Shetland dialect[note 2] (autonym:Shaetlan[note 3][ˈʃe̞tlənd̥], also variously known asShetland orShetlandic)[7] is amixed language spoken inShetland, anarchipelago to the north of mainlandScotland. 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 stablebilingualism ofNorn (the language of the previous settlers) andLowlands Scots (mainly thevarieties fromFife andLothian)[8] brought to Shetland from the early 15th century and onwards. Norn, the language of the original settlers, is an extinctNorth Germanic language, descended fromWestern 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-drawncontact situation resulted in a very distinct linguistic blend of Norn and Lowland Scots, with a noticeable contact influence ofLow Germanic languages (Middle Dutch andMiddle 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]
The language is a prototypicalcontact 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 thegrammar comes from the language of the originalsettlers and the bulk of thevocabulary comes from the new settlers.[14]
The language has traditionally been classified as, variously, adialect of Scots or a dialect ofEnglish. However, the grammar of the language is remarkably aligned with that of Continental Scandinavian, while thelexicon is quite heterogenous. The vocabulary is thus a blend of Anglian and Norn, with a noticeable component of Dutch/Low Germanloanwords. On 15th October 2025, the language was formally recognised as a language byISO639Maintenance Agency and given theISO 639 codescz (element ofset 3).[17] As of 2025,[update] the language has not been accepted as an official language in Shetland, and has never been used as an officialmedium of instruction in education, other than as a curiosity in occasional creative sessions. It has been used infictional writing since at least the 19th century, especially inpoetry,children's books, andcomic strips orsatire.Dictionaries of the language have been compiled and published since the mid-19th century.[18]
Shetland had been settled by aCeltic-speaking population by the time the Western Norse expansion started in the late 8th century.[19] The majority seems to have belonged to thePictish linguistic and cultural sphere, but it is possible that there were alsoGaelic speakingChristian 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 withOrkney andCaithness, was incorporated into theKingdom of Norway in 875 as theEarldom of Orkney.[23] However, in 1195 Shetland was placed directly under the rule of theNorwegian king and was made a tributary province to Norway, paying tax directly to the Norwegian king and ruled by the king'ssysselman ('governor').[24] This meant that Shetland's links with Orkney gradually diminished, although theyshared 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 theHanseatic andDutch North Sea fishing trade in Shetland (linking it withBergen,Iceland and theFaroe islands), bringing with it an intense and sustained contact with Dutch and Low Germanic speakers in thelate medieval andearly 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 Hanseatictrading 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 andNapoleonic wars,[29] and nearly seamlessly move from Hanseatic trade to the Dutch fishing trade. It was especially the trade forknitwear which made the Dutch fishing fleet arrive in the hundreds. This is also what gave rise to the town ofLerwick.[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 theclergy, 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 theunion of Norway and Denmark in 1380. In 1468Christian I of Denmark pawned Orkney toJames III of Scotland as part of thedowry forPrincess 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 ofDunrossness 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 asWalter Sutherland ofSkaw inUnst (bornc. 1783, died(1850-08-10)10 August 1850.[39][40] However, as of 2025,[update] living memory names Jane Ratter (born(1864-12-13)13 December 1864, died(1956-02-06)6 February 1956)[41] ofFoula as arememberer of Norn songs, verses and riddles, and names her mother, Janet Manson (born(1827-12-10)10 December 1827, died(1925-08-05)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", butDanska Tonga.[43]
A cluster dendrogram comparing the grammatical features of the language with Standard English and Swedish. It only splits with Swedish at 0.08, indicating extreme similarity (0 = total similarity).[44]A phylogenetic network showing the relationship between the relevant languages in the Shetland linguistic ecology, based on their respective Swadesh 100-lists
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, moresocioeconomically dominant settlers: in a clusterdendrogram the grammar of the language is near-identical to contemporaryContinental Scandinavian grammar,[48] while aphylogenetic network of theSwadesh 100-list of shows the language on theAnglian branch, but much more removed than Scots and English are from each other. The vocabulary is thus more heterogenous than the grammar.[49]
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]
In July 2022 Dr. Beth Mouat of theUniversity of the Highlands and Islands submitted the Shaetlan Language Plan to theShetland College board. It was adopted in its totality and made public in September 2022.[51] It was the firstde 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]
The language has 27 contrastive consonants:/p,b,t̪,d̪,k,g,f,v,θ,s,z,ʃ,ʒ,x,h,ts,tʃ,m,n,ɲ,ŋ,r,l,ɫ,ʍ,w,j/.[54] Notice that thecoronals are truedentals and notalveolars. 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]
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]
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 clusterane may be[i] as inMid Northern Scots.[62]
Vowel 15 may be realised[ɛ̈~ë][63] or diphthongised to[əi] before/x/.[64]
Like moststigmatised languages in a displacive contact situation, it has been in the double bind of not beingstandardised, 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 intuitivephonetic 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 indigitalk (the informal "speech" used predominantly on handheld devices with a virtual keyboard, especially in such domains asFacebook,instant messaging of various kinds (SMS,WhatsApp, etc), and so on).[70]
Latterly the use of theapologetic 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]
The language allows bothcompounding andderivation.[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 fewconcatenative 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]
The nouns of the language have twonumbers - singular and plural;[76] and threegenders - 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 timedummies are masculine.[78]
The politeness distinctions in the language follows aT–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]
Dependent possessive pronouns
SINGULAR
PLURAL
1
my/mi
wir
2
dy/di
yir
3M
his
dir
3F
her
3N
hits
Independent possessive pronouns
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]
Reflexive pronouns
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 articlea is invariant.[87] The definite articleda/də/ is used in more contexts than in Standard English.[88]
gyaan tidda kirk/da skül idda Simmer-- 'go to church/school in summer'
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]
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]
The language has a mirative copulacome tae be 'it turns out that...'.[92] There is an existential marker which inflects for the present and past tense:de ir 'there is' andde wir 'there was',[93] wherede < Nornde < Old Norseþet, the weak ablautN.SG.NOM/ACC form of the demonstrativeþat andir/wir < Norner 'is' /var 'was' fromvera/vesa 'be'.[94]
The language has an invariant negatorno 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 markerat.[100]
There is a prolific purposivefir tae clause marker.[101]
The language differentiates between the verbal particle (taeVB) and the directional preposition (til). It also audibly differentiates between the prepositionfir 'for' (/fər/ or/fɪr/) and the conjunctionfur 'because' (/fɞr/ or/fɔr/). This is very prevalent with basi-and mesolectal speakers, but less so with acrolectal speakers. Duration is expressed within (contrary to Standard Englishfor). The language also distinguishes between the conjunctionso 'so' (/so/) and the adverbsae 'so' (/se/). Furthermore, the quantifiernae 'no' (/ne/) is audibly different from and not interchangeable with the negatorno 'no' (/no/).[43]
^abAs 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 getShaetlan added as a named language to the next Scottish census,[2] and shortly after during a visit to Shetland, theFirst Minister of ScotlandJohn Swinney stated the "door was open" to includeShaetlan on the next census.[3]
^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), thevariety has international recognition as a language in its own right.[4] The activist group I Hear Dee consistently uses the autonymShaetlan, as opposed to "Shetland dialect".[5]
^This spelling has been used to refer to the language (distinct from the place-name) since at least 1988.[6]
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Velupillai, Viveka; Mullay, Roy (15 May 2025).Shaetlan: a young language wi aald røts [Shaetlan: a young language with old roots] (in scz). With contributions by Hazel Adamson, Helen A. Balfour, Ronnie Eunson, John Goodlad, Bobby Hunter, Alison Rendall & Claire White (1st ed.). Uradale: Kalafine-Skrits.ISBN9781068457302.OCLC1524191734.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
