Velkomen!
Welcome to the home of Norn, the mysterious 6th Scandinavian language that was spoken in Shetland, Orkney and part of Scotland until the 18-19th centuries, when it was replaced with Scots English. Like its close cousins, Faroese and Icelandic, Norn descended from Old Norse, the language of Scandinavian settlers who colonised various sparse populated or uninhabited territories in North Atlantic. The colonisers, or vikings, which is what they are usually called nowadays, came mostly from West Norway and it seems logical that they first called at Shetland and Orkney, the closest lands to Norway. The first Scandinavian settlements appeared on these archipelagoes around 800 A.D., which can be considered to be the startpoint of Norn.
Little is known about the
development of Norn
before its fragments started being recorded in the 17-18th century and nobody knows for sure when Norn
developed into a
language different from Old Norse. The latter is the language of the oldest
Scandinavian records
found in Shetland and Orkney - runic inscriptions
from the 10-12th centuries. Primarily ruled by native Norse earls, Orkney and Shetland accepted the authority of the King of Norway in 1231 and the written language used at those times in official correspondance was still Old Norse, which showed very few local features, if any. This is not surprising, bearing in mind that local scribes used to go to Norway seeking training in the language. In 1380 Shetland and Orkney followed Norway into an alliance with Denmark when the Norwegian and Danish crowns united (Kalmar Union) and Danish started replacing Old Norse as the language of clerical records. Danish was used well into the 16th century and even longer - the last document written in Danish dates back to 1607 (Shetland). However, whatever written language was used, it is obvious that the spoken language of the original Norse population of the islands - namely Norn - never made it onto paper. Surviving old documents in Old Norse or Danish are not illustrative about Norn, and, as the scarce existing records show, it was quite different from both.
In the 14th century, the
islands started
experiencing a growing influence from Scotland and a few centuries later Scots English (or Scots, regarded by some as a separate language) started to compete with the local
Scandinavian tongue.
influence to a greater extent, while Shetland, thanks to its relative remoteness, was more conservative and about one hundred years behind in accepting the changes that had already occured in its southern neighbour. The first step of "Scottisation" of the islands was eventually made clear in the 13th century when the line of Norse earls in Orkney ceased and was replaced first by Scottish earls of Angus and then Strathearn lines, apparently Gaelic speaking. Later on they were succeeded by the Sinclair earls, who spoke Scots (but still acted on behalf of the Norwegian king). The Sinclairs had a less formal influence in Shetland as well and in the 16th century, Scottish earls finally came to power in Shetland. The oldest preserved documents in Scots are from 1433 (Orkney) and 1525 (Shetland). The Danish king pawned Orkney (1468) and Shetland (1469) to Scotland, to which they have belonged since, being presently a part of United Kingdom. Scots thus became the official language of the islands, despite the dominance of Norn as the spoken language. This dominance was though quickly threatened by a flood of immigrants from Scotland who had started moving to Orkney around 1400 and later reached Shetland, although to a lesser extent. Scots was slowly but surely displacing the Scandinavian language in the official domain and business, leaving to Norn the lower social niche - the language of poor fishermen and crofters. The fate of Norn was finally decided in 1560, when the Reformation reached Scotland and the islands saw new Scots schools and Scots speaking clergymen. After that, the demise of Norn was just a matter of time:
Scholars call the old Norse language of Shetland 'Norn'. In Foula it was known as 'Da Dansk'. Tradition has it that the language died out in two generations. Grandparents refused to teach 'Dat auld dirt' to their grandchildren. A major trigger for this attitude was probably the teaching of the English Bible in a school established in the island in 1740 by the Scottish Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge.' (Quote taken from the Foula Heritage website).
But Norn did not give in easily as it is usually believed. Despite the fact that the islands' old Norse legislation was replaced with that of Scotland around 1600, Orcadians
and Shetlanders
maintained strong
economic and family ties with Norway up till the
17-18th centuries. Hugh
Marwick mentions that in 1613-1650 no less than 78 Orcadians moved to Bergen, Norway, hinting that the number of immigrants from Shetland was even higher. One of the first burgomasters of Bergen was the Orkney-born 'Little John'. Jakob Jakobsen recalls the name "Hjeltefjorden" ('the Shetland fjord') given to the northern entrance of the harbour of Bergen which was a casual mooring place for boats regularly coming from Shetland. However, the ties with Norway were
constantly slackening until, ultimately, this link to one of the most relevant areas for usage of Norn became a matter of the past.
According to historical sources, most of Norn speakers of the 17-18th centuries, if not all, were bilingual. Orkney Norn, being in common usage in the 16th century, most likely declined in the 1600's and after 1700 only a very few people retained an ability to speak it. By 1773 Orkney Norn was believed to be practically extinct, although some of the local inhabitants were said to preserve a very limited memory of Norn (apparently just some odd words and phrases) around 1800. See the following testimonies by contemporaries:
1569, Dalrympe translation of Leslye's "History": 'of the Iles of Orchnay,
sum ar Inglese, sum of the language of Norway'.
1582, George Buchanan, "History of Scotland": 'the old Gothic tongue
(vetus gothica longua) was still used in Orkney'
1605, Sir Thomas Craig : 'in Orkney and Shetland, where in the previous
century only Norse was spoken, English was the language used in churches and was well enough understood'.
1670, Mathew Mackaill (MacKaile), "A Short Relation of the Most Considerable Things in Orkney": 'It is very probably that the inhabitants
of the Orcades of old did only speak Noords or rude Danish; but there are only three or four parishes (especially upon the Mainland or Pomona) wherein that language is spoken, and that chiefly when they are at their own houses, but all speak the Scots language, as the rest of the commons do'.
1700, Wallace: 'all speak English, after Scots way... some of the
common People amongst themselves speak a language they call Norns; which they have derived to them, either from the Pights, or some others, who first planted this Country; for by the following Lord's Prayer in that Language, it has but little of the Danish or Norwegian language, to which I thought it should have had more affinity, considering how long time they were possessors of this Country'.
1701, Revd John Brand, "Description of Orkney, Zetland, etc.": 'They
generally speak English, neither do I think they have so much of the Northern Accent, as in many places of the North of Scotland, yet several of the Isles have some Words and Phrases peculiar to themselves. There are also some who speak Norse especially in the Mainland, as in the parish of Hara there are a few yet living, who can speak no other thing, this Language not being quite extinct among them, since the Norwegians whose Language it is, had this Country in possession. And tho Caithness be near to Orkney, yet none in Orkney can speak Irish, tho the greatest part in Caithness can; Nor any in Caithness speak Norse tho some in Orkney yet can do it'.
1703, Martin, "Brief Description of the Isles of Orkney and Shetland":
They generally speak the English tongue, and many among them retain the ancient Danish language, especially in the more Northern isles..
1750, Murdoch Mackenzie: 'The Language is English in the Scotch
Dialect, with more of the Norwegian than any other Accent; these Islands having formerly been a Province of Norway, of which they still retain some of the Customs, and a little of the Language, which they call Noren, much the same with what is presently spoken in Iceland and the Faro Islands. Thirty or Forty years ago this (Norn) was the language of two parishes in Pomona Island; since which, by the Means of Charity-Schools, it is so much wore out, as to be understood by none by old People; and in thirty years more, it is probably, will not be understood there at all'.
1750, James Mackenzie, speaking of both Orkney and Shetland: 'The
customs of the inhabitants, like the rest, were all Norwegian; their language the Norse, or that dialect of Gothic which is spoken in Norway, and disused only within this present age, by means of those English schools erected by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. Nor to this very time it is quite disused, being still retained by old people, and in vulgar use amongst them at this day.'
1757, witnesses at the Court of Session: 'Thomas Balfour, merchant in
Kirkwall, aged 33, depones that about 20 years ago, when the Deponent came first to the school of Kirkwall, he heard severals of the Country people from the Mainland speak Norn, or Norse, among themselves; but that English ewas the common Language. ... John Erskine, tacksman of Nether Scapa, aged 38, depones that he does not remember whether or not he heard the Norse language, or the language in Norway, commonly called Norn in Orkney, frequently spoke when the Deponent was a boy at school, but remembers the Language to have been spoke by some Country People, spontaneously, in the Deponent's company, and they had a pretty long Conversation in the Language; and that this happened within these two years. ... James Smith, writer in Stennes, aged 42, depones that he remembers the Norn or Norse Language to have been vulgarly spoke by a good many People in the Mainland of Orkney; and that he knows some People, particularly three or four in the parishes of Harray and Firth, who speak that Language pretty fluently, as far as he can judge, at this day. ... William Sinclair, tacksman of Rapness in Westray, aged 53, depones ... that when the Deponent was a Boy at the School of Kirkwall, he frequently heard the Country People speaking the Norn, at least, a Language resembling the Norse, or Language in Norway.'
1773, Revd George Low: 'The Language of these Islands was a dialect
of the Norwegian, the same as is used in Iceland to this day. It was called here Norn (contracted I suppose for Norwegian) but is now so much worn out, that I believe there is scarce a single man in the country who can express himself on the most ordinary occasion in the language. Even the Songs... are now (except a few of the most trifling) altogether lost, tho this little more than half a century ago was the prevailing tongue of two parishes in the Mainland. They now altogether speak english, but with a great deal of the Norwegian accent, and even with some words of that language intermixed... and to this day there are many sounds in the English language which the Orkney people cannot master, but pronounce according to their old Norn dialect'.
1805, Revd George Barry, "History of Orkney": 'So late as 1756 or 1757,
as a respectable native of this country was travelling from Kirkwall to Birsa, he heard two old men for an hour or more converse together in an unknown language; which, on enquiry, he found was the Norse language. ... For many years past it has been almost entirely forgotten, except in one parish in the heart of the Mainland (of Orkney), where the people are said, till of late, to have retained some acquaintance with it. ... Here it now exists only in a few vulgar and obsolete words, and in the names of men and places.'
1814, Sir Walter Scott, visited Orkney in 1814 (from a note to "The Pirate"): 'Mr. Baikie of Tankerness, a most respectable inhabitant of
Kirkwall, and an Orkney proprietor, assured me of the following curious fact:- A clergyman, who was not long deceased, remembered well when some remnants of the Norse were still spoken in the island called North Ronaldsha. When Gray's Ode, enditled the "Fatal Sisters", was first published, or at least first reached that remote island, the reverend gentleman had the well-judged curiosity to read it to some of the old persons of the isle, as a poem which regarded the history of their own country. They listened with a great attention to the preliminary stanzas... But when they heard a verse or two more, they interrupted the reader, telling they knew the song well in the Norse language, and had often sung it to him when he asked them for an old song. They called it the Magicians, or the Enchantresses. It would have been singular news to the elegant translator, when executing his version from the text of Bartholine, to have learned that the Norse original was still preserved by tradition in a remote corner of the British dominions.' (The
Norse song mentioned by Scott is known as Darraðaljóð and featured in the Saga of Njáll.)
Although Norn survived for a little longer on the Shetland Isles, it precisely mirrored the fate of Orkney Norn. Shetland Norn is said to still have been in common use around 1700, yet being widely replaced with Scots. Shetland Norn did most likely not survive into the 19th century except on the remotest islands, Foula in the west and Unst, Yell and Fetlar in the north, albeit spoken by limited number of people and already much worn out. In the 1890's the eldest inhabitants of the islands still could remember some phrases in Norn:
1605, Sir Thomas Craig: 'In Orkney and Shetland, where in the previous
century only Norse spoken, English was the language used in churches and was well enough understood.'
1701, "Revd John Brand, Description of Orkney, Zetland, etc.": 'English is
the common language among the inhabitants of Zetland, yet many of the People speak Norse, or corrupt Danish, especially such as live in the more Northern Isles; yea, so common is it in some places, that it is the first language that the children speak. The Norse hath continued ever since the Norwegians had these islands in possession, and in Orkney it is not quite extinct, though there be by far more of it in Zetland, which many do commonly use.'
1703, Martin, "Brief Description of the Isles of Orkney and Shetland":
retain the ancient Danish language, especially in the more Northern isles..'
1711, Sir Robert Sibbald: (remark about the parishioners of
Cunningsburgh, on south Mainland of Shetland) 'All the inhabitants of the parish can speak the Gothick or Norwegian language, which they call Norn, now much worn out, and seldom speak other among themselves. Yet all of them speak the Scots tongue more promptly and more readily than generally they do in Scotland'.
1750, James Mackenzie, speaking of both Orkney and Shetland: 'their
language the Norse, or that dialect of Gothic which is spoken in Norway, and disused only within this present age, by means of those English schools erected by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. Nor to this very time it is quite disused, being still retained by old people, and in vulgar use amongst them at this day.'
1774, Revd George Low, about Foula: 'The Norse Language is much
worn out here, yet there are some who know a few words of it; it was the language of the last age, but will be entirely lost by the next... The best phrases are all gone, and nothing remains but a few names of things and two or three remnants of songs which one old man can repeat and that but indistinctly'.
1809, Arthur Edmonston (an author from Shetland), "A view of the ancient and resent state of the Zetland Islands": '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.'
1837, Robert Dunn, "Ornithologist's Guide": 'The English language is
commonly spoken... they have introduced into it a great many words from the Norwegian, Danish and Dutch languages, and this medley uttered by a native is exceednigly unpleasant to the ear and very difficult to understand.'
1894, Jakob Jakobsen: 'Even in 1600 the knowledge of English 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 undersand any other language than Norse. <...> The Shetland Norn was still a living language in the middle of the 18th century <...> even rather late in the 18th century, Norn songs and ballads survived in the mouths of the common people. <...> In several parts of Shetland, especially Foula and the North Isles, the present generation of old people remember their grandparents speaking a language they could hardly understand, and which was called Norn or Norse. <...> As late as 1894, there were people in Foula who could repeat sentences in Norn, as I myself had the opportunity of hearing. 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 very much later than the middle of the present century are said to have been able to speak Norn'.
There are witnesses that the memory of Norn was still not extinct as late as the middle 20th century. Some of today's old Foula residents remember an old woman from their childhood days who used to teach children various Norn expressions and we can roughly date that to the first half of the 20th century. In 1958 George (Dodie) Isbister in Foula was heard to utter a verse from The Eagle's Song (according to The Foula Heritage website). This is certainly the very latest one has heard of Norn.
But even after the complete demise of Norn, its remnants still live in the linguistic memory of Shetlanders and Orcadians. Their native Scots dialect has inherited a good deal of Scandinavian words (including pronouns, prepositions and particles), several grammatical traits and even intonation, which is said to be very reminiscient of Norwegian. Hugh Marwick and Gregor Lamb comment on the Orcadian accent with the following words:
The Orkney cadence is quite different from that of any part of the mainland of Scotland, and there is not the slightest possibility of confusing it with that of our nearest neighbour - Caithness. But on the other hand, a Norwegian in Orkney, listening to Orcadians talking among themselves at such a distance that only their tones were audible, might well imagine he was at home in Norway. It is one of the most remarkable things about speech that people of the same stock, living out of touch with each other, may become mutually unintelligible so far as vocabulary is concerned, and yet retain 'the tune they speak to' practically unchanged through centuries. Such has been the case in regard to Orkney and its motherland Norway. (Cited from "The Viking Legacy" (1971) by John Geipel, p. 105)
In Norwegian, the sentence 'I hope we can eat at eight o clock' is Jeg håper vi kann spise klokken åtte and it would be sounded with a similar lilt, going up and down just as in the Orkney dialect. ("Whit Like the Day? Understanding Orkney dialect." (2005) by Gregor Lamb, p. 96)
Compare it to what today's Shetlanders say about their experience of communicating with Norwegians:
I was in a queue to a theme park in Denmark, where I found the accent difficult, when I heard very familiar voices coming up behind me, I turned to address what I thought were Shetlanders, when I realised from their appearance that they were in fact Norwegians! (By "Rasmie")
I was in a fishing shop in Bergen with two fellow Shetlanders and while we were discussing what would be the best gear to catch olicks, the young lady assistant came over and asked where we were from, saying we were not speaking Norwegian but we sounded just like Norwegians. (By "Heimdal")
Unfortunately, Norn did not attract the attention of scholars until it was practically out of use. This can be explained by remoteness of Orkney and Shetland from Europe's scientific centres, lack of
missionaries who
described languages
existing outside of the Christian world, but were hardly interested in visiting long baptised areas, and the immaturity of the linguistic science which was only making the first steps when Norn was already at its last gasp. The first written specimen of Norn came to the light of day in the early 18th century when the Lord's Prayer in Orkney Norn (recorded in the 1690's) was published by Wallace (1700). In the 1770's the Scottish clergyman, George Low, recorded in Foula the Shetlandic version of the Lord's Prayer, the "Ballad of Hildina" and a short list of words. The scientific study of Norn began in 1866 when T. Edmonston published "An Etymological Glossary of the Shetland and Orkney Dialect". In the late 19th century the Faroese linguist Jakob Jakobsen gathered in Shetland by far the most extensive collection of Norn material, including texts (short poems, lullabies, riddles and fragments of live conversation) and vocabulary (about 10 000 words of Scandinavian origin surviving in the local dialect of Scots), which were published in his classic "Etymologisk Ordbog over det norrøne Sprog på Shetland" (in Danish, 1908-1921, completed posthumously). Shortly later it was translated into English as "An Etymological Dictionary of the Norn Language in Shetland" (1928-1932). About the same time the Orcadian scholar Hugh Marwick published "Orkney Norn" (1929) which comprised a vocabulary of over 3000 words of Scandinavian origin picked up from Orkney Scots.
Most of the surviving specimens of Norn speech show signs of corruptedness and feature
various elements coming
from Scots. Several
scholars of Norn (Jakob Jakobsen, Hugh Marwick) have asserted that the demise of Norn was a gradual process, with Scots
words and grammar
gradually penetrating Norn and turning it into what we would call 'Norn-Scots
creole' which later
became a highly Scandinavised variant of Scots that is spoken in Shetland and Orkney nowadays (Insular Scots). Others, including Michael Barnes, refute this hypothesis, pointing at the lack of typological parallels for such a "creolisation" and put forward the idea of Norn having been given up in favour of Scots due to the low social prestige of the former. The latter point is regarded by many as more
convincing. Nevertheless, there is a good deal of texts quoted by Jakobsen where you cannot say for sure whether it is Norn or Scots (the alleged Norn-Scots creole?). Let us also mention the language of Manx, which prior to its decline was gradually losing Goidhelic pecularities becoming more and more corrupted - a typological parallel Barnes overlooked. This evidence makes the theory of Jakobsen and Marwick no less worthy of consideration than that of Barnes,.. so the truth, as often, may hide somewhere inbetween.
General account on Norn
1. Introduction2. Overview
2.1. Shetland (mainland) Norn
2.2. Foula/Westside Norn
2.3. Orkney Norn
3. Norn in Scandinavian classification
3.1. East Scandinavian features in Norn
3.2. West Scandinavian features in Shetland Norn
3.3. West Scandinavian features in Foula/Westside Norn 4. Relations to neighbouring languages
4.1. Orkney Norn vs. South Shetland Norn
4.2. Foula/Westside Norn vs. Faroese
4.3. Foula/Westside Norn vs. Suðuroy, Faroes
4.4. North Shetland Norn vs. Faroese 5. Summary
1. Introduction
1.1. The word 'Norn' originates from the Old Norse word norrønn 'northern, Nordic' and is normally used for the Scandinavian language that existed in Orkney and Shetland until the 17-19th centuries. Occasionally the term 'Norn' is applied to the English [Scots] dialects that are spoken on the archipelagoes nowadays. This usage is certainly wrong, although some respectable authors, incl. Hugh Marwick, admitted the term Norn in this incorrect sense (see f.ex. Marwick's "Orkney Norn", 1929, p. XXVIII, where he calls the Sanday author Walter Traill Dennison a "writer of modern Orkney Norn"). So be careful: if you see a text in "Norn" and it has spellings like tae, guid,
wrang, laek etc, be sure it is Scots.
1.2. Another stereotype tied with the name of Norn is that it is often understood to be similar both for Orkney and Shetland. This view is misleading too, because there were clear distinctions between the Orkney and Shetland versions of Norn, probably about as noticeable as the differences between Shetland Norn and Faroese when the former was still in full use. More than that, there were serious differences, at least of phonetic nature, in Shetland between the Foula and Westside/Sandness dialect on the one hand (further: Foula/Westside Norn) and the rest of the islands on the other hand, differences at some point larger than between (the rest of) Shetland and Orkney. (We know practically nothing about dialects of Orkney Norn, if they ever existed). To sum it up, the name Norn is rather collective and applies to a group of dialects rather than to any kind of
a common language. However, we reserve the right to use the term Norn as referring to one language when dialectal differences within Norn are to us of no importance.
2. Overview of Shetland and Orkney Norn
Further we are going to broadly examine main distinctive features of Norn and its dialects. Bearing in mind our knowledge of grammar is limited, we will mostly concentrate on phonetic features. For a more detailed account see respective sections on Orkney and Shetland Norn.
2.1. Shetland (mainland) Norn
The main features of Shetland Norn are the following (Norn < Old Norse or Old Norse > Norn unless specified):
2.1.1. monophtongisation: keipr > keb, greiði > gre(d), haugr > hjog,
høg, hleypingr > løbin; one of the very few exception: ausa > ous
2.1.2. breaking: baugr > bjog, birtingr > bjartin, fela > fjal, hnefatak >
(*njavatak) > njafatag, nevatjog, er ('is') > yaar (Foula), ek > yach, barn > bjadn- (Foula)
2.1.3. "reverse" umlaut: brydda > brodd, *flyðra > fluder, lær > (*lár) >
lor, *læringr > (*láringr) > lorin, snælda > (*snálda) > snolda, sæti > sodi
2.1.4. voicing of stops p,t,k > b,d,g: keikr > kεgǝr, djúpr > džub, brot >
brod
2.1.5. occasional devoicing of voiced stops: bindari > bjintǝr
2.1.6. occasional preaspiration of tt, pp, kk: ba'kk, klai'p (often absent or, in the case of tt, replaced with palatalisation, see 2.1.8.)
2.1.7. unvoicing of sonorants (r,l,m,n,ļ,ņ,ng) before p,t,k: swi'rt, ba'lker,
(kett)hu'ntlin; in the case of t often replaced or followed with
palatalisation: klo'ņt/kloi'nt, ho'ņtel;
2.1.8. palatalisation ll,rl > ļļ, nn,rn > ņņ, tt > itt, ţţ, rather irregular:
- falla > faļļj, fäļļ, ullar- > oļļa, millum > melan, meļļan, occasionally in the initial (prevocalic) position: fleygja > fļog, lœkr > log,ljog
- hann > häņņ, brenna > breņņǝk, andi > äņdi, but banna > bann, occasionally in the initial (prevocalic) position: nykr > njogel, snykr >
snjuger
- gott > goţţ, goitt, kattaklór > käţţiklur, käitaklur; 2.1.9. ð > d, g, 0 (zero), þ > t:
- hlíð > li, lýðr > lø, moeða > mø
- boða > bod, gœðing > gødin, spaði > spadi; - afráða > afro, afrod; greiði > gre, gred
- Like in Faroese, the old cluster ðr is preserved, but unlike Faroese where it is often pronounced as [gr], in Shetland Norn it appears as [dr]:
- Nevertheless, ð does change to g in Norn in a number of words:
kafaburðr > kavaborg, skrið > skrid, skrig, leiðvísari > legvisǝr, aða > jog, øg
- þari > tari, þilja > tili, þurkasótt > torkǝsot
- Only in South Shetland (Dunrossness) ð occasionally stayed preserved as [ð] or [þ]: eið > eð, mið > mið, kóð > køð,køþ, seiðr >
seð,seþ
2.1.10. hv, kv > hw, in North islands (Yell) occasionally to sw: hvalr >
hwal, kví > hwi,kwi, hvammr > swam
2.1.11. kj, skj are normally preserved, same as gj, which rarely changes to dž, while tj, þj tend to become š:
- kjálki > kjo'lk, skjól >sķul
- gjá > gjo, Nor. gjelg, gjølg > džö'lki - tjǫrn > šonn, tjaldr > šaldǝr, but vitja > vitš - þjukkr > šjukk,šok(k)a
2.1.12. The grammar of Shetland Norn, as far as it can be established from the registered texts, shows most of the features of Old Norse: 3 genders (male, female, neuter), 4 cases (Nominative, Accusative, Dative, Genitive), 2 numbers (singular, plural), strong and weak declensions of verbs etc. However, this old system was already in decay. The case system was becoming more and more corrupted, cases started getting mixed, which especially concerns the merging of Nominative and Accusative forms of nouns and pronouns. This process likely owed to the influence of Scots which does not distinguish between both cases. As a result, either the Nominative or Accusative form was chosen. The Accusative is more frequent in the strong masculine declension, where it represents the bare stem: ON Nom.
hestr, Acc. hest > Norn hest. The Accusative form is often present in
plural, cf. several toponymes: ON Nom. lœknirnir grœnu, Acc. lœkina
grœnu > Norn L(j)øgena grøna. In the weak declension both forms are
possible. Most of the weak feminine nouns retained the old Nominative ending -a (in whatever sound form) or dropped it at all. However, few feminine forms feature the accusative ending: ilsko < ON Acc. ilsku, Nom. ilska; grœnsku, grinsko < ON grœnsku, grœnska, compare also Norw. dial. viku, vuku, vukku 'week' < ON Acc. viku, Nom. vika 'week'. (See the Sketch of Shetland Norn grammar for the more detailed picture). The pronoun system was not left untouched by the merger of Nominative and Accusative either, as the language of the Hildina ballad shows: Quirto vult doch fiegan vara < ON. Hvort vilt þú feigan
vera, where doch 'you' < þig, Acc. þú.
2.2. Foula/Westside Norn
The Foula/Westside Norn inherited many of the above-mentioned features of Shetland Norn, but had the following unique features:
2.2.1. ON á > wo: á > wo, tár > twor, fá > fwo
2.2.2. Instead of the palatal utterance of ll, nn, the change ll, nn > dl, dn is present in many cases (where Shetland Norn has ņņ/rn and ļļ/rl): fall
2.2.3. Likewise, the long -tt- is never palatalised and does not palatalise the preceding vowel.
2.2.4. The initial h- is often omitted: hennar > ednar, henni > ende, hǿsta
> osta
2.2.5. hv,kv > kw (hw): hvalr > kwal, kví > kwi, hverjum > kvara, hvar >
quar (Hildina), but hvítr > whit-, hvern > whaar (Hildina)
2.2.6. Some pronunciation differences: bjadni < barn(it), cf. Shetland mainland boņņ.
2.3. Orkney Norn
Data on Orkney Norn is much more scarce in comparison with Jakobsen's material from Shetland, which can be explained by the fact that Orkney stood in the frontline of "Scottisation" and lost archaic Scandinavian features quicker than Shetland Norn by the time the remains of both were recorded.
2.3.1. Monophtongisation is not complete, some of the old diphtongs are preserved, albeit in a changed sound quality: geiri > g[ai]ro, gneisti
> n[ai]st, gleyma > misgl[ai]med, naut > nout
2.3.2. Unlike in Shetland, the voicing of intervocal stops is more consistent: stikill > stiggle, raki > rag, burtu > bordo, kúpa or koppr >
kubby
2.3.3. According to H.Marwick, palatalisation affects only ll, nn is never palatilised: helli- > hellyiefer, rulla > rullyo. However, in Marwick's "Orkney Norn" we have found a number of forms that witness about palatalisation of nn and even ng: for eenyie < hver er inni 'who is
within?' (p. XXVI), grunyie < grunnr, vinya < vinna; fonyaless < *fǫngulauss, munyo < magn, groyn < grenja. Cf. also Ork. nitter, Cait. nyatter, of obscure origin.
2.3.4. ð stays in several words: niðra > nither, hroði > ruithe, bregða >
braithin;
2.3.5. The grammar is more simplified, Dative has merged with Nominative/Accusative: while the Lord's Prayer from Foula has Dative in fro adlu idlu < frá ǫllu illu 'from all (the) bad', the Orkney version of the prayer says fro alt ilt, where the last two words correspond to ON Nom/Acc. allt illt. A specific feature of Orkney Norn is a big number of originally feminine weak words that have preserved the accusative form: ON bytta, Acc. byttu > Norn butto, ON kringla, Acc. kringlu > Norn
kringlo.
2.3.6. Lexical distinctions from Shetland Norn: Ork. soind 'to die slowly' - Shet. soind 'to show', Ork. skrift 'lean, hard-grown' - Shet. skrift 'crack,
fissure', Ork. lerblade 'cormorant' - Shet. lorin 'cormorant'.
3.1. Traditionally Norn is classified as a West Scandinavian language. Marius Hægstad, Sophus Bugge and Jakob Jakobsen brought forward historical evidence in support of that: as they asserted, Shetland and Orkney were populated mostly from several areas in West Norway, namely Ryfylke and Jæderen (Stavanger, Rogaland; all included into the West Scandinavian area). They based this view upon numerous lexical parallels between the dialects of the mentioned Norwegian regions and Norn. Michael Barnes supports the West Scandinavian status of Norn by bringing forward a number of phonetic features of the latter, although he mostly quotes material from Foula, the dialect of which was rather specific and the closest to Faroese, an undoubted West Scandinavian language (see below). But as we believe, the overall amount of Norn data does not look to us so unambiguously West Scandinavian and a good deal of East Scandinavian features can also be discovered (most of them we loosely pick up from Elias Wessen's "De nordiska språken"):
3.1.1. almost complete lack of u-umlaut
3.1.2. monophtongisation, incomplete in Orkney, practically total in Shetland (see 2.1.1 and 2.3.1)
3.1.3. ó > ú
3.1.4. breaking, which is very widespread (probably as much, as nowhere else in Scandinavia) and occurs even to short a (see 2.1.2) 3.1.5. breaking in the personal pronoun 1 pers. sg. - ya (Foula) (although it could well have been a later development, cf. Icel. ég
[jeγ])
3.1.6. palatalisation of ll (incl. Orkney) as well as nn and tt (Shetland only), unknown in Iceland, Faroes and West Norway and developped primarily in Trøndelag dialects of Mid-North Norway (see 2.1.8 and 2.3.3)
3.1.7. the assimilation of the Proto Norse (PN) clusters mp, nt, nþ, nk is incomplete: bank/bakk < ON bakki < PN *bankan, kemp/kepp < ON
keppa < PN *kampijan, but slokk < ON sløkkva,sløkkja < PN *slankwijan; tann/tant < tǫnn < *tanþu, but munn,monn < ON munnr < PN *munþaz
3.1.8. vague traces of the ending of reflexive verbs -s: pinnis (see also 3.2.4.)
3.1.9. a good deal of words having cognates in Swedish dialects (which did not stay unnoticed by Jakobsen, see his "Etymological Dictionary...", XXXIV)
Of course, many of these features (especially 3.1.1-5) might have developed independently of the East Scandinavian influence and be a pure coincidence. Moreover, we are not aware of specifically large migration from Denmark to the islands, let alone from Sweden. So most of the above mentioned East Scandinavian features should be rather
explained as the sum of the internal development of Norn dialects and the external influence that Scots, Low German, Dutch and Danish may have put on it. On the other hand, point 3.1.9. cannot be explained as easily and requires a special investigation.
3.2. Among West Scandinavian features common for Shetland Norn (incl. Foula/Westside) we mention:
3.2.1. preaspiration (sporadically occurs in Swedish dialects; see 2.1.6) 3.2.2. unvoicing of sonorants (r,l,m,n,lj,nj,ng) before p,t,k (see 2.1.7) 3.3. Foula/Westside Norn shows an additional number of traits proper to West Scandinavian dialects:
3.3.1. No palatalization of nn, ll, tt; 3.3.2. rl, ll > dl, rn, nn > dn (see 2.2.2.); 3.3.3. hv > kw (see 2.2.5.);
3.3.4. traces of i-uml. in present indicative: sevǝ < sefr (J.Jakobsen "Etymological dictionary...", CX), tega < tekr, du geve < þú gefr, stiendi
< stendr, keimir < kemr, genger < gengr (Hildinakvadet)
Material from the other parts of Shetland is too scarce on this subject 3.3.5. the ending of reflexive verbs is -st: sadnast < sannast
We should also mention here another form where an older reflexive ending -sk ( > -st) can be reconstructed in the following example: helsk < helsask. This form is registered in Nesting (middle Shetland Mainland) which is geographically adjacent to Westside.
At the same time, the Foula/Westside dialect, like the rest of Shetland, has some of the features listed in 3.1, such as monophtongisation and breaking.
4. Relations to neighbouring Scandinavian languages
As shown above, the Norn dialects were not isolated from linguistic trends going on in the other Scandinavian languages and dialects. Although this could have been the result of independent development, influences from outside were quite possible as well. Whether certain change comes from inside or outside, is a question where linguistic theory is often helpless and in this respect Norn is probably no exception. In this connection it is especially interesting to have a look at the geography of features that were common within Norn dialects and with their closest outside cognates, namely Faroese.
4.1. Orkney <-> the southernmost part of Shetland (Dunrossness): 4.1.1 sporadic preservation of ð (see 2.1.8. and 2.3.4.)
4.1.2 several lexical parallels: Ork., Du. ru - Shet. rug < hrúga; Ork. (Birsa) tekkal, South. Shet. (Du., Conn.) tahella, tahellek < *þak-hella -
Nor. Shet. ufsahella < ufsahella 'one of the flat stones laid to form the
eaves of a house (to prevent rain from penetrating)'
4.2. Foula, Shetland <-> Faroese:
4.2.1. traces of "skerping" (a Faroese term designating consonantal inserts -gv- and -ggj- after several old long vowels): ON búa > Norn
buga, Far. búgva, ON sjór > Norn sheug (rest of Shet. sju-), Far. Sjógvur
4.2.2. ý > oi (Far. [ωi], where [ω] designates a sound between [o] and
[u]): hýsa > hoissan, Far. hýsa [hωisa], útýðligr > utoitlig, Fær. ótýðiligur [öu-tωji-lijωr] (a similar change ý > ui has also occurred in several West
Norwegian dialects, f.ex. that of Setesdalen) 4.2.3. ll, nn > dl, dn (see 2.2.2)
4.3. Foula, Shetland <-> Suðuroy, southernmost Faroese dialect: 4.3.1. Foula yagh 'I' - Suð. [je], Far. eg [e]
4.3.2. Foula mier 'me (dat)' - Suð. [mjer], Fær. mær [mear]
4.3.3. Foula dagloght (Lord Prayer) - Suð. [daglot, daglωt], Fær. dagligt
[daglit]
4.4. North Shetland Norn (Yell, Unst) <-> Faroese (except Northern Isles):
4.4.1. Shetland: the long ā develops into [åa]: åali 'lamb' - Far. [ɔa] < á:
bátur [bɔa:tωR] (except the northern Faroese dialects, which have [bātǝR]).
4.5. The above examples are certainly fairly scarce, and an exacting reader would suggest that these are sporadic and occasional similarities, so any further discussions on this subject would be a waste of time. According to another possible explanation, at some stage, probably in the 14-15th centuries when the Norn dialects were still not worn out, they constituted together with Faroese a common L-complex (a chain of dialects, where the neighbouring links are linguistically closer to each other than those further away). This would mean that there were regular contacts between Orkney and Shetland as well as between Shetland and the Faroes that kept their neighbouring dialects linguistically close to each other, despite the large geographical distance in between (approx. 100 km. between Orkney and Shetland and ca. 300 km. between Shetland and the Faroes). But could there really be so tight a linguistic interaction across the sea that would allow us to explain the similarities in question? The seriousness of this question is illustrated by Michael Barnes who discusses case 4.2.3. as an example of a possible influence from Faroese. Barnes mentions historical evidence about real contacts between Shetlanders and Faroese fishermen who used to cast ashore in Foula and Westside. Nevertheless, the author does not fail to point out the main drawback of this hypothesis: "It is of course highly improbable that the arrival of the odd Faroeman would be sufficient to cause Faroese features to
spread among the speakers even of a small island community using a closely related language" (Michael Barnes "The Norn Language of Orkney and Shetland", 1998, p. 18)
We would like to point out another drawback of this hypothesis: the rules for nn > dn (4.2.3.) in Faroese and "Foulese" differ, so it is highly unlikely that West Shetlanders could have borrowed this feature from the "odd Faroeman", but found it a different distribution. In Faroese the change nn > dn occurs only after the old long i-diphtongs (seinni
[sa(i)dni], oynni [o(i)dni]) and new ones developed from older long
vowels (one of the few examples is kvínni [kvω(i)dni], although it can be explained by analogy). The only exception where the change occurs after an originally short vowel is the obscure word tinna [tidna] 'tin'. On the other hand, on Foula and Westside nn regularly becomes
dn after short vowels: kodn < kunn-, edne < enni, fidna < finna, ednar < hennar etc. We have not found examples of this change after the old
long vowels, although this does not mean such instances did not existed. (Of course, we should not forget that this process must have been overshadowed by monophtongisation, see 2.1.1.). A development similar to Foula/Westside Norn can be found in several West Norwegian dialects, f.ex. in West Hordaland, where dn occurs only after the old short vowels (in the rest of Hordaland dialects it is registered after the old long vowels: á,ó,í etc. plus diphtongs). Although West Hordaland belongs to the area from where the immigration to Shetland is believed to have started, the fact that Foula is the farthest Shetland point from Norway makes us think this is not a result of direct influence either.
One could suppose that this feature could have already developed in the language of the first Norse settlers in Shetland back in the 8th century and for some odd reasons spread out only in the West of the archipelago. This point has several weaknesses. On the one hand, it is highly unlikely that dn could have later developed into nnj in the rest of Shetland. On the other hand, we certainly have no evidences which might allow us to date the change nn > dn, however, its later (=independent) development is typologically not excluded. For instance, in Iceland this process is believed to have happened in the 15-16th century (Björn K. Þórólfsson, "Um íslenskar orðmyndir á 14. og 15. öld" (1925), XXXI), when the country had already been linguistically isolated from West Norway for centuries. At the same time the distribution of nn >dn in Icelandic is similar to that of many Hordaland dialects, occurring after all old long vowels (except when nn belongs to the suffigated article). It proves to us that this phenomenon was not a result of direct linguistic contacts but rather an independent process in which "pre-conditions" were similar both in Iceland and in West Norway (and in Faroes as well, although we do not know in which century this change occured there apart from the fact that the distribution rules are slightly different in Faroese, see above). These "pre-conditions" can be interpreted as some kind of a seed that grew up 5-7 centuries later generating the change nn > dn. What kind of a seed it could be is to us totally incomprehensible. Why nn changed to
nnj in the rest of Shetland mainland (and, possibly in Orkney as well),
like in the far away dialects of Trondelag (Norway), is an even bigger mystery.
To sum up, common traits in related languages or dialects can witness either co-influence or parallel development from the same source. This kind of problem arises when dealing with similarities like those mentioned in 4.1-3., and at this stage we can just say that these features are still awaiting their linguistic interpretation, of course unless it will be proved that they are purely accidental.
5. Summary
The term Norn refers not to a monolyte language, but rather to a group of dialects, which, as we estimate, were three: Orkney, Shetland and Foula/Westside Shetland (we base this division mostly on their phonetic features). Being of West Scandinavian origin, they in different degree developed several features that can be considered as East Scandinavian, although it does not necessarily mean they occured due to the direct influence from East Scandinavian languages, as it was rather a move towards the simplification of the language. We should not disregard here the external influence from several West Germanic and Scandinavian languages spoken on the shores of the North Sea (mainly Scots, but also Norwegian, Danish, Low German, Dutch) that could also have had some impact, but to what extent this influence could have provoked separate changes is subject to further investigation.
A several number of common phonetic features between Orkney and South Shetland, Shetland (esp. Foula) and the Faroes (esp. Suðuroy) is registered. It can be argued whether these similarities are accidental or bear witness to linguistic contacts and a co-influence.
Linguistic terminology easily explained
On this page we offer the interpretation of various phonetic symbols, as well as linguistical and grammatical terms, which are used on our website but might be incomprehensible to an ordinary reader or concern phenomena lacking in their mother tongue. Our overview is especially aimed towards English speakers, although native speakers of other languages might consider it useful too. Feel free to suggest terms that are used on this website and you cannot find here and we will add them to this overview. However, bear in mind that we do not cover the simplest notions that everyone would have learnt at school, such as vowel, consonant, substantive, adjective, adverb, number, tense etc. If you feel uncomfortable with these, try Wikipedia as a
starting point. Accusative active voice ' (apostrophe) article articulation aspiration * (asterisk) bisyllabic breaking case : (colon) diphtong feminine gender Genitive imperative indicative ' ' (inverted commas) masculine middle voice monophtong monosyllabic [] (square brackets) strong declension (subst.) strong declension (adj.) strong conjugation subjinctive transcription umlaut ¯ (upper hyphen) voice vowels: back
consonants: affricate palatal sonorant spirant stop voiced voiceless consonant letters contraction Dative devoicing mood neuter Nominative passive voice phonetics phonetic signs phonology polysyllabic postvocalic preaspiration preterite-present verbs prevocalic central front high labialised low mid vowel letters
weak declension (subst.) weak declension (adj.) weak conjugation
1. Symbols
1.1. * (asterisk) - is placed in front of a form that has not been registered: *sáti, *kurna. So where did we take it from? It is our own construction - such a form is hypothetical. We need the asterisk to prevent any confusion between the real and our "guessed" forms. But do not regard such words as arbitrary or fabricated, as in most cases they can designate something which is highly likely to have existed and is reconstructed on the basis of a scientific method. Sometimes we discover such reconstructions as real borrowings in third languages, which only confirms that this was not just a mater of superficial guesswork. Remember the periodic law of chemical elements, which anticipated the prediction of previously unknown elements that were indeed discovered afterwards - it is practically the same method as the one which is used in linguistic reconstruction.
1.2. [ ] (square brackets) - are used for phonetical transcription to distinguish it from the orthographical notation. F.ex. Faroese nógv
'much' is pronounced as [negv] and hví 'why' as [kwωj] or [kwuj].
1.3. ¯ (upper hyphen) or : (colon) - indicate the length of a sound: ā, a: . The symbol "¯" is only used for vowels. Long vowels in Old Norse are normally marked with an acute: á,ó,ú,ý,í,é, also œ.
1.4. ' ' (inverted commas) - are used to mark the meaning of a word: ON drengr 'boy'.
1.5. ' (apostrophe) - when used before a sonorant ('l,'m,'n,'ŋ,'ņ,'ļ) marks the voicelessness of the respective consonant.
2. Phonological terms 2.1. Common terms
2.1.1. Phonetics - acoustical and physiological aspects of sounds and their pronunciation.
2.1.2. Phonology - sounds in a more abstract aspect (otherwise called phonemes), regarded as parts of a system they constitute through various relations and ties between each other.
2.1.3. Transcription - transformation of the orthographical notation into phonetic symbols. Transcription is especially needed for languages
where the orthography differs greatly from the actual pronunciation (English is one of them). The golden rule of transcription is one letter for one sound and vice versa.
2.1.4. Articulation - the interaction of speech organs (lips, tongue, jaws, roof of mouth etc) for the making of sounds.
2.2. Orthography issues
Old Norse orthography (or its normalised and unified version we are using), was pretty straightforward and each letter had a very definite sound value, so we never transcribe Old Norse. The sound value of Old Norse letters is the following:
2.2.1. Vowels:
a - like a in Allah akbar o - like o in English song u - like oo in English spoon i - like i or ee in English bit, steel e - like e in English bed
y - like German ü or French u ø - like German ö or French eu
ǫ - how exactly it was spelled we do not know, probably it was
something between [a] and [o] or [ö] and [o]. In Icelandic and Faroese this sound has merged with ø or o.
á,ó,ú,ý,í,é - long a,o,u,y,i,e œ - long ø
æ - long, like German ä or a in English bad au - a+u, like ow in English brown
ei - e+i, like a in English mate
ey - e+y, soon developed into either [ei] or [öy]
2.2.2. Consonants:
Except in a few instances, consonants do not differ significantly from their English counterparts. The usage of the following letters must be specified:
j - like y in English yes
ð - like th in English the, those. This vowel originates from the Old
English alphabet, although today it is used with its original meaning only in Icelandic. It is also present in Faroese where it indicates other sounds and has only an etymological value: maður [mεavωr], niðan
[nijan].
þ - like th in English thorn (the actual name of this letter!) or thatch. This
letter comes from the Runic alphabet. We are using it in our transcription, following the Nordic tradition, although in many books you will find another phonetic sign for this sound: the Greek letter θ, which sounded the same. (This Greek letter is used by Michael Barnes in his article "A Note on Faroese /θ/ > /h/" on the change þ > h we are referring to on the page about the language of the Ballad of Hildina,
item 3.2.2.4.)
f - in most cases read as [f], except the positions between vowels
Practically the same system is used for our transcription, except for the fact that we never use f for [v], adhering to the "golden rule". Notice that the transcription rules in other Scandinavian languages, even including Icelandic which looks in writing very much like Old Norse, may considerably differ.
2.2.3. Additional phonetic signs, occurring only in phonetic transcription:
ε,æ,ä - different degrees of sounds between e and a ɔ,â,α - different degrees of sounds between o and a ʌ - like u in English hut
ω,ȯ - different degrees of sounds between u and o ė,I - different degrees of sounds between e and i
ə - an indefinite sound, like a in English ago or -er in brother ŋ - like ng in English song
ş or ʃ - like sh in English show ž - like sur in English measure tʃ - like ch in English chain dž - like j in English joke
2.3. Phonetical and phonological terms: 2.3.1. Vowels
Front vowels - i,e,æ,y,ø/œ Central vowels - a,ə
Back vowels - o,ω,u High vowels - i,y,u Mid vowels - e,ə,o Low vowels - (æ,)a,α
Labialised vowel - o,u,ø,y - vowels which are formed with an extra-lip rounding during the articulation
Monophtong - a,e,i,o,u - a vowel that does not change quality during its pronunciation
Diphtong - au,ei,ey,oa etc. - a vowel that changes quality during its pronunciation and can be represented as a sum of two vowels
2.3.2. Consonants Stops - p,t,ķ,k,b,d,ĝ,g Spirants - s,ş,ž,þ,ð Affricates (stop+spirant): tş,dž Sonorants - l,r,m,n,ŋ,ņ,ļ Voiced consonants - b,d,g,ž,ð,l,m,n,r,j
Voiceless consonants - p,t,k,s,ş,þ, also 'l,'m,'n,'r,'ņ,'ļ,'ŋ - pronounced as if whispering
Palatal consonants - ņ,ļ,ĝ,ķ - formed with additional articulation by which the body of the tongue is raised toward the hard palate (as if j followed). The sound ņ is like Spanish ñ, ļ - like Spanish ll, ĝ and ķ resemble k,g being pronounced before j,i,e, but occurring in front of other vowels ( ĝa , ķu etc.)
Devoicing - loss of sonority: b,d,g > p,t,k, l,m,n > 'l,'m,'n Aspiration - a short h after p,t,k: ph
Preaspiration - a short h before p,t,k: ht
2.3.3. Sound alternations
2.3.3.1. Umlaut (mutation). A regular change of a vowel caused by another one. Some of our readers might already know the German "Umlaut" letters ä, ö and ü. The sounds they mark originate from a,o and u respectively, which were influenced by i in the succeeding syllable (which later might have been dropped). As a result, the mentioned "hybrid" vowels appeared, which combined the qualities of
a,o,u and i. That is why this kind of mutation is often called i-umlaut, i.e.
mutation caused by i.
This process was much more extensive in Old Norse. There were 3 kinds of umlauts in the language: a-umlaut, u-umlaut and i-umlaut, which had still occurred in Common Scandinavian:
a-umlaut: u > o: *kurna > korn u-umlaut: a > ǫ: *barnu > bǫrn i-umlaut: a > e: *gastiR > gestr
(the short o did not exist in Common Scandinavian and was a product of later processes, mostly a-umlaut of u)
u > y: *hulijan > hylja á > æ: *lātiR > lætr
ó > œ: *dōmijan > dœma ú > ý: *lūtiR > lýtr
au > ey: *hlaupiR > hleypr
"Reverse umlaut" - this term means that in the given word there should have been umlaut but it did not occur, or perhaps it did but then was restored to the original sound value due to analogy from other words: Scand. *sātija 'seat' > ON sæti > Norn sodi (that would correspond to ON *sáti, while ON sæti would have resulted in Norn *sedi).
2.3.3.2. Breaking (caused by the succeeding a or u):
e > ja,jǫ: *fella > fjall, *gebu > gjǫf
a > ja (known only in Norn): ON barnit > bjadni
2.3.4. Some other terms
Prevocalic - occuring before a vowel Postvocalic - occuring after a vowel
Contraction - contraction of two syllables having no dividing consonant
Inbetween: ON gráum > grám, ON rauðu > Norn ru (after the fall of ð) Monosyllabic - consisting of one syllable
Bisyllabic - consisting of two syllables
3. Grammatical terms 3.1. Nouns
3.1.1. Case - grammatical category indicating the role of a noun or pronoun in a phrase (subject, object, indirect object etc) or having a specific meaning (functioning thus like prepositions).
English has two cases, Common and Genitive. Common case is the default one. Genitive indicates ownership and has the ending 's: my
father's hat. The same assortment of cases is present in Danish,
Swedish, Norwegian and Dutch.
Old Norse, as well as Icelandic and German have a four-case system. This includes the two cases featuring in English, where the Common case is named Nominative and is the case of the subject. In addition to that there are two other cases, Accusative and Dative (Faroese has a three-case system, including all the cases as in Old Norse minus Genitive, which is practically lost). The prepositions in such languages require (or, as it is also said, govern) Genitive, Accusative or Dative. Accusative - means 'whom?' (direct object). The sentence 'The boy
saw the dog' would sound in Old Norse as Drengrinn sá hundinn. Drengrinn 'the boy' is Nominative and hundinn 'the dog' is Accusative.
Dative - means 'to whom?' (indirect object). Drengrinn gaf manninum
sverð 'The boy gave the man a sword'. Drengrinn 'boy' is Nominative, manninum 'to the man' is Dative and sverð 'a sword' is Accusative.
The existance of cases gives us the scope to change the word order without destroying the general meaning of the sentence. Let us get back to the sentence Drengrinn sá hundinn 'The boy saw the dog'. Now if we try to reverse the word order: Hundinn (Acc.) sá drengrinn (Nom.) it would still mean 'The boy saw the dog', although in English a similar operation would give quite a different sense: 'The dog saw the
boy'. In English it is mostly the word order which tells us who saw and
who was seen. In Old Norse it is, to the contrary, the cases which do the job, and the word order is secondary to them. Normally, the subject in Nominative takes the first place like in English. But you can move the object to the first place to emphasize its role without destroying the general sense. Consequently, a better translation of the phrase Hundinn sá drengrinn is 'It was the dog that the boy saw'.
Let us consider a more sophisticated example by bringing Dative into the example. Drengrinn (1) gaf manninum (2) sverð (3) describes the same situation as Drengrinn gaf sverð manninum (132), Manninum gaf
drengrinn sverð (213) and Sverð gaf drengrinn manninum (312) = 'The boy gave the man a sword' (the difference between all these variants
is only in emphasis). In English we have only one choice for the alternation of the word order, and this will involve the additional preposition to: 'The boy gave the man a sword' = 'The boy gave a
sword to the man'. As in the former case, this example confirms that
interchangeability and emphasizing, keeping the number of words needed to a minimum, than the strict word order rule does. No wonder that multicase systems are very widespread in languages of the world. 3.1.2. Article - a function word that marks definiteness. In English there are two sorts of article: definite (the) and indefinite (a). In Old Norse there is only the definite article which corresponds to English the (the counterpart of the English indefinite article is just zero). In Old Norse the article stands either before the substantive word (usually when there is a modifiying adjective) or, more commonly, afterwards, joining as another ending: inn hundr 'the dog' = hundrinn (Nom.), inn hund =
hundinn (Acc.), inum hundi = hundinum (Dat.), ins hunds = hundsins (Gen.).
3.1.3. Gender - a grammatical category which associates words with sex (masculine, feminine) or marks their animacy (masculine, feminine) or inanimacy (neuter). In languages with such a system father, son, brother, grandad are masculine, mother, daughter, sister, granny are feminine, while neuter includes mostly inanimate objects. Of course, this is a simplification, as there are masculine and feminine words for inanimate objects and there can be exceptional cases when animated nouns have neuter (f.ex. 'child' in many old Indo-European languages is neuter, i.e. as something whose anima, or soul, is still undevelopped according to old beliefs). In fact, nowadays, gender should rather be regarded as a purely grammatical ("meaningless", "technical") category. For example, in Icelandic you can have words of all three genders for a woman: fem. kona 'woman (neutral)', masc.
kvenmaður 'woman (more official)', neut. kvenndi 'woman (vulgar)'.
Apart from Old Norse and Icelandic, three genders have existed in Norn, Faroese and German. In Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Dutch and Frisian masculine and feminine have merged into the so-called "common" gender, as opposed to neuter. In English and Afrikaans, all gender distinctions are lost (except relics in personal pronouns: masc.
he, fem. she, neut. it).
3.1.4. Types of declension
3.1.4.1. Strong declension (substantives) - used with substanives that normally have a consonant ending in Nom.sg. (masc. drengr 'boy', fem. ferð 'trip, journey', neut. barn 'child')
3.1.4.2. Weak declension (substantives) - used with substanives that have a vocalic ending in Nom.sg. (masc. gluggi 'window', fem. amma
'granny', neut. auga 'eye')
(Sporadically substantives could change their type, mostly from strong to weak)
Ironically, in Proto-German the strong declension contained stems ending in a vowel and the weak one in a consonant. But after numerous reduction processes that occured in Common Scandinavian 1000-1500 years ago, this situation changed to the opposite.