Nynorn: Is the Viking Language of Orkney and Shetland Coming Back to Life?

Thanks to NordPass for sponsoring this video.

Old Norse was the language spoken by Scandinavian Vikings on their raiding, trading and colonising missions to Britain and the islands around it. The North Germanic languages, those that developed from Old Norse, are those today found in Scandinavia, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, and Elfdalian, as well as the Insular North Germanic languages found on the
Atlantic islands in the form of Icelandic and Faroese. Until around 1850 however, there was another Norse language spoken on the Scottish islands of Orkney and Shetland: the Norn language. Unfortunately the islanders switched to speaking Scots from the 18th century onwards, however there is now an effort underway to restore the earlier Norn language of the islands with a language revival attempt like that of Manx and Cornish, with the end goal the creation and proliferation of ‘Nynorn’ – new Norn. Find out more in this video!

Nynorn Project Page:

Nynorn Memrise Course:

Dedicated Norn Video:

Music Used:
Master of the Feast – Kevin MacLeod
Sunday Dub – Kevin MacLeod
Errigal – Kevin MacLeod
Skye Cuillin – Kevin MacLeod
Celtic Impulse – Kevin MacLeod
Rites – Kevin MacLeod

#Scotland #Nynorn #Norse

[TheHarashi]

As a Faroese person, my dad always referred to the orcadians and shetlanders as our cousins

[MrTeniguafez]

I doubt Norn will be revived as an actual everyday spoken language, but we might see a revival of interest in Norn poetry, songs, stories, folklore etc which is a worthy goal regardless.

[ivylearog]

I'm Orcadian and even in the 1980s if you heard the old folk on the most northerly islands of Orkney speak, (especially North Ronaldsay!) it was pretty much incomprehensible, I'm sure there was still massive elements of Norn present... or maybe I was speaking to them outside the only pub on the island.. who knows.

[ThatIcelandicDude]

Icelanders and Faroe Islanders: "You could not live with your own failure. Where did that bring you? Back to us"

[Depipro]

A friend of mine, a Dutchman who studied Japanese, ended up on Okinawa leading an effort to preserve the Okinawan language. Not exactly the same, as it is still spoken, but only by people of the older generations amongst themselves. These people switch to speaking Japanese when addressing someone younger, without even realizing they're doing it. My friend's efforts entail such work as the recording of as much of the language as possible, compiling dictionaries and grammar books, and teaching the languages to said younger people. Last time I spoke with him about it, he still wasn't sure if his efforts would catch on to the extent that the language can be kept from going extinct.

[alfredthegreatkingofwessex]

Viking age ended with an arrow to the throat.
Saxon age ended with an arrow to the eye
History is made by archers.

[celtofcanaanesurix]

Now all we need to do is revive Gaulish and I’ll be complete at heart

[Kamihana]

As a Norwegian, the Nynorn was easier for me to understand than Faroese. Some of the words seem to be distinctly western Norwegian and found in Nynorsk. More so than Faroese and Icelandic.

[dschledermann]

Extremely impressive pronunciation of "Etymologisk ordbog over det norrøne sprog på Shetland".

[Daniel-cdbw]

The last speaker of Norn actually lived in the isle of Foula in the 1940s. My partner's Granddad knew her.

[creakychair]

Its been like 3 years and i am still waiting for that Sweden during the viking age video. Great video due.

[aaronblygh]

I'm not from Orkney, but I have family up there, and I visited last summer. I'd really love to see Nynorn being spoken up there, it would make the history of Orkney seem so much closer than it really is

I wanted to learn some Norn, but I didn't ever think there would be a rival project.

[johantrewe]

Interesting, many years ago, when I lived on my home island on the Swedish westcoast. I heard a story from an old fisherman. How he and his fellow crewmen just spoke "Tjörbu" when ashore on Shetland during långa, (lingcod i think), fishing. And they could easily speak with the Shetlandians, even til some extent on Orkney and Scotland. Tjörbu is a local dialect which to some extent has similarity with Norwegian.

[sandyleask]

I'm from Shetland and having Norn revived to Nynorn would be an excellent idea. Seems to be more interest in ancient history these days so it probably has as good chance as any now.

[frostermos]

I remember learning parts of Old Norse when I was in school, and because of that awesome Danish teacher, I gained an interest in Old Norse and kind of wish we learned it more in school.

[PaulEcosse]

There is so much old norse in Scots you'd be here all day.

[BjorkBrex]

My father always tells me the story when the Shetland fishers came to Suðuroy (South Island in the Faroe Islands) to get water for their trip, the Shetlanders spoke Norn, and the Faroese spoke Faroese, and they understood each others languages.. It's so fascinating.

And it's the same with the Lord's prayer: (Norn) Fy vor or er i Chimeri (Faroese) Faðir vár tú sum ert í himni (Norn) halagt vara nam dit (Faroese) heilagt verið navni títt (Norn) Lá Konungdum din cumma (Faroese) komið ríkið títt.. (Norn) Gav vus dagh u dagloght brau. Forgive sindorwara, sin vi forgiva gem ao sinda gainst wus (Faroese) Gev okkum í dag okkara dagliga breyð. Fyrigev okkum sindur vára, so vit fyrigeva teim móti okkum synda...

[rampantmutt]

I had no idea that Manx's revival was that successful. Really cool stuff.

[ole]

As a Dane the Shetlandic text sample was not hard to read and understand, the Ocadian sample looked quite diffrent.

With your interest in history and languages, you should try and look into “Anglo-Danish”, spoken in the region of Angel (North Germany) up until somewhere in the mid 1800. Anglo Danish had kept many features from old east Norse.

[johannesl]

Yes! The more living nordic languages, the better! Greetings from Sweden!