Letters / Politics fir aa een/ Politics for everybody
Hit’s aafil fine tae see a young Shetlander no onli wantin tae spaek up fir islanders bit saein hit ithin her midder tongue. Shetlanders trowe history ir aye haed tae knapp fir tae get on. Dis wis a strait fact o life. Wis hit no?
Ivver fae education cam tae be free fir aa een, bairn’s wid sit aa day an laern English. Even on Sundays aa een learned da scriptures ithin English.
Nivver wid dey be telt at dey cud spaek aboot worldli matters, ir da laa, ir mediseen, ir onithin ‘serious’ ithin Shaetlan. Hoosumivver dey cud spaek aboot love, faer an daeth an dir futures, fur hit wis private.
Da øs o language isna a black ir white ting. Aa een sud ken at hit’s aboot makkin yoursel understood til whaivver you’r spaekin til. Fir Shetlanders yun’s maent bein bilingual. No cuttin onieen oot. Wir islands nooadays is come tae be ‘cosmopolitan’ wi moni tongues, dat is multilingual. Fokk ir øsed til hit an ir bøn laek yun fir hunders o years.
Hoo lichtsome hit is tae see Shaetlan sittin alangside English an bein taen til a new plaess whaar hit’s shaan da respeck hit deserves an whaar oardinari voters can feel wantit.
Hit’s da wirt o whit you sae at’s important fir Shetland fokk.
It is so good to see a young Shetlander not only wishing to speak up for islanders, but saying it in her mother tongue. Throughout history, Shetlanders have always had to speak English in order to advance. This was a simple fact of life. Wasn’t it?
Ever since education became universal, children would sit all day and learn English. Even on Sundays everybody learned the scriptures in English.
They were never told that they could talk about worldly matters, or the law, or medicine, or anything ‘serious’ in Shaetlan. However, they could speak about life, fear and death and their futures, because it was private.
The use of language is not a black or white thing. Everybody ought to know that it’s about making yourself understood to whomever you are talking to. For Shetlanders, that’s meant being bilingual. Not cutting anybody out. Our islands have now become ‘cosmopolitan’ with many languages, i.e. multilingual. People are used to it and have been like that for hundreds of years.
How pleasant it is to see Shaetlan alongside English, being taken to a new place, where it is shown the respect it deserves and where ordinary voters can feel welcome.
It’s the meaning of what you say that is important for Shetlanders.
Ronnie Eunson
Uradale
