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Shetland dialect
Language of Shetland From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Shetland dialect[note 3] (autonym: Shaetlan[note 4] [ˈʃe̞tlənd̥], also variously known as Shetland or Shetlandic)[7] is a mixed language spoken in Shetland, an archipelago to the north of mainland Scotland. The exact number of speakers is not known, since it has to date never been included in any census.[note 1] It emerged through the long-drawn and stable bilingualism of Norn (the language of the previous settlers) and Lowlands Scots (mainly the varieties from Fife and Lothian)[8] brought to Shetland from the early 15th century and onwards. Norn, the language of the original settlers, is an extinct North Germanic language, descended from Western Norse, which was spoken in Shetland until the late 19th century, though as of 2025[update], living memory reports the last known speaker to have died as late as 1925.[9] This long-drawn contact situation resulted in a very distinct linguistic blend of Norn and Lowland Scots, with a noticeable contact influence of Low Germanic languages (Middle Dutch and Middle Low German).[10] It has been recognised as a highly distinct variety for centuries.[11] The language retains many words of Norn origin. Many of them, if they are not place-names, refer to e.g. seasons, weather, topographical features, sea scapes (especially types of waves and states of the sea), fishing, parts of boats and boat building, agriculture and crofting, crops and livestock, wool handling and knitting, peat cutting, stone building, music instrument building, and so on.[12]
 | A request that this article title be changed to Shaetlan is under discussion. Please do not move this article until the discussion is closed. |
 | It has been suggested that parts of this page be moved into Norn language. (Discuss) (November 2025) |
The language is a prototypical contact language in that it emerged due to a specific contact situation, as opposed to a high contact language, which has undergone a high degree of contact, but which has not emerged due to some specific contact situation.[13] In addition, the language is a prototypical G-L (Grammar-Lexicon) mixed language, where the bulk of the grammar comes from the language of the original settlers and the bulk of the vocabulary comes from the new settlers.[14]
The language aligns with both the Continental Scandinavian varieties and the Anglian varieties in having limited morphological fusion,[15] with a few grammatical affixes and some non-linear ablaut (vowel gradation), mainly in the temporal paradigms, with both strong and weak verbs. It has a rich word formation in compounding, similar to German and the Scandinavian languages. The pronominal system has two politeness distinctions (familiar/polite) and two numbers (singular/plural), and has three demonstrative distances (proximate/distal/remote). The nominal system has grammatical gender (masculine/feminine/neuter), expressed pronominally.[16]
The language has traditionally been classified as, variously, a dialect of Scots or a dialect of English. However, the grammar of the language is remarkably aligned with that of Continental Scandinavian, while the lexicon is quite heterogenous. The vocabulary is thus a blend of Anglian and Norn, with a noticeable component of Dutch/Low German loanwords. On 15th October 2025, the language was formally recognised as a language by ISO registration authority SIL and given the ISO 639-3 code scz.[17] As of 2025,[update] the language has not been accepted as an official language in Shetland, and has never been used as an official medium of instruction in education, other than as a curiosity in occasional creative sessions. It has been used in fictional writing since at least the 19th century, especially in poetry, children's books, and comic strips or satire. Dictionaries of the language have been compiled and published since the mid-19th century.[18]
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Formation
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Shetland had been settled by a Celtic-speaking population by the time the Western Norse expansion started in the late 8th century.[19] The majority seems to have belonged to the Pictish linguistic and cultural sphere, but it is possible that there were also Gaelic speaking Christian missionaries on the islands when the first Norse seafarers arrived.[20] Exactly when this was is debated, but evidence suggests that the first settlements were as early as about 790–800 AD.[21] It is also not known what happened to the pre-Norse population. Suggestions have been made that Shetland was completely depopulated in the catastrophic climate events of the mid-6th century,[22] though this is debated. Shetland, together with Orkney and Caithness, was incorporated into the Kingdom of Norway in 875 as the Earldom of Orkney.[23] However, in 1195 Shetland was placed directly under the rule of the Norwegian king and was made a tributary province to Norway, paying tax directly to the Norwegian king and ruled by the king's sysselman ('governor').[24] This meant that Shetland's links with Orkney gradually diminished, although they shared a bishop and remained closer linked in the clerical domain.[25]
The linguistic ecology of Shetland and Orkney gradually continued to diverge for two main reasons. First, the Earldom of Orkney had been settled by a Scots speaking population from the middle of the 14th century.[26] Second, there was an intense presence of the Hanseatic and Dutch North Sea fishing trade in Shetland (linking it with Bergen, Iceland and the Faroe islands), bringing with it an intense and sustained contact with Dutch and Low Germanic speakers in the late medieval and early modern period,[27] whereas there was much less of a Low Germanic trade presence in Orkney during these centuries.[28] This trade contact was not only long drawn, but also intense as well as steady, with numerous Hanseatic trading stations dotted all over Shetland. Some of these trading stations were large enough to resemble small settlements, and were inhabited for weeks, sometimes months, and sometimes over the entire winter.[28] This contact would continue until the French and Napoleonic wars,[29] and nearly seamlessly move from Hanseatic trade to the Dutch fishing trade. It was especially the trade for knitwear which made the Dutch fishing fleet arrive in the hundreds. This is also what gave rise to the town of Lerwick.[29]
Lowland Scots speakers increasingly started settling in Shetland from the early 15th century onwards, especially in the southern areas of Shetland.[30] The settlers were predominantly connected to the clergy, but were also landowners, administrators, traders and craftsmen.[31] Lowland Scots increasingly established itself in Shetland in a socioeconomic top-down spread.
Shetland came under Danish rule with the union of Norway and Denmark in 1380. In 1468 Christian I of Denmark pawned Orkney to James III of Scotland as part of the dowry for Princess Margaret, then subsequently pawned Shetland in May 1469 as the second part of the dowry. There was a gradual administrative shift to Scottish rule, and the Lowlands Scots settlement also gradually increased. But Shetland remained a multilingual place, as reported by contemporary testimonies:
The Inhabitants of the South Parish are, for the most part, Strangers from Scotland & Orkney, whose Language, Habit, Manners & Dispositions are almost ye same with the Scotish. [...] Their Language (as I said) is the same with the Scotish: yet all the Natives can speak the Gothick or Norwegian Tongue. [...] by reason of their Commerce with the Hollanders, generally they promptly speak low Dutch. The Inhabitants of the North Parish are (very few excepted) Natives of the place [...] All the inhabitants of this Parish can speak the Gothick or Norwegian Language, & seldom speak other among themselves; yet all of them speak the Scotish Tongue both more promptly & more properly, than generally they do in Scotland.
— James Key, minister of Dunrossness during 1680s, Description of ye Countrey of Zetland, John Bruce.[32]
English is the common language among them, yet many of the people speak Norse or corrupt Danish, especially such as live in the more northern isles; yea, so ordinary is it in some places, that it is the first language their children speak. Several here also speak good Dutch, even servants, though they have never been out of the country, because of the many Dutch ships which do frequent their ports. And there are some who have something of all these languages, English, Dutch and Norse.
— John Brand, Scottish missionary 1700, A Brief Description of Orkney: Zetland, Pightland-Firth & Caithness, quoted in Brand (1701).[33]
Many of them are descended from the Norwegians and speak a Norse Tongue, corrupted, (they call Norn) amongst themselves [...] and because of their Commerce with the Hollanders, they promptly speak Low Dutch. [...] The Incommers [sic] (whose residence in these Isles is not above a few Centuries of years) [...] speak the Scots Language as well as the Norse.
— Various informants no later than 1710, The Description of the Isles of Orkney and Zetland, Sir Robert Sibbald.[34]
The "Commerce with the Hollanders" mentioned in the quote above refers to the intense trade for knitwear mentioned above.
Norn gradually declined, but remained spoken in Shetland at least until the early 19th century, if not later. Shetland would thus have been bilingual until at least then, but it is likely that it was a displacive contact situation,[35] since Scots was the language of the new power holders.[36] Archival evidence indicates that law and administrative officials in Orkney were unable and/or unwilling to recognise the speech of the local population;[37] various documented complaints indicate that this kind of unwillingness and contempt on the part of the ruling class also occurred in Shetland.[38]
The last known speaker of Norn is usually named as Walter Sutherland of Skaw in Unst (born c. 1783, died 10 August 1850.[39][40] However, as of 2025,[update] living memory names Jane Ratter (born 13 December 1864, died 6 February 1956)[41] of Foula as a rememberer of Norn songs, verses and riddles, and names her mother, Janet Manson (born 10 December 1827, died 5 August 1925)[42] as the last known person who used Norn conversationally. As of 2025,[update] living testimony states that Janet Manson would speak it with one of her neighbours, an unnamed man. However, Janet and her neighbour did not call their language "Norn", but Danska Tonga.[43]
Status as a mixed language
The long drawn and stable multilingualism between the 15th and 18th centuries resulted in the distinct blend that would become the pre-English language now spoken in Shetland.[45] The fact that it arose in a specific contact situation by definition makes it a Contact Language.[46] Specifically, it aligns with a prototypical G-L Mixed Language.[47] It aligns with Bakker's 2017 model, which proposes that G-L languages will have the bulk of their grammar from the language of the original settlers and the bulk of their lexicon from the language of the new, more socioeconomically dominant settlers: in a cluster dendrogram the grammar of the language is near-identical to contemporary Continental Scandinavian grammar,[48] while a phylogenetic network of the Swadesh 100-list of shows the language on the Anglian branch, but much more removed than Scots and English are from each other. The vocabulary is thus more heterogenous than the grammar.[49]
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Adoption
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Ae day last ouk, whin I wis gaein' t' da eela, I met wir skülmaister. I gees him da time o' da day, an' spaekes bak an' fore, dan says he ta me, "Fat's yer wee bit loonie deein', that he's nae been at skoul syne Monday week?" Noo, sir, haed I been askin' dis questin I wid hae said-"What's your peerie boy düin' 'at he's no been at skül frae last Moninday? Noo, sir, I tink ony sensible person 'ill see 'at my wy is a guid as his. Da skülmaisters hae nae bishiness ta interfere wi' wir guid midder tongue. We pay dem fur laernin' bairns English, no fur unlaernin' wir Shetlan' speech.
— Unknown contributor writing in 1880 about a Scots-speaking schoolmaster teaching his son, Recollections o' da past. The Shetland Times.[50]
Shaetlan Language Plan
In July 2022 Dr. Beth Mouat of the University of the Highlands and Islands submitted the Shaetlan Language Plan to the Shetland College board. It was adopted in its totality and made public in September 2022.[51] It was the first de facto recognition of the language by a major public body. The international reactions by linguists working with minority languages around the world was one of great support and encouragement.[52]
The key aims of the Shaetlan Language Plan are to:[53]
- normalise Shaetlan
- include Shaetlan in the next census
- include Shaetlan in signage
- bring Shaetlan into both L1 and L2 learning
- produce education materials in Shaetlan
- offer research projects on Shaetlan
- bring new education offers in Shaetlan
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Phonology
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Consonants
The language has 27 contrastive consonants: /p, b, t̪, d̪, k, g, f, v, θ, s, z, ʃ, ʒ, x, h, ʦ, ʧ, m, n, ɲ, ŋ, r, l, ɫ, ʍ, w, j/.[54] Notice that the coronals are true dentals and not alveolars. Shetlanders are consistent in their code switching: the coronals are consistently dentals (/t̪, d̪/), unless Shetland English is spoken, in which case they are consistently alveolar.[55]
Vowels
Like all Germanic languages, the language is vowel rich. It has 12 phonemic vowels and 7 diphthongs: /i, y, e, e̞, ɛ, ø, a, u, o, ɔ, ɑ, ɒ/ and /oɐ, ɛɪ, ɔɪ, eɐ, aɪ, eɜ, au/.[56]
There are two phonemic front rounded vowels, /y, ø/.[57]
In terms of lexical set values, the language has been described as follows:
| Aitken | 1l | 1s | 8a | 10 | 2 | 11 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
| /ae/ | /əi/ | /i/ | /iː/1 | /e/2 | /e/ | /ɔ/ | /u/ | /y, ø/3 | /eː/4 | /oe/ | /ɑː/ | /ʌu/ | /ju/ | /ɪ/5 | /ɛ/6 | /a~æ/7 | /ɔ/ | /ʌ/ | |||
- Vowel 11 occurs stem final.
- Vowel 3 is often retracted or diphthongised or may sometimes be realised [i].[58]
- Vowel 7 may be realised [u] before /r/ and [ju] before /k/ and /x/.[59]
- Vowel 8 is generally merged with vowel 4,[60] often realised [ɛ] or [æː] before /r/.[61] The realisation in the cluster ane may be [i] as in Mid Northern Scots.[62]
- Vowel 15 may be realised [ɛ̈~ë][63] or diphthongised to [əi] before /x/.[64]
- Vowel 16 may be realised [e][65] or [æ].[63]
- Vowel 17 often merges with vowel 12 before /nd/ and /l r/.[61]
Vowel length is by and large determined by the Scottish Vowel Length Rule, although there are a few exceptions.[66]
The language allows complex syllables of up to three onset and coda consonants.[67]
Orthography
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Like most stigmatised languages in a displacive contact situation, it has been in the double bind of not being standardised, therefore not being regarded as a language, and because it is not regarded as a language, there is opposition to any kind of standardisation.[68] Yet, Shetlanders have been writing in their mother tongue since the mid-19th century, if not longer, as evidenced by the large body of especially poetry and dictionaries, but also children's books, comics and satires. Like with any stigmatised non-standard variety of highly literate communities, this has led to a variation of spelling, which is mostly an individual intuitive phonetic spelling. This variation to a certain extent also represents the varied pronunciation of the language varieties.[69] However, the last couple of decades has seen a community consensus in digitalk (the informal "speech" used predominantly on handheld devices with a virtual keyboard, especially in such domains as Facebook, instant messaging of various kinds (SMS, WhatsApp, etc), and so on).[70]
Latterly the use of the apologetic apostrophe to represent 'missing' English letters has been discouraged.[71] A fully functional orthography was developed by Da Shaetlan Projict / I Hear Dee and has been used consistently in all their output.[72]
Alphabet
The standard orthography developed by I Hear Dee uses a 28-letter Latin script alphabet:
| Uppercase letters | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | Ø | Ü |
| Lowercase letters | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z | ø | ü |
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Morphology
The language allows both compounding and derivation.[73] The derivational affixes are mostly Anglian, but there are some Dutch examples, such as the diminutive -kin < Middle Dutch -kijn/-ken.[74]
Grammatical functions are for the most part expressed analytically, through there are a few concatenative grammatical markers, such as the genitive marker or a few tense/aspect markers. The language, like all Germanic languages, have both strong and weak verbs, with a rich ablaut system for the latter.[75]
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Grammar
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The grammar of the language aligns extremely closely with the Continental Scandinavian languages[48] (see dendrogram in #Status as a Mixed Language).
Noun phrase
Nouns
The nouns of the language have two numbers - singular and plural;[76] and three genders - masculine, feminine and neuter. The genders are expressed pronominally:[77] concrete count nouns are either masculine or feminine, while abstract nouns and mass nouns are neuter.[78] New, modern items are assigned genders, such as laptop (M) and mobile phone (F). Weather and time dummies are masculine.[78]
There is a prolific associative plural an dem.[79]
Pronouns
Personal pronouns have two numbers, three persons and three genders in the third person singular. There is a politeness distinction for singular addressees.[80]
| SINGULAR | PLURAL | |||
| SUBJECT | OBJECT | SUBJECT | OBJECT | |
| 1 | I | me | we | wis |
| 2 | du (familiar)/you (polite) | dee (familiar)/you (polite) | you | you |
| 3M | he | him | dey | dem |
| 3F | shø | her | ||
| 3N | (h)it | it | ||
The politeness distinctions in the language follows a T–V distinction in that the familiar form is used by parents when speaking to children, old persons speaking to younger ones, or between familiar friends or equals[81] and the polite form is used in formal situations and when speaking to superiors.[82]
Both the dependent and the independent possessive pronouns inflect for two numbers, three persons and three genders in the third person singular.[43]
| SINGULAR | PLURAL | |
| 1 | my/mi | wir |
| 2 | dy/di | yir |
| 3M | his | dir |
| 3F | her | |
| 3N | hits |
| SINGULAR | PLURAL | ||
| SG.N | PL.N | ||
| 1 | mine | mines | wirs |
| 2 | dine | dines | yirs |
| 3M | his | dirs | |
| 3F | hers | ||
| 3N | (h)its | ||
In the basi- and mesolectal varieties, the 1st and 2nd sg independent possessives agree with the number of the noun they refer to, a feature that was noticed already in the late 19th century.[83] Acrolectal varieties have lost this feature.[84]
The demonstrative is number invariant and has a three-way distal system: dis/yun/dat (PROXimate/DISTal/REMote).[85]
There are stressed and unstressed reflexive pronouns, which inflect for politeness in 2SG (with the 2SG polite form distinct from the 2PL form).[86]
| SINGULAR | PLURAL | |||
| STRESSED | UNSTRESSED | STRESSED | UNSTRESSED | |
| 1 | mesel | me | wirsels | wir |
| 2 | deesel (familiar)/yirsel (polite) | dee (familiar)/you (polite) | yirsels | you |
| 3M | himsel | him | demsels | dem |
| 3F | hersel | her | ||
| 3N | (h)itsel | (h)it | ||
The indefinite article a is invariant.[87] The definite article da /də/ is used in more contexts than in Standard English.[88]
- gyaan tidda kirk/da skül idda Simmer-- 'go to church/school in summer'
- da denner is reidy 'dinner is ready'
- hae da caald 'have a cold'
Verb phrase
Like all Germanic languages, it has both strong and weak verbs. The language has a number of reflexive verbs, which take the unstressed form of the reflexive pronoun as the second argument. Like in most languages with reflexive verbs, they are often verbs that involve change of location or posture. This does not translate well into Standard English, since the equivalent verbs are intransitive in Standard English.[89]
Tense-aspect-mood
The past tense is marked with the suffix –(e)d/-(i)t with weak verbs or nonlinearly with strong verbs.[75] The perfect tense is universally marked with a form of be.[90] Modality is expressed with modal verbs.[91]
Syntax
The language has a mirative copula come tae be 'it turns out that...'.[92] There is an existential marker which inflects for the present and past tense: de ir 'there is' and de wir 'there was',[93] where de < Norn de < Old Norse þet, the weak ablaut N.SG.NOM/ACC form of the demonstrative þat and ir/wir < Norn er 'is' / var 'was' from vera/vesa 'be'.[94]
The language has an invariant negator no for lexical verbs and a negative suffix -na for auxiliaries.[95]
Tags are formed with the negative tag suffix –(e)n + the personal pronoun in the subject form.[96]
The default imperative has postverbal pronounSUBJ retention.[97] Reflexive verbs show both pronounSUBJ retention and the object argument.[98]
Like most languages of the world,[99] it lacks relative pronouns, and marks relativisation with an invariant clause marker at.[100]
There is a prolific purposive fir tae clause marker.[101]
Non-interchangeable function words
The language differentiates between the verbal particle (tae VB) and the directional preposition (til). It also audibly differentiates between the preposition fir 'for' (/fər/ or /fɪr/) and the conjunction fur 'because' (/fɞr/ or /fɔr/). This is very prevalent with basi-and mesolectal speakers, but less so with acrolectal speakers. Duration is expressed with in (contrary to Standard English for). The language also distinguishes between the conjunction so 'so' (/so/) and the adverb sae 'so' (/se/). Furthermore, the quantifier nae 'no' (/ne/) is audibly different from and not interchangeable with the negator no 'no' (/no/).[43]
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See also
Notes
- As of the last Scottish census in 2022,[update] the only relevant language questions were asked in terms of ability in Scots, but many Shetlanders do not identify the language as Scots. In August 2025 I Hear Dee launched a campaign to get Shaetlan added as a named language to the next Scottish census,[2] and shortly after during a visit to Shetland, the First Minister of Scotland John Swinney stated the "door was open" to include Shaetlan on the next census.[3]
- Because it is a Mixed Language, it cannot be genetically classified into one single ancestral branch, since it descends in equal parts from North Germanic and from West Germanic. It is thus equally closely related to other North Germanic languages, such as Norwegian, Swedish and Danish, as well as Icelandic and Faroese, as it is to the North Sea West Germanic languages, such as Scots, English and Frisian. It also has considerable contact influence from Dutch and Low Germanic. However, its grammar is nearly homogenously Scandinavian, while its predominantly Anglian lexicon is very heterogenous. The most accurate single-branch genetic classification would thus be to place it directly under North Sea Germanic.
- Though the exonym "Shetland dialect" has found wide use based on the presumption that it is a dialect of some other language (usually English or Scots), it should be noted that it has international recognition as a language in its own right.[4] The activist group I Hear Dee consistently uses the autonym Shaetlan, as opposed to "Shetland dialect".[5]
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References
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