What language do they speak in Shetland?

The first thing to point out is that Gaelic has never been spoken in Shetland. The language, or dialect, spoken in Shetland is derived from the Old Norse language that was spoken here until a few hundred years ago.

Today, the language spoken by Shetlanders is a regional dialect of the English or Scots language, so, in essence, English is the official language spoken in the isles.

The last person believed to have spoken Norn in Shetland was a woman called Jeannie Ratter who died in 1926. Old Norse was spoken across the Scandinavian world and the closest surviving language today is found in Iceland. Each country had its own version of the language and in Shetland, this developed to become Norn and it’s where the roots of our language are firmly planted.

This language came to Shetland with the Vikings when they arrived here about 850 AD. Prior to this, we have no record of what the language looked like or what the placenames were in Shetland. The Norse settlers rewrote the map and changed the course of Shetland’s history entirely. We will never know what pre-Norse language in Shetland looked or sounded like, the Viking assimilation was a wholescale cultural transformation.

The Vikings are thought to have arrived in Shetland from western Norway, they subsequently settled in the islands, giving rise to what is known as the Norse Period. Both Shetland and Orkney became Viking, and later Norse, strongholds until 1469 when the rule was passed over to Scotland, bringing a close to over 600 years of Norse rule; introducing a new chapter to our language’s history as Scots became more widespread and prevalent.

Despite integration into Scotland from 1469, Shetland was slow to let go of their native tongue and even by the late 19th century, some 400 years since passing to Scotland, remnants of this old Norse language could still be found.

Faeroese scholar, Jakob Jakobsen, who came to Shetland at the end of the 19th century, recorded all the Norn words he heard spoken, and those that could be remembered. He travelled all over the islands and compiled these words into a two-volume dictionary of over 10,000 words on the Shetland language which remains, to this day, the greatest work on the dialect ever undertaken.

Today, many of the dialect words still in use have their roots in the Old Norse language that was spoken here at one time.

The language is protected and safeguarded by the Shetland For Wirds group. Shetland For Wirds is an organisation that was formed in 2004 following a conference on Shetland dialect. That convention was keen to see our unique way of speech, with its Nordic and Scottish roots, survive and thrive. The group aims to encourage and promote the use of written and spoken Shetland dialect as a valued and essential element of Shetland’s distinctive heritage and culture. They also have a Dialect map of Shetland where you can listen to the local accents which differ throughout the islands.