Introduction: time depth

Most discussions of new dialect formation are confined to cases with evidence of primary foundation from the last two to three centuries. The decision taken by many scholars to restrict analysis to relatively recent phenomena of this type has often been reached on sound methodological grounds. Evidence from comparatively recent times is likely to be available in ways which are much more trustworthy and provide greater depth in contrastive information than those varieties whose development has involved considerably more time. Methodologies of this sort do have one significant weakness, however. They ignore the development of varieties whose historical depth is considerable, but which we can claim went through something like new dialect formation at a relatively distant point (or points) in the past.

In this chapter, therefore, we will concern ourselves with two rather different examples of new dialect (or dialects) development with considerable time depth: the origins and growth of the Scots dialects of Orkney and Shetland and of the English (and Scots) dialects of Ireland. The narratives involved are more complex than those associated with later events or processes of this type: the time depth is greater; the evidence is more open to interpretation; the history of a given region and its population may be more susceptible to ideological pressures, past and present. Nevertheless, the risks involved are worth taking. These contact situations are particularly interesting because they are concerned with contact with another language (rather than solely with other dialects), thus bringing our thoughts to bear on some of the themes of later sections of this book. Especially noteworthy, perhaps, is the contact between the near relatives Scots and Norn in the Northern Isles and its effects upon the development of the Scots dialects of those islands. In apparent contrast, the contact between Scots and English in Ireland focuses our attention on what happens when the speakers of closely related varieties, which are on the edge of comprehension, find themselves in a region of new settlement where relations with the indigenous majority are problematical on linguistic and cultural grounds.