Hello Sigurd: Wonderful article describing terms for weather on the Orkneys! I've printed it and will hand it out to interested folks here in Alfred, Maine. Language can describe a culture oftentimes better than the archeology. The many words for rain, sky, sea, wind lend the mental picture of a place where the windy, grey atmostphere and sea spray dictate people's lives. This is the Orkney I had imagined! When I do finally get to Orkney to visit, it will be in winter. I want to experience the power of an "ugsome, stark, skreever". (Am not sure if I have my terms right....) Now I know why people built houses underground in the Orkneys--it makes logical sense. Here in North America Neolithic peoples did not build their housing into the ground. I suppose we could argue whether or not the Anasazi cliff dwellers of the southwest US did not build "into the ground", but there again it appears as though people were trying to: 1) hide from enemies or 2) escape from heat. Those are the two theories advanced at this point anyhow. In any case, environmental factors dictated housing--as always happens. Does Orkney experience the aurora borealis? From the terms describing a kind of 'phosphorescence' it appears so. Or are the phosphorescent terms describing another kind of atmospheric phenomenon present in the Orkneys? Thank you so much Sigurd for your website, this e-mail connection and, of course, all the updates too. For those of us so far away, we feel we can at least keep in touch with you folks 'over there'. Thank you, Sian Thomas' for your "Life on Graemsay" and website also! They are terrific touchstones for us 'far away people' to glimpse life on the islands. And of course, Bruce Fletcher, thank you for your stories which add to the mental pictures. Judy Platz Maine US ----- Original Message ----- From: Sigurd Towrie To: ORCADIA-L@rootsweb.com Sent: Thursday, July 08, 2004 4:56 PM Subject: [<orcadia>] Dialect terms for weather It's taken me a while, but an article on weather words in Orkney dialect now online at: http://www.orkneyjar.com/orkney/dialect/weather.htm -- Sigurd Towrie Blackhall - Kirbister - Stromness - Orkney Heritage of Orkney: www.orkneyjar.com Home: sigurd@orkneyjar.com Work: sigurd.towrie@orcadian.co.uk ==== 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