dgplacenames (now in Orkney)
Place-names, maps, languages dgplacenames.wordpress.com
auldnorse.wordpress.com/owersettins/
- Pleased to discover that Lilly Wood & The Prick sound great live youtu.be/pvTa-2s54C8
- Reposted by dgplacenames (now in Orkney)'Kirkwall Fair.' (1888) Although Arthur Melville was not regarded as one of the Glasgow Boys, he was seen by them to be a kindred spirit. A year after painting this work on Orkney, he left Edinburgh and settled in London, although he often returned to Scotland to paint.
- Reposted by dgplacenames (now in Orkney)Today, 2 February, is Candlemas. As well as being a Christian holy day, it is one of the four Scottish Quarter Days, when rents were due. The Scots #poem “At Candlemas” by Marion Angus (1865–1946) is a typically unsentimental look at how swiftly youth turns to old age:
- I'd not thought of the etymology of grizzled before. Nice to see it's one of those Germanic-via-French words
- Reposted by dgplacenames (now in Orkney)[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by dgplacenames (now in Orkney)ever since I first heard about it I found the Dwarfie Stane on Hoy really evocative so couldn't resist putting it in my comic
- "And Iacob sod pottage", Genesis 25:29 Sod's the past tense of seethe 'to boil, cook'. It's hidden in plain sight in sodden
- Reposted by dgplacenames (now in Orkney)Dorothée Pullinger AngloFrench #automotive #engineer awarded MBE aged 26 for #WWI work. Early member of @wes1919.bsky.social she #engineered the #Galloway car, designed for women & built by a female workforce for Arrol-Johnstons in #Kirkcudbright d. #OTD 28 Jan 1986 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doroth%...
- Reposted by dgplacenames (now in Orkney)First mentioned in Roman sources over 1,700 years ago as a collective name for troublesome, barbaric peoples, the Picts went on to become the dominant kingdom in northern Britain 💪 On 12 February, explore their southern kingdoms at this online event: www.digitscotland.com/events/east-...
- Reposted by dgplacenames (now in Orkney)You'll be delighted to know that TIMEOUS is still used in the Scottish Parliament. www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-...
- @illandancient.bsky.social you got any data on how recent this phenomenon (DID in present perfect) is? These things are always older than you realise but I don't think I mind it growing up. I mind folk saying 'I done' (and being chastised for it) but think they were still saying 'I've done' as well
- Reposted by dgplacenames (now in Orkney)Some very interesting Seachdain na Gàidhlig events coming up! Especially intrigued by this one
- Reposted by dgplacenames (now in Orkney)Edwin Morgan's poem 'Grendel', in which he voices the creature from Beowulf, has thrilling opening lines: It is being nearly human gives me this spectacular darkness. The light does not know what to do with me.
- I spent this morning struggling to recall the second line of Byron's The Destruction of Sennacherib en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatiana...
- Reposted by dgplacenames (now in Orkney)Being a journalist is sick: I just contacted a pre-eminent jaguar conservationist in Argentine with a question that has been weighing on me for ages and he wrote back right away with an informed answer.
- Can you actually imagine
- The Ordnance Survey Name Book entry for Droughdool Moat records that, "it is said to be the place where the devil deposited the Exciseman mentioned by Robert Burns in the song styled The Deil's awa wi the Exciseman." I've not been able to find any other record of this tradition
- Scotland By Prestige #youmissedabit
- Reposted by dgplacenames (now in Orkney)Ni nomiĝis la ciklado "Peak dreich". Dreich estas skota vorto, kiu signifas griza,morna,malseka,malvarma kaj malbona vetero. #biketooter
- Reposted by dgplacenames (now in Orkney)Immersion centres like this should be developed for Gaelic in Scotland as well. At the moment children are effectively locked out of Gaelic medium education if they don't start at age 5
- Reposted by dgplacenames (now in Orkney)More aurora from Orkney!
- We're hoping this might be recorded but if not, it would be worth making a trip to Kirkcudbright (or Ballecheeilchoobrey as it is in the Manx Traditionary Ballad) for it
- Some notes on Kirkcudbright in the Manx Traditionary Ballad dgplacenames.wordpress.com/2021/03/13/m...
- Reposted by dgplacenames (now in Orkney)Gary Larson: In my cartoon I invented Cow Tools as a cautionary tale Cows: At long last, we have created the Cow Tools from classic newspaper comic Cow Tools
- Reposted by dgplacenames (now in Orkney)Come hell & high water I am shoehorning this Livy quote into my WIP. It's too delicious. "The year was marred by omnious signs, fires blazed in the sky, there was a violent earthquake & a cow talked - there was a rumour that a cow had talked the previous year but nobody believed it"
- Reposted by dgplacenames (now in Orkney)The Nobel Peace Prize becoming so prestigious that wars are fought over a head of state coveting it is some real monkey paw stuff for Alfred Nobel.
- Reposted by dgplacenames (now in Orkney)Bench 41086 openbenches.org/bench/41086 Vincent Gillespie 1954-2025 J.R.R. Tolkien Professor of English Literature and Language Knowledge makes us learnèd, but feeling makes us wise.
- Reposted by dgplacenames (now in Orkney)Took me a second (and a Google). But slightly more seriously I love that Chris Law is (I think) the only MP to share his name with his constituency’s highest point.
- Reposted by dgplacenames (now in Orkney)CRAIC DEN was there for the taking 😄
- One of the best things about this site (and Twitter of old) is finding out about art that's new to you
- Reposted by dgplacenames (now in Orkney)Mallimacs (Fulmars) out near Castle o'Burrian, Westray today.
- The BNA putting Orkney and Shetland in a box despite there being plenty of space to shift the map down and free up room
- Reposted by dgplacenames (now in Orkney)Incredible piece of Search Engine Optimisation
- New bit of vocab picked up from this evening's crossword: List includes good philosopher = Hegel en.wiktionary.org/wiki/heel
- I reckon Sam and Ellie are siblings #Traitorsuk
- Reposted by dgplacenames (now in Orkney)Holy hell. The description of death row in apartheid South Africa was one of the most harrowing things I've ever read. Also. This guy wasn't fucking around.
- Reposted by dgplacenames (now in Orkney)
Oot o yir bed, claes oan, get gaan, an afore lang ye'll stert tae mend. How hard can that be? Very, for autocorrect. I really wish I'd taken a screenshot of its suggestions. - Reposted by dgplacenames (now in Orkney)wikipedia turns 25 today! the last unenshittified major website! backbone of online info! triumph of humanity! powered by urge of unpaid randos to correct each other! somehow mostly reliable! "good thing wikipedia works in practice, because it sure doesn't work in theory" - old wiki adage
- Reposted by dgplacenames (now in Orkney)"It's not the same as Twitter", friend Twitter isn't the same as Twitter. Old Twitter died years ago, we need to accept that almost no-one under 30 is interested in joining text-based social media - the format will die with us, like floppy discs, Mars Delights, and the concept of hope for the future
- It's only just occurred to me that the BBC Scotland logo is pure #youmissedabit - not an isle in sight
- Bloody Scotland #youmissedabit
- Reposted by dgplacenames (now in Orkney)La angla Vikipedio iĝas 25 jaraĝa hodiaŭ. Gratulon! La Esperanta Vikipedio sekvos je la 11a de majo.
- In a hospital with zero Scots in the linguistic landscape (more on that anon) it was nice to hear a consultant say "It's better tae hae it an no need it, than need it an no hae it."
- Not just the absence of Scots but its erasure: a) An IPA transcription of the English pronunciation of 'table', b) A sign in English with The Broons, to really hammer the message home. Can't expect everyone to know IPA, or where to find Scots transcriptions. But The Broons without Scots is mad
- Reposted by dgplacenames (now in Orkney)Made a site where you can practise Old English scansion. You get given a half-line and have to select which of Sievers's five types it belongs to. Just Beowulf for now, but that's 6364 half-lines to be getting on with: dgplacenames.github.io/scansion/ [Data: clasp.ell.ox.ac.uk/]
- Reposted by dgplacenames (now in Orkney)Look at my baby! ☺️ I reedited Modole folk stories published 110 years ago Old journals and archives are full of story collections in underdocumented languages, often difficult or impossible to access for both linguists and the speaker community. Using legacy material is valuable and sustainable 🙌🏻
- Reposted by dgplacenames (now in Orkney)Free online Public Seminar 2026 start with @thinkuhi.bsky.social candidate Tara Athanasiou discussing her research 'Placing Women, Tracing Journeys: Female Mobility and Social Bonds in the Norse Period'. 7pm 26/02/26 Register tinyurl.com/46yvd4f8 @uhiorkney.bsky.social
- Reposted by dgplacenames (now in Orkney)Gaelic in Airdrie
- Reposted by dgplacenames (now in Orkney)Wee Robin. Whirr of wings. Couldn't have got this shot if I'd tried! @btoscotland.bsky.social @scottishbirding.bsky.social @birdinglothian.bsky.social @rspbscotland.bsky.social @edinburghnats.bsky.social
- Reposted by dgplacenames (now in Orkney)"Who is the man who appears unexpectedly in an OS map..?"
- Reposted by dgplacenames (now in Orkney)If I managed one this year, I'll probably just keep going forever. Exclusively for Bluesky, it's my 2025 Blog! #Blogmanay🥳
- Reposted by dgplacenames (now in Orkney)Kind of delighted my train from Crewe to Carlisle today has announcements in Welsh (I’m guessing it originated in Holyhead) also appropriate for heading to the Brittonic Old North.
- I've not used Twitter in a long time but as it's about to implode, I've downloaded my data and made a site where I can read and search my old tweets: dgplacenames.github.io/tweets/ Even if you're not going to host it online, I'd recommend downloading your data if you still have an account
