounced "hearfst". 🤣👍

[@autumnphillips151]

I heard “höst”, which is the Swedish word, because I’m learning Swedish. I didn’t notice the connection to “harvest” until someone else pointed it out, though, so I’ll go ahead and mention that, too.

[@ASwegoalong]

Now I can finally imagine what my sheltie dog would speak like if she were a person

[@PodOfHeat]

So many descriptive words for bad weather!

[@elgee6202]

A very interesting accent and dialect. Are the dialect and accent of Orkney similar? Do Lowland Scots have difficulty understanding Shetlanders?

[@elgee6202]

@@drrd4127, I knew they weren't Highlanders, but I honestly didn't think they'd be classed as Lowlanders being islanders and so far north. My bad. I thought they were neither one nor the other. How different, then, is Shetlandic Scots compared to Glaswegian Scots? And is there a Highland Scots given that the Highlanders were primarily Gaelic speakers?

[@grahamfleming8139]

Nuugh, wa Ken maist.

[@jasonjames6870]

Any English speaker with a little exposure will be able to understand any Scots dialect as the languages are so close. Abit like Norwegian Swedish and Danish.

[@lth1072]

I'm from Prestwick on the West Coast. So quite a distance from Shetland. I understand around 90% of this video. I think with some more exposure, I'd easily understand all of it. There's only one video on KZbin of an elderly guy from Shetland that I had difficulty with. He had a very strong accent and his pronunciation wasn't clear. I've found almost all speakers of Shetlandic/Shetland dialect to be very clear when pronouncing words.

[@ajoajoajoaj]

Shetlandic and Orcadian are considered to be the only dialects of Scots that aren't fully mutually intelligible with Lowland Scots.

[@GodTierComments]

Can I please lock in four days atween waddirs in hairst for SWW!

[@benfindlay123]

Just clocked that loused meant rained aff

[@dex1lsp]

Now I'm tempted to change my name to Haily (or Haley) Puckles LOL

[@brucemacallan6831]

0:19 I'm a NE Scots Buchan (Doric) speaker. Our word for the English word 'Empty' is 'teem'. The Norwegian word is 'tømme'. Icelandic = tómt. Do these Shetlanders realise they have the same word (or gye near) basically as us for 'Empty'?. Lousing something in NE Scots is 'Releasing'. The shetlanders term, = 'An emptying out' (of the sky) An emptying down.

[@colinmacdonald5732]

Die waddir? Is that water? Or weather? Or both?

[@brucemacallan6831]

I'd say they will have in common with the Icelandic tongue.

[@kintakintyea]

Virra gweed channel

[@shieldaigbencher]

Hang on, I have watched every series of Shetland from S1 E1 through to the end and this is all new to me. Why?

[@suesmall2183]

I read somewhere that the islanders speak differently to outsiders than to each other. We watched Shetland too (from USA) but needed subtitles!!

[@merinjenks8474]

The only main character in the tv series who is actually from Shetland is DC Sandy Wilson

[@hausverkur]

They pronounce "ground" exactly like the Icelandic word "grund" for the same thing.

[@grahamfleming8139]

Grunn in general Scots

[@drrd4127]

Everyone in Scotland says Grund for ground.

[@forbesmeek6304]

And flair is general for floor👍

[@brucemacallan6831]

1:43 'Atween' Exactly the same word for Shelties and Buchan Scots. In English? 'Between' of course. But their term 'attween da wadders' is theirs. (We don't use that term)

[@randomcommenter5266]

Dis is gre.

[@iMertin90]

am a georgeson.. family from here

[@Avoiceofone]

Cool, sounds like a norse/gaelic accent

[@autumnphillips151]

Not Gaelic at all. The Gaels never touched Shetland or Orkney. The Northern Isles were speaking Pictish, and then Norn, and then Scots.

[@autumnphillips151]

It’s a mix of Brittonic, Norse, and Anglo-Saxon. No Gaelic.

[@user-hu6lr3vr7g]

Sounds more Scots than norse like how they said weather = waddir Atween = between Lowsin = cutting Hairst = the harvest season usually autumn Doon = down Wan = one Blyde o it = happy of it Steek (-it)= to enclose Ect... These aren't norn (norse) words but Scots words

[@arnljot9030]

I'm Scandinavian, and I can tell by the way they speak that there is definitely a large nordic influence in the language and pronunciation.

[@dan74695]

Because it is Scots.

[@tomdonnelly6156]

​@@arnljot9030There isn't particularly though, that's just how people speak in the North Eastern (non-Gaelic) part of Scotland and there isn't much Scandinavian influence there. The part of Scotland with the most Scandinavian influence is the Western Isles, you should check out their accent!

[@arnljot9030]

@tomdonnelly6156 "That's just how they speak." Logic tells me there is more to it. It has to be based on some historical ground. Linguistics is always intertwined with historical context. I will check out the Western Isles dialect. Thanks for the suggestion 😁

[@ofaoilleachain]

Flukra must be a Norn word, the Faroese word for a snowflake is flykra!

[@voldllc9621]

Why do I understand this when normal Scots leaves me befuddled?

[@Fenditokesdialect]

It's cause it's mainly standard Scottish English not Scots, they're just talking about certain dialect words

[@sheepdogman1]

Pigeon english

[@sweiland75]

The music isn't loud enough. I could still her them talking.

[@sianowen1536]

Barely heard of Shetland until New York Times brought me here with their Wirdle copyright infringement BS.

[@whatwhat3432523]

Dialect in Shetland now is far far away from Norn. I couldnt even pick up a similiarity, full blown Scots/english

[@autumnphillips151]

Their word for autumn sounds the same as Swedish “höst”. And Norn, Scots, and English are all Germanic languages anyway, with Scots in general having a lot more North Germanic qualities than English.

[@autumnphillips151]

I don’t know if you were expecting to hear Norn here or not, but I’ll go ahead and tell that it’s supposed to be dead. You weren’t supposed to think that’s what they’d be speaking here. This is a demonstration of some words from the Shetlandic dialect of Scots, presented mostly in Scottish English, for English-speakers to understand.

[@Dietmar_Remer]

shouldn't English taught in schools sounds like this?

[@erinsantoro6801]

am doing a play and I am having a bit of a problem pronouncing a few words with the Scottish accent( I go a bit Yorkshire. Could you possibly province them for me? “patient” “tragedy Untimely Tedious Scarcely Poison Life Evil Thank you. I have re-written/edited Hamlet. I switch the gender of all the rolls so we only have two Male’s in the show the rest are women. I also have included a Story to tell in place of the “play with in a Play”. The Stoeyteller is Scottish. I would love to hear how you would read it. STORYTELLER [Enter the storyteller. Loudly, with somber voice...] Gather near. I beg you be patient and you will hear a tale of woe, a humble tragedy... [Crowd gathers and sits near the storyteller.] [Softly he begins...] Thirty moons ago, about the world have times twelve thirties been, a king and queen were wed. Their love, not done, soon untimely undone. Where once was two, soon to be one. A stroll the lovers did take one day, into the wood and lay down upon a bank. The queen fearful her time was short, to her king she spoke of love that wanes and time that broke. “I must leave thee,” she protested, “but another my place will take.” The king incensed, rebuked her fear and doubts, avowing no other love would his heart hold. By no treasonous love, would her love be killed. Gentled by his soothing vow, the queen began to drowse. “Tis deeply sworn. Sweet, leave me here awhile, my spirits grow dull, and fain I would beguile the tedious day with sleep.” “Sleep rock thy brain, and never come mischance between us twain,” replied the King. No sound did he make as he slipped from the bank, unknowing his last love to be no more lest he leave her place. Scarcely had he drifted past, when from the bush did creep, one royal member who’s name we dare speak, with venture forth and gesture made, deftly untoward poison poured, into the queen’s left ear. Alas, long later, his love to seek, the king discovered his love to late, no color left on the good queen’s pate. All life, like poison drained from evil vile, forsaken from her earthly form. Overcome, the king laments his loss, prone upon the body, when comfort for distress, comes the one whose deed unknown, hiden near, the queen’s place to take. All who listen beware, shallow resistance all too quickly overthrown, once husband, now widower, now will be husband once more! What was, now vanquished by jealous, evil fate. A deed so loathsome to unlock Hell’s gate.