Editing Norn language (section)

===Extinction===
It is not known exactly when Norn became extinct. Sources from the 17th and 18th centuries speak of Norn (sometimes identified as "Norse", "Norwegian" or "Danish") as being in a state of decline and generally indicate that the language remained stronger in Shetland than in Orkney. A source from 1670 states that there are "only three or four parishes" in Orkney where people speak "Noords or rude Danish" and that they do so "chiefly when they are at their own houses".<ref name="Northern">Millar, Robert McColl (2007). ''Northern and Insular Scots''. Edinburgh University Press. p. 126. {{ISBN|978-0-7486-2317-4}}</ref> Another from 1701 indicates that there were still a few [[Monolingualism|monoglot]] "Norse" speakers who were capable of speaking "no other thing", and notes that there were more speakers of the language in Shetland than in Orkney.<ref name="Northern"/> It was said in 1703 that the people of Shetland generally spoke a Lowland Scots  dialect brought to Shetland from the end of the fifteenth century by settlers from Fife and Lothian, but that "many among them retain the ancient Danish Language";<ref>{{cite book |last1=Martin |first1=Martin |last2=Monro |first2=Donald |title=A Description of the Western Isles: Circa 1695 |date=2018 |publisher=Birlinn |isbn=978-0-85790-288-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TQdRDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT281 |language=en |access-date=25 September 2020 |archive-date=27 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210327052225/https://books.google.com/books?id=TQdRDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT281 |url-status=live }}</ref> while in 1750 Orkney-born James Mackenzie wrote that Norn was not yet entirely extinct, being "retained by old people", who still spoke it among each other.<ref>Hoops, Johannes (2003). ''Reallexikon Der Germanischen Altertumskunde: Band 21''. Walter De Gruyter Inc. p. 385. {{ISBN|978-3-11-017272-0}}</ref>

The last reports of Norn speakers are claimed to be from the 19th century, with some claims of a very limited use up until the early 20th century, but it is more likely that the language was dying out in the late 18th century.<ref>Glanville Price, ''The Languages of Britain'' (London: Edward Arnold 1984, {{ISBN|978-0-7131-6452-7}}), p. 203</ref> The isolated islands of [[Foula]] and [[Unst]] are variously claimed as the last refuges of the language in Shetland, where there were people "[[Rememberer|who could repeat sentences]] in Norn",<ref>Price (1984), p. 204</ref> probably passages from folk songs or poems, as late as 1894.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jakobsen |first=Jakob |title=An Etymological Dictionary of the Norn Language in Shetland |publisher=David Nutt |year=1928 |location=Shetland |pages=XVIII}}</ref> [[Walter Sutherland (Norn)|Walter Sutherland]] from Skaw in Unst, who died about 1850, has been cited as the last native speaker of the Norn language.
However, fragments of vocabulary survived the death of the main language and remain to this day, mainly in place-names and terms referring to nature, mood, and fishing. For example, 'vae'/'voe' (an inlet or small bay) are found in some English dictionaries and are legal words in Scrabble.

Norn had also been a spoken language in [[Caithness]] but had probably become extinct there by the 15th century, replaced by Scots.<ref name="Scots Language p. 394"/> Hence, some scholars also speak about "Caithness Norn", but others avoid this. Even less is known about "Caithness Norn" than about Orkney and Shetland Norn. Almost no written Norn has survived, but what little remains includes a version of the [[Lord's Prayer]] and a [[ballad]], "[[Hildina]]". Michael P Barnes, professor of Scandinavian Studies at [[University College London]], has published a study, ''The Norn Language of Orkney and Shetland''.<ref>Barnes, Michael P. ''The Norn Language of Orkney & Shetland''. Lerwick: Shetland Times 1998. {{ISBN|1-898852-29-4}}</ref>

Songs in Norn survived in the oral tradition long enough to be recorded. In the 1940s and 1950s, John Stickle of [[Unst]] and Kitty Anderson of [[Lerwick]] were recorded singing versions of the 'Unst Boat Song' in Norn<ref>Broderick, G. (2025) “[https://www.academia.edu/128138076/Unst_Boat_Song_a_traditional_%CA%BBweather_prayer%CA%BC_from_Shetland Unst Boat Song: a traditional ʻweather-prayerʼ from Shetland].”</ref> and the [[Sir Orfeo|ballad of Orfeo]] with a Norn refrain.<ref>{{Cite web |title=VWML archives: English Folk Dance and Song Society |url=https://archives.vwml.org/record/RoudFS/S430446 |access-date=2025-04-02 |website=VWML archives: English Folk Dance and Song Society |language=en-gb}}</ref>