Matthew 6:9-13, Orkney Norn (Wallace transcription; 1700) Favor i ir i chimrie, Helleur ir i nam thite, gilla cosdum thite cumma, veya thine mota vara gort o yurn sinna gort i chimrie, ga vus da on da dalight brow vora Firgive vus sinna vora sin vee Firgive sindara mutha vus, lyv vus ye i tumtation, min delivera vus fro olt ilt, Amen. Matthew 6:9-13, Shetland Norn (Low transcription; 1774) Fy vor or er i Chimeri. Halaght vara nam dit. La Konungdum din cumma. La vill din vera guerde i vrildin sindaeri chimeri. Gav vus dagh u dagloght brau. Forgive sindorwara sin vi forgiva gem ao sinda gainst wus. Lia wus ikè o vera tempa, but delivra wus fro adlu idlu. For do i ir Kongungdum, u puri, u glori, Amen Matthew 6:9-13, Old Norse: Faþer vár es ert í himenríki, verði nafn þitt hæilagt Til kome ríke þitt, værði vili þin sva a iarðu sem í himnum. Gef oss í dag brauð vort dagligt Ok fyr gefþu oss synþer órar, sem vér fyr gefom þeim er viþ oss hafa misgert Leiðd oss eigi í freistni, heldr leys þv oss frá öllu illu. Matthew 6:9-13, Faroese (closest extant relative): Faðir vár, Tú, sum ert í Himli. Heilagt verði navn Títt. Komi ríki Títt. Verði vilji Tín, sum í Himli, so á jørð. Gev okkum í dag okkara dagliga breyð. Og fyrigev okkum syndir okkara, so sum vit eisini fyrigeva teimum, ið móti okkum synda. Leið okkum ikki í frestingum, men frels okkum frá tí illa. Source: Þorvaldur Bjarnarson, 1878. Matthew 6:9-13, English (Book of Common Prayer; 1928): Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done, on Earth, as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

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The Lord’s Prayer in Old Scots. Uor fader quhilk beest I Hevin, Hallowit weird thyne nam. Cum thyne kinrik. Be dune thyne wull as is I Hevin, sua po yerd. Uor dailie breid gif us thilk day. And forleit us uor skaiths, as we forleit them quha skaith us. And leed us na intill temptatioun. Butan fre us fra evil. Amen.

 

Norn’s vocabulary reflected all aspects of life, e.g. boats: skothumlin (a five-manned boat); agriculture: glannel (neck strap of a plough-ox); topography: dien (a marshy swamp); fishing: tragg (bait-fish); landscape: vord (a prominent hill); people’s characteristics: njulin (a simpleton); people’s actions: hontel (to hobble); animals: kwingi (a non-prolific ram); birds: sedful (herring gull); fish: salho (a large shark); plants: okrabung (grass growing in grain fields); food: krappin (mashed meal and fish livers); the home: jorn (hearthstone); weather: bjart (cold and dry); buildings: obder (lintel); terms of admiration: gatabel (of good appearance), and of criticism: uskjoggal (carelessly made). In all, some 10,000 Norn words have been recorded, collected in the 1890’s. The dilution, and ultimately the death of Norn stems from the late 15th century. At this time, Shetland passed to Scotland, which spoke a distinctive form of English. At first, the impact seems to have been negligible on Norn, but by the 17th century writers mention the bilingual capability of Shetlanders, who spoke Norn amongst themselves and English to outsiders. In time, however, rather than become entirely bilingual Shetlanders tried to square two incompatible languages, and English diluted Norn out of existence. Examples of recently-lost words include skrivlin (small corn-stack), poitek (pot for holding fish oil), and lesnin (a stake used in cliff-fowling). A vast lexicon of Norn words continued in use in the Shetland form of Lowland Scots English, post 18th century Nouns especially could be readily adopted to fit into the new grammar. Some special areas of speech remained bastions of Norn, one such being the language spoken by fishermen when at sea. As part of their belief in good luck, and what must be done to preserve it, scores of words were only referred to by taboo terms, e.g. the eld (fire) was referred to as the birtek; both being Norn words. Another example is skrogin, used instead of hunek (hen). Words which referred to specific objects in everyday use had a good chance of survival if there was no English equivalent, e.g. klibber (a particular form of pack saddle). However, once the way of life changed and the objects themselves fell out of fashion, it was inevitable that their names were lost. The greater number of Norn words, though, died out in the past 200 years due to being replaced in speech by English equivalents. The new words were, or rather are, either English words, Scottish forms (for example uncan=unknown, burn=stream, okster=armpit), or English words used in a sense different to their correct one (e.g. travel, meaning specifically to go on foot; makk, meaning to knit rather than just ‘make’ in a general sense). Also, some words became hybrids of Norn and Scots/English; for example, a fork for harvesting seaweed, a tarigrep, became a "tari crook". It has been considered that contemporary Shetland dialect, a dialect of English, is a distinctive language and one which is thriving. Properly, it should be regarded as a stage near the end of a 2-300 yeare process in which lowland Scots/English mixed with Norn, then diluted it until it no longer existed as a separate entity. Finally, more and more words are lost, and even English proper replaces the lowland Scots words.

 

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