Shetlandic language

[Ixtab]

How many people still speak Shetlandic?

[Aryan Imperium]

It`s called Norn and it is now extinct. I would be interested in studying this when I have sufficient time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norn_language
North Germanic language that was spoken on Shetland and Orkney, off the north coast of mainland Scotland, and in Caithness. After the islands were returned to Scotland by Norway in the 15th century, its use was discouraged by the Scottish government and the Church of Scotland (the national church), and it was gradually replaced by Scots over time.

It is not known exactly when Norn became extinct. The last reports of Norn speakers are claimed to be from the early 19th century, but it is more likely that the language died out sometime during the 18th century at the latest. Fragments of the language and loan-words adopted into the local Lowland Scots and Scottish English survived the death of the main language and remain to this day.

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. Relatively little written Norn has survived. What remains includes a version of the Lord's Prayer, ballads and official documents such as diplomas as well as several runic inscriptions.

[Ixtab]

It`s called Norn and it is now extinct.Thank you, but I am actually speaking of Shetlandic, the Scots dialect which replaced Norn. It, in turn, is now being replaced by the standard dialect of Scotland. Norn is a different language altogether. Shetlandic is basically a combination of Scots and Norn.

[Hrolf Kraki]

Thank you, but I am actually speaking of Shetlandic, the Scots dialect which replaced Norn. It, in turn, is now being replaced by the standard dialect of Scotland. Norn is a different language altogether. Shetlandic is basically a combination of Scots and Norn.

Yes. Shetlandic is mostly Scots with some Norn* words and a few other Norn influences. English speakers may be able to somewhat understand Shetlandic as it is extremely similar to English. I read up on the language a couple months ago and found it to be quite interesting. For example, the word for 'the' is 'da' and there is only one indefinite article, 'a', unlike the two that are present in English, 'a' and 'an'. I read quite a bit on an internet site, but I have yet to find a book on the Shetlandic language. :(

Here is a good site on Shetlandic made by a native speaker. Inbuis ta Shaetlan (http://welcome.to/shetlandic)

*Norn is one of the three languages derived from Old Norse. The other two being Icelandic and Faroese.

**This thread would probably be best in the Scandinavian section**

[Ixtab]

Shetlandic retains many archaic features of the English language. For instance, the 'gh' in words like thought, night, nigh, etc., still retain their guttural value. Thee, thou and thine are also retained in Shetlandic (as de, dou, and dine). Also, it has a higher proportion of etymologically Germanic words than standard English, which, of course, is strongly influenced by the Romance language.

[Steppenwolf]

I guess it is still spoken by a few thousands in the Shetlandic rural areas. I've read that the language is currently resurging; fortunately, for it seems a nice language.

[Guðþormr]

Some recordings here --

http://www.bbc.co.uk/voices/recordings/