Walter Sutherland (died ca. 1850) of Skaw on the island of Unst in Shetland was reported to be the last native speaker of Norn, a Germanic language which had once been spoken throughout Shetland, Orkney and Caithness. He lived in the northernmost house in the British Isles, near the present-day Unst Boat Haven.
Sutherland may, however, have been merely the last native speaker of Norn on Unst. Some unnamed Norn-speakers of Foula were reported by Jakob Jakobsen to have survived much later than the middle of the 19th century.
Famous quotes containing the word walter:
“But true love is a durable fire
In the mind ever burning;
Never sick, never old, never dead,
From itself never turning.”
—Sir Walter Raleigh (1552?–1618)