Swadesh | Lingoblog

Shaetlan: a young language with old roots – a Nordic language now officially recognized

30/12/2025 by Peter Bakker

A Danish review of the book can be read here.

Shetland is an archipelago and it belongs administratively to Scotland. Scotland belongs administratively to the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom is liberated from the European Union, but it used to be part of the EU. The British do not feel European, at least a small majority, so they brexited. The Scots do not feel English, but they are not allowed to vote for independence. The Shetlanders do not feel Scottish, and there are a fair few who would like to have Home Rule, somewhat like the Faroe Islands have within the Danish Kingdom. There are some 23,000 people in Shetland (yes, IN Shetland, not ON Shetland). They have their … ↪

Now recognized: An old language with Scandinavian roots in the North Sea

12/01/202622/12/2025 by Viveka Velupillai

Shaetlan is a Mixed Language spoken in the Shetland archipelago, the northernmost part of the UK. As shown in the blog from 2022, it emerged due to a long drawn contact situation. There was a situation stable of Norn/Scots bilingualism. Norn was a West Scandinavian variety and Scots a West Germanic variety. This bilingualism was additionally in sustained contact with the Dutch/Low Germanic varieties. Those were spoken by those involved in the Hanseatic and Dutch fishing trades. This multilingual ecology led to Shaetlan, a Grammar-Lexicon Mixed Language with a predominantly Scandinavian grammar, but with a mainly Anglian vocabulary.

Shaetlan serves as an example after the fact for Bakker’s type of mixed languages that he calls G-L languages. These tend … ↪

Is Basque related to the African language Dogon?

03/12/2025 by Peter Bakker

Today is International Day of the Basque Language, which we celebrate at Lingoblog with an article by Peter Bakker.

One person in Spain has claimed that Basque is related with the Dogon language spoken in Mali in Africa. Does that claim make sense? It sounds unlikely, but it is important not to reject the idea without checking the evidence.

Background information:
Languages are classified into language families. The languages of a family have been proven to be related, i.e. scholars are certain that these languages descend from the same ancestor language, which was perhaps spoken many millennia ago. Some families are as small as one language, for instance Basque. A language like Basque is therefore strictly speaking not a family, … ↪