News / Dialect mascot
Dialect promotion group Shetland ForWirds, launched a new cartoon character and mascot at their sell-out concert in the Garrison Theatre this week.
Called Dratsi, the character takes its name from the old term, one of the tabu words, used at sea for an otter. The six foot tall mascot is based on an original drawing by Peter Shaw.
Dratsi made his appearance on stage while Davy Cooper was telling the story of Robbie Glen and the Otter, a well-known tale which ends with the saying “Lat be fir lat be, as Robbie Glen said ta da otter.”
Shaw was unable to come home to see his character live on stage – he’s about to graduate in animation from Edinburgh College of Art where he’s busy with a film for his final degree show.
He said: “It was a fun job to work on and I’m really happy with what’s come out of it”.
Meanwhile Dratsi now features on the homepage of the Shetland ForWirds website at www.shetlanddialect.org.uk.
SFW convenor Laureen Johnson is delighted with Dratsi. She said: “He has a lively look aboot him, both on da website and on stage.
“We hoop he’ll become very much a fun pairt o whit wir tryin ta do ta makk folk aware at if we dunna spaek wir dialect, we’ll lose it.”
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