Nynorn: Is the Viking Language of Orkney and Shetland Coming Back to Life?

[@historywithhilbert146]

For a limited time, grab the 1-year NordPass Premium plan with 50% off at nordpass.com/historyhilbert or use code historyhilbert!

[@frederickpurcell7478]

Regional people need which just focuses on the upper class and people of the city ! And neglects people and in The city in the poor party and the ruralites in the rough country !

[@frederickpurcell7478]

I hope it does spread ! Because I A left wing libertarian who believe in liberty regional powers and socialist and traditional and alternative culture I like what USA did with Statehood it good for the local people as the Central government sucks at knowin what it's regional people need

[@srnodol5489]

I would like to add that there is another language in Europe which went through revival. It's Finnic language of Latvia - Livonian, but the catchy thing there is that there are only about 200 people there who declare themselves as ethnic Livonians. Talking about Latvia there is yet another minority language there but it is in much better position than Livonian, it is a cousin of Latvian, Latgalian. Thanks for the great video and a great news. I thought that Nynorn is lost forever!

[@michaelgreen1515]

I want this to be made one of the offical languages of the UK and Scotland. Though not essentially spoken. There is a suggestion that there was a woman who was the last speaker after him. Modern Hebrew is not really a revival as it includes much Yiddish which is a Germanic language rather than a Semitic language.

[@frederickpurcell7478]

@@michaelgreen1515 Yeah sure English Welsh Scots Scottish Gaelic Cornish and Nynorn all deserve the same status In the Great Britain !

[@TheHarashi]

As a Faroese person, my dad always referred to the orcadians and shetlanders as our cousins

[@fremlander]

I (a Shetlander) met an Icelander at a scientific conference and when I introduced myself and my origins, he greeted me with "hello, cousin".

[@haltdieklappe7972]

Shetlanders are 25% Norwegian according to genetic studies. So yes, they’re your cousins in a way since you’re related to Norwegians

[@fremlander]

@@haltdieklappe7972 I think most of us know that (my DNA test is well over 30% Norwegian (and 12% Swedish) as well as my Shetland-version Scottish, which Ancestry classifies differently.

[@scifispaceman1557]

@@fremlander i might start a discord for the norn revival

[@robmcrob2091]

@@haltdieklappe7972 Icelanders and Faroese also have lots of Scottish and Irish ancestry.

[@MrTeniguafez]

I doubt Norn will be revived as an actual everyday spoken language, but we might see a revival of interest in Norn poetry, songs, stories, folklore etc which is a worthy goal regardless.

[@ecurewitz]

it worked with hebrew, and seems to be working with Manx and Cornish. And though never technically extinct, Gaelic is making quite the comeback

[@oscarosullivan4513]

Could be worse they could be demanding for a phone service like certain Northern Irish party demanded

[@oscarosullivan4513]

@Rusty Shackleford Wish the Dup would piss off, have you seen the article on Waterford Whispers on the rare Fostersoreous found

[@jorgeh.r9879]

I think it might be posible to revive it if they work hard enough.

[@theyhave268]

If a revival and spread of interest in Norn poetry and songs will happen, then full revival might become closer to reach.

[@celtofcanaanesurix2245]

Now all we need to do is revive Gaulish and I’ll be complete at heart

[@ecurewitz]

do we have enough Old Gaulish words in order to do so?

[@celtofcanaanesurix2245]

@@ecurewitz It would take a lot of back reconstructing, it would sort of be like a reconstructed proto Brythonic but with some tweaked grammar and words if the Romans saying the British and the Gaulish had almost the same language is to be believed, which I do because many romans would've known Gaulish either as a trading language, or because by the time they made it to Britain they had Gaulish soldiers who would've been able to converse with the Brittons

[@fordhouse8b]

@@celtofcanaanesurix2245 Should we revive both Cisalpine Gaulish as well as Transalpine Gaulish?

[@celtofcanaanesurix2245]

@@fordhouse8b transalpine, the modern French have way more Gaulish dna then the Italians do, so it would only make sense to do transalpine first

[@fordhouse8b]

@@celtofcanaanesurix2245 When you say that the average Frenchman has more Gaulish DNA than than Italians do, do you mean the average Italian, or the average Italian in the region that was Cisalpine Gaul?

[@Depipro]

A friend of mine, a Dutchman who studied Japanese, ended up on Okinawa leading an effort to preserve the Okinawan language. Not exactly the same, as it is still spoken, but only by people of the older generations amongst themselves. These people switch to speaking Japanese when addressing someone younger, without even realizing they're doing it. My friend's efforts entail such work as the recording of as much of the language as possible, compiling dictionaries and grammar books, and teaching the languages to said younger people. Last time I spoke with him about it, he still wasn't sure if his efforts would catch on to the extent that the language can be kept from going extinct.

[@jorgeh.r9879]

I support him and wish him luck

[@billbirkett7166]

A language revival movement has to be perceived as 'cool' from the younger generation in order to be successful. Things like language cafes and a very active language club with many activities is vital to success. I don't see that happening with most minority language communities, unfortunately. If there are no communities left on Okinawa that still speak Okinawan with the whole family, then that's a really bad sign. You need to reach out to villages where the children are still learning it, and build your efforts out from there. If no children are interested, the language is a 'dead man walking', essentially.

[@Depipro]

@@billbirkett7166 True, which is why my friend at the same time expressed hope and gratitude about all the young Okinawans showing enthusiasm for the language, and at the same time some pessimism over the laissez-passer attitude of the older generation. When I asked him if he wanted to grow old on the island, he said he couldn't tell yet: he really likes it, but he can't exclude the possibility the Okinawan language will die out after all, and he doesn't feel a particular urge to stick around and witness that happening.

[@billbirkett7166]

@@Depipro From what I've heard about Okinawan, it doesn't seem like there is much hope. I've heard basically that in Japan, any other Japonic languages were seen essentially as 'dialects', even though Okinawan and Japanese are probably farther apart from each other than French and Italian. China has a similar attitude about its 'dialects', and plans to try to systematically phase out Cantonese, which has been previously a very healthy language with 100 million+ speakers. Whereas in the west people tend to have an enthusiasm for minority languages, in Asia they regard them as annoyances, and have a much, much broader definition of what counts as a dialect. It's just a completely different attitude--but, for instance, something like Catalan would not be treated like a language independent from Spanish.

[@Depipro]

@@billbirkett7166 The Japanese government have changed their attitude, which is proven by the fact that they actually invited and appointed my friend to do the work he is doing (and, as far as I know, are still paying for all of it). The main question is whether or not this reversal in policy came in time. As for Cantonese, even if repressive government policies prove effective, there is still a huge diaspora. I suspect other minority languages in China are in more immediate danger, though those in Yunnan, for example, are partly shielded by their relative isolation.

[@dschledermann]

Extremely impressive pronunciation of "Etymologisk ordbog over det norrøne sprog på Shetland".

[@JoiskiMe]

I know right? Is he Danish?

[@dschledermann]

@@JoiskiMe doubtful. It's a little insecure, some minor slips and the vowels seem a little of, but very impressive none the less.

[@servantofaeie1569]

@@JoiskiMe He is Frisian.

[@seid3366]

That’d make more sense to why he’s good if he speaks North Frisian, since that has been more influenced by Danish

[@historywithhilbert146]

Thank you!

[@alfredthegreatkingofwessex6838]

Viking age ended with an arrow to the throat. Saxon age ended with an arrow to the eye History is made by archers.

[@HoundofOdin]

Genghis Khan approves of this statement.

[@MalachiCo0]

Skyrim Guard age ended with an arrow to the knee

[@andwhat]

@@MalachiCo0 goddamnit

[@richardjbarlow]

And cakes Alfred

[@deplatformedcrowprinceluna6339]

Ah yes, reminded me of CK2.

[@Daniel-cd5bw]

The last speaker of Norn actually lived in the isle of Foula in the 1940s. My partner's Granddad knew her.

[@Stumpybear7640]

Yes, I heard o her. I'm up fir learning Nynorn xxx

[@trondranorquoy5154]

More detail! You can't just keep us hanging like that!

[@Daniel-cd5bw]

The man to ask is Andy Gear who lives in Yell!

[@jorgeh.r9879]

More info Daniel. Not saying it's not true (many theories say the Norn language lasted longer than what is thought), but I really want to know more about this person.

[@Daniel-cd5bw]

@@jorgeh.r9879 ​ @Trondra Norquoy I spoke wi Andy - Janet Manson spoke Norn ("da auld tongue") and lived at Da Banks (near Ristie, North end o Foula) circa 1925.

[@Literally-Brian]

As a swede, I find this extremely intriguing. I wish my Nordic brethren to the west the best of luck in rediscovering their heritage!

[@johansorensson7578]

Samma här!

[@rajenderchhetri2051]

@@johansorensson7578 Sir, what did you right.

[@johansorensson7578]

@@rajenderchhetri2051 I wrote "same" in Swedish

[@rajenderchhetri2051]

@@johansorensson7578 okay, but What is the the meaning of här

[@johansorensson7578]

@@rajenderchhetri2051 Here

[@sandyleask92]

I'm from Shetland and having Norn revived to Nynorn would be an excellent idea. Seems to be more interest in ancient history these days so it probably has as good chance as any now.

[@robindahlberg8847]

👍🏻

[@creakychair9387]

Its been like 3 years and i am still waiting for that Sweden during the viking age video. Great video due.

[@quiquemarquez3211]

Oh man I rember that promise too,we have become quite old on all this time at least our memories still stand strong.

[@comeintotheforest]

Jag håller med! Saknar det avsnittet

[@ironwolf2244]

In particular I think Sweden is important in that context due to the fact that it was one of the Norse Pagan holdouts in the 12th century.

[@thoreau283]

Ha! ...sweeden, wussiest country in Europe. My, how the mighty have fallen! Love, 'Murica

[@creakychair9387]

@@thoreau283 ?

[@aaronblygh4719]

I'm not from Orkney, but I have family up there, and I visited last summer. I'd really love to see Nynorn being spoken up there, it would make the history of Orkney seem so much closer than it really is I wanted to learn some Norn, but I didn't ever think there would be a rival project.

[@PaulEcosse]

There is so much old norse in Scots you'd be here all day.

[@PaulEcosse]

14:10 Well I was going to say yeah, there's even more Danish left over in Scots. That could be down to the Danelaw crowd being pushed north. I'm guessing.

[@NUFC975]

I'm around 30% Scottish and my surnames old Norse originating in Orkney I think my English dialect (geordie) is actually influenced by Norwegian aswel

[@PaulEcosse]

@@NUFC975 Yeah Geordie has that and many other influences if you watch Hilberts specific videos on the north east.

[@user-wj4dyyh456]

@@-_pi_- The Geordie and Scots 'bairn' is the actually a holdover from Old English I think while the Yorkshire 'barn' is a Danish loanword from the Danelaw days. However you are right Old English and Old Norse were actually pretty mutually intelligible and Scots could get mistaken for Norwegian when listened to from a distance. Pretty amazing stuff

[@rodjones117]

@@-_pi_- The dialects of Wessex were Saxon and would have had very little specifically Norse/Scandinavian influence. How mutually accessible they might have been is unknowable.

[@ThatIcelandicDude]

Icelanders and Faroe Islanders: "You could not live with your own failure. Where did that bring you? Back to us"

[@johantrewe7268]

Interesting, many years ago, when I lived on my home island on the Swedish westcoast. I heard a story from an old fisherman. How he and his fellow crewmen just spoke "Tjörbu" when ashore on Shetland during långa, (lingcod i think), fishing. And they could easily speak with the Shetlandians, even til some extent on Orkney and Scotland. Tjörbu is a local dialect which to some extent has similarity with Norwegian.

[@rampantmutt9119]

I had no idea that Manx's revival was that successful. Really cool stuff.

[@embryomystic]

They've got a Manx-medium primary school. Funnily enough, it's across the road from Tynwald Hill! I've been there. Very interesting. I'm not sure how many native speakers there are, but Adrian Cain, who is the Manx Language Officer or something, is definitely raising his son speaking it, and I'm fairly certain Brian Stowell (who I met when he spoke at the Celtic language teachers conference I attended) raised his kids speaking it, though they may not be active in the community. Anyway, there are people who've spoken it at primary school, and it's on a lot of signage, on top of all the adult enthusiasts. Incidentally, it's not well-known, but the language never fully died in terms of having no fluent speakers. Brian Stowell learned it as a boy when he was hired to assist the gent from the Irish Folklore Commission in recording some of the last native speakers, and he said the other boy who was likewise hired did too. And if I'm correct that he raised his daughters in it, that's not a very long time without native speakers at all.

[@alexanderpisman]

A small correction on Hebrew. It was being revived far before the creation of the state of Israel, rather when the resettlement of Eretz Israel began in the late 19th century. So by 1948 there was already a committed linguistic and academic body that oversaw the language and was consistently referred to in order to understand the new grammar for the old language. Thanks for the video. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

[@faithlesshound5621]

Hebrew is not the only classical language revived in modern times. There are a couple of villages in India where most people speak Sanskrit. I don't think anyone has attempted this for Latin (where the difficulty is that most of the everyday users are celibate) or Ancient Greek.

[@embryomystic]

@@faithlesshound5621 I imagine there are enough non-celibate users of Katharevousa, at least, though I don't imagine they're raising kids in it. But I think that's based on a later version of the language, as is Church Latin.

[@DaGizmoGuy]

Native Shetlander here. Some points: 1. The word "Shetlandic" is used by basically nobody here except for linguists unaware of the local name. It's just "Shaetlan". 2. In a similar vein, "in Shetland" and "in Orkney" are the correct phrases, rather than "on Shetland / Orkney". You wouldn't say "on Japan". 3. That was a valiant attempt at the pronunciation of "gouster", but in fact it's said in Shetland dialect nearly exactly the same as it is in Old Norse with the /u/ vowel. For some reason this word is used in the intro to John Graham's dictionary, but isn't actually in the wordlist so I can't blame you here! 4. Both "hegri" and "skori" have long vowels. Why Mary Blance pronounces "hegri" with a short vowel on the ForWirds website I have no idea! 5. Jakob Jakobsen's Danish version of the dictionary was published in four volumes between 1908 and 1921, Jakobsen died in 1918. The first volume of the two-volume English translation was published in 1928, and a second was published in 1932. 6. Hugh Marwick, while technically "a Scotsman", was Orcadian himself. The big question - "Will the Northern Isles start speaking Norn again?" What is perhaps most absent from this video is the fact that basically nobody in Shetland is even aware of the Nynorn project. All interest in Nynorn I have seen comes from outside Orkney and Shetland, and in small insular communities such as our islands that is not a recipe for success to obtain any sort of wide adoption. All too often, folk discover what Norn was and wax lyrical about the tragedy of its loss and completely forget that we *chose* to drop Norn. There is a very good paper by archivist Brian Smith on this subject. Shetland especially already has it's own rich dialect of Scots which we speak and we love. And when Shetland dialect is under serious threat of disappearance from English influence, there is no godly way we're going to adopt a under-developed revival of a dead language until the security of our own native tongue is ensured - and, as a native, I can tell you that will take a lot of doing as it is.

[@xeviphract5894]

Thanks for contributing with a local perspective. It's always a key question with revival attempts as to what benefits there will be in becoming fluent. I think Welsh must be the most supported (and legal) language attempting a resurgence in the British Isles and even there, uptake isn't seen as critical to national identity (unlike Hebrew's reintroduction in Israel).

[@sejfzlrrhman]

"Disappearance from English influence". Ahh yes, the historic enemy of the Scots; the English are at it again.

[@rodjones117]

@@xeviphract5894 The essential point here is that Welsh never actually died - there were always pockets of Welsh speakers. The English tried to supress it but (unlike the French with their minority languages) never succeded. Hebrew never really died - it continued to be used as a liturgical language and for religious and ritual purposes, and observant Jewish people would have heard at least some Hebrew pretty much weekly. Personally, I doubt that an actually dead language can, in fact, be resurrected, especially where there are no recordings of the spoken tongue.

[@xeviphract5894]

@@rodjones117 I don't imagine that any revived language would be an exact match to its previous state. As we've seen, the meaning of old words can be lost to time and new ones must be created to describe the modern world.

[@rodjones117]

@@xeviphract5894 Yes, absolutely. Languages are about communication, and therefore evolve. My point is that there is a huge difference between a language that never actually died (eg Welsh) and a completely "back from the dead" language (especially where no recordings of the spoken form exist). As you correctly say, where words lose their function they either a) take on a different meaning (eg "gay"), or b) pass out of use altogether. And living languages create (or borrow) words for new technology and concepts. Both of these processes enable the language to evolve, adapt to changing societal developments, and stay relevant to the speakers' actual lived experience.

[@rubeusignis1293]

I can’t help but imagine a fire engine whenever I hear ‘Nynorn’.

[@ole7146]

As a Dane the Shetlandic text sample was not hard to read and understand, the Ocadian sample looked quite diffrent. With your interest in history and languages, you should try and look into “Anglo-Danish” , spoken in the region of Angel (North Germany) up until somewhere in the mid 1800. Anglo Danish had kept many features from old east Norse.

[@sofiaormbustad7467]

Yeah, absolutely! And Fjolde-danish too

[@elsakristina2689]

I don’t think I’ve ever heard of Anglo-Danish?

[@ole7146]

@@elsakristina2689 “Angel Dansk”, a dialect of Danish spoken in the region of Angel.

[@toade1583]

@@ole7146 It's actually interesting since some of the Anglo-Saxons come from region of Angel, specifically the Angles(who form the Anglo- part of Anglo-Saxon).

[@arcsta_rr]

Danish are raw. I like them. But I heard they "got rid" of all their accents(?) They are more "norwegian to me than østlendinger. (for us who have a accent

[@jamesabernethy7896]

Shetlander here. I apologise if i don't use the correct terms here, someone much smarter than me will correct me. When speaking giving the example of a Norwegian listening to the cadences of Orcadian, even if they cannot hear the words, it sounds familiar. Please don't quote me on this because there may have been a counter study to disprove it. I'm not even sure who did the study. There was a study done a few years ago that examined how Shetland and Orkney use their inflections in multisyllabic words, especially when beginning a sentence. If a Shetlander said 'Shetland' we would rise with the first syllable with the peak being the T, then dropping with the second syllable. This was said to be a Scandinavian trait. An Orcadian would drop with the first syllable so that the T sound almost disappears, then rise back with the second syllable. Which was said to be like the rest of the UK and much of Europe. Hope someone can set this right and sorry if it's wrong. Great vid and loved the original.

[@frostermos]

I remember learning parts of Old Norse when I was in school, and because of that awesome Danish teacher, I gained an interest in Old Norse and kind of wish we learned it more in school.

[@BjorkBrex]

My father always tells me the story when the Shetland fishers came to Suðuroy (South Island in the Faroe Islands) to get water for their trip, the Shetlanders spoke Norn, and the Faroese spoke Faroese, and they understood each others languages.. It's so fascinating. And it's the same with the Lord's prayer: (Norn) Fy vor or er i Chimeri (Faroese) Faðir vár tú sum ert í himni (Norn) halagt vara nam dit (Faroese) heilagt verið navni títt (Norn) Lá Konungdum din cumma (Faroese) komið ríkið títt.. (Norn) Gav vus dagh u dagloght brau. Forgive sindorwara, sin vi forgiva gem ao sinda gainst wus (Faroese) Gev okkum í dag okkara dagliga breyð. Fyrigev okkum sindur vára, so vit fyrigeva teim móti okkum synda...

[@baldurivar]

Björk that’s so cool! 😃 You probably already know but in case you don’t here is the prayer in Icelandic: Faðir vor, þú sem ert á himnum. Helgist þitt nafn, Til komi þitt ríki, verði þinn vilji, svo á jörðu sem á himni. Gef oss í dag vort daglegt brauð. Fyrirgef oss vorar skuldir, svo sem vér og fyrirgefum vorum skuldunautum. Eigi leið þú oss í freistni, heldur frelsa oss frá illu. Því að þitt er ríkið, mátturinn og dýrðin að eilífu, amen. ❤

[@typhoon2099]

I'm a Shetlander and this is the first time I've ever heard of Nynorn, so I don't see it coming back any time soon. Pretty interesting though! Sidenote: I did some Norwegian lessons locally and an older English couple were there who said they thought they should learn some now that they'd moved here. We do to speak Norwegian, what were they on about?!?!

[@Hrossey]

Aye mate. Tourists come to Orkney thinking we are cutting aboot in long boats and telling Sagas of old times. So I send them tae Glesga, for tales of old Maryhill 😂 2 stabb wounds in the liver and a "giez yer wallet"!

[@johannesl6978]

Yes! The more living nordic languages, the better! Greetings from Sweden!

[@arcsta_rr]

Word. It's needed these days!

[@wulfric58]

Thanks. Good video. I was in the Shetland Isles 40 years ago, and in the wake of the North Sea oil finds, a political movement arose for independence from the UK, the Shetland Movement. Clearly some Shetlanders felt that a share of the revenue would form a sound economic basis for this. Norn would support demands for autonomy. However, the demographic has been altered over the past 250 years, with Suthmuthers moving to Shetland, so maybe the feeling of Shetlandness has been diluted somewhat. I think Jakobsen suggested that a deliberate policy of population replacement by mainlanders had occurred destroying the use of the language and securing the loyalty of the islands.

[@trondranorquoy5154]

Yes, someone needs to persuade the Danish Government to offer Shetlanders voluntary citizenship (but on the basis of lower taxes than in Denmark) which would guarantee EU citizenship. Then gradually Denmark can take back Shetland in a modern civilised way, and then Norway can step in. Then I woke up...

[@Euroscot9155]

Or maybe there was no great conspiracy from the mainlanders at all and it was just all a great beeg example O' population movements, also in part of the oil boom you mentioned. I'm Caithnessian with Orcadian ancestry and islanders also moved around as the young still do for many reasons I.e. chasing tail and education. My county as does the islands still undergo changes to the folk, its just something that happens, you should quite rightly be proud of your islands and your heritage and remember it, by all means show it off to the tourists but you have to draw a line in the past somewhere with regards to the nationality dilema.

[@ulriknyman9539]

[8:54] Really impressive pronunciation of a complicated danish title.

[@ejensen]

Pronunciation was frankly amazing for a non-native, but the stresses were confusing af.

[@tompao7832]

@@ejensen Since it was comprehensable for a swedish speaker it was not real danish - at least not in its present day copenhagen dialect...

[@bomba1905]

Reject the UK, embrace tradition, return to Norway

[@VerbaleMondo]

✓ Revive Norn ✓ Revive Frankish ✓ Revive Gothic ✓ Revive Gaulish ✓ Revive Canadian Irish ✓ Revive Latin ✓ Revive old English

[@jarekdupa687]

Frankish, Latin and Old English literally have living descendants

[@aidanmorgan4630]

Interesting sociopolitical goals

[@Findinrask]

Canadian Gailc/irish has native speakers alive!

[@fukpoeslaw3613]

Revive *ProtoIndoEuropean (As far as possible)

[@Findinrask]

@@fukpoeslaw3613 no there no cultural point at all

[@AnnaFuschiaScott]

I'm from Orkney, learning Gàidhlig and it always interested me when people asked about my accent in class. Orcadian spoke ‘norn’ ... I would be really interested in getting involved, I'm about to start linguistics.... Do you have a link to the work??? “If thu pit a peedie bit o’ crream oan a cat wid lit’ it auff buey!’ - my uncle referencing a badly grown moustache.

[@Mark_Master1]

I can draw some similarities to Ulster-Scots in that

[@robindahlberg8847]

I would love to go to orkney some day!!!

[@scifispaceman1557]

I might make a discord for the norn language revival

[@robindahlberg8847]

@@scifispaceman1557 cool!

[@scifispaceman1557]

@Chris TheChosenOne orkney is scottish

[@johnboyce8279]

I'd say a good early step would be promoting bilingual signage on the islands. It might be an interesting tourist attraction as well as rebuilding the distinct identity of the islanders. See where it goes from there.

[@Fenditokesdialect]

Would you like to do a video on the Germanic influences in French, particularly seeing as it's mainly Frankish and Middle Dutch I'd think it'd be right up your alley

[@rodjones117]

Something on the Alsace language and its relationship to Swiss German (as Alemanic languages) would be very interesting, if you felt like it.

[@Uradale]

Captivating video! I am a linguist (of Swedish origin) living in Shetland and working on documenting and describing the Shetland dialect (both pre-oil and contemporary). Linguistically speaking Shetland is extremely rich and deeply fascinating. More in the email that I just sent to you. /Prof.Dr. Viveka Velupillai

[@dumskroler]

Have you seen the Shetland section of my Scotsthreip website? I see that I can't post comments with links, but google 'Scotsthreip' and then from the left panel or the Site Guide, choose 'Shetland.' Depending on your area of interest, you may be interested in my article on Shetland phonology: 'Some Characteristics of the Shetlandic Vowel System.' Also the section 'Magnus's Opium,' derived from communications with another linguist, and 'The Study of Shetlandic' about linguistics in Shetland. There is an e-mail address in the contact section.

[@Uradale]

@@dumskroler Very many thanks!

[@sjaetlan]

(Formerly posting as 'Dumskróler') - I've now posted a comment (! -you'll see what I mean by the exclamation mark) under my 'Sjaetlan' handle. Look for the logo on the left.

[@Artur_M.]

Finally, some good news!

[@IAmGlutton4Life]

I swear to God that I see you at every history KZbin channel, comment section

[@Artur_M.]

@@IAmGlutton4Life Maybe not every single one, but I'm trying. ;D

[@skarpheinnorsson518]

Ðe fact ðat ðe british havent reintroduced þorn and eð is crazy. I always þought ðat ðouse two letters would make a comback.

[@skarpheinnorsson518]

Ps. Im all for Iceland annexing ðe isles in order to give ðem all ðe support ðat ðey need.

[@marinaaaa2735]

English has never used eth. If anything gets revived it would be just þorn

[@zayan6284]

@@marinaaaa2735 i love þorn

[@oyland2954]

@@marinaaaa2735 Eth ð comes from the Irish alphabet, sometimes just a d with a dot over it, now spelled dh or th in modern Irish.

[@ganjafi59]

Don’t forget Æ

[@marijntaal1531]

I found this video interesting and would love more videos on the Orkney and Shetland islands. Was going to visit them last year but couldn't because of covid. Hopefully next year!

[@BoltBarkingatthemoon]

Oh hey, you finally released this video at long last, been waiting since you mentioning it in the Norn one! (Which I'd like to quickly note, the link you have in the description to said video is linked to start at a time instead of just from the start, which I assume is unintentional.) Coincidentally, lately myself and a couple of others on the Scots discord server have been toying with organising what was made of Nynorn into an easier to reference wiki imitating wiktionary (as the original creator seems to have gone silent for some time and the reconstruction is not 100% complete or always easy to follow on the site), along with doing a little reconstruction of other words often based around Faroese cognates. Norn has always intrigued me, it being revived is something I'd love to see but I agree with you it seems unlikely to happen anytime soon. An idea I had to potentially help with that end was perhaps one day after getting what exists of Nynorn all straightened out and a plan for further vocab reconstruction is to create a teach yourself-style book written in the Shetland Scots dialect for learning Nynorn, to make it more attractive for Shetlanders, but if I ever get around to it is a long way off, my looking at Norn being between other things I already look at.

[@perhansson4796]

As a Swede I could understand maybe half the text on the lord’s prayers. The first part in Swedish “ Fader vår i himmelen, helgat vare ditt namn, komme ditt rike, ske din vilja på jorden som den sker i himmelen” Lycka till med nynorn!

[@fremlander]

As a Shetlander a'm awaur o mony groups an associations an da laek dat sustain an promote wir dialect an am never heard o ony effort tae revive Norn or promote Nynorn so I doot dis hisna muckle clout ootside o da author's ain haed.

[@leornendeealdenglisc]

Fantastic video, Hilbert. I enjoyed this. Thanks for the shoutout at the end. :)

[@johnagefrost]

For people interested in such things: My band Hamradun have recorded a version of the Orcadian ballad "Hildinakvæði", where the first half is in Faroese, and we attempt to sing in Orkney Norn in the second half. Out in a couple of weeks 🤘🤘

[@fredriks5090]

Some of the names/placenames written with a "wall" or "voe" is actually their version of Vágur/Våg.

[@trondranorquoy5154]

"Kirkwa" (in Orkney) would make so much more sense than the Anglified "Kirkwall"!

[@napoleonibonaparte7198]

Norn sounds like the dwarf that had to be left behind because he was more of a liability than Bilbo among Thorin’s Company in their quest to retake the Misty Mountains.

[@bluemountain4181]

Norn built his own ship and sailed west to raid the Undying Lands

[@Kallikukurinn]

When it comes to reading Snorri, you got to be aware why and how he was writing his works. When he wrote about the gods, he wrote about them in a way that would be appealing to Christians, in a way to draw similarities between Christianity and Ásatrú. It was obviously meant to lessen any condemnations from Christians about the Nordic people's past so that people would think about them as only having been misguided but still having been on the right track. So take Snorri with a bit of grain of salt as he will have to justify the Nordic past in the eyes of Christians. Also "Norn" means "witch" in Icelandic though looking into it, it had a different meaning before Christianity, but there is a little bit of tidbit for you from an Icelander~

[@ulfurkarlsson5885]

I'm Icelandic, I talk with faroese people in english usually, sometimes faroese people can speak Icelandic, but it's impossible for both when they speak in faroese and I speak in Icelandic. It would have been cool though, because the languages are very similar in many ways, with a bit diffrent pronunciation though

[@gandolfthorstefn1780]

In Scottish Gaelic you have words like Bùð spelt Bùth meaning "shop". This is an Old Norse word that gave the English "Booth" with virtually the same phonology but pronounced 'boo' with the dental fricative ð being almost silent or completely silent in most cases.

[@quentintin1]

while i may never learn to understand or speak most of these languages (i'm having enough trouble with , coming from a country that actively tried to stifle it's regional languages (France) i find awesome how many of these are seeing a revival by the local populations and them being adopted back into the landscape of their respective areas.

[@rodjones117]

We need a revival of the Alsace dialect. It's terrible the way France, since the First World War, has supressed regional languages. Alsace isn't yet a dead language, but it soon will be.

[@Zastrava]

Eg er frå Kanada. Min hus eru frå Orknøjon (and that's enough Nynorn for today). As a linguist and a Canadian whose family immigrated from Orkney (generations ago), Nynorn has been something of a pet interest of mine for a while and I'd love to see it get larger and have a sizable Nynorn speaking community. I'm learning it as a way to connect with my family's history and in the off chance I have children, to teach it as their first language if I can get that level of mastery without a local community to learn with. Norn is also one of the lexifiers for a creole local to the province I grew up in called Bungi, spoken by Métis of Orkney/Scottish and Cree or Ojibwe descent. Unfortunately, it's likely extinct.

[@aleksanderbrygmann279]

The first sentence is easily understandable to me, being Norwegian. In case you where interested:)

[@markpirie1986]

I'm half Orcadian 🇬🇧 🇳🇴 ❤

[@ben.patrick]

History with Hilbert has the best comment section on youtube

[@SpiritTemple]

It only takes one future generation to decide "yes, this language revival makes sense, let's do this" and then the entire community switches over. It's very possible Nynorn will become the community language again. Language revitalization is an exciting part of Applied Linguistics today. I live in North America and I've seen a lot of recent success stories surrounding young people learning indigenous languages and using them amongst each other.

[@fredrikkirderf2907]

This is very interesting I hope more old languages in the British I'm from Sussex and it was depressingly recently I found out that there was a Sussex dialect that existed until recently. Perhaps one day my kids will be able to learn Sussex English not just the standard London English

[@rodjones117]

I'm from Dorset, and I'm 64. My great-grandfather spoke only Dorset dialect, my grandfather spoke both dialect and pretty standard English with a strong Dorset accent. My mother spoke only standard English with a Dorset accent, as do I. Here where I live, in Sherborne, a lot of the older people have strong accents, but none of the young people do - they all sound as if they came from London suburbs (ie not "cockney, but estuary).

[@willrichardson519]

The southern central accent is dying out, apparently.

[@satyr1349]

Yes more! Empathy to the Orkney & Shetlanders from Cymru!

[@archeofutura_4606]

Yeah the British Isles could really use some more native linguistic diversity. I’m honestly jealous of the Welsh for being able to revive their language so well (even though it’s probably the hardest language in western europe)

[@drychaf]

@@archeofutura_4606 Being Celtic, ie; a different branch of Indo-European to the Latin and Germanic branches that typify most of the Western European languages, Welsh is obviously going to be a challenge to learners from those two other branches. The statement "probably the hardest language in western europe" leaves out Basque - as a non Indo-European language, surely the most challenging for all of us in the west? The statement also implies that Welsh is particularly difficult as a language for some reason. It's only as difficult as any other non Latin/Germanic languages within the Indo-European family, as far as I can tell. Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaeliic, Breton, etc, would all offer similar levels of challenge, coming from an English only speaking background. Welsh has the advantage of being quite 'present' - on KZbin, on tv, on radio, in communities, in music, in books, in schools, in classes, etc. That would make learning it easier than less practised languages.

[@archeofutura_4606]

@@drychaf ah yeah you’re right about Basque. I was just recalling my MANY attempts to learn Irish, and finding out later that Welsh is even more grammatically complex. And yes, Welsh and the other Celtic languages are particularly difficult for English or Romance speakers, mainly because they’re so differen. I said Western Europe bc as someone who is currently learning Russian, I know that Slavic languages are demonically difficult for English speakers (and that isn’t even mentioning Hungarian). Welsh is definitely the most “present” of the Celtic languages, which does make it easier to get practice as compared to something like Irish

[@rodjones117]

@@archeofutura_4606 Welsh never died - important difference. There were always native speakers to refer to.

[@johnmacdonald9861]

Til is also a preposition in modren Scots that means same as Norse 'til' "Am Gaan til the shops' would mean 'I'm going to the shops' atleast in my Dundee dialect of Scots.

[@elsakristina2689]

Interesting!

[@userthomash]

Apparently my family from shetland told me that some parents spoke norn to confuse their kids sometimes

[@maxopaladino]

Humanity is something surprising, it's way possible that Norn can be revived as a language and I don't doubt about that.

[@DAVEYNESS]

Super interesting! More like this please 👍 from the North of Scotland, looking to try learning Nynorn

[@ArchieT7]

As a Swede, I found the Nynorn sentence in the example much easier to understand than the Faroese. Might have to do with the spelling, Nynorn seemed closer to Norwegian spelling, but I just thought that was interesting

[@oivinf]

8:54 that was a shockingly, uncannily good Danish accent holy crap

[@Matt_The_Hugenot]

I wish it were possible to reconstruct the Norse languages spoke in Scotland, Ireland, and England, and to know how long they survived.

[@oivinf]

Palatalization: in (standard) Norwegian we have fish pronounced with a hard K, but ship - despite being written "skip" - is pronounced like English "sheep"

[@benjaminpujol711]

Oh i am Just learning to read norse at school now

[@JoiskiMe]

As a Norwegian I'm very interested I listening to Shetlandic now! 🇳🇴 I wonder what dialect the tone will be based on 🤔

[@andersnygaard909]

Nitpick - nynorsk is not primarily an attempt to "purify" the language; its reason for existing is that it's closer to how most norwegians actually speak their mother tongue.

[@tgmccoy1556]

My mother's maiden name was Anderson. They were from Sutherland which for sometime was the Norse Riviera warm, relatively speaking , women good looking, they put up too much of a fight to take back to the longboat,so they stayed.

[@stevencharlton7693]

I live on The Orkney Mainland, and have said for quite some time now that it would be good to see all the place names up here being replaced with their original Norn names. Straumnes instead of Stromness, Kirkjuvagr instrad of Kirkwall, Tannskaraness instead of Tankerness and Meginland instead of Mainland just for a couple of examples. I do think It would be cool to see Norn make a come back in some form up here. It's part of our Islands Herritage and if it can be revived in some shape or form then we should take the opportunity and try!!!

[@Gadavillers-Panoir]

An idea: if a language is at a risk of dying out; it should be taught to an AI which can then retain that language indefinitely and teach it on request.

[@quantumfairing2216]

Hopefully we get a deeper dive on the Orkney history and situation where some people wants the islands to become a part of the Kingdom of Norway

[@m_eudk]

08:53 Great pronounciation, but I died :D

[@katsomeday1]

If it can help people reclaim a part of their history or culture, I'm all for it. Very cool and interesting!

[@joshadams8761]

Incorrect that no one spoke Hebrew before the revival. Many Jews spoke it in the liturgical context. Also, Jews from disparate regions used Hebrew as a lingua franca. Excellent video, though.

[@stephenwrouton]

You're right about that. I think most people aren't aware that after the destruction of the second temple, and the dispersion of the Jewish people, a few small pockets of Jewish people remained in the land speaking Hebrew. And throughout the centuries, some places would send rabbis to Palestine to live and study. So technically, it never died out, but at the same time it never evolved enough to be used as an everyday language outside of the religious context. But that quickly changed in the 1800's.

[@joshadams8761]

@@stephenwrouton 👍

[@zayan6284]

He said that it was used in the way latin is used by Christians(specifically Roman Catholics,) which is true. Used in liturgy, some people can read or even speak it, but there are no latin speaking communities around. It is likewise for Hebrew

[@eleveneleven572]

When Orkney and Shetland regain independence from Scotland it could really take off.

[@brucecollins4729]

i believe that the picts were the first inhabitants of these lands. the the proto gaels arrived from mainland europe in the east and worked their way up. other members of these gaels branched off and settled in the west of scotland. then the vikings arrived and also intermarried and colonised these lands. hence the norse gaels.

[@11324atafrbrgrdbted]

I did about 10 minutes on the Memrise app and Nynorn is a really interesting language!

[@yodorob]

Thank you, Hilbert, for bringing up the example of Hebrew as a very successful effort (in fact, the most successful anywhere in the world) at reviving languages!

[@chimay3]

Dear Hilbert Being a norwegian myself I was impressed by your norwegian pronunciation. And even more by your danish pronunciation which I struggle with myself. Perhaps you are norwegian?

[@maga6403]

Everyone is like Hilbert do a video about this or a video about that But nobody asks Hilbert are you ok?

[@phil_cassidy]

That's because Hilbert isn't Annie.

[@parmesane4611]

The thing about the Orcadian dialect is that to a Norwegian ear it sounds like Norwegian at a distance, but as you come nearer it sounds more like Welsh English.

[@richardjbarlow]

You should checkout the Nynorsk romantic language movement, since this can be quite different between regions. This was gathered in the 1800s and because of their geographical remoteness in the fjords, they were not as affected by Danish and Swedish unification. Norwegians can struggle to understand each other since the language dialects can be quite different between the fjords. Bokmål (book language) is a bit influenced by Danish. Perhaps there is some crossover between Nynorn and Nynorsk? I did show Norn to some Norwegians and they said they could recognise some of it.

[@BjorkBrex]

Faroese uses a LOT of neologism, especially when it comes to new technologies.. A CD is called "fløga" á TV is called "sjónvarp", a USB is called "geymi", a helicopter is called "tyrla".

[@dzvedairemtsarmykt4085]

Hebrew was revived at the end of the 19th century. The linguist responsible for the revival, Eliezer ben Yehuda, raised his son, Itamar, as the first native speaker of Modern Hebrew. Itamar was born in 1882.

[@Neophema]

7:07 This happened to me recently when I was in a museum in Glasgow... I would hear people talking at a distance, and I kept thinking it was Norwegian. When I got closer, I could hear that they were Scottish. I don't think they were from Orkney, though, because it happened with several different people.

[@adamender9092]

I was literally wondering about this a few days ago

[@claudianowakowski]

Great video. Now I have a new topic to pursue.

[@HladgerdKissinger]

Hey! I made the meme at 0:04

[@atbing2425]

Me, an intellectual: nygreenlandic norse

[@brandonmasha8133]

Try "Nýgrœnlenzka"/"Nýgrønlenzka". Also, I've been doing quite a bit of research on Greenland Norse, not to revive it since that would be up to Greenlanders if a reason somehow drops out of the sky, but merely to reconstruct it. Since you've mentioned a "Nýgrønlenzka", is there any information you might have on this Norse Greenlandic language to help with that research?

[@atbing2425]

@@brandonmasha8133 I was joking lol . thorn might have merged with t though

[@brandonmasha8133]

One thing to note regarding Greenland Norse is that when spoken, the vowels probably sounded more like they would in West Norwegian.

[@brandonmasha8133]

@@atbing2425 awkward... 😅 Though I was (evidently) serious about the research thing. I was just curious to see if you might have any interesting or new info on the matter. Having researched this for a year, I was kinda getting bored with sticking to the little info I do have, like þ>t, potential evidence for segmentation ("clicking" of double L), Norwegian vowel pronunciation, possible dialectism, "hv">"kv", etc.

[@skyr4]

Palatalisation in that way is common in scandinavia though? Almost all dialects in the mainland weaken initial dj, tj, and g & k before (historical) front vowels to affricates or fricatives, and the dialects in western Norway, Trøndelag and all the northern 2/3s of sweden also do it word medially. In some dialects even word finally in analogy with the definite form, like fisk - fisk'inn > fisk - fiʂ'en > fiʂ - fiʂ'en

[@laurencemaccarthaigh1130]

With the cornish revival etc. The question is posed is a revival of Cumbric?

[@Kazu89]

There's a project for that as well. If you haven't seen it yet, I can send you some links.

[@ianosborne5940]

What did the cop say to the Orkney burglar? Nynorn Nynorn!

[@Dai_Abdurrahman]

Ohh man I cant tell you how much I like your channel^^ I am watching for long time when I think about it actually lol

[@Aeslyth]

"I would write this in old norse but I am not Jackson Crawford" 😂

[@carlinberg]

Amazing!! 😂 ᛁᚴ ᚱᛁᛏᛅ ᚱᚢᚾᛁᛦ ᚦᛁᛋᛅᛦ ᚬ ᛏᚬᚾᛋᚴ ᛏᚢᚴᛅ ᛁᚾ ᛁᚴ ᛁᛋ ᛁᚴᛁ ᛁᛅᚴᛋᚢᚾ ᚴᚱᛅᚠᚢᚱᛏ

[@SamAronow]

The revival of Hebrew began in the late 19th century and there were native speakers again by the outbreak of World War I. Also more Jews who came to Israel came from Arabic-speaking countries than from anywhere else. Also also, Hebrew has 5 million native speakers but 9 million fluent speakers overall.

[@Finduszip12]

Impressed by your pronounciations of all languages in your videoes, but was shocked by your Danish pronounciation! Well done! (Wondering if you speak Danish?)

[@sigmundjogvansson4261]

Norn seems to have had more in common with Faroese than Icelandic, which is comparably a more conservative language. Faroese on the other hand went through some changes, losing its dental fricatives and gaining a lot of palatalization partially due to language contact with Danish (and a little Celtic and English). Though it's easy to question the authenticity of a resurrected language as Nynorn, I think it is possible to control the change of a language as has been the case in Faroese for the last 150 years, starting with the adaptation of a standardized orthography (1846) and grammar (1854; 1891). And actually Faroese has a lot of neologisms, though not to the same extent as Icelandic. Also here Jakob Jakobsen was a pioneer and made up quite a few words, that are in day-to-day use today, later many have followed. In the 20. century we systematically wiped out most of the danish loan words quite successfully and are now trying to keep up with English influence in the same matter. A substantial part of normal everyday speak consists of neologisms or "relearnt" older Faroese words I say go for it! :)

[@madmasseur6422]

I literally found out about Nynorn a few days ago, what a coincidence

[@parrot1442]

Manx, Olinawan, Nynorn, and Dalmatian need to live on, how else are these 13 year old kids on Xbox gonna insult us.

[@gwynethvdoherty9584]

Deffo into this 😎❤️..Nearest Nordic Language to my home country of Ireland ☘️

[@BERNTRR]

genuinely impressed by the danish pronounciation

[@iceomistar4302]

He is fluent in West Frisian and Dutch so learning Danish isnt that hard

[@BERNTRR]

@@iceomistar4302 so thats why

[@michaelbevan1081]

I wish I could learn old English, or maybe even Romani (the variant spoken in England), I do remember on the 'Community channel' aired in the UK; that they delved into the Rommi gypsy communities in England, and remembering an elderly woman speaking pure Rommani. I have learnt a few words , though not enough to have a conversation with another speaker, also I assume it's no longer spoken now.

[@DJPJ.]

How exciting, I hope the revival is successful☺

[@arielschant9841]

Love this!!! Thank you for this video