Scots Norse

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Scots Norse
Agharsc
Pronunciation[ˈəːɾsk]
Created byMelinoë
DateApril 3rd, 2026
Native toAghar
EthnicityNorse Scots
Native speakers(L1) 2,000 (2019)
(L2) < 50,000
Early forms
Standard form
Dialects
Official status
Official language in
Scotland
Scots Norse is classified as critically endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Scots Norse (Autonym: Agharsc /ˈəːɾsk/) is a West Nordic language spoken in the Hebrides most closely related to Norn, less so to Icelandic and Faroese, and quite distantly to Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish. It has extremely significant influence from mainly Scots and Irish Gaelic, and less so from the Germanic languages Scots English. The Gaelic influence is most noticeable in the morphophonology of Scots Norse, both with the slender/broad distinction in consonants and the presence of initial consonant mutation.

Scots Norse has roughly eleven dialects that form the language's two dialect continuums, these are called Veastèghsc ("Western") and Èstèghsc ("Eastern") Scots Norse respectively, these are further divided into specific dialects, which can be viewed within the articles themselves. All varieties of Scots Norse are written using the Latin script, employing Gaelic Type or Insular as the hand, this acts as a notable exception to the general notion that Gaelic Type and Insular only survive for ornamental or historical usages, as they are still the primary hand used for Scots Norse.

Uniting all of these dialects is the standard variety, called Agharsc h'u Zorcha, literally "Sorcha's Scots Norse". This form of the language is the most conservative of them all, being largely based on the 18th century description of Western Scots Norse by Sorcha of Uist. At times, the standard form has had certain shifts undone, such as the /ɛ/-/ɪ/ merger typical of Western dialects.

Classification

Scots Norse has long been a difficulty for linguists to classify, as it shows clear signs of being a mixed language, though the extent of this has been and still is heavily debated and questioned. As well as the general lack of speakers of Scots Norse, it is hard to determine whether Scots Norse stands as a creole or not, thus the general consensus among modern linguists to class it under Gaelo-Nordic till enough research has been done to reclassify it under a more appropriate position, potentially as a Scottish-Norse creole.

The difficulty in classifying Scots Norse comes largely down to the morphology and phonology, where it is closer to the modern Gaelic languages than the other Nordic languages, having lost most inflection while simultaneously gaining a simple system of preposition inflections from heavily reduced pronouns.

History

Pre-Modern

Scots Norse originates in the mid to late 13th century, around the time Suðreyjar was handed over to Scotland with the Treaty of Perth. Though the language would continue to be largely unchanged from the Old Norse of the 12th century, 1266AD is often used as a dividing date between Old Norse and the earliest forms of Scots Norse. While 1266 is a relatively arbitrary date, it serves its purpose as a convenient divide between two stages, as following the Treaty of Perth, the Hebrides would gain a much larger population of Gaelic and English speakers (At this point still Middle Irish and Middle English), and from roughly 1450AD onward, Scots Norse would be increasingly influenced by Scots Gaelic and, to a lesser extent, Scots.

Having been spoken throughout all of Suðreyjar, Scots Norse once had a dialect within the Isle of Man (Scots Norse Monaègharr). Little is known about Manx Scots Norse (Monaèsc), as it is very poorly recorded, the most extensive description being a short document from around 1500AD that contains a list of about 150 words (see the Noreine speche fra Man), with a very poor description of the pronunciations. Though from this description we can gather that it still had the original dental fricatives that had been lost in other dialects (merging with t/d), we get this from the description "... these [th and dh] are like that of the Saxons' beloved þ."

Following the treaty of Perth, the usage of Norse began declining significantly, with evidence it was nearly extinct by 1550. A small revitalization occurred in the 18th century when several of the last native speakers (having had no more than 150 remaining speakers) were gathered together by Sorcha of Uist in order to compile two main documents, a dictionary and a grammar. This effort was mostly effective, leading to the first noticeable rise in speaker count since it began declining. By the 1880's, there would be upwards of 1,500 native speakers, a majority of them young.

Modern

Modern Scots Norse is typically classed as critically endangered due to how few speakers it has, having no more than 2,500 native speakers as of 2020, and virtually all of them live in the Hebrides, making its usage extremely limited.

Since the early 1990's, Scots Norse has gained a small but dedicated community of linguists that are determined to further document it and make resources more readily available. As of 2018, an online course has been published that goes over Standard Scots Norse, and it has been continually updated since then, improving the quality and extent of the contents, having started out as a rather barebones description of the phonology, orthography, and rudimentary grammar.

Phonology

labial alveolar velar
broad slender broad slender broad slender
nasal m mʲ n ɲ
stop unvoiced p pʲ t tʲ k c
voiced b bʲ d dʲ g ɟ
fricative unvoiced f fʲ s ʃ x ç
voiced v vʲ z ʒ ɣ j
approximant ɾ, ɫ ɾʲ, ʎ j
front back
short long short long
High ɪ i ɤ u
Mid ɛ e ɔ o
Low ə ɑ
  1. Every vowel can appear nasalized.

Prosody

The rules for stress are very slightly more complex than they were in Old Norse, but not by much.

Stress always goes on the left-most syllable possible. When there are vowels with a grave, stress goes to the first one, skipping over all vowels without one. (so sudhraèir is stressed on "aèi")

Mutation

Since Old Norse, initial consonant mutation has developed. Scots Norse has three forms:

radical (basic)
lenition
eclipsis

The following gives each form of tàl:

tàlir /ˈtɑ.ʎəɾʲ/ — "I speak"
dàlir /ˈdɑ.ʎəɾʲ/ — "he speaks"
thàlir /ˈxɑ.ʎəɾʲ/ — "we (emphatic) speak"

Orthography

Morphology

Every part of speech is split among three "types" or "classes" based on the mutation they cause in the following word, these are called "radical", "lenite", and "eclipse", and they generally don't affect the word itself.

Pronouns

Scots Norse personal pronouns
simple
singular plural
1st mic vit
2nd tic tit
3rd masc haᶰ tèrr
fem hoᶰ
reflexive sic, -sc

Nouns

Nouns have been reduced down to a basic singular/plural distinction, with the gender distinction effectively lost, only being maintained by the pronouns used for the words. Nouns have also dropped their definite forms in favor of an independent article, hi.

Plurals of native words are almost always formed with -ar, though remnants of umlaut also exist. Nouns from Gàidhlig most often instead use -an.


With the general loss of gender, the suffix -al developed. Originally a feminine diminutive, it was analogized to the masculine and became an agent suffix, then a general suffix for forming feminine nouns. In the plural, it appears as -lar.

Adjectives

Adjectives, like nouns, have been heavily reduced, down to the positive, comparative, and superlative forms. The comparative and superlative are formed with -ir and -ist respectively.

Numerals

1 èn
2 tfèrr
3 trìrr
4 fiòrarr
5 fi
6 sac
7 siò
8 àet
9 naì
10 taì
11 aliov
12 tòlv

Prepositions

Scots Norse has a very, very simple system of inflected prepositions, only inflecting for person and number.

A large amount of speakers simply don't use inflected prepositions.

Inflection of i
1st 2nd 3rd
singular ig idh ighaᶰ
plural ibt idt idì

ᶰ: triggers eclipsis


Inflection of til
1st 2nd 3rd
singular tilg tilth tilhaᶰ
plural tilvt tiltt tiltì

ᶰ: triggers eclipsis

Verbs

Many significant changes have happened to the verb system since Old Norse, notably both the mood and voice distinctions have been lost. The active indicative has descended into the present and past tense, while the active subjunctive was lost entirely. The oppositive happened in the mediopassive, with the subjunctive becoming the future and stative, while the indicative was lost.

The original mediopassive indicative only remains in a small set of verbs, acting as a reciprocal, typically physical actions taken towards others, like [Term?] ("to fight"), slà ("to hit"), [Term?] ("to embrace"), as well as a few abstract verbs, such as elsc ("to love"). Otherwise it's been replaced by hinnar

Verbs have reduced to such a limited number of forms that analogy and sound changes have leveled them all down to essentially one pattern (excluding a few irregular verbs), which seemingly descends from Old Norse's weak class 2 pattern.

Conjugation of tàl (regular)
present past
infinitive tàl —
participle tàlann tàla
singular plural impersonal
1st 2nd 3rd 1st 2nd 3rd
pos. pres. tàlir mic tàlir tic tàlir ha tàlir vit tàlir tit tàlir tèr tàlirt
past tàladhir mic tàladhir tic tàladhir ha tàladhir vit tàladhir tit tàladhir tèr tàladhirt
fut. tàlist mic tàlist tic tàlist ha tàlist vit tàlist tit tàlist tèr tàlista
stat. tàladhist mic tàladhist tic tàladhist ha tàladhist vit tàladhist tit tàladhist tèr tàladhista
neg. pres. è thàlir mic è thàlir tic è thàlir ha è thàlir vit è thàlir tit è thàlir tèr è thàlirt
past è thàladhir mic è thàladhir tic è thàladhir ha è thàladhir vit è thàladhir tit è thàladhir tèr è thàladhirt
fut. è thàlist mic è thàlist tic è thàlist ha è thàlist vit è thàlist tit è thàlist tèr è thàlista
stat. è thàladhist mic è thàladhist tic è thàladhist ha è thàladhist vit è thàladhist tit è thàladhist tèr è thàladhista
continuative tàlann'ir u mic tàlann'ir u dic tàlann'ir u gha tàlann'ir u bit tàlann'ir u dit tàlann'ir u dèr tàlannt'ir u
perf. pres. tàla'ir u mic tàla'ir u dic tàla'ir u gha tàla'ir u bit tàla'ir u dit tàla'ir u dèr tàlat'ir u
past tàla'adhir u mic tàla'adhir u dic tàla'adhir u gha tàla'adhir u bit tàla'adhir u dit tàla'adhir u dèr tàlat'adhir u
fut. tàla'ist u mic tàla'ist u dic tàla'ist u gha tàla'ist u bit tàla'ist u dit tàla'ist u dèr tàlat'ist u
stat. tàla'adhist u mic tàla'adhist u dic tàla'adhist u gha {tàla'adhist u bit tàla'adhist u dit tàla'adhist u dèr tàlat'adhist u
neg. perf. pres. è thàla'ir u mic è thàla'ir u dic è thàla'ir u gha è thàla'ir u bit è thàla'ir u dit è thàla'ir u dèr è thàlat'ir u
past è thàla'adhir u mic è thàla'adhir u dic è thàla'adhir u gha è thàla'adhir u bit è thàla'adhir u dit è thàla'adhir u dèr è thàlat'adhir u
fut. è thàla'ist u mic è thàla'ist u dic è thàla'ist u gha è thàla'ist u bit è thàla'ist u dit è thàla'ist u dèr è thàlat'ist u
stat. è thàla'adhist u mic è thàla'adhist u dic è thàla'adhist u gha è thàla'adhist u bit è thàla'adhist u dit è thàla'adhist u dèr è thàlat'adhist u
Conjugation of mèl (regular)
present past
infinitive mèl —
participle mèlann mèla
singular plural impersonal
1st 2nd 3rd 1st 2nd 3rd
pos. pres. mèlir mic mèlir tic mèlir ha mèlir vit mèlir tit mèlir tèr mèlirt
past mèladhir mic mèladhir tic mèladhir ha mèladhir vit mèladhir tit mèladhir tèr mèladhirt
fut. mèlist mic mèlist tic mèlist ha mèlist vit mèlist tit mèlist tèr mèlista
stat. mèladhist mic mèladhist tic mèladhist ha mèladhist vit mèladhist tit mèladhist tèr mèladhista
neg. pres. è mhèlir mic è mhèlir tic è mhèlir ha è mhèlir vit è mhèlir tit è mhèlir tèr è mhèlirt
past è mhèladhir mic è mhèladhir tic è mhèladhir ha è mhèladhir vit è mhèladhir tit è mhèladhir tèr è mhèladhirt
fut. è mhèlist mic è mhèlist tic è mhèlist ha è mhèlist vit è mhèlist tit è mhèlist tèr è mhèlista
stat. è mhèladhist mic è mhèladhist tic è mhèladhist ha è mhèladhist vit è mhèladhist tit è mhèladhist tèr è mhèladhista
continuative mèlann'ir u mic mèlann'ir u dic mèlann'ir u gha mèlann'ir u bit mèlann'ir u dit mèlann'ir u dèr mèlannt'ir u
perf. pres. mèla'ir u mic mèla'ir u dic mèla'ir u gha mèla'ir u bit mèla'ir u dit mèla'ir u dèr mèlat'ir u
past mèla'adhir u mic mèla'adhir u dic mèla'adhir u gha mèla'adhir u bit mèla'adhir u dit mèla'adhir u dèr mèlat'adhir u
fut. mèla'ist u mic mèla'ist u dic mèla'ist u gha mèla'ist u bit mèla'ist u dit mèla'ist u dèr mèlat'ist u
stat. mèla'adhist u mic mèla'adhist u dic mèla'adhist u gha {mèla'adhist u bit mèla'adhist u dit mèla'adhist u dèr mèlat'adhist u
neg. perf. pres. è mhèla'ir u mic è mhèla'ir u dic è mhèla'ir u gha è mhèla'ir u bit è mhèla'ir u dit è mhèla'ir u dèr è mhèlat'ir u
past è mhèla'adhir u mic è mhèla'adhir u dic è mhèla'adhir u gha è mhèla'adhir u bit è mhèla'adhir u dit è mhèla'adhir u dèr è mhèlat'adhir u
fut. è mhèla'ist u mic è mhèla'ist u dic è mhèla'ist u gha è mhèla'ist u bit è mhèla'ist u dit è mhèla'ist u dèr è mhèlat'ist u
stat. è mhèla'adhist u mic è mhèla'adhist u dic è mhèla'adhist u gha è mhèla'adhist u bit è mhèla'adhist u dit è mhèla'adhist u dèr è mhèlat'adhist u
Conjugation of àgh (regular)
present past
infinitive àgh —
participle àghann àgha
singular plural impersonal
1st 2nd 3rd 1st 2nd 3rd
pos. pres. àghir mic àghir tic àghir ha àghir vit àghir tit àghir tèr àghirt
past àghadhir mic àghadhir tic àghadhir ha àghadhir vit àghadhir tit àghadhir tèr àghadhirt
fut. àghist mic àghist tic àghist ha àghist vit àghist tit àghist tèr àghista
stat. àghadhist mic àghadhist tic àghadhist ha àghadhist vit àghadhist tit àghadhist tèr àghadhista
neg. pres. è h'àghir mic è h'àghir tic è h'àghir ha è h'àghir vit è h'àghir tit è h'àghir tèr è h'àghirt
past è h'àghadhir mic è h'àghadhir tic è h'àghadhir ha è h'àghadhir vit è h'àghadhir tit è h'àghadhir tèr è h'àghadhirt
fut. è h'àghist mic è h'àghist tic è h'àghist ha è h'àghist vit è h'àghist tit è h'àghist tèr è h'àghista
stat. è h'àghadhist mic è h'àghadhist tic è h'àghadhist ha è h'àghadhist vit è h'àghadhist tit è h'àghadhist tèr è h'àghadhista
continuative àghann'ir u mic àghann'ir u dic àghann'ir u gha àghann'ir u bit àghann'ir u dit àghann'ir u dèr àghannt'ir u
perf. pres. àgha'ir u mic àgha'ir u dic àgha'ir u gha àgha'ir u bit àgha'ir u dit àgha'ir u dèr àghat'ir u
past àgha'adhir u mic àgha'adhir u dic àgha'adhir u gha àgha'adhir u bit àgha'adhir u dit àgha'adhir u dèr àghat'adhir u
fut. àgha'ist u mic àgha'ist u dic àgha'ist u gha àgha'ist u bit àgha'ist u dit àgha'ist u dèr àghat'ist u
stat. àgha'adhist u mic àgha'adhist u dic àgha'adhist u gha {àgha'adhist u bit àgha'adhist u dit àgha'adhist u dèr àghat'adhist u
neg. perf. pres. è h'àgha'ir u mic è h'àgha'ir u dic è h'àgha'ir u gha è h'àgha'ir u bit è h'àgha'ir u dit è h'àgha'ir u dèr è h'àghat'ir u
past è h'àgha'adhir u mic è h'àgha'adhir u dic è h'àgha'adhir u gha è h'àgha'adhir u bit è h'àgha'adhir u dit è h'àgha'adhir u dèr è h'àghat'adhir u
fut. è h'àgha'ist u mic è h'àgha'ist u dic è h'àgha'ist u gha è h'àgha'ist u bit è h'àgha'ist u dit è h'àgha'ist u dèr è h'àghat'ist u
stat. è h'àgha'adhist u mic è h'àgha'adhist u dic è h'àgha'adhist u gha è h'àgha'adhist u bit è h'àgha'adhist u dit è h'àgha'adhist u dèr è h'àghat'adhist u

Suppletive verbs

There are very few known suppletive verbs in Scots Norse, the main one being the copula vèr, and even it has been leveled by many speakers.

Conjugation of vèr (suppletive)
present past
infinitive vèr —
participle vèrann vèra
singular plural impersonal
1st 2nd 3rd 1st 2nd 3rd
pos. pres. er mic er tic er ha er vit er tit er tèr ert
past var mic var tic var ha var vit var tit var tèr vart
fut. vèrist mic vèrist tic vèrist ha vèrist vit vèrist tit vèrist tèr vèrista
stat. vèradhist mic vèradhist tic vèradhist ha vèradhist vit vèradhist tit vèradhist tèr vèradhista
neg. pres. è h'er mic è h'er tic è h'er ha è h'er vit è h'er tit è h'er tèr è h'ert
past è vhar mic è vhar tic è vhar ha è vhar vit è vhar tit è vhar tèr è vhart
fut. è vhèrist mic è vhèrist tic è vhèrist ha è vhèrist vit è vhèrist tit è vhèrist tèr è vhèrista
stat. è vhèradhist mic è vhèradhist tic è vhèradhist ha è vhèradhist vit è vhèradhist tit è vhèradhist tèr è vhèradhista
continuative vèrann'ir u mic vèrann'ir u dic vèrann'ir u gha vèrann'ir u bit vèrann'ir u dit vèrann'ir u dèr vèrannt'ir u
perf. pres. vèra'ir u mic vèra'ir u dic vèra'ir u gha vèra'ir u bit vèra'ir u dit vèra'ir u dèr vèrat'ir u
past vèra'adhir u mic vèra'adhir u dic vèra'adhir u gha vèra'adhir u bit vèra'adhir u dit vèra'adhir u dèr vèrat'adhir u
fut. vèra'ist u mic vèra'ist u dic vèra'ist u gha vèra'ist u bit vèra'ist u dit vèra'ist u dèr vèrat'ist u
stat. vèra'adhist u mic vèra'adhist u dic vèra'adhist u gha {vèra'adhist u bit vèra'adhist u dit vèra'adhist u dèr vèrat'adhist u
neg. perf. pres. è vhèra'ir u mic è vhèra'ir u dic è vhèra'ir u gha è vhèra'ir u bit è vhèra'ir u dit è vhèra'ir u dèr è vhèrat'ir u
past è vhèra'adhir u mic è vhèra'adhir u dic è vhèra'adhir u gha è vhèra'adhir u bit è vhèra'adhir u dit è vhèra'adhir u dèr è vhèrat'adhir u
fut. è vhèra'ist u mic è vhèra'ist u dic è vhèra'ist u gha è vhèra'ist u bit è vhèra'ist u dit è vhèra'ist u dèr è vhèrat'ist u
stat. è vhèra'adhist u mic è vhèra'adhist u dic è vhèra'adhist u gha è vhèra'adhist u bit è vhèra'adhist u dit è vhèra'adhist u dèr è vhèrat'adhist u

"er" and "var" are the more prevalent forms, but the regularized forms "vèrir" and "vèradhir" are also rather common.

Syntax

Word order

Scots Norse word order is incredibly strict, relying more on particles than word order for changing the sentence type. The typical order is:

  1. Preverbal particle
  2. Verb
  3. Postverbal particle(s)
  4. Subject
  5. Preposition(s) (usually)
  6. Direct object or predicate adjective
  7. Indirect object

Prepositions are placed largely as in English, but the usage can often differ, eg. "i" ("in") goes before the direct object, but is also used for "under" as in "i miùeghi" ("under construction", literally "in building").

An example:

(1)

er

be.PRES

Agharsc

Scots_Norse

Vheostnariòzc

West_Norse

h'u

of

ghi

the

nAghar.

Hebrides

er Agharsc Vheostnariòzc h'u ghi nAghar.

be.PRES Scots_Norse West_Norse of the Hebrides

Scots Norse is a West Nordic language spoken in the Hebrides

Questions and answers

Scots Norse lacks a true equivalent to "no", the closest thing being "è(gh)" ("not"), which can often be used on it's own when a form of "be" + "not" suffices for an answer, as in:

(2)

vàrth

Q

mèlir

speak.PRES

tù

2sg

vid

with

mic?

1sg

vàrth mèlir tù vid mic?

Q speak.PRES 2sg with 1sg

Will you speak with me?

 (2.1)

ègh

NEG

ègh

NEG

I won't

Following this usage of "ègh", "ghià" (Old Norse "já") is often used as an affirmative, as in:

(3)

vàrth

Q

èthist

speak.FUT

tù

2sg

màenhmhàth

dinner

vid

with

mic?

1sg

vàrth èthist tù màenhmhàth vid mic?

Q speak.FUT 2sg dinner with 1sg

Will you eat dinner with me?

 (3.1)

ghià!

AFF

ghià!

AFF

I will!

Texts

UDHR Article 1

Original (English)

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Old Norse (modern translation)

Allir menn eru bornir frjálsir ok jafnir at virðingu ok réttum. Þeir eru allir viti gœddir ok samvizku, ok skulu gøra hvárr til annars bróðurliga.

Scots Norse

arr manarr al bhori mhriàl h-o hiavn, vèrann vhirrdhing o rhèt h-atharr. vèrann gaèdhadh h-o shanvisc h-atharr, o shcùl ghèor hanna thil bròdhligh.
arr manarr al bhori mhriàl h-o hiavn, vèrann vhirrdhing o rhèt h-atharr. vèrann gaèdhadh h-o shanvisc h-atharr, o shcùl ghèor hanna thil bròdhligh.

English translation
lit: "all men are born free and equal, being dignity and rights at them. being reason and conscience at them, and should act to brotherhood at each other"
"all men are born free and equal, having dignity and rights. they have reason and conscience, and should act to eachother as a brotherhood"

Deor

Old English

Welund him be wurman
wræces cunnade,
anhydig eorl
earfoþa dreag,
hæfde him to gesiþþe
sorge and longaþ,
wintercealde wræce,
wean oft onfond
siþþan hine Niðhad on
nede legde,
swoncre seonobende
on syllan monn.
Þæs ofereode,
þisses swa mæg.

Scots Norse

Vòluenn shi, thur ròvnirr
cvàlarr cenn,
ànar iall
arrvidh thoeld,
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
ta h-oevgangtirr,
tash thil mègh.

(lines with "-" are yet to be translated)

Lexical comparison

See also

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