Norn: The History of a Language

Today we have a great post from Colin, which explains a little about the language of Norn, which ties in to last week's post about the Shetland and Orkney Islands. Enjoy!

As mentioned in a post last week, Friday marked the 537th anniversary of Shetland and Orkney coming under the Scottish crown, so it seems a good time to talk about Norn, the Scandinavian language once spoken there.

During the Viking Age, the Scandinavians who colonized Shetland and Orkney spoke a common language, which we now call Old Norse. Languages change a lot over time, and as the centuries rolled on, Old Norse evolved into the modern Scandinavian languages – Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Icelandic and Faroese.

Until the 18th or 19th centuries, another, now-extinct Scandinavian language was also spoken in Shetland, Orkney and parts of mainland Scotland, called Norn. Very little is known about Norn, and only a handful of texts written in the language were ever preserved. According to legend, the last Norn speaker died in 1850, but it’s more likely that the language was extinct long before then. Still, many words from Norn are still used by the inhabitants of Shetland. You can find a Shetland dictionary here. Here’s a comparison of the Lord’s Prayer in Shetland Norn, Old Norse, and modern Norwegian:

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

Old 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.

Modern Norwegian (Bokmål)
Vår Far i himmelen!
La navnet ditt helliges.
La riket ditt komme.
La viljen din skje på jorden
slik som i himmelen.
Gi oss i dag vårt daglige brød,
og tilgi oss vår skyld,
slik også vi tilgir våre skyldnere.
Og la oss ikke komme i fristelse,
men frels oss fra det onde.
For riket er ditt,
og makten og æren i evighet.
Amen.