Norn is an extinct North Germanic language that was spoken in the Northern Isles (Orkney and Shetland) off the north coast of mainland Scotland and in Caithness in the far north of the Scottish mainland. In Caithness, Norn was likely replaced by Gaelic in the 15th century, and after Orkney and Shetland were pledged to Scotland by Norway in 1468/69 it was gradually replaced by Scots.

History[link]

Languages of Scotland around the early 15th century, based on placename evidence. Orange is Norn, yellow is English/Scots and blue is Scottish Gaelic.

Norse settlement in the islands probably began in the early 9th century.^[1] These settlers are believed to have arrived in very substantial numbers and like those who migrated to Iceland and the Faroe Islands it is probable that most came from the west coast of Norway.^[2] Shetland toponymy bears some resemblance to that of northwest Norway, while Norn vocabulary implies links with more southerly Norwegian regions.^[3]

Orkney and Shetland were pledged to James III in 1468 and 1469 respectively, and it is with these pledges that the replacement of Norn with Scots is most associated. However, the decline of Norse speech in Orkney probably began in 1379 when the earldom passed into the hands of the Sinclairs, and Scots had superseded Norse as the language of prestige on the island by the early 15th century.^[4] In Shetland the transition began later, but by the end of the 15th century both islands were bilingual.^[5] Despite this, the process by which Scots overtook Norn as the primary spoken language on the islands was not a swift one,^[6] and most natives of Orkney and Shetland likely spoke Norn as a first language until the late 16th and early-to-mid 17th centuries respectively.^[7]

It is not known exactly when Norn became extinct. Sources from the 17th and 18th centuries speak of Norn (sometimes identified as "Norse", "Norwegian" or "Danish") as being in a state of decline and generally indicate that the language remained stronger in Shetland than in Orkney. A source from 1670 states that there are "only three or four parishes” in Orkney where people speak "Noords or rude Danish" and that they do so "chiefly when they are at their own houses".^[8] Another from 1701 indicates that there were still a few monoglot "Norse" speakers who were capable of speaking "no other thing", and notes that there were more speakers of the language in Shetland than in Orkney.^[8] It was said in 1703 that the people of Shetland generally spoke English, but that "many among them retain the ancient Danish Language";^[9] while in 1750 Orkney-born James Mackenzie wrote that Norn was not yet entirely extinct, being "retained by old people", who still spoke it among each other.^[10]

The last reports of Norn speakers are claimed to be from the 19th century, but it is more likely that the language was dying out in the late 18th century.^[11] The isolated islands of Foula and Unst are variously claimed as the last refuges of the language in Shetland, where there were people "who could repeat sentences in Norn, probably passages from folk songs or poems, as late as 1893.^[12] Walter Sutherland from Skaw in Unst, who died about 1850, has been cited as the last native speaker of the Norn language. However, fragments of vocabulary survived the death of the main language and remain to this day, mainly in place-names and terms referring to plants, animals, weather, mood, and fishing vocabulary.

Norn had also been a spoken language in Caithness but had probably become extinct there by the 15th century.^[13] Hence, some scholars also speak about "Caithness Norn", but others avoid this. Even less is known about "Caithness Norn" than about Orkney and Shetland Norn. Almost no written Norn has survived, but what little remains includes a version of the Lord's Prayer and a ballad. Michael Barnes, professor of Scandinavian Studies at University College London, has published a study, The Norn Language of Orkney and Shetland.^[14]

Classification[link]

Norn is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic branch of the Germanic languages. Together with Faroese, Icelandic and Norwegian it belongs to the West Scandinavian group, separating it from the East Scandinavian group consisting of Swedish, Danish and Gutnish. While this classification is based on the differences between the North Germanic languages at the time they split, their present-day characteristics justify another classification, dividing them into an Insular Scandinavian and Mainland Scandinavian language groups, based on mutual intelligibility. Under this system, Norwegian is grouped together with the neighbouring languages Danish and Swedish, because the last millennium has seen all three undergo important changes, especially in grammar and lexis, which have set them apart from Faroese and Icelandic. Norn is generally considered to have been fairly similar to Faroese, sharing many phonological and grammatical traits with this language, and might even have been mutually intelligible with it; thus, it can be considered an Insular Scandinavian language.

Few written texts remain. It is to be distinguished from the present day 'dialect', termed by linguists Shetlandic.

Sounds[link]

The phonology of Norn can never be determined with much precision due to the lack of source material, but the general aspects can be extrapolated from the few written sources that do exist. Norn shared many traits with the dialects of south-west Norway. This includes a voicing of /p, t, k/ to [b, d, ɡ] before or between vowels and (in the Shetland dialect, but only partially in the Orkney dialect) a conversion of /θ/ and /ð/ ("thing" and "that" respectively) to [t] and [d] respectively.

Grammar[link]

The features of Norn grammar were very similar to the other Scandinavian languages. There were two numbers, three genders and four cases (nominative, accusative, genitive and dative). The two main conjugations of verbs in present and past tense were also present and like all other North Germanic languages, it used a suffix instead of a prepositioned article to indicate definiteness as in modern Scandinavian: man(n) ("man"); mannen ("the man"). Though it is difficult to be certain of much of the aspects of Norn grammar, documents indicate that it may have featured subjectless clauses, which were common in the West Scandinavian languages.

Sample text[link]

Jakob Jakobsen was a Faroese linguist and leading documentarist of Norn

The following are Norn and old Norse versions of the Lord's Prayer:^[15]

• Orkney Norn:

Favor i ir i chimrie, / Helleur ir i nam thite,

gilla cosdum thite cumma, / veya thine mota vara gort

o yurn sinna gort i chimrie, / ga vus da on da dalight brow vora

Firgive vus sinna vora / sin vee Firgive sindara mutha vus,

lyv vus ye i tumtation, / min delivera vus fro olt ilt.

Amen.

• Shetland Norn:

Fyvor or er i Chimeri. / Halaght vara nam dit.

La Konungdum din cumma. / La vill din vera guerde

i vrildin sindaeri chimeri. / Gav vus dagh u dagloght brau.

Forgive sindorwara / sin vi forgiva gem ao sinda gainst wus.

Lia wus ikè o vera tempa, / but delivra wus fro adlu idlu.

[For do i ir Kongungdum, u puri, u glori.] Amen.

• Old West Norse:

Faþer vár es ert í himenríki, / verði nafn þitt hæilagt

Til kome ríke þitt, / værði vili þin

sva a iarðu sem í himnum. / Gef oss í dag brauð vort dagligt

Ok fyr gefþu oss synþer órar, / sem vér fyr gefom þeim er viþ oss hafa misgert

Leiðd oss eigi í freistni, / heldr leys þv oss frá ollu illu.

Amen.

• Faroese

Faðir vár, tú sum ert í himlinum. / Heilagt verði navnið títt.

Komi ríkið títt. / Verði vilji tín,

so sum á himli, so á jørð. / Gev okkum í dag okkara dagliga breyð.

Fyrigev okkum syndir okkara, / so sum vit eisini fyrigeva teimum, ið móti okkum synda.

Leið okkum ikki í freistingar, / men frels okkum frá tí illa.

[Tí at títt er ríkið, valdið og heiðurin um aldur og allar ævir.] Amen.

• Icelandic

Faðir vor, þú sem ert á himnum. / Helgist þitt nafn,

til komi þitt ríki, / verði þinn vilji,

svo á jörðu sem á himni. / Gef oss í dag vort daglegt brauð.

Fyrirgef oss vorar skuldir, / svo sem vér og fyrirgefum vorum skuldunautum.

Og eigi leið þú oss í freistni, / heldur frelsa oss frá illu.

[Því að þitt er ríkið, mátturinn og dýrðin að eilífu.] Amen.

• Norwegian (nynorsk)

Fader vår, du som er i himmelen! / Lat namnet ditt helgast.

Lat riket ditt koma. / Lat viljen din råda

på jorda så som i himmelen. / Gjev oss i dag vårt daglege brød.

Forlat vår skuld, / som vi òg forlèt våre skuldmenn.

Før oss ikkje ut i freisting, / men frels oss frå det vonde.

[For riket er ditt, og makta og æra i all æve.] Amen.

A Shetland "guddick" (riddle) in Norn, which Jakob Jakobsen heard told on Unst, the northernmost island in Shetland, in the 1890s. The same riddle is also known from the Faroe Islands, from Iceland, and a variation also occurs in England.

The answer is a cow: four teats hang, four legs walk, two horns and two ears stand skyward, two eyes show the way to the field and one tail comes shaking (dangling) behind.

Modern use[link]

Daggri and Dagalien at Ulsta, Yell, Shetland.

Most of the use of Norn/Norse in modern day Shetland and Orkney is purely ceremonial, and mostly in Old Norse, for example the Shetland motto, which is Með lögum skal land byggja ("with law shall land be built") which is the same motto used by the Icelandic police force and inspired by the Danish Codex Holmiensis.

Another example of the use of Norse/Norn in the Northern Isles can be found in the names of ferries:

• Northlink Ferries has ships named MV Hamnavoe (after the old name for Stromness), and MV Hjaltland (Shetland) and MV Hrossey ("Horse Island", an old name for Mainland, Orkney).
• The Yell Sound Ferry sails from Ulsta on the island to Toft on the Shetland Mainland. The service is operated by two ferries—Daggri (Norse for "dawn"), launched in 2003 and Dagalien (Norse for "dusk), launched in 2004.^[17]

Norn words are still used to describe many of the colour and pattern variations in the native sheep of Shetland and Orkney, which survive as the Shetland and North Ronaldsay breeds. Icelandic uses similar words for many of the same colour variations in Icelandic sheep.^[18]

There are some enthusiasts who are engaged in developing and disseminating a modern form called Nynorn, based upon linguistic analysis of the known records and Norse linguistics in general.^[19][20]

Notes[link]

See also[link]

• Udal law, the Norse law system of the Northern Isles.
• Fingalian, the Anglo-Norse language of Co. Dublin.

Further reading[link]

• Barnes, Michael P. "Orkney and Shetland Norn". In Language in the British Isles, ed. Peter Trudgill, 352-66. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984.
• Jakobsen, Jakob. An Etymological Dictionary of the Norn Language in Shetland. 2 vols. London/Copenhagen: David Nutt/Vilhelm Prior, 1928-32 (reprinted 1985).
• Low, George. A Tour through the Islands of Orkney and Schetland. Kirkwall: William Peace, 1879.
• Marwick, Hugh. The Orkney Norn. London: Oxford University Press, 1929.
• Rendboe, Laurits. "The Lord's Prayer in Orkney and Shetland Norn 1-2". North-Western European Language Evolution 14 (1989): 77-112 and 15 (1990): 49-111.
• Wallace, James. An Account of the Islands of Orkney. London: Jacob Tonson, 1700.

External links[link]

Norn language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator

• Orkney&Shetland Norn Collection of all known texts in Norn, description of its phonology and grammar
• Foula Heritage about Norn language incl. the 'Hildina Ballad'
• Ethnologue report on Norn
• The Shetland dictionary containing many Shetland Norn words

Edward "Ned" Maddrell (1877 – December 27, 1974) was a fisherman from the Isle of Man who was the last surviving native speaker of the Manx language.

Following the death of Mrs. Sage Kinvig (ca. 1870–1962), Maddrell was the only remaining person who could claim to have spoken Manx Gaelic from childhood (according to one source, Maddrell had some knowledge of English before he learned Manx, and learned Manx from his great-aunt^[1]), although at the time some other people spoke it as a second language, having learned it later in life.

Maddrell recorded some of his speech for the sake of linguistic preservation; for example, in 1948 he recorded the following about fishing (in Manx, with the English translation):

Dooyrt "Ballooilley" rish:

"Ballooilley" said to him:

"Vel ny partanyn snaue, Joe?"

"Are the crabs crawling, Joe?"

"Cha nel monney, cha nel monney," dooyrt Joe. "T'ad feer ghoan."

"Not much, not much," said Joe. "They're very scarce."^[2]

A newspaper article about the decline of Manx from about 1960 (Maddrell's age was given as 82) mentions and quotes him, since at the time he was, along with Kinvig, one of only two native speakers:

Ned Maddrell, who went to sea at 13, found he was able to keep his Manx "alive" by talking to Gaelic-speaking sailors on British ships. He was brought up in the remote village of Cregneash, where "unless you had the Manx you were a deaf and dumb man and no good to anybody."

This was not the case in the towns. "Nobody there wanted to talk Manx, even those who had it well. They were ashamed, like. 'It will never earn a penny for you,' they said." Ned is a sprightly old man, a trifle deaf but very proud of his role as one of the last native speakers. "They have tape recordings of me telling legends and stories in Manx," he said "in Ireland and in America and in places you never heard of."^[3]

In contrast to some other native speakers, Maddrell appears to have enjoyed his minor celebrity status, and was very willing to teach younger language revivalists such as Leslie Quirk and Brian Stowell. When Irish Taoiseach Éamon de Valera visited the island he called upon Ned personally. De Valera had been angered some years before at the inaction of the British and Manx governments over the demise of the language, and had sent over a team from the Irish Folklore Commission with a sound recording van to preserve what was left.^{[citation needed]}

References[link]

External links[link]

	Biography portal
	Isle of Man portal

• Audio samples of Celtic languages, including recordings of Maddrell speaking Manx
• Ned Maddrell on YouTube