Shetland is the northernmost part of the UK, an archipelago straddling the Atlantic Ocean to the west and the North Sea to the east between Scotland, Norway and Faroe. The strategic location, smack in the middle of maritime trade and migration routes, means that the islands have been a place of contact for centuries, if not millennia. Shaetlan is the language spoken alongside English in Shetland. It pre-dates English on the islands and is not mutually intelligible with English. All Shaetlan speakers are bilingual in English. Its main ancestor languages are Norn (extinct) and Scots, with a lot of Dutch and Low German influence.
