Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Norn was a member of the North Germanic or * Scandinavian subgroup of the * Germanic languages . It was spoken in Orkney, Shetland and in various parts of mainland Scotland. While there is little doubt about the origin of the term ‘Norn’ (it is a reflex of ON norrœnn ‘Norwegian, West Norse’, norrœna ‘Norwegian, West Norse language’), its use since the first recorded occurrence in c. 1485 has varied, and it therefore requires definition. Scandinavian speech was brought to the Northern Isles, the Hebrides and parts of the mainland of Scotland by 9th-c. Viking settlers, who came principally from Norway. ‘Norn’ seems at one time to have been applied indiscriminately to the various speech communities the settlers established, but as their form or forms of language gradually died out in the Hebrides and on the mainland (possibly between the 13th and the 15th centuries) the term came to be restricted almost entirely to the Scandinavian of Orkney and Shetland (although ‘Caithness Norn’ has made an appearance in the work of one or two modern scholars). Since so little is known of Hebridean and mainland-Scottish Scandinavian speech, this article will only deal with Norn in its Northern Isles context. Norn will mean the spoken Scandinavian of Orkney and Shetland and its written manifestations. All other senses will be excluded, including the confusing usage whereby forms of Orkney or ... log in or subscribe to read full text