| F606 |
So you actually come from
//Orkney, yeah?// |
| M830 |
//Yes, yes, I was//
born in Kirkwall
//and// |
| F606 |
//mmhm// |
| M830 |
grew up there and then a while later I met Marjory in Aberdeen and she's been wi me for hoo long? |
| F829 |
Twenty-seven years nearly,
//[laugh]// |
| F606 |
//Right [laugh]// |
| M830 |
//twen- twenty-seven years so//
//so I've lost// |
| F829 |
//yeah.// |
| M830 |
me accent a lot because o her. |
| F606 |
Yeah [laugh]
//[inaudible] but you go// |
| M830 |
//[laugh]// |
| F829 |
//An I've gained a lot [laugh] ehm so, so.//
I was born in Aberdeen
//[?]and eh[/?]// |
| F606 |
//Yeah.// |
| F829 |
I stayed there until I was seventeen, basically an then went back up to Orkney for a number of years, |
| F606 |
mmhm |
| F829 |
so |
| F606 |
So you've actually lived in Orkney
//too?// |
| F829 |
//uh-huh// |
| F606 |
Yeah. |
| F829 |
lived there for a few years
//before I came// |
| F606 |
//Yeah.// |
| M830 |
//Yeah.//
//two or three,// |
| F829 |
//back doon.// |
| M830 |
two or three years
//maybe,// |
| F829 |
//Yeah.// |
| M830 |
yeah, maybe more
//[inaudible]// |
| F829 |
//Maybe more, I think.// |
| M830 |
But it's just long enough for ye tae sort of settle in an
//meet folk an// |
| F829 |
//mmhm// |
| F606 |
mmhm |
| M830 |
an then we came back tae Aberdeen, so mainly in this area |
| F606 |
//mmhm// |
| F829 |
//mmhm// |
| M830 |
other than Orkney. |
| F829 |
Yeah, yeah. |
| F606 |
But you go back quite often? |
| M830 |
//No,// |
| F829 |
//No.//
No. |
| M830 |
not really, ehm |
| F829 |
We, well I've been up most years |
| M830 |
Yeah. |
| F829 |
there's been some missed |
| M830 |
But I've
//tended, I've been// |
| F829 |
//You've been up quite a number.// |
| M830 |
I've been a f- well it disnae feel like it. |
| F829 |
I know, but there were a few years
//when we were at university you were workin through the summer.// |
| M830 |
//There's a few years, a few years when I was at uni an I was//
working in the summer and doin all that
//so there was a long time I didn't go up.// |
| F606 |
//mmhm// |
| M830 |
We were up last year
//an there've been// |
| F829 |
//mmhm// |
| M830 |
three years before that we hadna been |
| F829 |
But that was unusual. |
| F606 |
//mmhm// |
| M830 |
//an then//
so we do a week, maybe two weeks, that kinda |
| F829 |
Yeah, two, three weeks
//actually, not usually a week// |
| M830 |
//Aye.//
//mm// |
| F606 |
//mm// |
| F829 |
but it's, yeah
Mm |
| M830 |
So you'd say more regularly than I
//would say [laugh]// |
| F606 |
//[laugh]// |
| F829 |
//I would say more regularly than you//
would, yeah. |
| F606 |
Yeah [laugh] |
| M830 |
Well, me memory wipes
//automatically [laugh]// |
| F606 |
//Yeah [laugh]// |
| F829 |
//[laugh]//
//[laugh] yeah.// |
| M830 |
//I've to fill it up wi, wi kids' reports, that's [laugh] [inaudible]// |
| F606 |
So is it a good place to grow up, or?
//[laugh]// |
| M830 |
//Weel, I don't know if I grew up, I'm still [laugh] I'm still...// |
| F829 |
//[laugh]// |
| M830 |
A good, a really good place to grow up
//[inaudible]// |
| F829 |
//There's lots of freedom.// |
| F606 |
//mm// |
| M830 |
//Yeah that's right, an//
I was, that same story,
//I was// |
| F829 |
//Go ahead.// |
| M830 |
horrified when I came tae Aberdeen to discover that people didn't have inside toilets
cause I'd never seen a place in me life with an outside toilet that didn't have one inside anyway |
| F606 |
uh-huh |
| M830 |
cause a lot o the older houses they had outside but they were all modernised, everyone had, an then I came to Aberdeen and the tenements all had these toilets outside, I couldn't believe it, it just seemed so
//[laugh]// |
| F829 |
//Archaic// |
| M830 |
so old-fashioned,
//archaic an// |
| F606 |
//Yeah.// |
| M830 |
it was a shock, so yeah I mean, Orkney, lots o freedom an yet it also seemed to be keeping pace wi the times in a way that Aberdeen hadn't completely. |
| F606 |
//mmhm// |
| F829 |
//mmhm// |
| M830 |
But then there's poverty in the city that there isn't in the country, not the same kind of poverty,
//[inaudible]// |
| F606 |
//Yeah.// |
| M830 |
an it felt different, an yeah community in Orkney and lack of it in
//the city I think// |
| F829 |
//mmhm// |
| F606 |
//mmhm// |
| M830 |
//was the obvious thing.// |
| F829 |
But I mean that's what I liked when I took the bairns up when they were wee
//ehm// |
| F606 |
//mmhm// |
| F829 |
they got a type o freedom they never got here,
//you know,// |
| M830 |
//Oh yeah.// |
| F829 |
so I mean even now there's a huge difference. |
| F606 |
What, you can let them go out without
//being frightened what would happen or// |
| F829 |
//Yes, uh-huh//
because I mean at that time we were staying right in the middle of Aberdeen in a tenement, you know, with access off the road into the garden so
//you never felt// |
| F606 |
//mmhm// |
| F829 |
comfortable leavin them out, |
| M830 |
Even as adults we didn't feel
//comfortable, I mean you always// |
| F829 |
//No, no.// |
| M830 |
felt that your door was a, well it's like your, your home is your castle, your door was protection rather than an
//access route.// |
| F829 |
//uh-huh// |
| F606 |
//Yeah [laugh]// |
| M830 |
//[inaudible]//
In fact it was very odd and coming out here to the Mearns made a big
//difference tae that.// |
| F829 |
//Yeah.// |
| M830 |
We suddenly felt released again in the same sort o way as we had
//when we were in Orkney.// |
| F606 |
//mmhm// |
| F829 |
//Yeah//
that's right. |
| F606 |
So you'd be quite happy to stay here or
//[laugh] yeah.// |
| M830 |
//Bought a house in the town so yeah [laugh]// |
| F829 |
//yeah [laugh] yeah// |
| F606 |
What do you miss about Orkney then? |
| F829 |
Oh lots. |
| F606 |
uh-huh |
| F829 |
You don't know, people in Orkney, I think if you make friends there you have them forever,
//an I don't think I've found// |
| F606 |
//Yeah.// |
| F829 |
that in the same way anywhere else, |
| M830 |
No. |
| F829 |
ehm because I thought although it must be twenty years really since we left, |
| M830 |
mmhm |
| F829 |
you know, you go back an it's just like you've never been away, |
| F606 |
mmhm |
| F829 |
but, I can't think o any 'buts' actually. |
| M830 |
No I'm s- |
| F829 |
I miss about Orkney though, the wide spaces, the big skies, |
| M830 |
Big skies are the
//things you miss, mmhm,// |
| F606 |
//mmhm// |
| F829 |
//the beaches.// |
| M830 |
the wind every
//day [laugh] [cough] [laugh] but there's// |
| F606 |
//[laugh] yeah!// |
| F829 |
//Well, maybe not [laugh] two-mile walk to the bus.// |
| M830 |
something, we were watching a video o the bairns when they were home for, they were home for six weeks
//[inaudible] and it// |
| F829 |
//Yeah I took them up// |
| M830 |
was a nice video of them playin out in the garden
and for me the bit that was nostalgia-inducing was the sound o the wind,
//the kids were runnin about an bein happy an their hair was flyin// |
| F829 |
//[laugh]//
//An it was summer, they just wee sh- dresses an// |
| M830 |
//and they were just, it was bright summer day, the wind was//
blowin an nobody was carin an I thought, "That kind o balmy,
//lovely windy// |
| F829 |
//Yeah.// |
| M830 |
day is something
//you don't get here".// |
| F829 |
//Cause the children//
also have had other summers where they spent their whole time runnin aboot in cagoules an bare feets cause it was so foggy
//the whole summer.// |
| F606 |
//[laugh] yeah.// |
| M830 |
//[laugh]//
//Yeah, it's a bit// |
| F606 |
//Yeah.// |
| M830 |
not foggy we get mist
//a haar but we don't get fog.// |
| F606 |
//yeah [laugh]// |
| F829 |
//uh-huh, aye.// |
| M830 |
Fog's a city thing
//[laugh]// |
| F606 |
//Aye.// |
| F829 |
//uh-huh//
However. |
| F606 |
Are you aware of any special sort of Orkney words that you use, or,
//You just said "haar", yeah.// |
| F829 |
//Well,//
//I always think that's a Scottish word, "haar", aye.// |
| M830 |
//Well [inaudible] that's ju- that's just a north east word, maybe//
but, but isn't it actually used by the Met office
//to describe a, yeah it's, it's a, a word// |
| F606 |
//I think they do now, yeah, uh-huh// |
| M830 |
abint that mist that comes in
//aff the sea at certain times o day// |
| F829 |
//Off the sea, just rolls in or// |
| F606 |
//I found// |
| M830 |
//rolls in.// |
| F606 |
people in the west coast don't know it.
//I mean I knew it growing up in Edinburgh, yeah.// |
| M830 |
//Do they not? No, yeah.// |
| F829 |
//Oh not at all, yeah.// |
| M830 |
But it, I mean obviously words like "peedie"
//that// |
| F606 |
//mmhm// |
| M830 |
that is the common Orkney word or
//"peerie" in,// |
| F606 |
//[cough]// |
| M830 |
"peerie" in Shetland. |
| F606 |
//mmhm// |
| F829 |
//Yeah.// |
| M830 |
But I'm, I'm no aware o them but folk notice me usin things an I don't,
I've an awful habit o sayin "me" instead o "my", |
| F606 |
mmhm |
| M830 |
//an some o the members of staff found that very disconcerting to begin with,// |
| F829 |
//[laugh]// |
| M830 |
"Whaur's me coffee?", when I should say, "Whaur's my coffee?", |
| F606 |
[laugh] yeah. |
| M830 |
"Me an me wife", instead o
//"my wife", it's just a// |
| F829 |
//Yeah.// |
| M830 |
sorta slight, but it's just that kinda, an the way we pronounce
"AN" at the end o words instead of "ING" for present participle
//kinda things, like "hingan",// |
| F606 |
//uh-huh// |
| F829 |
//uh-huh// |
| M830 |
"hingan", an sorta reverse the
//"i" "a" bit! [laugh].// |
| F606 |
//Yeah [laugh]// |
| F829 |
//[laugh] yeah.// |
| M830 |
but [inaudible] it's just wee bits like that that I'm aware o folk noticin. |
| F606 |
mmhm |
| M830 |
Some o the kids in class say, "Oh, you're pronounce that wrong", which is quite nice;
//it means they've noticed, they know// |
| F606 |
//[inaudible]// |
| F829 |
//[inaudible]// |
| M830 |
how to spell it ken, an pronounce it correctly, that's |
| F606 |
mmhm |
| M830 |
[laugh] |
| F606 |
Do you teach any Orcadian literature or anything? |
| M830 |
//I have done.// |
| F829 |
//Well,//
//George Mackay// |
| F606 |
//Yeah.// |
| M830 |
//Yeah, George Mackay// |
| F829 |
//certainly.// |
| F606 |
//Yyeah uh-huh.// |
| M830 |
//Brown and, and//
that's the core one because my, my main interest would be
would be poetry and eh that's obviously where people start with Orkney literature, it tends to be George Mackay Brown |
| F606 |
mm |
| M830 |
an then they move outwards into various others,
but, because Dave is interested in poetry and Orkney poetry, I've been feedin him
//various obscure Orkney poets [laugh],// |
| F606 |
//[laugh]// |
| M830 |
Robert Rendall
//writes// |
| F606 |
//mmhm// |
| M830 |
in Orkney dialect, a lot o dialect poetry |
| F606 |
Yeah. |
| M830 |
from |
| F829 |
[inaudible] isn't it?
//Is that what you're talking about, the [inaudible]?// |
| M830 |
//mm, no that's a different farm.//
That's the mainland, Robert Rendall's eh Westray. |
| F606 |
//uh-huh// |
| F829 |
//och yeah.// |
| M830 |
But eh, no I'm, I don't know.
When I was workin at the university a bit I, I did a course on Orkney literature specifically then
//about literature// |
| F606 |
//mm// |
| M830 |
and landscape an the portrayal of the islands through history
in both an that was, that was interesting,
//weel for me, I don't know what the students, they, they kind- [laugh] they might o yawned a fair bit but// |
| F606 |
//[laugh]// |
| F829 |
//[laugh]//
//Yeah.// |
| F606 |
//uh-huh// |
| M830 |
but no I'm, I don't know,
the curriculum doesnae really support
that kind o localised stuff in the way you'd want it to, you can do it in first and second year but as ye move up intae Standard Grade and Higher it
//kinda expects more// |
| F606 |
//mmhm// |
| M830 |
//canon,// |
| F829 |
//Standard text.// |
| F606 |
//mm// |
| M830 |
//more of the canon, yeah.// |
| F829 |
mm |
| M830 |
And the universities would expect the kids to have the background in the canon rather than,
//it's that, it's that sense of// |
| F606 |
//Yeah.// |
| M830 |
that, although all universities now have Scottish Literature departments, they seem to be developing that |
| F606 |
mmhm |
| M830 |
still there's this, it feels like a niche market for some people. |
| F606 |
uh-huh
//[laugh]// |
| M830 |
//[laugh] That's an awful thing to say,//
it is, but it, you know, you've got parents who come in an go, "Well why's he doin this when he could be doin
//Shakespeare", they always// |
| F606 |
//Yeah, Shakespeare.// |
| F829 |
//Yeah.// |
| M830 |
wheel out Shakespeare despite the fact they hate it.
//Parents hated it,// |
| F606 |
//Yeah [laugh].// |
| M830 |
the grandparents hated it, you try an offer them somethin else and they go, "Whaur's the Shakespeare?" |
| F606 |
Yeah.
Yeah it's the same with speaking Scots,
//isn't it, that// |
| M830 |
//That's right,//
you gotta do Burns,
//[laugh]// |
| F606 |
//uh-huh// |
| F829 |
//Yeah.// |
| M830 |
Well it is, it's the same as speakin Scots, you do Burns in January an then the rest o the year
there's virtually no nod in the direction of the language o the place ye live in. |
| F606 |
//mmhm// |
| F829 |
//No.// |
| M830 |
It's terrible! |
| F606 |
mm |
| M830 |
We hiv, have you come across 'The Kist'?
//Yeah, we use that,// |
| F606 |
//Yes, yeah.// |
| M830 |
I use that every year,
and I think Dave uses it too,
//an it's amazing// |
| F606 |
//mmhm// |
| M830 |
how little the kids understand oot o it,
//although they speak it// |
| F606 |
//mm// |
| M830 |
if you get them tae read it
//an just don't think aboot the// |
| F606 |
//Yeah.// |
| M830 |
meaning they'll speak it an they'll, they'll sort of be able to get, swim in it,
//as it were, the, the language// |
| F606 |
//mmhm// |
| M830 |
becomes more natural.
But if ye, ye get them just to sit an read it to themselves quietly in their heads "I don't understand!" |
| F829 |
Yeah. |
| F606 |
Yeah. |
| M830 |
It's a shame. |
| F606 |
So your own kids go back to Orkney, |
| F829 |
Yes
//uh-huh, ehm// |
| F606 |
//Yeah.// |
| F829 |
we've always taken them up since they were tiny so,
//keep them.// |
| M830 |
//An they're still tiny.// |
| F829 |
Well yes, but eh Caitlin finishes school this summer an she would quite like to go up and spend some time in Orkney next year,
//before she goes on// |
| F606 |
//mmhm// |
| M830 |
//She does.// |
| F829 |
to do something else, so, must have had an impact
//on them too surely.// |
| F606 |
//Yeah [laugh].//
Aye. |
| F829 |
But eh |
| M830 |
[inaudible]
it's, it's just sprung to me an O-, an Orkney word that I've used and I know that, that flummoxes folk, is 'yammals',
meanin 'freends'.
//It, it's eh// |
| F606 |
//mm?// |
| M830 |
"Wi, wi my yammals, I did this wi my yammals", Y.A.M.M.A.L.S.
//And it's,// |
| F606 |
//mm// |
| M830 |
it seems to be something that I ken that I grew up sayin |
| F606 |
uh-huh? |
| M830 |
and it meant just that we are friends but I've never seen it
//virtually anywhaur else, means 'friends', yeah,// |
| F606 |
//'Friends', yeah, uh-huh?// |
| M830 |
just in 'me, me yammals',
//[laugh] I don't know [laugh] no no, it did not!// |
| F606 |
//[laugh]// |
| F829 |
//[laugh] You sure you didn't come up wi this yourself? [laugh]//
//uh-huh, yeah.// |
| M830 |
//It's just, no, it's just, it's an odd word that,//
that's one I used an it seems, I don't use it anymore cause folk just haven't a clue whit I was talkin aboot,
//soon as I// |
| F606 |
//mmhm// |
| M830 |
came oot o Orkney.
An the other one is 'skeevlo' |
| F829 |
Oh yeah, 'skeevlo'. |
| M830 |
which I fund roots o in the Norn dictionary fae Shetland, Jakobsen's Norn
//Dictionary.// |
| F606 |
//mm// |
| M830 |
But it's a dog, ye know, when ye get a dog an it's been whipped, somebody's mistreated it an it does that sorta low
//crawl thing an it rolls its eyes// |
| F606 |
//Oh yeah.// |
| F829 |
//A crawly kind o thing// |
| M830 |
up tae look at ye, its t- tail end's up
//an it's tryin to wag its tail// |
| F829 |
//It's like really// |
| F606 |
uh-huh |
| M830 |
an that, we ca that a s-, a skeevlo, a dog that's been treated like that, or
//or if a human being's one o those// |
| F606 |
//ah// |
| F829 |
//Or if you're bein crawly//
//[laugh]// |
| M830 |
//one o those crawling sort of//
//it, it's gone from what you'd// |
| F606 |
//Yeah, cringing.// |
| F829 |
//yeah.// |
| M830 |
put on the animal tae what we put about a cringing kinda human so a skeevlo is a, a word that I use as weel an folk haven't a clue
//then.// |
| F829 |
//Yeah.// |
| M830 |
But like I say it must be an auld one cause it was Jakobsen had a version of it in a,
//fae the// |
| F606 |
//mmhm// |
| M830 |
early twe-, nineteen-ten or so,
//his dictionary came out,// |
| F606 |
//Yeah.// |
| F829 |
//Yeah.//
//Then of course 'whaups'// |
| M830 |
//the Norn//
'whaups', aye
//'whaups' meanin 'seagulls'.// |
| F829 |
//'whaups', that's what I mean.// |
| F606 |
uh-huh |
| M830 |
Aye.
an 'megs' meanin 'hands'. |
| F606 |
'Megs'? |
| M830 |
'Megs'
M.E.G.S., yes, uh-huh, yes, 'warm me megs be the fire',
//that's just [laugh] I don't know what a that's aboot,// |
| F606 |
//[laugh]//
//Yeah.// |
| M830 |
//me megs but,//
it's, I did come across it in a story aboot eh, it was selkies, cause they were talkin aboot the selkie's megs, meanin its
//fins or its// |
| F829 |
//Fins// |
| M830 |
flippers
//so I guess it's// |
| F606 |
//mmhm// |
| M830 |
it's, it's in there somewhere but |
| F606 |
mmhm |
| M830 |
but that's, words like that must have come tae me in me early childhood fae Sooth Ronaldsay in Orkney cause I grew up in Kirkwall,
//the metropolis,// |
| F606 |
//uh-huh// |
| F829 |
//[laugh]// |
| M830 |
but I did a lot o holidays in South Ronaldsay where me grandparents a grew up so
//the island itsel m-// |
| F606 |
//uh-huh// |
| M830 |
would have retained more o that |
| F829 |
Aye. |
| M830 |
maybe. |
| F829 |
Well it always does
//to some degree, the further you go from// |
| M830 |
//Yeah.//
//Yes.// |
| F829 |
//the town.// |
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