Short answers, pulled from the story.
Norn is generally considered to have become extinct around 1850, when Walter Sutherland of Skaw on the island of Unst, regarded as the last native speaker, died. Some accounts claim a very limited use of the language continued as late as 1932.
Walter Sutherland from Skaw on the island of Unst in Shetland is cited as the last native speaker of Norn. He died around 1850.
Norn is a North Germanic language belonging to the West Scandinavian group, which also includes Faroese, Icelandic, and Norwegian. It is classified as an Insular Scandinavian language alongside Faroese and Icelandic.
Norn declined after Orkney and Shetland were pledged to Scotland's James III in 1468 and 1469, bringing Scots into the islands as the prestige language. The transition had begun even earlier in Orkney when the Earldom passed to Henry Sinclair of Clan Sinclair in 1379, and by the early 15th century Scots had already superseded Norse as the language of prestige on Orkney.
Almost no written Norn has survived. Existing records include versions of the Lord's Prayer in both Orkney and Shetland dialects and a ballad called "Hildina." A 1597 mortgage document is among the last texts written in Norn. Michael P. Barnes of University College London has published the most comprehensive study, The Norn Language of Orkney and Shetland.
Modern use of Norn and Old Norse in Orkney and Shetland is mostly ceremonial. It appears in the Shetland motto, in the names of NorthLink Ferries vessels, and in traditional terms for sheep colour variations. Enthusiasts are also developing a reconstructed form called Nynorn, and performers such as Siobhan Wilson released a song featuring Norn in 2023.