DOCSLIB.ORG

The History of Language in Shetland for Primary 5

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text

Load more

The history of language in Shetland flukra Burra shilpet peeriegirny smooriken Fetlar Primary 5-7 Language in Shetland Timeline Pre-300AD We don’t know much about Before the the people of Shetland or Picts their language. Pictish people carve symbols 300AD-800AD into stone and speak a ‘Celtic’ Picts language. 800AD-1500AD Vikings occupy the isles and introduce Vikings ‘Norn’. They carve symbols called ‘runes’ into stone. Scotland rule gradually influences life 1500AD onwards on the islands. Scottish language Scots eventually eradicates Norn. People in Shetland today have a Today ‘dialect’. It contains Scottish and Us! Norn words. The Picts built the The Picts and their language Mousa Broch We don’t know when the Picts first settled in Shetland, but we believe they were in Shetland by 300AD. In Northern Europe (including The Bressay stone has Pictish Shetland, Scandinavia and symbols carved on it and an ogham Scotland), the Iron Age inscription on each end of the started around 500BC and slab. The inscription reads: ended around 800AD. Following CRROSCC : NAHHTVVDDADDS : DATTR : ANNBENNISES : MEQQDDROANN this, Shetland experienced the Which translates as: ‘Viking Age’. "The Cross of Nordred's daughter is here placed." “Benises son of Droan.” Ogham writing The ogham alphabet has been found on stone carvings throughout Britain. The Picts used these symbols to write things down, and they often carved them into stone. Why did the Picts carve things on This carved stone was stone? found in Bressay. Til Hjaltland! Vikings invade! Vikings travelled to Shetland over The Picts and a thousand years their language ago, sometime These disappeared when after 800AD. are runes! the Vikings came This was called the ‘Viking Age’. The Vikings They travelled over the Shetland wrote symbols North sea from areas of called ‘runes’. Scandinavia—mostly from Norway. Norway Sweden Britain They settled on the land as crofters and fishermen, and soon Vikings spoke a spread their language language called The word Norn and customs over the Norn. derives from isles. the Old Norse word Norrœnn Vikings named areas of land on meaning ‘Norse’ We don’t have the isles as there were no or ‘Norwegian’. many written roads. They were possessive records of Norn— over territories and ownership. perhaps Vikings passed their Norn was spoken language on in Shetland for aurally rather centuries after Many areas in Shetland have than writing its arrival. names that harken back to things down Viking days. Viking influence The names given to some places in Shetland come from These names help shed some light Norn words. on the language the Vikings used. Many of the words used in Norn help to describe something, including place names! Walls, or ‘Waas’, comes from a Norn Only a few Viking runic descriptive word for the way the sea carvings have been found in comes into the bay! Va, or Vaas (if Shetland. This stone, with plural). runes carved on it, was found in Eshaness, in the north of Shetland. Replacing ‘th’ with ‘d’ is an example of how the Norn language has survived in Shetland today. “Am dat blyde noo da Voar is come.” blyde: glad Voar: Spring After Scotland took rule of Shetland, Scottish customs and language gradually began to influence the people in Place names that include ‘ting’ indicate Shetland. Eventually, the possible assembly points. Tingwall was the strong Norn language was to location of the Old Norse parliament! fall away into disuse. The Scots 200 milesNorway In 1469, Shetland became a part of Scotland. This happened because the Princess of Denmark was going to marry the King of Scotland (James III), and Shetland was given to James as part of the Princess’ dowry. Dowry: money or goods a bride’s family brings to the groom at the marriage. The Lerwick Town Hall To begin with, ‘Marriage Window’ shows life in Shetland the Princess and the didn’t change King! The dowry given much, but by to James III was to 1611 they were shape our way of life obeying Scottish and our tongues to this laws. day! Gradually people in Shetland began William Gordon and to live more like Scottish people, family in 1905 Just like the Vikings, (below);: a Church of especially when Scots began to Scottish people Scotland missionary settle on the isles. brought their customs, who, like many other their speech and their Scots, settled on the religion with them. isles. Norn had been the main language in Shetland for centuries, and even though the Scots language gradually became dominant, some Shetlanders could still speak Norn in 1800! Scottish influence Around the 17th century the Scots language became The language in Shetland changed in different areas at different widespread over times—the transition into Scots Shetland. was gradual and complex! Geography, travel and isolation from immigrants, sea-farers or other areas determined how long the Norn language would remain in an area for. 2 Danish Skillings from 1677 Religion also helped Scottish economy and business was shape the language. brought to the isles. Shetlanders Shetlanders already started using Scottish weights practiced Christianity by and measurements. Eventually, this time, but when Shetland traded only with Scottish clergy moved Scotland. into Shetland, they gave services and sermons in the Scots language. Trading in Shetland Languages learned from trading became less relevant, and the Scottish language replaced them. Norn was not useful for trade. “Favor i ir i chimrie…” Shetlanders became good at speaking Scottish, and used it more often. They could still remember Norn words, Beginning of the Lord’s prayer and some Norn words were still used. in Norn. At the end of the 19th Century, These Norn words might have been Jakob Jakobsen collected and used because there was no Scottish recorded 10,000 Norn words equivalent, or because they were still known by Shetlanders at more descriptive than the the time! Scottish alternative. Today, people in What did you say? Shetland have a ‘dialect’. This dialect is a result of the Viking and Scottish people who influenced, and altered, the language in Shetland centuries ago. Then Ho Aye Norn and Scots were both spoken in Shetland before Scots became the main language—we kept some of our Norn words, and these have changed over time to become some of the dialect words we use today. Norn can be identified to some extent in our place names, and our pronunciation of some Scottish words, as well as in unique Shetland words. A kist o’ Shaetlan’ Wir been wirds lookin’ fur flukra trows! blyde: glad Burra shilpet Voar: Spring peeriegirny smooriken Haaf-fishing: deep-sea fishing Fetlar Noost: boat’s shelter Knap: a Shetlander’s attempt to ‘speak proper English’ Some words were even taken from Dutch fishermen who frequented the These words have Norn roots, but as isles in the 18th and 19th Century! there have been so many influences on Cabbi-labbi: a hubbub, confused noise our language, it’s often difficult to find from many people speaking at once out where our words have come from! (from the Dutch ‘kibbelen’) Sometimes my Draatsi (Shetland word Dad neebs aff on for otter) da restin-shair Norn in our language today Words that are no longer used Surviving variants of Norn words might have been words describing are usually words that relate to utensils that we don’t use anymore, our way of life today—perhaps like this words relating to fishing or crofting Or words that have no We also have dialect Scottish equivalent—like ‘spaegie’! words that describe This is a ‘tari grep’ (kelp fork), weather, nature and used to rake seaweed together wildlife—how many to make a fertiliser for crofts birds can you name? Baby ‘Bonxie’! (Great Skua) on Noss Different areas of Shetland have We usually learn our dialect different ways of speaking the by hearing and speaking it Shetland dialect. rather than writing it.. Because of these two things, people don’t always agree This was because travel on how dialect should be written down. restrictions and geography made certain areas more Our dialect today is unique. We sound the isolated from other areas way we do because of our Viking and and from visitors and Scottish history. seafarers. .
Recommended publications
  • DORIC DICTIONARY Doric Is the Traditional Dialect of the North East of Scotland

    DORIC DICTIONARY Doric Is the Traditional Dialect of the North East of Scotland

    DORIC DICTIONARY Doric is the traditional dialect of the North East of Scotland. It has its roots in the farming and fishing communities that made up the area. In the last 20 years it has seen a revival and is gaining more recognition and being taught at schools. The list below shows favourite Doric / Scots words or phrases with their Dictionary definition and comments underneath. Aberdeenshire Council would like to thank pupils and staff at Banff Academy, in a project with the Elphinstone Institute Aberdeen University for providing a Doric Dictionary to use on the website: http://banffmacduffheritagetrail.co.uk Auld Auld. Old. Compare with Old Scots Ald. Aye! Aye. Yes. Unknown. Bairn A child, baby, infant. Old Norse Barn. Baltic BALTIC, prop.n. Sc. printers slang usage with def. art.: a jocular term for a watercloset (Edb. 1800–74), sc. as being a chilly place, often frozen in cold weather. Black Affrontit Ashamed or deeply embarrassed, from Old French Affronter. Blether To talk foolishly or in a trivial way; to prattle, speak boastfully; a chatterbox, from Old Norse blaðra – to utter inarticulately, move the tongue to and fro. Bonnie Bonnie, Bonny, Beautiful, pretty. Late 15th century. Bonnie Bonnie, bonny, boannie. Beatiful, pretty, good, excellent, fine. Origin not known, although my 8 year old told me it was because of the French word bonne - good. Good theory. Bosie To cuddle. NE Scots, reduced form of bosom. Bourach. Whit a Bourach! A crowd, group, cluster. A disorderly heap or mess. A muddle, a mess, a state of confusion. Probably from Gaelic, búrach a mess or shambles.
  • The Norse Element in the Orkney Dialect Donna Heddle

    The Norse Element in the Orkney Dialect Donna Heddle

    The Norse element in the Orkney dialect Donna Heddle 1. Introduction The Orkney and Shetland Islands, along with Caithness on the Scottish mainland, are identified primarily in terms of their Norse cultural heritage. Linguistically, in particular, such a focus is an imperative for maintaining cultural identity in the Northern Isles. This paper will focus on placing the rise and fall of Orkney Norn in its geographical, social, and historical context and will attempt to examine the remnants of the Norn substrate in the modern dialect. Cultural affiliation and conflict is what ultimately drives most issues of identity politics in the modern world. Nowhere are these issues more overtly stated than in language politics. We cannot study language in isolation; we must look at context and acculturation. An interdisciplinary study of language in context is fundamental to the understanding of cultural identity. This politicising of language involves issues of cultural inheritance: acculturation is therefore central to our understanding of identity, its internal diversity, and the porousness or otherwise of a language or language variant‘s cultural borders with its linguistic neighbours. Although elements within Lowland Scotland postulated a Germanic origin myth for itself in the nineteenth century, Highlands and Islands Scottish cultural identity has traditionally allied itself to the Celtic origin myth. This is diametrically opposed to the cultural heritage of Scotland‘s most northerly island communities. 2. History For almost a thousand years the language of the Orkney Islands was a variant of Norse known as Norroena or Norn. The distinctive and culturally unique qualities of the Orkney dialect spoken in the islands today derive from this West Norse based sister language of Faroese, which Hansen, Jacobsen and Weyhe note also developed from Norse brought in by settlers in the ninth century and from early Icelandic (2003: 157).
  • The Genetic Landscape of Scotland and the Isles

    The Genetic Landscape of Scotland and the Isles

    The genetic landscape of Scotland and the Isles Edmund Gilberta,b, Seamus O’Reillyc, Michael Merriganc, Darren McGettiganc, Veronique Vitartd, Peter K. Joshie, David W. Clarke, Harry Campbelle, Caroline Haywardd, Susan M. Ringf,g, Jean Goldingh, Stephanie Goodfellowi, Pau Navarrod, Shona M. Kerrd, Carmen Amadord, Archie Campbellj, Chris S. Haleyd,k, David J. Porteousj, Gianpiero L. Cavalleria,b,1, and James F. Wilsond,e,1,2 aSchool of Pharmacy and Molecular and Cellular Therapeutics, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin D02 YN77, Ireland; bFutureNeuro Research Centre, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin D02 YN77, Ireland; cGenealogical Society of Ireland, Dún Laoghaire, Co. Dublin A96 AD76, Ireland; dMedical Research Council Human Genetics Unit, Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine, University of Edinburgh, Western General Hospital, Edinburgh EH4 2XU, Scotland; eCentre for Global Health Research, Usher Institute, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH8 9AG, Scotland; fBristol Bioresource Laboratories, Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 2BN, United Kingdom; gMedical Research Council Integrative Epidemiology Unit at the University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 2BN, United Kingdom; hCentre for Academic Child Health, Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1NU, United Kingdom; iPrivate address, Isle of Man IM7 2EA, Isle of Man; jCentre for Genomic and Experimental Medicine, Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine, University
  • Advisory Committee on the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities

    Advisory Committee on the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities

    ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON THE FRAMEWORK CONVENTION FOR THE PROTECTION OF NATIONAL MINORITIES Strasbourg, 18 September 2017 Working document Compilation of Opinions of the Advisory Committee relating to Article 10 of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (4th cycle) “Article 10 1 The Parties undertake to recognise that every person belonging to a national minority has the right to use freely and without interference his or her minority language, in private and in public, orally and in writing. 2 In areas inhabited by persons belonging to national minorities traditionally or in substantial numbers, if those persons so request and where such a request corresponds to a real need, the Parties shall endeavour to ensure, as far as possible, the conditions which would make it possible to use the minority language in relations between those persons and the administrative authorities. 3 The Parties undertake to guarantee the right of every person belonging to a national minority to be informed promptly, in a language which he or she understands, of the reasons for his or her arrest, and of the nature and cause of any accusation against him or her, and to defend himself or herself in this language, if necessary with the free assistance of an interpreter.” Note: this document was produced as a working document only and does not contain footnotes. For publication purposes, please refer to the original opinions. Fourth cycle – Art 10 Table of contents 1. ARMENIA................................................................................................................................................3
  • Norn Elements in the Shetland Dialect

    Norn Elements in the Shetland Dialect

    Hugvísindadeild Norn elements in the Shetland dialect A Historical and Linguistic Review B.A. Essay Auður Dagný Jónsdóttir September, 2013 University of Iceland Faculty of Humanities Department of English Norn elements in the Shetland dialect A Historical and Linguistic Review B.A. Essay Auður Dagný Jónsdóttir Kt.: 270172-5129 Supervisors: Þórhallur Eyþórsson and Pétur Knútsson September, 2013 2 Abstract The languages spoken in Shetland for the last twelve hundred years have ranged from Pictish, Norn to Shetland Scots. The Norn language started to form after the settlements of the Norwegian Vikings in Shetland. When the islands came under the British Crown, Norn was no longer the official language and slowly declined. One of the main reasons the Norn vernacular lived as long as it did, must have been the distance from the mainland of Scotland. Norn was last heard as a mother tongue in the 19th century even though it generally ceased to be spoken in people’s daily life in the 18th century. Some of the elements of Norn, mainly lexis, have been preserved in the Shetland dialect today. Phonetic feature have also been preserved, for example is the consonant’s duration in the Shetland dialect closer to the Norwegian language compared to Scottish Standard English. Recent researches indicate that there is dialectal loss among young adults in Lerwick, where fifty percent of them use only part of the Shetland dialect while the rest speaks Scottish Standard English. 3 Contents 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 5 2. The origin of Norn ................................................................................................................. 6 3. The heyday of Norn ............................................................................................................... 7 4. King James III and the Reformation ..................................................................................
  • AJ Aitken a History of Scots

    AJ Aitken a History of Scots

    A. J. Aitken A history of Scots (1985)1 Edited by Caroline Macafee Editor’s Introduction In his ‘Sources of the vocabulary of Older Scots’ (1954: n. 7; 2015), AJA had remarked on the distribution of Scandinavian loanwords in Scots, and deduced from this that the language had been influenced by population movements from the North of England. In his ‘History of Scots’ for the introduction to The Concise Scots Dictionary, he follows the historian Geoffrey Barrow (1980) in seeing Scots as descended primarily from the Anglo-Danish of the North of England, with only a marginal role for the Old English introduced earlier into the South-East of Scotland. AJA concludes with some suggestions for further reading: this section has been omitted, as it is now, naturally, out of date. For a much fuller and more detailed history up to 1700, incorporating much of AJA’s own work on the Older Scots period, the reader is referred to Macafee and †Aitken (2002). Two textual anthologies also offer historical treatments of the language: Görlach (2002) and, for Older Scots, Smith (2012). Corbett et al. eds. (2003) gives an accessible overview of the language, and a more detailed linguistic treatment can be found in Jones ed. (1997). How to cite this paper (adapt to the desired style): Aitken, A. J. (1985, 2015) ‘A history of Scots’, in †A. J. Aitken, ed. Caroline Macafee, ‘Collected Writings on the Scots Language’ (2015), [online] Scots Language Centre http://medio.scotslanguage.com/library/document/aitken/A_history_of_Scots_(1985) (accessed DATE). Originally published in the Introduction, The Concise Scots Dictionary, ed.-in-chief Mairi Robinson (Aberdeen University Press, 1985, now published Edinburgh University Press), ix-xvi.
  • Place-Names of Inverness and Surrounding Area Ainmean-Àite Ann an Sgìre Prìomh Bhaile Na Gàidhealtachd

    Place-Names of Inverness and Surrounding Area Ainmean-Àite Ann an Sgìre Prìomh Bhaile Na Gàidhealtachd

    Place-Names of Inverness and Surrounding Area Ainmean-àite ann an sgìre prìomh bhaile na Gàidhealtachd Roddy Maclean Place-Names of Inverness and Surrounding Area Ainmean-àite ann an sgìre prìomh bhaile na Gàidhealtachd Roddy Maclean Author: Roddy Maclean Photography: all images ©Roddy Maclean except cover photo ©Lorne Gill/NatureScot; p3 & p4 ©Somhairle MacDonald; p21 ©Calum Maclean. Maps: all maps reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland https://maps.nls.uk/ except back cover and inside back cover © Ashworth Maps and Interpretation Ltd 2021. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2021. Design and Layout: Big Apple Graphics Ltd. Print: J Thomson Colour Printers Ltd. © Roddy Maclean 2021. All rights reserved Gu Aonghas Seumas Moireasdan, le gràdh is gean The place-names highlighted in this book can be viewed on an interactive online map - https://tinyurl.com/ybp6fjco Many thanks to Audrey and Tom Daines for creating it. This book is free but we encourage you to give a donation to the conservation charity Trees for Life towards the development of Gaelic interpretation at their new Dundreggan Rewilding Centre. Please visit the JustGiving page: www.justgiving.com/trees-for-life ISBN 978-1-78391-957-4 Published by NatureScot www.nature.scot Tel: 01738 444177 Cover photograph: The mouth of the River Ness – which [email protected] gives the city its name – as seen from the air. Beyond are www.nature.scot Muirtown Basin, Craig Phadrig and the lands of the Aird. Central Inverness from the air, looking towards the Beauly Firth. Above the Ness Islands, looking south down the Great Glen.
  • Distinctive Semantic Fields in the Orkney and Shetland Dialects, and Their Use in the Local Literature‘

    Distinctive Semantic Fields in the Orkney and Shetland Dialects, and Their Use in the Local Literature‘

    Distinctive semantic fields in the Orkney and Shet- land dialects, and their use in the local literature J. Derrick McClure The various dialects of Orkney differ from each other; so too, perhaps to an even greater extent, do those of Shetland; and the sets of dialects found in the two island groups show common features which mark them off from each other; yet despite this internal diversity it can be stated as a fact that Insular Scots, as the two sets are styled collectively in the introduction to the Scottish National Dictionary, is the most distinctive of all forms of Scots: in phonology, grammar and above all vocabulary (for discussion see Millar 2007, especially Chapter 4). Some evidence of the extraordinary size of the Orkney-Shetland word list is provided by the well-known fact that when the Concise Scots Dictionary was being prepared, the biggest single section of the material from the Scottish National Dictionary omitted from the smaller work was a huge part of the Orkney-Shetland vocabulary. According to the Introduction of the CSD, ‗material from these areas [Shetland, Orkney and Caithness] which belongs not to Scots but to Norn‘ has been omitted. This is unmistakeable question-begging, for notwithstanding their Norn derivation the words thus defined must have been sufficiently naturalised into the Scots dialects of the islands to appear in Scots texts – otherwise they would not have been included in the SND. In this essay I will not examine, except incidentally, the derivation of the distinctive words in the Insular Scots vocabulary
  • Banff Academy – Local Language Skills. Staff Edition. Your Words, What They Mean and Where They’Re From

    Banff Academy – Local Language Skills. Staff Edition. Your Words, What They Mean and Where They’Re From

    Banff Academy – local language skills. Staff edition. Your words, what they mean and where they’re from. Yer ain wirds, fit they mean an far they’re fae. Compiled by Dr Fairbairn and the Scots Language Classes. With thanks to everyone who took part. Sources: Concise Scots Dictionary (2017); Buchan and Toulmin (1989) Buchan Claik; Douglas Kynoch (1996): A Doric dictionary. History: Many of the Scots words you have in your heads are up to 600 years old. Foo muckle do you ken? These Scots words were part of the language of the courts, famous and learned 1. If you fancied some custard with your rhubarb crumble, would you have a pickie, literature, and the law. They were spoken by Kings and Queens as well as loons and a pucklie or a suppie? quines. Somehow, against all odds, they have survived, from their early beginnings 2. If you were hammering together some lengths of wood to create a new kennel in the Norse peppered Saxon of Northumberland, through Inglis and then Scottis as for the dog, would you need a suppie nails, a pickie nails or a pucklie nails? they moved north and changed over time. They are the magic dust from Medieval 3. If you wanted to perk up a dreary plate of stovies, would you add a pickie times, which still sparkle in the corridors and classrooms of Banff Academy and the paprika, a pucklie paprika or a suppie paprika? wider community. Read on to find out! Photos: Claire Needler Literacy Self-esteem Inclusion Cultural knowledge Staff WORD Means to Why I like it Dictionary definition / comments me Mrs Child or baby It’s used in a play I love called A child, baby, infant.
  • The Ulster-Scots Language in Education in Northern Ireland

    The Ulster-Scots Language in Education in Northern Ireland

    The Ulster-Scots language in education in Northern Ireland European Research Centre on Multilingualism and Language Learning hosted by ULSTER-SCOTS The Ulster-Scots language in education in Northern Ireland c/o Fryske Akademy Doelestrjitte 8 P.O. Box 54 NL-8900 AB Ljouwert/Leeuwarden The Netherlands T 0031 (0) 58 - 234 3027 W www.mercator-research.eu E [email protected] | Regional dossiers series | tca r cum n n i- ual e : Available in this series: This document was published by the Mercator European Research Centre on Multilingualism Ladin; the Ladin language in education in Italy (2nd ed.) and Language Learning with financial support from the Fryske Akademy and the Province Latgalian; the Latgalian language in education in Latvia of Fryslân. Lithuanian; the Lithuanian language in education in Poland Maltese; the Maltese language in education in Malta Manx Gaelic; the Manx Gaelic language in education in the Isle of Man Meänkieli and Sweden Finnish; the Finnic languages in education in Sweden © Mercator European Research Centre on Multilingualism Mongolian; The Mongolian language in education in the People’s Republic of China and Language Learning, 2020 Nenets, Khanty and Selkup; The Nenets, Khanty and Selkup language in education in the Yamal Region in Russia ISSN: 1570 – 1239 North-Frisian; the North Frisian language in education in Germany (3rd ed.) Occitan; the Occitan language in education in France (2nd ed.) The contents of this dossier may be reproduced in print, except for commercial purposes, Polish; the Polish language in education in Lithuania provided that the extract is proceeded by a complete reference to the Mercator European Romani and Beash; the Romani and Beash languages in education in Hungary Research Centre on Multilingualism and Language Learning.
  • Origins of Fair Isle Knitting

    Origins of Fair Isle Knitting

    University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings Textile Society of America Spring 2004 Traveling Stitches: Origins of Fair Isle Knitting Deborah Pulliam [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/tsaconf Part of the Art and Design Commons Pulliam, Deborah, "Traveling Stitches: Origins of Fair Isle Knitting" (2004). Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings. 467. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/tsaconf/467 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Textile Society of America at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Traveling Stitches: Origins of Fair Isle Knitting Deborah Pulliam Box 667, Castine ME 04421 207 326 9582 [email protected] The tradition of Fair Isle knitting seems to have been emerged too well developed to have actually started in the islands north of Scotland. This paper suggests a source in the Baltic region of Eastern Europe. Like much of the “history” of knitting, much published information on the history of Fair Isle-type knitting is folklore. The long-standing story is that a ship, El Gran Grifon, from the Spanish Armada, was wrecked on Fair Isle in 1588. The 17 households on the island took the sailors in. That much is true, and documented. The knitting story is that, in return, the Spaniards taught the islanders the brightly colored patterned knitting now known as Fair Isle. Not surprisingly, there appears to have been no multi-colored knitting tradition in Spain in the sixteenth century.
  • The History of Language in Shetland

    The History of Language in Shetland

    Language in Shetland We don’t know much about Pre-300AD the people of Shetland or Before the Picts The history of their language. Pictish people carve symbols 300AD-800AD language in into stone and speak a ‘Celtic’ Picts language. Shetland Vikings occupy the isles and introduce ‘Norn’. They carve S1-3 800AD-1500AD symbols called ‘runes’ into Vikings stone. The Picts and their language are then wiped out by Vikings. Scotland rule gradually influences life on the islands. The Scottish language 1500AD onwards eventually becomes the Scots prominent language. The dialect Shetlanders Today speak with today contains Us! Scottish and Norn words. 2 THE PICTS Ogham alphabet Some carvings are part of an The Picts spoke a Celtic The Picts lived in mainland alphabet called ‘ogham’. Ogham language, originating from Scotland from around the 6th represents the spoken language of Ireland. Picts may have to the 9th Century, possibly the Picts, by using a ‘stem’ with travelled from Ireland, earlier. Indications of a shorter lines across it or on either Scotland or further afield burial at Sumburgh suggest side of it. to settle on Shetland. that Picts had probably settled in Shetland by There are seven ogham ogham.celt.dias.ie 300AD. inscriptions from Shetland Picts in Shetland spoke one of (including St Ninian’s Isle, The side, number and angle of the the ‘strands’ of the Celtic Cunningsburgh and Bressay) short lines to the stem indicates the language. Picts also carved symbols onto and one from a peat bog in intended sound. Lunnasting. stone. These symbols have been found throughout These symbol stones may Scotland—common symbols have been grave markers, or This inscribed sandstone was dug they may have indicated up from the area of the ancient must have been understood by gathering points.