INTRODUCTION old Norn and still current, but many of the old Norn words which have found their way into the insular literature and those which are still current in everyday speech. § 163. If Sc. had been the only alternative to Norn, in process of time many of the anomalies would have been weeded out by social and commercial associations, but since 1872 all the children have been taught St.Eng. in the schools, and the younger generation are fast losing hold of the Scots vernacular. In the case of the older Sc. dialects, the Bretts, the Gaels, the French and Flemish had an experience of seven hundred years in the use of Sc., and a keen conviction of nationality to impress their adopted language on their consciousness. This partly accounts for the wonderful resistance of their Sc. to the destructive agencies arrayed against it. But in the case of the Insular dialect the period of effective use has been barely two hundred years, and instead of a strong national feeling to start with, there was, for a long time, a hearty dislike of the intruding Scots and their grasping ways. We need not be surprised, therefore, if, for these two reasons, apart from other considerations, Sc. should be losing its hold on the island population. § 164. Although the Ork. and Sh. dialects have many characters in common, they are not by any means identical. The pronunciation of the vowels in Ork. seems to be much tenser than in Sh. Vowels. § 164.1. In Ork., O.E. ā (see § 32.1) has become ee [i], but with examples also of ai [e and ε] — e.g. heem, heel, leen, geen, nee, for home, whole, alone, gone, no; and baith, sae, laich, wame, for both, so, low, womb. In Sh., O.E. ā becomes a very open sound, heard in the southern Eng. pronunciation of pair, but [ε] also is used — c.g. hame, bane, stane, sair, claes, baith, haerse, nae, naethin = [h&ertail;m, b&ertail;n, etc.], for home, bone, stone, sore, clothes, both, hoarse, no, nothing. ee [i] nay sometimes be heard as in ae, ane, for one (adj. and pro.) [i:, in]. § 164.2. In Ork., O.E. open a is generally ee [i] — e.g. meed, teel, neem, sheem, for made, tale, name, shame. In Sh., O.E. open a develops into a broad e sound = southern Eng.[&ertail;] in fare — e.g. lame, stame, shame, sake, gate, redir, tail, snail, nail; but take, make are taek, maek and mak. § 164.3. al- + consonant becomes aa in both Ork. and Sh. and not [&oh.] as in Central Scotland. See § 78.1. § 164.4. O.E. āw and ag are generally aa in Ork. and Sh. and not [&oh.] as in Central Scotland — e.g. blaa, snaa, saa, for blow, snow, sow. Central Sc. [bl&oh.:, sn&oh.:, s&oh.:]. Marw., Intro. xli., gives this vowel [&oh.] for two words of Norse origin — e.g. bawkie = a bogle, and oro = mad, and mentions (p. 228) that in N. Ronaldshay tang-tangle (seaweed), long, sang, ran, came are pronounced with the vowel [&oh.]. § 164.5. O.E. ō and Fr. u: generally ui [ø] — e.g. shui, dui(z), suirly, stuid, puir, for shoe, do, surely, stood, poor. § 164.6. In Ork., O.E. open e is generally [æ or e], act, spaec, haeve, for eat, speak, heave. In Sh. it tends to a broader sound in words of this class [&ertail;]. § 164.7. O.E. &ibreve;. as in pit, fit, limpit, etc., approaches the value of e in Eng. pet [pεt, fεt, ′lεmp&sci;t]. § 164.8. O.E. &obreve; is generally [&openo;] not [o], sounded as o in the Sc. pronunciation of Eng. lot. With a labial it may become a as in trapl and tap for thropple and top, as in most parts of Scotland. It also sometimes takes the place of u, as anoch, onca, for enough, unca (strange), joggs for juggs. Mod.Eng. hold, bold, cold, old are often pronounced howld, bowld, etc. [h&openo;uld, b&openo;uld, etc.]. A similar diphthong has been noted also for Cai., Black Isle and Kintyre. O.E. o before l becomes [&openo;u] in Ins. speech instead of [&turnv;u] in most parts of Scotland — e.g. bowt, cowt [b&openo;ut, k&openo;ut], for bolt, colt. See § 78.2. For [&openo;u] see also s.Sc. ow, § 106. § 164.9. O.E. ēa (see § 88) in Ork. tends towards ee = [i], while Sh. has [&scirtail;, &ertail; and e], and rarely ee [i], as in head, dead, bread, death, strae. Consonants. § 165. th [ð] v. p-t. fric. is replaced by d with tongue advanced, as blide, feader, midder, nedder, idder, dee, doo, dis, dat, wirdy, for blithe, father, mother, neither, other, the, thou, this, that, worthy. th [þ] b. p-t. fric. becomes t with tongue advanced to teeth — e.g. eart, lent, tank, trou, trapple, wirt, for earth, length, thank, through, thrapple, worth. th [þ] is changed into f in Thursday [′fø:rzd&scirtail;], but t has also been heard. qu [kw] becomes [x&turnw;], as in quick, queer, queen, question — hwick, hweer, hween, hwestion.1 Cumberland, colonised by the Norse, also has this peculiar pronunciation. ch initial [t&sh.] remains in Ork., but becomes sh [&sh.] in Sh., the latter agreeing in this respect with Cai., Black Isle, and Chirnside in Bwk. kn and gn, in words like knowe and gnaw, in older speech are still used in both Ork. and Sh. d is used for t in hid = it only in Ork. It is in evidence after n and l, as in pund, grund, fund (found), friend, mind, and in caald, faald, aald, baald, but not thoosan' and han's. 1 x&turnw;&sci;k, x&turnw;i:r, x&turnw;in, ′x&turnw;εst&sh.&schwa;n.