Thread by @incunabula

Norn is a North Germanic language that was spoken in Orkney & Shetland until the islands were pledged to Scotland by Norway in 1468–69, after which it was gradually replaced by Scots. Norn became extinct in 1850, after the death of Walter Sutherland the last known native speaker.

There were different variants or dialects of the old Norn language spoken in Orkney, and in the Shetland Isles. This is the Lord's Prayer in Orkney Norn, in Shetland Norn, and in Old Norse.

By the late 17th century, Norn was in decline. A 1670 source states that there are "only 3 or 4 parishes" in Orkney where people speak "Noords or rude Danish". Another from 1701 indicates that there were still a few "Norse" speakers who were capable of speaking "no other thing,"

Walter Sutherland from Skaw in Unst, who died in 1850, was the last native speaker of the Norn language, but fragments of vocabulary survived the death of the main language and remain to this day, mainly in place-names and terms referring to plants, animals, weather, and fishing.

Norn finally slipped into extinction from - quite literally - the most northerly point of the British Isles. Walter Sutherland, claimed to be the last speaker, lived in this building - The Haa - the northernmost house in the Shetland Isles, near the present-day Unst Boat Haven.

Although Orcadians spoke the Norn language for nearly 1000 years, few wrote it. Because of this, we have very little idea of the structure of the language. A number of words in Orcadian dialect though are based on Norn, including:
Felkyo - "witch"
Speir - "to ask"
Kye - "cattle"

For more on Norn - and on the history and folklore of the Orkney Islands - see the excellent Orkneyjar website:
orkneyjar.com/orkney/norn.htm

The Scottish minister and naturalist George Low wrote an account of his visit to the Shetland island of Foula in 1774, which includes about 30 words in the Norn language translated into English. This was published in 1879 as "A Tour through the Islands of Orkney and Schetland".