Wonderful words! loved the analogy about the Boar's backside!!!!!!!! hilarious I always take back a few Orcadian words to Lancashire and use them whenever appropriate, Dreek and Peedie usually have folks chuckling. ----- Original Message ----- From: "stephen davie" <stephen.davie@sympatico.ca> To: <ORCADIA-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Wednesday, April 21, 2004 6:07 PM Subject: Re: [<orcadia>] Radio Orkney "tell me more" > "Erm" right back to you....and good mornin! And thank you. > > So, we have four titles of which three are out of print. In a > restaurant herebouts they don't put stuff on the menu which is not > available, because it would be precisely what the customer would want. > So that leaves us with the Orkney Dic. And one over here might well > wonder what span of time it would cover. > > For in many of the old documents I have tried to decipher, orthographic > peculiarities muddy the already unclear waters. I am trying to finish > what my old uncles and aunts gave up on years ago. There seems to be > some strange variation therein which is consistent with spelling > phonetically, with a large degree of variation. That is evident in > names, for example, which seemed to be spelled differently oftentimes. > > Consider the common expat trying to read and comprehend "pays in Scatt > butter two pispunds." three cowsworth of udal land" "of scatt malt six > meills four and half settings". "4d land1/2-6merk makes the pennyland" > . And this is after a wonderful person came to my rescue with pages of > interpretation for which I am very grateful. I have been lucky to have > that generous interpretation forwarded. That makes the remaining > mystery words more frustrating. > > Thanks for providing the book titles. I guess they aren't going to > grease up the printing machine and bang out a few copies of books "out > of print" so some offshore affectionado can try to decode old lore > documents. And I have asked them if the Orkney Dic goes back to the > 1500's, for example, where the language is difficult to read at all. I > can't discern whether some of the words denote simple colloquialism, or > rather some blend of languages perhaps rooted in Norway. Who knows. > > You know, Sigurd, it is true that to try to pry open this interpretive > door has been difficult and not just for me thank goodness, confessing > fully that I am no historian, scholar or researcher. My relatives got > stuck in the same mud while over there in the early sixties. This has > been going on since Moby Dick was a minnow. The "foxfire" series we > spoke of which is from the Appalachian Mountains and the Smokies, is an > example of how a culture and it's linguistic oddities are put down in a > form that an average, non-scholarly person can read, comprehend and > most importantly enjoy. Trying to unlock this stuff has been like > trying to talk a roving Aborigine out of his boomerang. For whatever > reason, it seems that it "taint" easy, and the keys to it all are > locked up tighter than a boar's butt in fly time. > > I have purchased some books from there that the schools were finished > with. The saga was great, and of course available here. Other stuff > spoke to the absence of trees in Orkney and therefore paper....that is > to say they were sparse at best, and cheap to mail out for sure. Over > here we would call them pamphlets. > > So we will see what seems to be the last available interpretive book > has to offer. I'd like to testfire that Orkney dic by sending out ten > of the befuddling strings of letters that I can't decode, and see if > the book lists any of them. I 'd bet a moose antler to a bullfrog that > I'd still be in the dark. > > Thanks for the info. By the way, some of your recent photos posted were > most enjoyable and truly appreciated. I mostly enjoy the eclectic > assembly of lost Orcadians from around the world that console each > other on this site, while feasting on the great information you > provide. Maybe locking up some of the language keeps the mystery of > Orkney alive. > > I am finally and irreversibly convinced that you actually do live in > Orkney, and are not living in a penthouse on Fifth Avenue in New York > City. Gosh, and a Borwick to boot! > > Yours AYE.....Stephen Davie > > On Wednesday, April 21, 2004, at 04:16 AM, Sigurd Towrie wrote: > > > On Tue, 20 Apr 2004 19:57:40 -0700, stephen davie wrote: > > > >> This e-mail of yours goes into my Orkney file. Wish there was more > >> of the same. What a great book topic/opportunity for some > >> enthusiastic Orcadian. > > > > Erm. The opportunity has been taken..a number of times. > > > > The Orkney Norn - Hugh Marwick (out of print) > > The Orkney Wordbook - Gregor Lamb (out of print) > > Hid Kam intae Words - Gregor Lamb (out of print) > > The Orkney Dictionary - Gregor Lamb and Margaret Flaws (still > > available at http://www.orcadian.co.uk/orkneybooks) > > > > -- > > Sigurd > > > > > > > > > > > > ==== ORCADIA Mailing List ==== > > To unsubscribe from the Orcadia mailing list, send an e-mail with the > > word > > 'unsubscribe' in the message body to orcadia-l-request@rootsweb.com > > > > > ==== ORCADIA Mailing List ==== > To unsubscribe from the Orcadia mailing list, send an e-mail with the word > 'unsubscribe' in the message body to orcadia-l-request@rootsweb.com >