Orcadians

Orcadians
Total population
21,349 currently resident population of Orkney
Regions with significant populations
Mainland, Orkney17,162[1]
South Ronaldsay909[1]
Westray588[1]
Languages
Insular Scots (Orcadian dialect), Scottish English; historically Norn and Pictish
Religion
Presbyterianism
Related ethnic groups
Shetlanders, Lowland Scots, Norwegians, Faroese, Icelanders, Greenlandic Norsemen, and Anglo-Metis

Orcadians, also known as Orkneymen,[2] are an ethnic group native to the Orkney Islands, who speak an Orcadian dialect of the Scots language, a West Germanic language, and share a common history, culture and ancestry.[3] Speaking Norn, a native North Germanic language into the 19th or 20th century,[4] Orcadians descend significantly from North Germanic peoples, with around a third of their ancestry derived from Scandinavia, including a majority of their patrilineal line.[5] According to anthropological study, the Orcadian ethnic composition is similar to that of Icelandic people; a comparable islander ethnicity of North Germanic origin.[5]

Historically, they are also descended from the Picts,[6][a] Norse,[8] and Lowland Scots.[9]

  1. ^ a b c National Records of Scotland (15 August 2013). "Appendix 2: Population and households on Scotland's Inhabited Islands" (PDF). Statistical Bulletin: 2011 Census: First Results on Population and Household Estimates for Scotland Release 1C (Part Two) (PDF) (Report). SG/2013/126. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Brown1996 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ "The Orcadians – The people of Orkney". Orkneyjar. Retrieved 19 September 2009.
  4. ^ Jones, Charles (1997). The Edinburgh History of the Scots Language. Edinburgh University Press. p. 394. ISBN 978-0-7486-0754-9
  5. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Goodacre2005 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Thomson, William P.L. (2008). The New History of Orkney. Edinburgh: Birlinn. pp. 4–6. ISBN 978-1-84158-696-0.
  7. ^ Ritchie, Anna (2003). "The Picts". In Omand, Donald (ed.). The Orkney Book. Edinburgh: Birlinn. p. 39. ISBN 1-84158-254-9.
  8. ^ "Genetic study reveals 30% of white British DNA has German ancestry". The Guardian.
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference Hunter2010 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).


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