Scots Norse

Scots Norse
Sudhrø̀scc
Pronunciation	[sˠʌ.ˈreskʰ]
Created by	Melinoë
Date	April 3rd, 2026
Native to	Suðreyjar
Ethnicity	Norse Scots
Native speakers	(L1) 2,000 (2019) (L2) < 50,000
Language family	Indo-European Germanic North Germanic West Scandinavian Scots Norse
Early forms	Old Norse Old West Norse
Dialects	Inner South Inner Central Inner North Outer South Outer North
Writing systems	Runic Latin
Official status
Official language in	Scotland

Scots Norse (Also Sodor Norse; endonym: Sudhrø̀scc; /sˠʌ.ˈreskʰ/) is a West Nordic language, making it closer to Icelandic and Faroese than Swedish or Danish. It is natively spoken throughout Suðreyjar, being the dominant language of the isles. It has recieved heavy influence from Scots Gaelic over the last several centuries, contributing heavily to the spelling conventions of the language, and likely being the primary pushing force behind the development of the broad/slender distinction in Scots Norse (see "-sce" /ʃcʰ/ vs "-scc" /skʰ/)

Scots Norse is typically split into two main dialect groups, Inner and Outer, corresponding to the Inner and Outer Hebrides, these are further divided into North and South for both, with a Central division for Inner. These dialects are almost entirely mutually intelligible within their groups, and mostly so even between the groups. Uniting all of these is the standardized form, Hàsudhrø̀sk, literally meaning "High Scots Norse". ("high" as in "exalted")

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 Suðreyjar, Scots Norse had a dialect within the Isle of Mann (Scots Norse "monø̀jr" /mɒ.ˈnei̯θ͇/). Little is known about Manx Norse (monø̀sk), 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, with a very poor description of the pronunciations. Though from this description we can gather that Manx Norse still had the 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 or the Scots' [Gaels'] sounds of the same staves [=letters]."

Following the treaty of Perth, the usage of Norse began declining significantly, with evidence it was nearly extinct by 1550. A small revitalization occured in the mid 18th century when several of the last native speakers (at the time, Scots Norse had no more than 150 remaining speakers) gathered together to document the language so it could be taught to children. 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 it 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
		plain	broad	slender	plain	broad	slender	plain	broad	slender
Nasal		m	mˠ	mʲ	n	nˠ	ɲ
Stop	Unvoiced	p	pˠ	pʲ	t	tˠ	t͡ʃ	k		c
	Voiced	b	bˠ	bʲ	d	dˠ	d͡ʒ	g		ɟ
Fricative	Unvoiced	f	fˠ	fʲ	s, θ͇¹	sˠ	ʃ	h²	x	ç
	Voiced	v	vˠ	vʲ
Approximant					r, l³	rˠ, lˠ	rʲ, ʎ	j

1. Often plain /θ/
2. /h/ merges with /x/ outside of Standard Scots Norse.
3. Final "l" (not "ll") is often realized as /ʃ/.

	Front	Back
		Unround	Round
High	i		u
Near-High	ɪ	ʊ
Mid-High	e	(ə)	o
Mid-Low	ɛ	(ʌ)	ɔ
Low		ɑ	(ɒ)

1. /ə, ʌ, ɒ/ are the unstressed realizations of /ɑ, ʊ, ɔ/.
2. /ʊ/ is most typically realized as [ɤ]

Long vowels have long been lost, though their effects remain prominently, influencing the languages stress patterns heavily.

Every vowel can appear nasalized, though nasalization only occurs in specific positions, and is always shown with a single N. (though not all single Ns are nasalization)

• Word finally
• Before a fricative (S and H)
• In some irregular positions when loaned from another language.

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 sudhrø̀jr is stressed on "ø̀")

Mutation

Since Old Norse, initial consonant mutations have began developing. Scots Norse has several forms:

radical (basic)

lenited

nasal

soft

these can be shown quite well through pronouns + lemma, as a pronoun exists that causes most of them (except soft).

Take these following examples:

thù tàlir /ˈxu ˈto.ʎɪθ͇/ — "you speak"

e h-tàli /ˈe ˈho.ʎɪ/— "I speak"

ha n-tàlir /ˈha ˈno.ʎɪθ͇/— "he speaks"

Take notice of how the orthography for mutation takes after Irish, not Scottish.

Orthography

(only accurate up to "nn")

Letter(s)			Phoneme	Examples
b	plain		/b/	[Term?]
	broad		/bˠ/	bògi /ˈbˠo.ɟɪ/
	slender		/bʲ/	[Term?]
bh	before u/ù, a consonant, or finally		/./ or null	bhùrr /ˈur/, àbbh /ˈo/
	usually	plain	/v/	bhàrr /ˈvor/
		broad	/vˠ/	bholc /ˈvˠʊkʰ/
		slender	/vʲ/	bhère /ˈvʲerʲ/
c	plain/broad	initially and finally	/kʰ/	cotte /ˈkʰɔt͡ʃʰ/
		between vowels	/k/	[Term?] //
	slender	initially and finally	/cʰ/	cìss /cʰis/
		between vowels	/c/	[Term?] //
ch	word finally		/x/	locch /ˈlˠɔx/
chd			/xk/	[Term?] //
cn			/kʰɾ/	cnà /ˈkʰɾo/
d	plain		/d/	dàge /ˈdoɟ/
	broad		/dˠ/	[Term?] //
	slender		/d͡ʒ/	[Term?] //
dh	intervocalic/pre-consonantal/finally		/./ or null	òdha /ˈo.ə/, sudhrø̀jr /sˠʌ.ˈrei̯θ͇/
	plain		/d/	[Term?] //
	broad		/ɣ/	[Term?] //
	slender		/ʝ/	[Term?] //
f	plain		/f/	ofàrr /ɒ.ˈfor/
	broad		/fˠ/	[Term?] //
	slender		/fʲ/	[Term?] //
g	plain/broad		/g/	godh /ˈɡɔ/
	slender		/ɟ/	dàge /ˈdoɟ/
gn			/ɡɾ/	gnø̀t /ˈɡɾet/
h	plain		/h/	hàte /ˈhot͡ʃ/
	broad		/x/	[Term?] //
	slender		/ç/	dìhiale /ˈd͡ʒi.çəʎ/
l	plain	non-finally	/l/	[Term?] //
		finally	/ʃ/	sèl /ˈʃeʃ/
	broad		/lˠ/	[Term?] //
	slender		/ʎ/	sèlir /ˈʃe.ʎɪθ͇/
ll	plain		/l/	tàll /ˈtol/
	broad		/lˠ/	[Term?] //
	slender		/ʎ/	[Term?] //
m	plain		/m/	màl /mu/
	broad		/mˠ/	[Term?] //
	slender		/mʲ/	[Term?] //
n	plain		/n/	[Term?] //
	broad		/nˠ/	[Term?] //
	slender		/ɲ/	[Term?] //
	post-vocalic when final/pre-fricative		/Ṽ/	[Term?] //
nn	plain		/n/	hann /han/
	broad		/nˠ/	[Term?] //
	slender		/ɲ/	[Term?] //
p	broad slender not before back vowel	initially or after consonant	/pʰ/	post /pʰɔs̪t̪/, campa /ˈkʰaumpə/, peasair /ˈpʰes̪ɪɾʲ/,
		between vowels	/ʰp/	cupa /ˈkʰuʰpə/, cipean /ˈkʰʲiʰpan/
		finally after vowel		cuip /ˈkʰuiʰp/
		finally after consonant	/p/	ailp /alp/
	slender before back vowel	after consonant, or initially	/pʰj/	piuthar /ˈpʰju.əɾ/, peall /pʰjaul̪ˠ/
ph	broad		/f/	sa phost /s̪ə fɔs̪t̪/, bho phàiste /vɔ ˈfaːʃtʲə/
	slender	before front vowel		dà pheasair /t̪aː ˈfes̪ɪɾʲ/, mo pheata /mɔ ˈfɛʰt̪ə/
		before back vowel	/fj/	mo phiuthar /mɔ ˈfju.əɾ/, sa pheann /s̪ə fjaun̪ˠ/
r	initially, unlenited		/rˠ/	ràmh /rˠaːv/, rionnag /ˈrˠun̪ˠak/
	initially, lenited		/ɾ/	do rùn /tɔ ɾuːn/, bho rèic /vɔ ɾeːʰkʲ/
	elsewhere	broad		caran /ˈkʰaɾan/, mura /ˈmuɾə/
		slender	/ɾʲ/	cìr /kʰʲiːɾʲ/, cuireadh /ˈkʰuɾʲəɣ/
rr			/rˠ/	cearr /kʰʲaːrˠ/, barra /ˈparˠə/
-rt, -rd			/ɾʃt̪/	neart /ɲɛɾʃt̪/, bord /pɔːɾʃt̪/
s	broad		/s̪/	sàr /s̪aːɾ/, casan /ˈkʰas̪an/
	slender		/ʃ/	siùcair /ˈʃuːʰkɪɾʲ/, càise /ˈkʰaːʃə/
sh	broad		/h/	ro shalach /ɾɔ ˈhal̪ˠəx/, glè shoilleir /kleː ˈhɤʎɪɾʲ/
	slender	before front vowel		dà shìl /t̪aː hiːʎ/, glè shean /kleː hɛn/
		before back vowel	/hj/	de shiùcair /tʲe ˈhjuːʰkɪɾʲ/, a sheòladh /ə ˈhjɔːl̪ˠəɣ/
sr, str			/s̪t̪ɾ/	sràc /s̪t̪ɾaːʰk/, strì /s̪t̪ɾʲiː/
t	broad	initially, or non-finally after consonant	/t̪ʰ/	tasdan /ˈt̪ʰas̪t̪an/, molta /ˈmɔl̪ˠt̪ə/
		between vowels	/ʰt̪/	bàta /ˈpaːʰt̪ə/
		finally, after vowel		put /pʰuʰt̪/
		finally, after consonant	/t/
	slender	initially, or non-finally after consonant	/tʰʲ/	tiugh /tʰʲu/, caillte /ˈkʰaiʎtʲə/
		between vowels	/ʰtʲ/	litir /ˈʎiʰtʲɪɾʲ/
		finally, after vowel		cait /kʰɛʰtʲ/
		finally, after consonant	/tʲ/	ailt /altʲ/
th	finally		none	teth /tʰʲe/, leth /ʎe/, strath /s̪t̪ɾa/
	between vowels		/./	leotha /ˈlɔ.ə/, piuthar /ˈpʰju.əɾ/, cnòthan /ˈkɾɔː.ən/
			/h/	beatha /ˈpɛhə/, fathan /ˈfahan/, a mhàthair /ə ˈvaːhɪɾʲ/
	initially	broad		mo thòn /mɔ hɔːn/, do thaigh /t̪ɔ hɤʝ/
		slender, before front vowel		thig /hikʲ/, ro thinn /rˠɔ hiːɲ/
		slender, before back vowel	/hj/	do theaghlach /t̪ɔ ˈhjɔːl̪ˠəx/, glè thiugh /kleː hju/

Morphology

Nouns

Strong nouns

There are two strong neuter, three masculine, and three feminine declensions. The masculine and feminine each have an A, an I, and an R stem, after the defining difference in the nominative singular of the Proto-Germanic form.

Though the masculine a-stems tend for an -s genitive singular, and the i- and r-stems tend for -ar, there are many words that don't follow. The -i of the dative singular is frequently dropped from many words, particularly in the i-declension. Bisyllabic proper names originally in -arr or -urr, such as Einarr (modern "Ènar" /ˈe.nəθ͇/) and Gizurr (modern "Gisur" /ˈɟɪ.sʌθ͇/) do not contract as hamarr ("hamr-") before an inflectional syllable.

These first few are masculine a-stems.

Inflection of elde (masculine a-stem)

	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	elde	hi {{{1n}}}e	eldar	hinir eldar
accusative	eld	hi {{{1n}}}	eldd	hinn eldd
dative	eldi	hinu {{{1n}}}i	elduᶰ	hinu {{{1n}}}uᶰ
genitive	elds	hins elds	eldd	hinn eldd

ᶰ: triggers nasal mutation

Inflection of hàte (masculine a-stem)

	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	hàte	hi {{{1n}}}e	hàtar	hinir hàtar
accusative	hàt	hi {{{1n}}}	hàtt	hinn hàtt
dative	hàti	hinu {{{1n}}}i	hòtuᶰ	hinu {{{1n}}}uᶰ
genitive	hàts	hins hàts	hàtt	hinn hàtt

ᶰ: triggers nasal mutation

Inflection of hàmare (masculine a-stem)

	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	hàmare	hi {{{1n}}}e	hàmarar	hinir hàmarar
accusative	hàmar	hi {{{1n}}}	hamar	hinn hamar
dative	hamri	hinu {{{1n}}}i	homruᶰ	hinu {{{1n}}}uᶰ
genitive	hàmars	hins hàmars	hamar	hinn hamar

ᶰ: triggers nasal mutation

Due to many sound changes, "hamare" is quite irregular, this following table is more colloquial spellings that better show pronunciation.

Inflection of hàmare (masculine a-stem)

	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	hàmare	hi {{{1n}}}e	hàmarar	hinir hàmarar
accusative	hàmar	hi {{{1n}}}	hanar	hinn hanar
dative	hanri	hinu {{{1n}}}i	honruᶰ	hinu {{{1n}}}uᶰ
genitive	hàmars	hins hàmars	hanar	hinn hanar

ᶰ: triggers nasal mutation

And an uncontracted form:

Inflection of hàmare (masculine a-stem)

	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	hàmare	hi {{{1n}}}e	hàmarar	hinir hàmarar
accusative	hàmar	hi {{{1n}}}	hàmarr	hinn hàmarr
dative	hàmari	hinu {{{1n}}}i	hòmaruᶰ	hinu {{{1n}}}uᶰ
genitive	hàmars	hins hàmars	hàmarr	hinn hàmarr

ᶰ: triggers nasal mutation

Verbs

Weak verbs

Class 2

Conjugation of tàll (weak class 2)

	present			past
infinitive	tàll			—
participle	tàladdi			tàladhe
active	active	passive		active	passive
1sg.	tàli	tòlunk		tàladhi	tòludhunk
2/3sg.	tàlir	tàlesk		tàladhir	tàladhesk
1pl.	tàlin	tàlinsk		tàladhin	tàladhinsk
2pl.	tàlidh	tàlisk		tàladhidh	tàladhisk
3pl.	tàli	tàlisk		tàladhi	tàladhisk

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.

Lexical comparison

Leipzig-Jakarta List
Rank	English	Old Norse	Scots Norse	Icelandic	Swedish
1	fire	eldr	elde /ˈœd͡ʒ/	eldur	eld
2	nose	nǫs	nos /ˈnˠɔs/	nös	nas
3	to go	ganga	gogg /ˈɡɔɡ/	ganga	gånga
4	water	vatn	vànn /ˈvon/	vatn	vatten
5	mouth	(body) munnr (river) mynni (river) óss	(body) munne /ˈmˠɤɲ/ (river) mynni /ˈmi.ɲɪ/
6	tongue	tunga	tugg /ˈtˠɤɡ/
7	blood	blóð	blòdh /ˈblˠo(ː)/
8	bone	bein	bèn /ˈbʲen/
9	2sg pronoun (you)	þú	tù /ˈtˠu/
10	root	rót	ròt /ˈrˠotʰ/
11	to come (move)	koma	comm /ˈkʰɔm/
12	breast	brjóst	briòst /ˈbrʲos(tʰ)/
13	rain	regn	regn /ˈrʲɛi̯n/
14	1sg pronoun (I)	ek	/ɛkʰ/
15	name	nafn	nàvn /ˈnou̯n/
16	louse (Phthirapteron)
17	wing
18	flesh/meat
19	arm/hand
20	fly (Dipteron)
21	night (time)	nátt	nàtt /ˈnotʰ/
22	ear
23	neck
24	far (prep.)
25	to do/make
26	house/structure
27	stone/rock (singular)
28	bitter
29	to say	tala	tall /ˈtal/
30	tooth
31	hair
32	big
33	one (number)	einn	èn /ˈẽ/
34	who?
35	3sg pronoun (they)	hann (m) hǫ́n (f) þat (n)	han (m) /ˈhã/ hòn (f) /ˈxõ/ that (n) /ˈtatʰ/
36	to hit/beat
37	leg/foot
38	horn
39	this (pron.)	sá	sà /ˈsˠo/
40	fish	fiskr	fisce /ˈfʲɪsc/
41	yesterday
42	to drink
43	black (color)
44	navel
45	to stand
46	to bite
47	back (body)
48	wind
49	smoke (substance)
50	what?
51	child (kin term)
52	egg
53	to give
54	new (adj.)
55	to burn (intr.)
56	not (adj./adv.)	eigi (verbal) -at	ègi /ˈe.ʝɪ~ˈeɪ̯/ (verbal) -et /(ʲ)tʰ/
57	good
58	to know	kunna (a person) kenna	cunn /ˈkʰɤn/ (a person) cenn /ˈcʰɛn/
59	knee
60	sand
61	to laugh
62	to hear
63	soil
64	leaf
65	red (color)
66	liver (organ)
67	to hide
68	skin/hide	feldr (animal) skinn (general) húð	felde /ˈfʲœd͡ʒ/ (animal) scinn /ˈscɪɲ/ (general) hùdh /ˈxu/
69	to suck
70	to carry
71	ant (Formid)
72	heavy
73	to take
74	old
75	to eat	eta	jatt /ˈjatʰ/
76	thigh
77	thick
78	long (spacially)
79	to blow
80	wood
81	to run
82	to fall
83	eye (body-part)
84	ash
85	tail
86	dog	hundr rakki	hudde /ˈxɤd͡ʒ/ (archaic) racci /ˈra.cɪ/ (affectionate) cù /ˈkʰu/	hundur rakki	hund rakka
87	to cry/weep
88	to tie
89	to see
90	sweet
91	rope
92	shade/shadow
93	bird	fugl	fugl /ˈfˠɯl/
94	salt
95	small
96	wide
97	star
98	in	í	ì /i, ɪ/
99	hard (materially)
100	to crush/grind