# An Etymological Dictionary of the Norn Language in Shetland/Introduction/I

INTRODUCTION.
I.
THE Orkney Isles and Shetland, according to old Saga-accounts, were peopled from Norway in the 9th century, in the days of King Harald Fairhair, at the same time as the Færoe Isles and Iceland; but, from old Celtic monuments and inscriptions and from the place-names, it appears that the Orkney Isles and Shetland had an aboriginal Celtic population; while, from place-names of a distinctly ancient character, it is evident that the Islands had Norse inhabitants also. Neither that Celtic population nor the Norse is mentioned in the Sagas. The Celtic settlement lies so very far back in time, and the Norse settlement, before King Harald’s day, took place so gradually and quietly and was so little marked by striking events, that the great, strong tide of emigrants, setting westward from Norway in King Harald Fairhair’s time, swept out of mind all previous emigrations, and absorbed the entire attention of the Saga-writers.
The Shetland Isles became a province of Norway in King Harald Fairhair’s time, and belonged to that country till 1469, when King Christian I of Denmark and Norway (which countries had shortly before been united) pledged the Isles, together with the Orkney Islands, to Scotland as security for the dowry he had undertaken to provide on the occasion of the marriage of his daughter Margaret to King James III of Scotland.
Although it was expressly stipulated by Denmark, at the time of the mortgage, that no changes should be made by Scotland in the ancient laws and institutions of the Islands, as Denmark intended to redeem them, we find that, about 1600, all the old conditions had been turned topsy-turvy. Owing to the unrest in Scotland, and the remoteness of Shetland, the Scottish Earls, who held the Islands in fief, could do practically as they pleased. Robert Stewart became particularly notorious, and his son Patrick still more so. Their tenure of the Earldom falls in the latter half of the 16th century. As they were closely related to the royal house of Scotland, Earl Robert being an illegitimate son of James V, they did not fear the vengeance of the law, and so allowed themselves almost every liberty in their treatment of the common people of Shetland. The taxes were increased at the will of the rulers; the standards of measure and weight were repeatedly raised, and the “bismers”, steelyards, falsified; the udal or ​allodial property was gradually and craftily shuffled out of the hands of the unenlightened and unwary Shetland peasantry and into the hands of Scottish adventurers, many of whom thus rose to be large landed proprietors, while the Shetland peasants sank to a poor and oppressed class of small tenants, who, until the passing of the Crofters’ Commission Act in 1886, could only be regarded as the slaves of the lairds.
Under Patrick Stewart, the ancient law-book of Shetland disappeared. It is said that he destroyed it, in order to give himself a freer hand. When he could not succeed in getting the Law-Ting, the old legislative council of the Islands, with him, he pushed it aside; and tradition has it that he created a new Law-Ting composed of his own friends and favourites, who had no desire to put obstacles in his path. In this way his decrees obtained a certain semblance of legality. A more detailed account of Earl Patrick’s rule and of Shetland under him would simply be in the main a saga of oppression. The complaints of the Shetlanders against Patrick Stewart at last reached the ear of the Crown. They were found to be justified, and he was beheaded in 1615. But this led only to the annexation of the whole Shetland fief by the Crown. No restitution of what had been taken from them was made to the Shetland peasantry. After the lapse of some time the Islands were again given in fief, and were treated almost as before.
By the time of the Stewarts we no longer find any mention of the office of Law-man. On the other hand, we find mention of the office of Foude. Under the Stewart Earls all the ancient forms connected with the government of the Islands were by degrees abolished, and replaced by Scottish forms. Meetings of the Law-Ting, however, are mentioned, according to Hibbert, after the time of the Stewarts, and even as late as 1670.
The unscrupulous way in which the Islands were treated during the time that they belonged to Scotland (and after Scotland and England were united the connection of the Islands with that country was particularly close), has kept alive in the minds of the people an ill-will towards Scotsmen and everything Scottish, an ill-will which, however, during the last fifty years has steadily decreased, and which, as a result of the closer intercourse established in the 19th century, has now almost entirely disappeared. On account of the remote situation of the Islands, there was really no regular communication with Scotland before the 19th century. Before that time, the Shetland trade was with Bergen in Norway and with the Hanse towns Hamburg, Lubeck and Bremen. The name “Hjeltefjorden”, given to the northern entrance of the harbour of Bergen, is an evidence of the frequent visits of Shetlanders to that port. These relations certainly help to explain the partiality with which Shetlanders still regard the time when the Islands belonged to Norway and Denmark.
Although Shetland has been a province of Scotland for nearly four and a half centuries, Shetlanders still cherish the old feeling of kinship with the Scandinavian people, and have, to this day, strongly pronounced Scandinavian sympathies.
​Even as late as 1774 Low, who was a Scot, could say of the Shetlanders: “Most of their tales are relative to the history of Norway; they seem to know little of the rest of Europe but by name; Norwegian transactions they have at their fingers’ ends”.
The social and economic subjection of the peasantry of Shetland is hastening the breaking up of the Norn speech in the Islands, and its blending with Lowland Scottish.
As far back as the time of Earls Robert and Patrick Stewart, the intruded Scottish element in the population had become very marked. The long lists of names to be found in the complaints of the people against Earls Robert and Patrick, lists given in extenso by David Balfour, exhibit a very considerable number of Scottish ones. By the separation from Denmark and Norway, the small Shetland population had become intellectually and linguistically isolated, a circumstance that was bound to weaken very much their power of resistance to the persistent Scottish influence. Bit by bit, the peasantry began to think it genteel to adopt Scottish words and modes of expression, and to feel ashamed of the old homely words, which they gradually came to look upon as lacking authority and justification. Moreover, once the development had taken this line, things went so far that in the eyes of many people the use of the pure old dialect was a mark of defective breeding. In the 17th century the perversion of the Norn had begun; but it was not till about 1700 that it made much progress.
It may perhaps be of interest to see what older writers on Shetland have to say about the language of the Islands.
Brand in his “Description of Orkney, Zetland, etc.” (1701) says that “English is the Common Language among them [sc. the people of Shetland] yet many of the People speak Norse or corrupt Danish, especially such as live in the more Northern Isles, yea so ordinary it is in some places, that it is the first Language their Children speak” (ed. 1703, p. 69). — Martin, in his “Brief Description of the Isles of Orkney and Schetland” (1703) says of the inhabitants of Mainland that “they generally speak the English tongue, and many among them retain the ancient Danish Language, especially in the more Northern Isles” (pp. 383—4); and he writes similarly of the natives of Orkney (p. 369)
When older writers mention “English” as having been spoken in Shetland in the 18th century, the term must be understood to mean Lowland Scottish, the spoken language in Scotland developed from Northern English. A. J. Ellis, in “The existing Phonology of English Dialects”, part V of “Early English Pronunciation”, regards the present Shetland dialect as belonging to the northern branch of Lowland Scottish. But Lowland Scottish cannot have been spoken in Shetland generally, instead of Norn, so early as 1700.
​This does not accord with the fact that the dialect as a whole, even now at the end of the 19th century, is fairly saturated with Norn words, although that stock of words, with each generation that has passed during the last century and a half, has been growing smaller and smaller, and especially so in the course of the very latest generation.
Even in 1600 the knowledge of English (Lowland Scottish) seems to have been very meagre in Shetland; for, according to the “Fasti Ecclesiæ Scotticanæ”, Magnus, surnamed “Norsk”, minister of Unst (the most northerly of the Islands), made a voyage to Norway to learn the language spoken there, because his congregation did not understand any other language than “Norse”. It is said that he got his surname on account of this voyage. Even if it may be doubtful whether the minister went to Norway only to learn the language, out of consideration for his flock in Shetland, and got his surname for that reason, the interesting remark in “Fasti” still remains, that his congregation did not understand any other language than “Norse”.
The statement, made by both earlier and later writers who mention Shetland, that after the extinction of the Norn, only a few Norn names of objects were preserved, is simply a general phrase, resting on ignorance of the actual circumstances, which have never been sufficiently investigated.
That the Shetland Norn was still a living language in the middle of the 18th century, one may conclude from what is said by the Scottish writers George Low and Samuel Hibbert about the Shetland dance-songs.
Even rather late in the 18th century, Norn songs and ballads survived in the mouths of the common people, and were sung as the music to the native dance, which was the same as, or somewhat similar to, the chain-dance in a circle, still popular in the Faeroe Isles. The dance is described by Low in his “Tour thro’ Orkney and Shetland”, written in 1774 (first published in Kirkwall in 1879 by Joseph Anderson): …“There is one species of dance, which seems peculiar to themselves [i.e. the Shetlanders], in which they do not proceed from one end of the floor to the other in a figure, nor is it after the manner of a Scottish reel; but a dozen or so form themselves into a circle, and taking each other by the hand, perform a sort of circular dance, one of the party all the while singing a Norn visick. This was formerly their only dance, but has now almost entirely given way to the reel”.
Hibbert, in “Description of the Shetland Islands”, Edinburgh 1822, says: “Not longer ago than seventy years (about 1750) a number of popular historic ballads [according to the context is to be understood ballads in Norn] existed in Shetland…”; and in another place: “It was not many years before Mr. Low’s visit to Shetland in 1774, that numerous songs, under the name of Visecks [viz.: ballads in Norn], formed the accompaniment to dances that would amuse a festival party during a long winter’s evening”.
​A little verse from Unst, half in Norn, half in Scottish, which is said to date from the last century, sheds, by its contents, a certain light on the position of the dialect at that time. It is about a Shetland lad who has been in Scotland (Caithness) — a thing very rare in those days — and has come home again, with increased linguistic acquirements, of which the parents are not a little proud. The verse is put in the mouth of the father, or mother:
Də vārə gūə ti̇̄, when sonə mɩn guid to Kadanes: häᶇ käᶇ ca’ rossa mare häᶇ„ käᶇ„ ca’„ bɩg bere häᶇ„ käᶇ„ ca’„ eld fire häᶇ„ käᶇ„ ca’„ klȯvan·di taings — —
“It was in a good hour, that my son went to Caithness: He can call rossa, mare; big, bere; eld, fire; klȯvan·di, taings” — — These quite common Scottish words were evidently not, even at that time, in use in Shetland, at any rate in Unst.
In “A view of the ancient and present state of the Zetland Islands”, Edinburgh 1809, the Shetland author, Arthur Edmondston, makes the following observation in regard to the disappearance of the Norn as a spoken language in Shetland: “The old Norse has long been wearing out, and the change appears to have begun in the southern extremity and to have been gradually extended to the northern parts of the country. The island of Unst was its last abode, and not more than thirty years ago several individuals there could speak it fluently. It was preserved too, for a considerable length of time, in Foula; but at present there is scarcely a single person who can repeat even a few words of it”.
In regard to this last statement, one may remark that as late as 1894, there were people in Foula who could repeat sentences in Norn, as I myself had an opportunity of hearing; this must also have been the case in 1809. That the more northerly isles retained the Norn considerably longer than most of the more southerly parts of Shetland, as, for example, Dunrossness, is undoubtedly the case, to judge by the circumstance that the North Isles, Unst, Yell and Fetlar, are the parts of the country where, to this very day, one finds preserved the larger proportion of the old word-stock, and where also by far the greater number of fragments of connected Norn have been recorded. On the other hand, it is very doubtful whether the old dialect held its own longer in Unst than it did in the lonely island of Foula, or whether it held out even as long. It is quite certain that, at the present time, the Norn element has been pushed more into the background in the Foula dialect, spoken by not more than two hundred and fifty persons, while Unst has a population of ​2000; but, of the fragments that have been preserved as specimens of Norn, those belonging to the island of Foula are kept in quite as distinct remembrance as those belonging to Unst or to any other part of Shetland. The transition from the old to the new, in the case of the language, seems, when one compares the oldest with the youngest generation now living, to have taken place more rapidly in Foula than anywhere else in Shetland. The last man in Unst who is said to have been able to speak Norn, Walter Sutherland from Skaw, died about 1850. In Foula, on the other hand, men who were living much later than the middle of the present (19th) century are said to have been able to speak Norn. The Norn spoken towards the middle of the century and later can hardly have been of much account. The difference between it and the dialect of the oldest people of the present generation probably consisted in little more than the fact that the former contained a greater sprinkling of Norn words which the younger people did not understand. Moreover, the persons mentioned had probably a certain reputation because they could recite fragments of songs, rhymes and modes of expression, etc. in Norn, things that others had forgotten. I wish here to lay stress only on the circumstance that, so late in the present century, a dialect was spoken that bore the name of Norn, and consequently must have been considerably more old-fashioned than the present dialect.
The two islands named are by no means the only places where such a state of matters prevailed. The development in Yell and Fetlar must be said to have proceeded practically at the same time as that in Unst, and there also, in the latter half of the century, a dialect named Norn was spoken by some individuals. The same can be said about some other districts of the country, among which one may name Conningsburgh in S.Sh., a place that in many respects forms a contrast to the surrounding districts, although Norn disappeared there somewhat earlier than in the places mentioned above.
The statement that the Norn died out in the previous century must not, however, be taken too literally. The process has been a steady and gradual one, which is still continuing even at the present day. One must certainly suppose that even at the beginning of the 18th century the dialect was hard hit, and after that time it seems to have degenerated very rapidly. The old Foula crofter who, in 1774, recited to Low the well-known ballad about Hildina and the Orkney Jarl was, it seems, unable to accompany it with any translation, and could give only a general summary of the main contents.
The first portions of the old language to be affected, as one can easily imagine, and as appears from the fragments preserved, were the inflections, the grammatical endings, since assimilations became common, by degrees, as the forms were obliterated; next the minor words frequently recurring in speech, such as: conjunctions, prepositions, ​pronouns, numerals, and common adverbs; likewise adjectives and verbs in general use, as well as abstract nouns.
As a rule the substantives, denoting visible things, inanimate objects and living beings, have lasted longer (especially the words that denote species, while the words that denoted the genera embracing those species, have been lost), names of implements, household utensils; and this, of course, naturally applies to such things as stand in close connection with the daily life and activities of the people. Such words still form a very considerable part of the wordstock preserved in Mod. Shetlandic. As a special and very rich class, may be adduced: a) the many jocular and derisive names, used about a person or an object that presents an appearance differing from the normal; b) pet names.
That many old words and phrases relating to the state of the weather, the wind and the sea, have been preserved, may be regarded as almost a matter of course, in the case of a population so much a fisher-population as that of Shetland.
Of the other classes of words that have been preserved, may be mentioned such as express anger or a peevish state of mind; verbs that denote the various, especially comical, ways of moving or conducting oneself; adjectives that denote differently shaded or differently grouped colours of domestic animals, especially of sheep and cows, while the old names of the chief colours are lost.
In conclusion, it should be mentioned here that the superstition of the fishermen, now almost vanished, according to which a great many things could not be spoken of at sea by their ordinary names, but only by circumlocutions, has saved from destruction very many old words and roots that would otherwise have been entirely lost.
The Shetland dialect, in its present form, cannot without further consideration be described as Lowland Scottish, although it falls under the L.Sc. dialect-system. The main portion of it is Lowland Scottish, embracing most of the words in daily use as well as inflectional forms; but the older stratum in the language, the Norn, still makes its influence strongly felt, not only in the vocabulary, notably in the case of special words, but also in the construction of the verbs. The Literary English is, however, now making a rapid advance, chiefly as a result of the compulsory education introduced within the last half-century. This education, in which the use of English is impressed upon the children, and the use of such words and phrases as are peculiar to the Shetland dialect is not permitted in the schools, will involve, in the near future, the Anglicising of practically the whole speech.
* ↑ See David Balfour: Oppressions of the Sixteenth Century in the Islands of Orkney and Zetland. Edinburgh 1859.
* ↑ This term, which is used by the people (along with the term “Norse”), and which is an abbreviation of Norrøna, denotes, in the following pages, the old Shetlandic dialect.
* ↑ pronounced: gød; Shetl. form of Scottish gaed, past tense of to gang, geng, to go.
* ↑ According to George Low about 1774, some people in Foula still spoke the old language.
* ↑ Printed in Low’s Tour; also in Barry’s History of the Orkney Islands, and by Munch in Samlinger til det norske Folks Historie, vol. VI.