Shetland Sea Word Glossary

A glossary of words belonging to the Shetland sea language. In this context, sea language is a variety of ritual or euphemistic vocabulary used by fishers to circumvent the usual names for certain ‘unlucky’ items at sea. In Shetland, many of the older coinages derive from Norn, a Scandinavian language spoken in the isles until the eighteenth century. This dataset is taken from the PhD thesis 'The Shetland Sea Language: A Living Tradition?' by Ian Humberstone. For context and discussion please consult that document.