Introduction

Gousters, Glims and Veerie-orums

This is the audio version o Gousters, Glims and Veerie-orums, the book written bae Orkney Voices and published by the George Mackay Brown Fellowship for the centenary o George Mackay Brown in 2021

Orcadians don’t aal spaek the same. Aal the perishes and islands hiv thir own weys o spaekeen and thir own wirds. And we even write the wird/wurd different weys/wiys. Some fokk write hid ‘spikk’; some fokk, ‘spaek’; some, ‘spake’. 

In this you’ll hear different versions o Orcadian fae different perts o the islands - Birsay tae Deerness, Shapinsay tae Kirkwall, Orphir tae Harray, Tankerness and Holm. You’ll hear twathree uncan vowels, descended fae Orkney Norn and wir Norse heritage, and a mense o wirds you might no ken but that aer rich and expressive and rooted in the land and shores o wir islands.  

The title hidsel hads three good Orkney wirds: 

Gouster is a sharp breeze o wind or an ootburst o language
Glim is a glimmer, a blink o light or fire
Veerie-orums aer fancy patterns or ornamentation; but the word originates in the Latin ‘variorum’, which noo usually means a book wae contributions fae different writers.

We are very prood tae present this audio version o wark fae Orkney Voices: Gousters, Glims and Veerie-orums.

Alison Miller, January 2025

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Gousters, Glims and Veerie-orums This is the audio version o Gousters, Glims and Veerie-orums, the book written bae Orkney Voices and published by the George Mackay Brown Fellowship for the centenary o George Mackay Brown in 2021 Orcadians don’t aal spaek the same. Aal the perishes and islands hiv thir own weys o spaekeen and thir own wirds. And we even write the wird/wurd different weys/wiys. Some fokk write hid ‘spikk’; some fokk, ‘spaek’; some, ‘spake’. In this you’ll hear different versions o Orcadian fae different perts o the islands - Birsay tae Deerness, Shapinsay tae Kirkwall, Orphir tae Harray, Tankerness and Holm. You’ll hear twathree uncan vowels, descended fae Orkney Norn and wir Norse heritage, and a mense o wirds you might no ken but that aer rich and expressive and rooted in the land and shores o wir islands. The title hidsel hads three good Orkney wirds: Gouster is a sharp breeze o wind or an ootburst o language Glim is a glimmer, a blink o light or fire Veerie-orums aer fancy patterns or ornamentation; but the word originates in the Latin ‘variorum’, which noo usually means a book wae contributions fae different writers. We are very prood tae present this audio version o wark fae Orkney Voices: Gousters, Glims and Veerie-orums. Alison Miller, January 2025

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