Norn language

The approximate extent of Old Norse and related languages in the early 10th century:       Old West Norse dialect       Old East Norse dialect       Old Gutnish dialect       Crimean Gothic       Old English       Other Germanic languages with which Old Norse still retained some mutual intelligibility

Norn is an extinct North Germanic language that was spoken in Shetland and Orkney, off the north coast of mainland Scotland, and in Caithness. After the islands were pledged to Scotland by Norway in the 15th century, it was gradually replaced by Scots.

History

It is not known exactly when Norn became extinct. 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 (Price 1984: 203). The more 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,"^[1] probably passages from folk songs or poems, as late as 1893. 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.

Dialects of Norse had also been spoken on mainland Scotland—for example, in Caithness—but here they became extinct many centuries before Norn died on Orkney and Shetland. 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. Next to no written Norn has survived. What 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.

Classification

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 and Danish. More recent analyses divide the North Germanic languages into an Insular Scandinavian and Mainland Scandinavian languages, grouping Norwegian with Danish and Swedish based on mutual intelligibility and the fact that Norwegian has been heavily influenced in particular by Danish during the last millennium and has diverged 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.

Few written texts remain but it is accepted to have a common root with Faroese or the Vestnorsk dialects of Norway. It is to be distinguished from the present day 'dialect', termed by linguists Shetlandic.

Sounds

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

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

The following are Norn and old Norse versions of the Lord's Prayer, a Christian prayer: [1]

• 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:

Fy vor 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

• Nordic countries 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.

Translation to modern Norwegian (nynorsk)

Far vår som er i himmelen!

Heilagt skal namnet ditt vera.

Lat kongedømet ditt koma.

Lat viljen din verta gjort

på jorda som i himmelen.

Gjev oss i dag vårt daglege brød.

Forlat syndene våre, som vi òg forlèt dei som har synda mot oss.

Lei oss ikkje ut i freisting, men frels oss frå alt ille.

For kongedømet er ditt, og makta og æra i all æve. Amen.

Translation to modern Norwegian (bokmål)

Fader vår, du som er i himmelen!

La ditt navn være hellig.

La ditt rike komme.

La din vilje skje

på jorden som i himmelen.

Gi oss i dag vårt daglige brød.

Forlat oss våre synder, som vi óg forlater våre syndere.

Led oss ikke inn i fristelse, men frels oss fra det onde.

For riket er ditt, og makten og æren i evighet. 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.

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 and revival?

Daggri and Dagalien at Ulsta, Yell, Shetland.

Although Norn is effectively a dead language, there are now attempts to revive it on cyberspace as Nynorn^[2] (New-Norn).

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").

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.^[3]

Notes

See also

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

References

• Barnes, Michael P. The Norn Language of Orkney & Shetland. Lerwick: Shetland Times 1998. ISBN 1-898852-29-4

Further reading

• 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

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