University of Aberdeen, University of Glasgow -- University of Glasgow
Until recently, the Shetland Islands (and its distinctive variety of Scots) were isolated from the UK mainland; the discovery of oil in the North Seas in the mid seventies, however, and the construction of Sullom Voe, an oil terminal on the main island, has provided a steady influx of incomers to Shetland (Shetland in Statistics 2005). These incomers tend to speak more mainstream varieties of English, leading some researchers (Tait 2001:8, van Leyden 2004:18) to comment that the Shetland dialect is rapidly dying out in the youngest generations of native Shetlanders.
Recent research (Smith 2007-2008) into three generations of speakers in Lerwick, the main town, suggests that the actual situation is more complicated however. Although the youngest group of speakers comprise a homogeneous group both socially and demographically and in a number of cases belong to the same social networks, they can be divided into two groups on linguistic grounds. Roughly half of the young speakers still use proportions of dialectal features comparable to the older groups while the other young speakers have for the most part moved away from the dialect and use Standard Scottish English. How can we account for such differences in a homogeneous group?
This paper attempts to address this issue by considering linguistic and attitudinal factors together and examining whether attitudes towards the dialect (and the Shetland way of life) can help us understand the speakers’ use of a number of Shetland features: the maintenance of a T/V distinction (1); be /have variation as perfect auxiliaries (2) and strategies of demonstrative use (3).