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. Whatever church in Mail Churchyard in many Picts all over ‘Pictland’. their use, they were Cunningsburgh. communicative. Photo: c1903, from Shetland Museum Some stones appear to be memorials; the symbols chosen for a memorial stone may The Bressay Stone (right) shows represent the individual or family. elaborate decoration on both large sides, Some symbols were abstract; some and an ogham inscription on each end. The depicted animals or human figures. inscription reads: CRROSCC : NAHHTVVDDADDS : DATTR : Others represented aspects of paganism ANNBENNISES : MEQQDDROANN or Christianity. Abstract symbols Which translates as: sometimes accompanied each other, or "The Cross of Nordred's daughter is here accompanied figures, such as animals or placed." beasts. symboldictionary.net “Benises son of Droan.” The Papil Stone (left) is an example of a Pictish symbol shetlopedia.com stone from 7-8th Century. It was found in 1877, and 4 3 depicts a cross, monks, a lion and two unusual ’bird-men’. $¥MBøŁ$ In ANNIHILATION $h£‡ŁANð Carvings on small stone discs It is thought that The aural language was exterminated are unique to Shetland. the Picts and their without much trace, and any written In Shetland, many common language were forms, on wood or other perishable There are many ‘common’ Pictish symbols have been found, quickly eradicated symbols, found throughout Scotland; and some symbols appear when the Vikings materials may have been lost over more often than others. these include eagles, boars and invaded Shetland. the years. abstract Z-rod and V-rod symbols. Only a few written artefacts have been found; they are mostly formal memorials , such as the inscription on the Bressay stone, and they do not help us establish what symboldictionary.net Particularly popular in Shetland the ‘everyday’ language was like. is the rectangle style symbol. Some Pictish symbols are carved Both the Pictish and the Viking next to Christian crosses and some languages that were prominent include cruciform designs but as Later symbol stones clearly indicate in Shetland are likely to have Because of this, we know very little cruciform designs were popular in Christian depictions, particularly been communicated aurally, and about the Pictish language. We also Shetland, we cannot ascribe missionaries or monks, and the Papil seldom written down. Christianity as being the definite Monk’s Stone (below) may indicate the know only a little about the spoken purpose of these carvings. ‘arrival’ of Christianity. This stone is language the Vikings brought with The majority of the population from the 8th or 9th Century. them to Shetland. were illiterate at this time. Many early Christian carvings were used as shrines, and were usually The Picts and their Pictish period culture were placed within the church (given burial cairn at strongly rooted in their size in the church, they may Sandwick, Unst. Shetland for around have acted as the altar themselves). A skeleton was 500 years before found below the the Vikings invaded rectangular cairn the isles from Charles Thomas (1973) suggests that the spirals seen on of quartz around 800AD this slab may represent the sea, and, with the monks, pebbles. onwards. 6 5 may indicate the early missionaries travel to Shetland. Til Hjaltland! Norn and our place-names Viking invasion! Hjaltland: Old Norse word for Vikings travelled Shetland to Shetland over a thousand years To identify areas and The Vikings travelled by sea from areas establish ownership, ago, sometime of Scandinavia—mostly Norway. Once Vikings named many after 800AD. they invaded Shetland, they settled This was called down. They took control of land and specific areas of land, the ‘Viking Age’. made a living as fishermen and crofters. including small parts of The amount of place field and hill—the names names with a Norn element indicate that assigned by Vikings were Vikings spoke an Old Norse Norn speakers often very descriptive. language originating from colonised Shetland quite heavily. Shetland their homeland in Scandinavia. This language got broken up into distinct dialects once Place-names in Shetland have retained the influence of the Norn language. Vikings settled in different areas. The ‘strand’ of Old Walls, or ‘Waas’, comes Norway Norse that became prominent from a Norn adjective in Shetland and Orkney was Places that include ‘ting’, from the Norse þing for the way the sea indicate possible assembly points. Tingwall was Sweden Britain given the name ‘Norn’. comes into the bay— the site of the old parliament, where political ’Va’, or Vaas’ (plural). decisions were made, laws upheld and disputes settled. From Orkney thingsites.com Norn was, in a sense, a & Shetland, 1920, (p.134) Norn was closely related to the dialect in South-West dialect of Old Norse, The descriptiveness of place Norway—the Norn language most likely travelled from just as Shetland now is names indicate that Norn was this area, and Shetland’s geographical connections with a dialect of Scots. perhaps quite a descriptive this area were greater than with other parts of Norway. language. The Shetland dialect today contains many adjectives relating to specific types of The word Norn derives from the Norn was spoken weather, nature and actions. in Shetland for Old Norse adjective Norrœnn, steekit mist—very dense fog meaning ‘Norse’ or ‘Norwegian’ and centuries until the Norn was mostly an aural language. Voar—spring the corresponding noun Norrœnna, islands came We don’t have many written records Knap—Shetlander’s attempt under Scottish of Norn— it was perhaps rarely meaning ‘Norwegian/Norse language’. to ‘speak proper English’ rule. written down, or perhaps written 7 records have perished over time. 8 Runic stone at Evidence of Viking language Eshaness kirkyard THE RUNIC The remnants of language we tarahill.com Orkney has 52 surviving runic have found in Orkney and inscriptions — Shetland has only 7. Shetland include: They are difficult to understand, but ALPHABET Common Futhark Runes ‡ Runic inscriptions we do know that they bear some ‡ Documents written in Latin relation to the West Scandinavian ‡ Fragments of spoken Norn language. Runic script: a set of related alphabets written down before the Runes using letters known language died as runes to write ‡ Words preserved in various Germanic Scaldic verse languages. ‡ Place-names Latin documents found on the isles were ‡ Remnants recorded after likely written by Norwegians, perhaps even Germanic languages Norn had already died written in Norway—they provide no Latin were used before Like Pictish symbols, runes in clear insight to the language in Shetland. the Roman alphabet Shetland were often carved into (Latin) came into use stone as memorial inscriptions. (at around 1100AD in Fragments of Norn were written down at Northern Europe). a time of linguistic change, by George Low, a man with no prior knowledge of Latin was probably already Scaldic Verse: A distinct Norn or Scandinavian —they give us The latest known example present in Shetland by this genre of Old Norse poetry we’ve found in Shetland is time (though the majority restricted insight to a changing language in only one isolated area of Shetland. Examples were found in Orkney, a graveslab from around were illiterate), but it’s but may have originated from possible that runes were 1300AD, from Eshaness. Scandinavia. used for some time after the introduction of Latin. Jakob Jakobsen gathered Altogether we’ve found only Norn words in the 1890’s— seven surviving runic inscriptions Norn was not spoken by in Shetland—around fifty have this time, but Jakobsen bbc.co.uk been found in Orkney. managed to retrieve around 10,000 Norn words Place-names indicate a real The most complete inscription known or remembered by presence of Norn, but give us found on a stone in Shetland reads: A drawing of the Shetlanders at the time. little information about the “In memory of his/her father, stone’s inscription, structure of the language. 9 Thorbjorn” - a personal memorial. (Goudie, 1904, p.64) 10 Scottish rule James III and his wife, Scottish Influence Margaret of Denmark Shetland was pawned to Scotland for 8,000 Life in Shetland immediately after the annexation of At the end of the 14th Century Rhenish guilders the isles to Scotland changed very little —Scottish Norway entered into union with (currency in the laws were introduced in 1611, and from then the Denmark.

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