The State and Status of Orkney Language
The 2015 GMB Memorial Lecture was the first to focus on language, the medium in which writers work. while Edwin Muir and George Mackay Brown chose the medium of English almost exclusively, other writers — Robert Rendall and Christina Costie used both English and Orkney language in their work. Ann Scott-Moncrieff was interested in the expressive potential of Orcadian but her language, in the small number of poems that have survived among her papers, seem influenced too by MacDiarmid’s use of Lallans and his interest in reviving the literary use of Scots. Margaret Tait generally used English — but wrote occasional poems in Orcadian and at least one poem, Jean Waits for the Drunk Man Thistle-Gazer, in Scots. Ernest Marwick, editing An Orkney Anthology of Verse published in 1949, expressed reservations about the use of Orcadian, saying he feared it would limit the readership for the work of writers in Orkney. So what has led to this mixture of views on and approaches to Orkney language at different times? And how is Orkney language regarded today?
Dr Simon Hall explored this question by surveying the history of Scots Language generally, then giving an account of the history of Scots and Norn in Orkney. He discussed Orkney language in schools, then examined some recent literary writing in Orcadian, exploring Edwin Muir and Robert Rendall’s differing attitudes to Scots/Orcadian. He spoke also about the use of Orcadian in public life and the media, Scottish Government policy on Scots Language.
Simon W. Hall
Simon W. Hall was born and brought up in Orkney. He studied Scottish Language and Literature at Glasgow University where he was awarded the Ewing Prize for Scottish Literature. Formerly Principal Teacher of English at Kirkwall Grammar School, he was one of four Scots Language Co-ordinators seconded to Education Scotland with a remit for supporting schools in the teaching of Scots and development of Scots language resources. At the time of this lecture, he was the Head Teacher at Westray Junior High School.
Simon is the author of The History of Orkney Literature (2010), the first full survey of the literature of the Orkney Islands. It was a joint winner of the Saltire Society’s First Book of the Year award that year and has been translated into Japanese. He has made Orkney language translations of Julia Donaldson’s popular books for children, The Gruffalo and The Gruffalo’s Child, published as The Orkney Gruffalo (Itchy Coo, 2015) and The Gruffalo’s Bairn (Itchy Coo, 2016). Simon writes poetry and fiction and blogs at brisknortherly.wordpress.com. He is currently writing a novel, for which he has received Open Project Funding from Creative Scotland.
https://scotlandsnature.blog/2014/08/05/a-scots-orcadian-take-on-eynhallow/
Writing Orkney 