2. Consonants.
d, t, l, n, are dental.
The stops p, t, k, are almost as strongly aspirated as in Danish. — b, d, g, are half-voiced.
l: almost = English l, slightly guttural, esp. when final.
r: lingual r, slightly rolled.
z: almost as in English, somewhat less aspirated.
ᶁ, ƫ, ᶅ, ᶇ, ꬶ, ᶄ, are dorsal and denote softened, palatal pronunciation of d, t, l, n, g, k. ᶁ and ꬶ as well as ƫ and ᶄ easily converge, e.g. a) ᶁēəld, ᶁeld, ꬶēəld, ꬶeld (written deld, djeld), b) ƫō and ᶄō (written to, tjo).
ᶊ: strongly palatalized s; with stress almost ᶊj (like No. sj), Eng. sh. — ᶎ: the corresponding voiced sound.
dᶎ and tᶎ are almost like English j and ch (e.g. in “jaw, church”) respectively, but more palatal after a vowel.
The spirants ð and þ are almost as in Icelandic; the first (ð), however, slightly more aspirated and nearer to þ (nearer Eng. th in “with, other”). þ as in lcel. “þing”, Eng. th in “think, teeth”. Shetl. ð and þ are esp. characteristic of Dunrossness (the south of Shetland). In other places in the Isles these sounds appear only sporadically in a few old words.
γ: spirant (“soft”) g as in Danish “dage”.
χ: open spirant k, as in Danish “magt”, = ch in Scottish “loch”.
ŋ: nasal sound of the palatal class (written ng, as in Danish “gang”).
ɯ: labial sound, a middle sound between m and w — m pronounced with the lips not quite closed.
A ‘ denotes a breath before a stop (p, t, k). — ‘l, ‘ᶅ, ‘m, ‘n, ‘ᶇ, ‘ŋ, ‘r denote voiceless l, ᶅ, m, n, ᶇ, ŋ, r.
An additional dot denotes that the accent is put on the syllable after which it is placed, e.g. a) bɛrfäᶅ·, bɛrsō·di, gȯrhərd· (gərhərd·) with stress on the second syllable (written bergfall, bergsodi, gordhird, respectively), b) at·avɛ‘ᶅ·ta, dā·gali̇̄·ən (written attavelta, dagalien, with equal stress on the first and the third syllable), bar·flog· (written barflog, with equal stress on the first and the second syllable). With variation of stress in the same word, e.g. bar·klâ· and barklâ· (written bar-claw). — Two dots and a single dot respectively denote main stress and secondary stress on the preceding syllable, e.g. bār··dasȯg·a, fær··dimɛt· (fār··dimɛt·, -met·), with main stress on the first, and secondary stress on the third syllable (written bardasoga, ferdimet). Conversely, e.g. in dun·lop·· (written doon-lop, -lup) with main stress on the second, and secondary stress on the first syllable.
Abbreviations of names of Shetlandic localities.
N.I. = the Northern Isles, which embrace: 1) U. = Unst, 2) Y. = Yell, 3) Fe. = Fetlar.
M. = Mainland (the main island).
