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The North Germanic languages make up one of the three branches of the Germanic languages—a sub-family of the Indo-European languages—along with the
West Germanic languages The West Germanic languages constitute the largest of the three branches of the Germanic family of languages (the others being the North Germanic and the extinct East Germanic languages). The West Germanic branch is classically subdivided into t ...
and the extinct East Germanic languages. The language group is also referred to as the Nordic languages, a direct translation of the most common term used among
Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish ance ...
, Faroese, Icelandic,
Elfdalian Elfdalian or Övdalian ( or , pronounced in Elfdalian, or in Swedish) is a North Germanic language spoken by up to 3,000 people who live or have grown up in the locality of Älvdalen ('), which is located in the southeastern part of Älvd ...
, Norwegian, Gutnish, and Swedish scholars and people. The term ''North Germanic languages'' is used in
comparative linguistics Comparative linguistics, or comparative-historical linguistics (formerly comparative philology) is a branch of historical linguistics that is concerned with comparing languages to establish their historical relatedness. Genetic relatedness ...
, whereas the term Scandinavian languages appears in studies of the modern standard languages and the dialect continuum of Scandinavia. Danish, Norwegian and Swedish are close enough to form a strong mutual intelligibility where cross-border communication in native languages is very common. Approximately 20 million people in the Nordic countries speak a Scandinavian language as their native language,Holmberg, Anders and Christer Platzack (2005). "The Scandinavian languages". In ''The Comparative Syntax Handbook,'' eds
Guglielmo Cinque Guglielmo Cinque (born 1948 in La Spezia) is an Italian linguist and professor of linguistics at the Ca' Foscari University of Venice. He is one of the leading figures in modern minimalist syntax. Cinque studied literature and linguistics at the ...
and Richard S. Kayne. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press
Excerpt at Durham University
.
including an approximately 5% minority in Finland. Besides being the only North Germanic language with official status in two separate sovereign states, Swedish is also the most spoken of the languages overall. 15% of the population in Greenland speak Danish as a first language. This language branch is separated from the
West Germanic languages The West Germanic languages constitute the largest of the three branches of the Germanic family of languages (the others being the North Germanic and the extinct East Germanic languages). The West Germanic branch is classically subdivided into t ...
to the south, like English and Dutch. It is also distinct from Finnish just to the East which belongs to a completely different language family: the Uralic languages.


Modern languages and dialects

The modern languages and their dialects in this group are: * East Scandinavian **
Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish ance ...
***
Jutlandic dialect Jutlandic, or Jutish (Danish: ''jysk''; ), is the western variety of Danish, spoken on the peninsula of Jutland in Denmark. Generally, Jutlandic can be divided into two different dialects: general or Northern Jutlandic ( ; further divided into ...
****
North Jutlandic North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north'' is ...
**** East Jutlandic **** West Jutlandic **** South Jutlandic ***
Insular Danish Insular Danish (Danish: ''Ømål'') are the traditional Danish dialects spoken on the islands of Zealand, Langeland, Funen, Falster, Lolland, and Møn. They are recorded in the Dictionary of Danish Insular Danish (''Ømålsordbogen'') which has be ...
***
Bornholmsk dialect Bornholmsk is an East Danish dialect spoken on the island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea. It was originally part of the East Danish dialect continuum, which includes the dialects of southern Sweden, but became isolated in the Danish dialect land ...
** Swedish ***
South Swedish dialects South Swedish dialects (Swedish: ') is one of the main dialect groups of Swedish. It includes the closely related dialects spoken in the formerly Danish but since 1658 Swedish traditional provinces of Scania (see Scanian dialects), Blekinge and so ...
**** Scanian *** Göta dialects *** Gotland dialects *** Svea dialects ***
Norrland dialects Norrland dialects ( sv, norrländska mål, links=no) is one of the six major dialect groupings of the Swedish language. It comprises most dialects traditionally spoken in Norrland, except for those of Gästrikland and southern Hälsingland, which a ...
****
Jämtland dialects Jämtland dialects (''jamska'' ; sv, jämtska, jämtmål) constitute a group of closely related Norrland dialects spoken in the Swedish province of Jämtland, with the exception of Frostviken in the northernmost part of the province, where t ...
*** East Swedish dialects **** Finland Swedish ****
Estonian Swedish Estonian Swedish ( sv, estlandssvenska; et, rannarootsi keel, lit=Coastal Swedish) are the eastern varieties of Swedish that were spoken in the formerly Swedish-populated areas of Estonia (locally known as '' Aiboland'') on the islands of Orm ...
*** name=Kroonen/> * West Scandinavian ** Norwegian ***
Bokmål Bokmål () (, ; ) is an official written standard for the Norwegian language, alongside Nynorsk. Bokmål is the preferred written standard of Norwegian for 85% to 90% of the population in Norway. Unlike, for instance, the Italian language, there ...
(written) ***
Nynorsk Nynorsk () () is one of the two written standards of the Norwegian language, the other being Bokmål. From 12 May 1885, it became the state-sanctioned version of Ivar Aasen's standard Norwegian language ( no, Landsmål) parallel to the Dano-No ...
(written) *** Trønder dialects *** East Norwegian dialects *** West Norwegian dialects ** Icelandic ** Faroese **
Elfdalian Elfdalian or Övdalian ( or , pronounced in Elfdalian, or in Swedish) is a North Germanic language spoken by up to 3,000 people who live or have grown up in the locality of Älvdalen ('), which is located in the southeastern part of Älvd ...
** Gutnish


History


Distinction from East and West Germanic

The Germanic languages are traditionally divided into three groups: West, East and North Germanic. Their exact relation is difficult to determine from the sparse evidence of runic inscriptions, and they remained
mutually intelligible In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. It is sometimes used as a ...
to some degree during the Migration Period, so that some individual varieties are difficult to classify. Dialects with the features assigned to the northern group formed from the Proto-Germanic language in the late Pre-Roman Iron Age in Northern Europe. Eventually, around the year 200 AD, speakers of the North Germanic branch became distinguishable from the other Germanic language speakers. The early development of this language branch is attested through
runic Runes are the letters in a set of related alphabets known as runic alphabets native to the Germanic peoples. Runes were used to write various Germanic languages (with some exceptions) before they adopted the Latin alphabet, and for specialised ...
inscriptions.


Features shared with West Germanic

The North Germanic group is characterized by a number of phonological and morphological innovations shared with
West Germanic The West Germanic languages constitute the largest of the three branches of the Germanic languages, Germanic family of languages (the others being the North Germanic languages, North Germanic and the extinct East Germanic languages, East Germanic ...
: * The retraction of Proto-Germanic ''ē'' (, also written ''ǣ'') to ''ā''. ** Proto-Germanic *''jērą'' 'year' > Northwest Germanic *''jārą,'' whence *** North Germanic *''āra'' > Old Norse ''ár'', *** West Germanic *''jāra'' > Old High German ''jār'', Old English ''ġēar'' vs. Gothic ''jēr''. * The raising of to (and word-finally to ). The original vowel remained when nasalised *''ǭ'' and when before , and was then later lowered to . ** Proto-Germanic *''gebō'' 'gift' > Northwest Germanic *''geƀu,'' whence *** North Germanic *''gjavu'' > with ''u''-umlaut *''gjǫvu'' > ON ''gjǫf'', *** West Germanic *''gebu'' > OE ''giefu'' vs. Gothic ''giba'' (vowel lowering). ** Proto-Germanic *''tungǭ'' 'tongue' > late Northwest Germanic *''tungā'' > *''tunga'' > ON ''tunga'', OHG ''zunga'', OE ''tunge'' (unstressed ''a'' > ''e'') vs. Gothic ''tuggō''. ** Proto-Germanic gen. sg. *''gebōz'' 'of a gift' > late Northwest Germanic *''gebāz,'' whence *** North Germanic *''gjavaz'' > ON ''gjafar'', *** West Germanic *''geba'' > OHG ''geba'', OE ''giefe'' (unstressed ''a'' > ''e'') vs. Gothic ''gibōs''. * The development of
i-umlaut The Germanic umlaut (sometimes called i-umlaut or i-mutation) is a type of linguistic umlaut in which a back vowel changes to the associated front vowel ( fronting) or a front vowel becomes closer to ( raising) when the following syllable cont ...
. * The rhotacism of to , with presumably a rhotic fricative of some kind as an earlier stage. ** This change probably affected West Germanic much earlier and then spread from there to North Germanic, but failed to reach East Germanic which had already split off by that time. This is confirmed by an intermediate stage ''ʀ'', clearly attested in late runic East Norse at a time when West Germanic had long merged the sound with . * The development of the
demonstrative Demonstratives (abbreviated ) are words, such as ''this'' and ''that'', used to indicate which entities are being referred to and to distinguish those entities from others. They are typically deictic; their meaning depending on a particular frame ...
pronoun ancestral to English ''this''. ** Germanic *''sa'', ''sō'', ''þat'' 'this, that' (cf. ON ''sá'' m., ''sú'' f., ''þat'' n.; OE ''se'', ''sēo'', ''þæt''; Gothic ''sa'' m., ''so'' f., ''þata'' n.) + proximal *''si'' 'here' (cf. ON ''si'', OHG ''sē'', Gothic ''sai'' 'lo!, behold!’); *** Runic Norse: nom. sg. ''sa-si'', gen. ''þes-si'', dat. ''þeim-si'' etc., with declension of the first part; ** fixed form with declension on the second part: ON ''sjá'', ''þessi'' m., OHG ''these'' m., OE ''þes'' m., ''þēos'' f., ''þis'' n. Some have argued that after East Germanic broke off from the group, the remaining Germanic languages, the Northwest Germanic languages, divided into four main dialects: North Germanic, and the three groups conventionally called "West Germanic", namely # North Sea Germanic ( Ingvaeonic languages, ancestral to the Anglo-Frisian languages and Low German), # Weser-Rhine Germanic ( Low Franconian languages) and # Elbe Germanic (
High German languages The High German dialects (german: hochdeutsche Mundarten), or simply High German (); not to be confused with Standard High German which is commonly also called ''High German'', comprise the varieties of German spoken south of the Benrath an ...
). Inability of the tree model to explain the existence of some features in the West Germanic languages stimulated the development of an alternative, the so-called wave model. Under this view, the properties that the West Germanic languages have in common separate from the North Germanic languages are not inherited from a "Proto-West-Germanic" language, but rather spread by
language contact Language contact occurs when speakers of two or more languages or varieties interact and influence each other. The study of language contact is called contact linguistics. When speakers of different languages interact closely, it is typical for th ...
among the Germanic languages spoken in central Europe, not reaching those spoken in Scandinavia.


North Germanic features

Some innovations are not found in West and East Germanic, such as: * Sharpening of geminate and according to
Holtzmann's law Holtzmann's law is a Proto-Germanic sound law originally noted by Adolf Holtzmann in 1838. It is also known by its traditional German name ''Verschärfung'' (literally: "sharpening"). (A similar sound law which has affected modern Faroese, called ...
** Occurred also in East Germanic, but with a different outcome. ** Proto-Germanic *''twajjǫ̂'' ("of two") > Old Norse ''tveggja'', Gothic ''twaddjē'', but > Old High German ''zweiio'' **Proto-Germanic ''*triwwiz'' ("faithful") > Old Norse ''tryggr'', Gothic ''triggws'', but > Old High German ''triuwi'', German ''treu'', Old English ''trīewe'', English ''true''. * Word-final devoicing of
stop consonant In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or simply a stop, is a pulmonic consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases. The occlusion may be made with the tongue tip or blade (, ), tongue body (, ), lip ...
s. ** Proto-Germanic *''band'' ("I/(s)he bound") > *''bant'' > Old West Norse ''batt'', Old East Norse ''bant'', but Old English ''band'' * Loss of medial with compensatory lengthening of the preceding vowel and the following consonant, if present. ** Proto-Germanic *''nahtų'' ("night", accusative) > *''nāttu'' > (by u-umlaut) *''nǭttu'' > Old Norse ''nótt'' * > before (but not ) ** Proto-Germanic *''sairaz'' ("sore") > *''sāraz'' > *''sārz'' > Old Norse ''sárr'', but > *''seira'' > Old High German ''sēr''. ** With original Proto-Germanic *''gaizaz'' > *''geizz'' > Old Norse ''geirr''. * General loss of word-final , following the loss of word-final short vowels (which are still present in the earliest runic inscriptions). ** Proto-Germanic *''bindaną'' > *''bindan'' > Old Norse ''binda'', but > Old English ''bindan''. ** This also affected stressed syllables: Proto-Germanic *''in'' > Old Norse ''í'' *
Vowel breaking In historical linguistics, vowel breaking, vowel fracture, or diphthongization is the sound change of a monophthong into a diphthong or triphthong. Types Vowel breaking may be unconditioned or conditioned. It may be triggered by the presence of ...
of to except after ''w'', ''r'' or ''l'' (see "gift" above). ** The diphthong was also affected (also ''l''), shifting to at an early stage. This diphthong is preserved in Old Gutnish and survives in modern Gutnish. In other Norse dialects, the -onset and length remained, but the diphthong simplified resulting in variously or . ** This affected only stressed syllables. The word *''ek'' ("I"), which could occur both stressed and unstressed, appears varyingly as ''ek'' (unstressed, with no breaking) and ''jak'' (stressed, with breaking) throughout Old Norse. * Loss of initial (see "year" above), and also of before a round vowel. ** Proto-Germanic *''wulfaz'' > North Germanic ''ulfz'' > Old Norse '' ulfr'' * The development of u-umlaut, which rounded stressed vowels when or followed in the next syllable. This followed vowel breaking, with ''ja'' being u-umlauted to ''jǫ'' .


Middle Ages

After the Old Norse period, the North Germanic languages developed into an East Scandinavian branch, consisting of
Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish ance ...
,
Elfdalian Elfdalian or Övdalian ( or , pronounced in Elfdalian, or in Swedish) is a North Germanic language spoken by up to 3,000 people who live or have grown up in the locality of Älvdalen ('), which is located in the southeastern part of Älvd ...
, and Swedish; and, secondly, a West Scandinavian branch, consisting of Norwegian, Faroese and Icelandic and, thirdly, a Gutnish branch. Norwegian settlers brought Old West Norse to Iceland and the
Faroe Islands The Faroe Islands ( ), or simply the Faroes ( fo, Føroyar ; da, Færøerne ), are a North Atlantic archipelago, island group and an autonomous territory of the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. They are located north-northwest of Scotlan ...
around 800. Of the modern Scandinavian languages, written Icelandic is closest to this ancient language.Lund, Jørn
Language
. Published online by Royal Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Version 1 – November 2003. Retrieved 13 November 2007.
An additional language, known as Norn, developed on
Orkney Orkney (; sco, Orkney; on, Orkneyjar; nrn, Orknøjar), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago in the Northern Isles of Scotland, situated off the north coast of the island of Great Britain. Orkney is 10 miles (16 km) nort ...
and Shetland after Vikings had settled there around 800, but this language became extinct around 1700. In medieval times, speakers of all the Scandinavian languages could understand one another to a significant degree, and it was often referred to as a single language, called the "Danish tongue" until the 13th century by some in Sweden and Iceland., p. 259 In the 16th century, many Danes and Swedes still referred to North Germanic as a single language, which is stated in the introduction to the first Danish translation of the Bible and in
Olaus Magnus Olaus Magnus (October 1490 – 1 August 1557) was a Swedish writer, cartographer, and Catholic ecclesiastic. Biography Olaus Magnus (a Latin translation of his birth name Olof Månsson) was born in Linköping in October 1490. Like his elder b ...
' ''
A Description of the Northern Peoples ''Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus'' was a monumental work by Olaus Magnus on the Nordic countries, printed in Rome 1555. It was a work which long remained for the rest of Europe the authority on Swedish matters. Its popularity increase ...
''. Dialectal variation between west and east in Old Norse however was certainly present during the Middle Ages and three dialects had emerged: Old West Norse, Old East Norse and Old Gutnish. Old Icelandic was essentially identical to Old Norwegian, and together they formed the Old West Norse dialect of Old Norse and were also spoken in settlements in Faroe Islands, Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, and Norwegian settlements in Normandy. The Old East Norse dialect was spoken in Denmark, Sweden, settlements in Russia,Article ''Nordiska språk'', section ''Historia'', subsection ''Omkring 800–1100'', in ''
Nationalencyklopedin ''Nationalencyklopedin'' (; "The National Encyclopedia" in English), abbreviated NE, is a comprehensive contemporary Swedish-language encyclopedia, initiated by a favourable loan from the Government of Sweden of 17 million Swedish kronor in 19 ...
'' (1994).
England, and Danish settlements in Normandy. The Old Gutnish language was spoken in Gotland and in various settlements in the East. Yet, by 1600, another classification of the North Germanic language branches had arisen from a syntactic point of view, dividing them into an insular group (Icelandic and Faroese) Gutnish as its own family branch, and a continental group(Danish, Elfdalian, Norwegian, and Swedish). The division between Insular Nordic (''önordiska''/''ønordisk''/''øynordisk'') and Continental Scandinavian (''Skandinavisk'') is based on mutual intelligibility between the two groups and developed due to different influences, particularly the political union of Denmark and Norway (1536–1814) which led to significant Danish influence on central and eastern Norwegian dialects (
Bokmål Bokmål () (, ; ) is an official written standard for the Norwegian language, alongside Nynorsk. Bokmål is the preferred written standard of Norwegian for 85% to 90% of the population in Norway. Unlike, for instance, the Italian language, there ...
or
Dano-Norwegian Dano-Norwegian ( Danish and no, dansk-norsk) was a koiné/mixed language that evolved among the urban elite in Norwegian cities during the later years of the union between the Kingdoms of Denmark and Norway (1536/1537–1814). It is from thi ...
).Torp, Arne (2004)
Nordiske sprog i fortid og nutid. Sproglighed og sprogforskelle, sprogfamilier og sprogslægtskab
. Moderne nordiske sprog. In ''Nordens sprog – med rødder og fødder''. Nord 2004:010, , Nordic Council of Ministers' Secretariat, Copenhagen 2004. (In Danish).


Demographics

The North Germanic languages are national languages in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, whereas the non-Germanic Finnish is spoken by the majority in Finland. In inter-Nordic contexts, texts are today often presented in three versions: Finnish, Icelandic, and one of the three languages Danish, Norwegian and Swedish. Another official language in the Nordic countries is Greenlandic (in the Eskimo–Aleut family), the sole official language of Greenland. In
Southern Jutland Southern Jutland ( da, Sønderjylland; German: Südjütland) is the name for the region south of the Kongeå in Jutland, Denmark and north of the Eider (river) in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. The region north of the Kongeå is called da, Nø ...
in southwestern Denmark, German is also spoken by the North Schleswig Germans, and German is a recognized minority language in this region. German is the primary language among the
Danish minority of Southern Schleswig The Danish ethnic minority in Southern Schleswig, Germany, has existed by this name since 1920, when the Schleswig Plebiscite split German-ruled Schleswig into two parts: Northern Schleswig with a Danish majority and a German minority wa ...
, and likewise, Danish is the primary language of the North Schleswig Germans. Both minority groups are highly bilingual. Traditionally, Danish and German were the two official languages of Denmark–Norway; laws and other official instruments for use in Denmark and Norway were written in Danish, and local administrators spoke Danish or Norwegian. German was the administrative language of Holstein and the
Duchy of Schleswig The Duchy of Schleswig ( da, Hertugdømmet Slesvig; german: Herzogtum Schleswig; nds, Hartogdom Sleswig; frr, Härtochduum Slaswik) was a duchy in Southern Jutland () covering the area between about 60 km (35 miles) north and 70 km ( ...
.
Sami languages Acronyms * SAMI, ''Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange'', a closed-captioning format developed by Microsoft * Saudi Arabian Military Industries, a government-owned defence company * South African Malaria Initiative, a virtual expertise net ...
form an unrelated group that has coexisted with the North Germanic language group in Scandinavia since prehistory. Sami, like Finnish, is part of the group of the Uralic languages. During centuries of interaction, Finnish and Sami have imported many more loanwords from North Germanic languages than vice versa. :
* The figure includes 450,000 members of the
Swedish-speaking population of Finland The Swedish-speaking population of Finland (whose members are called by many names; fi, suomenruotsalainen) can be used as an attribute., group=Note—see below; sv, finlandssvenskar; fi, suomenruotsalaiset) is a linguistic minority in Fin ...


Classification

In historical linguistics, the North Germanic family tree is divided into two main branches, ''West Scandinavian languages'' ( Norwegian, Faroese and Icelandic) and ''East Scandinavian languages'' (
Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish ance ...
and Swedish), along with various dialects and varieties. The two branches are derived from the western and eastern dialect groups of Old Norse respectively. There was also an Old Gutnish branch spoken on the island of Gotland. The continental Scandinavian languages (Swedish, Norwegian and Danish) were heavily influenced by Middle Low German during the period of Hanseatic expansion. Another way of classifying the languages – focusing on mutual intelligibility rather than the
tree-of-life Pak Breeders and Pak Protectors are two developmental stages of fictional life in Larry Niven's Known Space universe. The Pak first appeared in "The Adults", which appeared in ''Galaxy'' in 1967; this story was expanded into the novel ''Protector ...
model – posits Norwegian, Danish, and Swedish as ''Continental Scandinavian'', and Faroese and Icelandic as ''Insular Scandinavian''. Because of the long political union between Norway and Denmark, moderate and conservative Norwegian
Bokmål Bokmål () (, ; ) is an official written standard for the Norwegian language, alongside Nynorsk. Bokmål is the preferred written standard of Norwegian for 85% to 90% of the population in Norway. Unlike, for instance, the Italian language, there ...
share most of the Danish vocabulary and grammar, and was nearly identical to written Danish until the spelling reform of 1907. (For this reason, Bokmål and its unofficial, more conservative variant ''Riksmål'' are sometimes considered East Scandinavian, and
Nynorsk Nynorsk () () is one of the two written standards of the Norwegian language, the other being Bokmål. From 12 May 1885, it became the state-sanctioned version of Ivar Aasen's standard Norwegian language ( no, Landsmål) parallel to the Dano-No ...
West Scandinavian via the west–east division shown above.) However, Danish has developed a greater distance between the spoken and written versions of the language, so the differences between spoken Norwegian and spoken Danish are somewhat more significant than the difference between their respective written forms. Written Danish is relatively close to the other Continental Scandinavian languages, but the sound developments of spoken Danish include reduction and assimilation of consonants and vowels, as well as the prosodic feature called '' stød'' in Danish, developments which have not occurred in the other languages (though the ''stød'' corresponds to the changes in pitch in Norwegian and Swedish, which are
pitch-accent language A pitch-accent language, when spoken, has word accents in which one syllable in a word or morpheme is more prominent than the others, but the accentuated syllable is indicated by a contrasting pitch ( linguistic tone) rather than by loudness ...
s. Scandinavians are widely expected to understand some of the other spoken Scandinavian languages. There may be some difficulty particularly with elderly dialect speakers, however public radio and television presenters are often well understood by speakers of the other Scandinavian countries, although there are various regional differences of mutual intelligibility for understanding mainstream dialects of the languages between different parts of the three language areas. Sweden left the Kalmar Union in 1523 due to conflicts with Denmark, leaving two Scandinavian units: The union of Denmark–Norway (ruled from Copenhagen, Denmark) and Sweden (including present-day Finland). The two countries took different sides during several wars until 1814, when the Denmark-Norway unit was disestablished, and made different international contacts. This led to different borrowings from foreign languages (Sweden had a francophone period), for example the
Old Swedish Old Swedish ( Modern Swedish: ) is the name for two distinct stages of the Swedish language that were spoken in the Middle Ages: Early Old Swedish (), spoken from about 1225 until about 1375, and Late Old Swedish (), spoken from about 1375 unti ...
word ''vindöga'' 'window' was replaced by ''fönster'' (from Middle Low German), whereas native ''vindue'' was kept in Danish. Norwegians, who spoke (and still speak) the Norwegian dialects derived from Old Norse, would say ''vindauga'' or similar. The written language of Denmark-Norway however, was based on the dialect of Copenhagen and thus had ''vindue''. On the other hand, the word ''begynde'' 'begin' (now written ''begynne'' in Norwegian Bokmål) was borrowed into Danish and Norwegian, whereas native ''börja'' was kept in Swedish. Even though standard Swedish and Danish were moving apart, the dialects were not influenced that much. Thus Norwegian and Swedish remained similar in pronunciation, and words like ''børja'' were able to survive in some of the Norwegian dialects whereas ''vindöga'' survived in some of the Swedish dialects. Nynorsk incorporates much of these words, like ''byrja'' (cf. Swedish ''börja'', Danish ''begynde''), ''veke'' (cf. Sw ''vecka'', Dan ''uge'') and ''vatn'' (Sw ''vatten'', Dan ''vand'') whereas Bokmål has retained the Danish forms (''begynne'', ''uke'', ''vann''). As a result, Nynorsk does not conform to the above east–west split model, since it shares a lot of features with Swedish. According to the Norwegian linguist
Arne Torp Arne Torp (born 14 October 1942 in Holt, East Agder, Norway) is a Norwegian professor of North Germanic languages in the Department of Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies at the University of Oslo. Torp has published widely, both for the higher ...
, the Nynorsk project (which had as a goal to re-establish a written Norwegian language) would have been much harder to carry out if Norway had been in a union with Sweden instead of with Denmark, simply because the differences would have been smaller. Currently, English loanwords are influencing the languages. A 2005 survey of words used by speakers of the Scandinavian languages showed that the number of English loanwords used in the languages has doubled during the last 30 years and is now 1.2%. Icelandic has imported fewer English words than the other North Germanic languages, despite the fact that it is the country that uses English most."Urban misunderstandings". I
Norden this week – Monday 01.17.2005
The Nordic Council and the Nordic Council of Ministers. Retrieved 13 November 2007.


Mutual intelligibility

The mutual intelligibility between the Continental Scandinavian languages is asymmetrical. Various studies have shown Norwegian speakers to be the best in Scandinavia at understanding other languages within the language group. According to a study undertaken during 2002–2005 and funded by the Nordic Cultural Fund, Swedish speakers in Stockholm and Danish speakers in Copenhagen have the greatest difficulty in understanding other Nordic languages. The study, which focused mainly on native speakers under the age of 25, showed that the lowest ability to comprehend another language is demonstrated by youth in Stockholm in regard to Danish, producing the lowest ability score in the survey. The greatest variation in results between participants within the same country was also demonstrated by the Swedish speakers in the study. Participants from Malmö, located in the southernmost Swedish province of Scania (Skåne), demonstrated a better understanding of Danish than Swedish speakers to the north. Access to Danish television and radio, direct trains to Copenhagen over the Øresund Bridge and a larger number of cross-border commuters in the Øresund Region contribute to a better knowledge of spoken Danish and a better knowledge of the unique Danish words among the region's inhabitants. According to the study, youth in this region were able to understand the Danish language (slightly) better than the Norwegian language. But they still could not understand Danish as well as the Norwegians could, demonstrating once again the relative distance of Swedish from Danish. Youth in Copenhagen had a very poor command of Swedish, showing that the Øresund connection was mostly one-way. The results from the study of how well native youth in different Scandinavian cities did when tested on their knowledge of the other Continental Scandinavian languages are summarized in table format,Delsing, Lars-Olof and Katarina Lundin Åkesson (2005). ''Håller språket ihop Norden? En forskningsrapport om ungdomars förståelse av danska, svenska och norska''. Available i
pdf format
. Numbers are from Figure 4:11. "Grannspråksförståelse bland infödda skandinaver fördelade på ort", p. 65 and Figure 4:6. "Sammanlagt resultat på grannspråksundersökningen fördelat på område", p. 58.
reproduced below. The maximum score was 10.0: Faroese speakers (of the Insular Scandinavian languages group) are even better than the Norwegians at comprehending two or more languages within the Continental Scandinavian languages group, scoring high in both Danish (which they study at school) and Norwegian and having the highest score on a Scandinavian language other than their native language, as well as the highest average score. Icelandic speakers, in contrast, have a poor command of Norwegian and Swedish. They do somewhat better with Danish, as they are taught Danish in school (Icelandic isn't mutually intelligible with Scandinavian languages, nor any language, not even Faroese, which is though closest). When speakers of Faroese and Icelandic were tested on how well they understood the three Continental Scandinavian languages, the test results were as follows (maximum score 10.0):


Vocabulary

The North Germanic languages share many lexical, grammatical, phonological, and morphological similarities, to a more significant extent than the
West Germanic languages The West Germanic languages constitute the largest of the three branches of the Germanic family of languages (the others being the North Germanic and the extinct East Germanic languages). The West Germanic branch is classically subdivided into t ...
do. These lexical, grammatical, and morphological similarities can be outlined in the table below.


Language boundaries

Given the aforementioned homogeneity, there exists some discussion on whether the continental group should be considered one or several languages. The Continental Scandinavian languages are often cited as proof of the
aphorism An aphorism (from Greek ἀφορισμός: ''aphorismos'', denoting 'delimitation', 'distinction', and 'definition') is a concise, terse, laconic, or memorable expression of a general truth or principle. Aphorisms are often handed down by tr ...
" A language is a dialect with an army and navy". The differences in dialects within the countries of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark can often be greater than the differences across the borders, but the political independence of these countries leads continental Scandinavian to be classified into Norwegian, Swedish, and
Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish ance ...
in the popular mind as well as among most linguists. The generally agreed upon
language border A language border or language boundary is the line separating two language areas. The term is generally meant to imply a lack of mutual intelligibility between the two languages. If two adjacent languages or dialects are mutually intelligible, no ...
is, in other words, politically shaped. This is also because of the strong influence of the standard languages, particularly in Denmark and Sweden. Even if the language policy of Norway has been more tolerant of rural dialectal variation in formal language, the prestige dialect often referred to as "Eastern Urban Norwegian", spoken mainly in and around the Oslo region, is sometimes considered normative. The influence of a standard Norwegian is nevertheless less so than in Denmark and Sweden, since the prestige dialect in Norway has moved geographically several times over the past 200 years. The organised formation of
Nynorsk Nynorsk () () is one of the two written standards of the Norwegian language, the other being Bokmål. From 12 May 1885, it became the state-sanctioned version of Ivar Aasen's standard Norwegian language ( no, Landsmål) parallel to the Dano-No ...
out of western Norwegian dialects after Norway became independent from Denmark in 1814 intensified the politico-linguistic divisions. The Nordic Council has on several occasions referred to the (Germanic) languages spoken in Scandinavia as the "Scandinavian language" (singular); for instance, the official newsletter of the Nordic Council is written in the "Scandinavian language". The creation of one unified written language has been considered as highly unlikely, given the failure to agree upon a common standardized language in Norway. However, there is a slight chance of "some uniformization of spelling" between Norway, Sweden and Denmark.


Family tree

All North Germanic languages are descended from Old Norse. Divisions between subfamilies of North Germanic are rarely precisely defined: Most form continuous clines, with adjacent dialects being mutually intelligible and the most separated ones not. * Old Norse ** West Scandinavian *** Faroese ***
Greenlandic Norse Greenlandic Norse is an extinct North Germanic language that was spoken in the Norse settlements of Greenland until their demise in the late 15th century. The language is primarily attested by runic inscriptions found in Greenland. The limited ...
(extinct) *** Icelandic *** Norn (extinct) *** Norwegian **** ( Northern Norway) ***** (
Bodø Bodø (; smj, Bådåddjo, sv, Bodö) is a municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Salten. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Bodø (which is also the capital of Nordland coun ...
) *****
Brønnøy dialect The Brønnøy dialect ( no, Brønnøymål or ''Sørvest-helgelandsk'') is a dialect of Norwegian used in Brønnøy Brønnøy is a municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is part of the Helgeland region. The administrative centre and commer ...
( Brønnøy) ***** ( Helgeland) ***** ''other dialects'' ****
Trøndersk __NOTOC__ Trøndersk (), also known as ''trøndermål'', ''trøndsk'' and ''trønder'', is a Norwegian dialect, or rather a group of several sub-dialects. As is the case with all Norwegian dialects, it has no standardised orthography, and its u ...
( Trøndelag) ***** (
Fosen Fosen is a traditional district in Trøndelag, consisting of the municipalities Osen, Roan Åfjord, Ørland, Indre Fosen, Orkland, Heim, Hitra and Frøya. The district is dominated by forested valleys, lakes, coastal cliffs but also shallo ...
) ***** ( Härjedalen) *****
Jämtland dialects Jämtland dialects (''jamska'' ; sv, jämtska, jämtmål) constitute a group of closely related Norrland dialects spoken in the Swedish province of Jämtland, with the exception of Frostviken in the northernmost part of the province, where t ...
( Jämtland province) (Wide linguistic similarity with the
Trøndersk __NOTOC__ Trøndersk (), also known as ''trøndermål'', ''trøndsk'' and ''trønder'', is a Norwegian dialect, or rather a group of several sub-dialects. As is the case with all Norwegian dialects, it has no standardised orthography, and its u ...
dialects in Norway) *****
Meldal dialect Meldal dialect or Meldal Norwegian is a dialect of Norwegian used in Meldal. It is a variety of Trøndersk. Phonology Vowels * is realized in a very original manner. It is a syllabic, palatalized frictionless dental approximant . This is real ...
(
Meldal Meldal is a former municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. The municipality existed from 1838 until its dissolution in 2020 when it joined Orkland Municipality. It was part of the Orkdalen region. The administrative centre of the municipal ...
) ***** (
Tydal Tydal is a municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Ås. Other villages include Østby, Gressli, Aunet, and Stugudalen. There is a school and a kindergarten in Tydal. The inhab ...
) ***** ''other dialects'' ****
Vestlandsk Vestlandsk or Vestlandske dialekter (West Norwegian) is a collective term for the dialects that are spoken on the coast of western Norway in the area ranging from Romsdal in the north to Agder in the south. These dialects can furthermore be spl ...
(
Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...
and
Southern Norway Southern Norway ( no, Sørlandet; lit. "The Southland") is the geographical region (''landsdel'') along the Skagerrak coast of southern Norway. The region is an informal description since it does not have any governmental function. It roughl ...
) ***** West ''(Vestlandet)'' ****** Bergen dialect (
Bergen Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipality in Vestland county on the west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway. The municipality covers and is on the peninsula ...
) ****** (
Haugesund Haugesund () is a municipality on the North Sea in Rogaland county, Norway. While the population is greater in the neighboring Karmøy municipality, the main commercial and economic centre of the Haugaland region in northern Rogaland and sou ...
) ****** ( Jæren district) ****** ( Karmøy) ****** ( Nordmøre) ******* (
Sunndalsøra is the administrative centre of Sunndal Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. The village of Sunndalsøra lies at the mouth of the river Driva at the beginning of the Sunndalsfjord. Sunndalsøra is surrounded by steep mountains, suc ...
) ****** ( Romsdal) ****** Sandnes dialect ( Sandnes) ****** Sogn dialect ( Sogn district) ****** ( Sunnmøre) ****** Stavanger dialect ( Stavanger) ****** ( Midhordland district) ***** South ''(Sørlandet)'' ****** Arendal dialect ( Arendal region) ****** (Upper
Setesdal Setesdal (; older name: Sætersdal) is a valley and a traditional district in Agder County in southern Norway. It consists of the municipalities of Bykle, Valle, Bygland, Iveland, and Evje og Hornnes. The Otra river flows through the valley o ...
, Valle) ***** ''other dialects'' **** (
Eastern Norway Eastern Norway ( nb, Østlandet, nn, Austlandet) is the geographical region of the south-eastern part of Norway. It consists of the counties Vestfold og Telemark, Viken, Oslo and Innlandet. Eastern Norway is by far the most populous region ...
) ***** (Lowland districts) ****** Vikværsk dialects ( Viken district) ******* (
Andebu Andebu is a village in Sandefjord municipality, Vestfold County, and a former municipality. The administrative centre of the municipality was the village of Andebu. The village is surrounded by forests, mountains, and hills. Its nearest cities a ...
) ******* ( Bohuslän province) (Influenced by Swedish in retrospective) ******* ( Grenland district) *******
Oslo dialect Oslo dialect ( no, Vikamål and ''Østkantmål'', translated Vika dialect and East End dialect) is a Norwegian dialect and the traditional dialect of Oslo, Norway. It must not be confused with the current native spoken language of Oslo, Standard ...
( Oslo) ****** (Mid-east districts) ******* ( Ringerike district) ******** ( Hønefoss) ******** (
Ådal Ådal is a valley in the municipality of Ringerike and was a former municipality in Buskerud County, Norway. The municipality was created in 1857 by a split from Norderhov. At that time Ådal had a population of 2,382. On 1 January 1964 Ådal w ...
) ****** ( Opplandene district) ******* Hedmark dialects ( Hedmark) ******** (
Solør Solør is a Norwegian traditional district consisting of the valley between Elverum in the north and Kongsvinger in the south. It is part of Innlandet county and it includes the municipalities Våler, Åsnes, and Grue. Glomma valley Glommada ...
) ****** ( Hadeland district) ****** ( Viken district) ******* Särna-Idre dialect ( Särna and Idre) ***** (Midland districts) ****** Gudbrandsdal dialect ( Gudbrandsdalen, Oppland and Upper
Folldal Folldal is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Østerdalen. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Folldal. The municipality was established in 1914 when it was sep ...
, Hedmark) ****** Hallingdal-Valdres dialects (
Hallingdal Hallingdal ( en, Halling Valley) is a valley as well as a traditional district located in the traditional and electoral district Buskerud in Viken county in Norway. It consists of six municipalities: Flå, Nes, Gol, Hemsedal, Ål and Hol. H ...
, Valdres) ******* ******* Valdris dialect ( Valdres district) ****** Telemark-Numedal dialects ( Telemark and Numedal) ******* ***** ''other dialects'' ** East Scandinavian ***
Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish ance ...
****
Insular Danish Insular Danish (Danish: ''Ømål'') are the traditional Danish dialects spoken on the islands of Zealand, Langeland, Funen, Falster, Lolland, and Møn. They are recorded in the Dictionary of Danish Insular Danish (''Ømålsordbogen'') which has be ...
(Ømål) ****
East Danish East Danish refers to dialects of the Danish language spoken in Bornholm (Bornholmsk dialect) in Denmark and in Blekinge, Halland, Skåne (Scanian dialect) and the southern parts of Småland in Sweden. After Scania, Halland and Blekinge came to ...
( Bornholmsk along with former East Danish dialects in Blekinge, Halland and Skåne ( Scanian dialect) as well as the southern parts of Småland, now generally considered
South Swedish dialects South Swedish dialects (Swedish: ') is one of the main dialect groups of Swedish. It includes the closely related dialects spoken in the formerly Danish but since 1658 Swedish traditional provinces of Scania (see Scanian dialects), Blekinge and so ...
) **** Jutlandic (or Jutish, in Jutland) ***** Northern Jutlandic ****** East Jutlandic ****** West Jutlandic *****
Southern Jutlandic South Jutlandic or South Jutish (South Jutish: ; da, Sønderjysk; german: Südjütisch or Plattdänisch) is a dialect of the Danish language. South Jutlandic is spoken in Southern Jutland (''Sønderjylland''; also called Schleswig or Slesvig) o ...
(in
Southern Jutland Southern Jutland ( da, Sønderjylland; German: Südjütland) is the name for the region south of the Kongeå in Jutland, Denmark and north of the Eider (river) in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. The region north of the Kongeå is called da, Nø ...
and Southern Schleswig) ****
Urban East Norwegian Urban East Norwegian, also known as Standard East Norwegian ( nb, standard østnorsk, ), is a Norwegian dialect spoken in Oslo and its surrounding metropolitan area. In Eastern Norway, Urban East Norwegian is generally accepted as the ''de fa ...
(generally considered a Norwegian dialect) *** Swedish **** ''
Sveamål Svealand Swedish ( sv, Sveamål) is one of the six major groupings of Swedish dialects, spoken in Svealand. A major characteristic of ''Svealand Swedish'' is the coalescence of the alveolar trill with following dental and alveolar consonants&mda ...
'' ( Svealand) **** ''
Norrland dialects Norrland dialects ( sv, norrländska mål, links=no) is one of the six major dialect groupings of the Swedish language. It comprises most dialects traditionally spoken in Norrland, except for those of Gästrikland and southern Hälsingland, which a ...
'' ( Norrland) **** '' Götamål'' ( Götaland) **** ''
Gotlandic Gotlandic ( sv, gotländska) is the form of Swedish spoken on the islands of Gotland and Fårö in the Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Pol ...
'' ( Gotland) **** ''
Swedish dialects in Ostrobothnia Ostrobothnian Swedish ( sv, österbottniska) is a variety of Finland-Swedish, spoken in Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borde ...
'' ( Finland and Estonia) **** ''other dialects'' ***
Dalecarlian Dalecarlian (''dalmål'' in Swedish) is a group of East and West Scandinavian languages, and their respective dialects spoken in Dalarna County, Sweden. Some Dalecarlian varieties can be regarded as part of the Swedish dialect group in Gästri ...
( Dalarna), including
Elfdalian Elfdalian or Övdalian ( or , pronounced in Elfdalian, or in Swedish) is a North Germanic language spoken by up to 3,000 people who live or have grown up in the locality of Älvdalen ('), which is located in the southeastern part of Älvd ...
(which is considered a separate language from Swedish, Älvdalen locality) ** Old Gutnish *** Gutnish ( Gotland) ****Laumål ****Fårömål


Classification difficulties

The Jamtlandic dialects share many characteristics with both Trøndersk and with Norrländska mål. Due to this ambiguous position, it is contested whether Jamtlandic belongs to the West Scandinavian or the East Scandinavian group.
Elfdalian Elfdalian or Övdalian ( or , pronounced in Elfdalian, or in Swedish) is a North Germanic language spoken by up to 3,000 people who live or have grown up in the locality of Älvdalen ('), which is located in the southeastern part of Älvd ...
(Älvdalen speech), generally considered a ''Sveamål'' dialect, today has an official orthography and is, because of a lack of mutual intelligibility with Swedish, considered as a separate language by many linguists. Traditionally regarded as a Swedish dialect, but by several criteria closer to West Scandinavian dialects, Elfdalian is a separate language by the standard of mutual intelligibility. Traveller Danish, Rodi, and Swedish Romani are varieties of Danish, Norwegian and Swedish with
Romani Romani may refer to: Ethnicities * Romani people, an ethnic group of Northern Indian origin, living dispersed in Europe, the Americas and Asia ** Romani genocide, under Nazi rule * Romani language, any of several Indo-Aryan languages of the Roma ...
vocabulary or Para-Romani known collectively as the Scandoromani language.LLOW �
Traveller Danish
They are spoken by
Norwegian and Swedish Travellers The Norwegian and Swedish Romanisæl Travellers ( no, romanifolket, tatere, sigøynere; sv, resande, zigenare, tattare; rmu, romanisæl, romanoar, rom(m)ani, tavringer/ar, tattare) are a group or branch of the Romani people who have been resid ...
. The Scando-Romani varieties in Sweden and Norway combine elements from the dialects of Western Sweden, Eastern Norway (Østlandet) and Trøndersk.


Written norms of Norwegian

Norwegian has two official written norms, Bokmål and Nynorsk. In addition, there are some unofficial norms. ''
Riksmål (, also , ) is a written Norwegian language form or spelling standard, meaning the ''National Language'', closely related and now almost identical to the dominant form of Bokmål, known as . Both Bokmål and Riksmål evolved from the Danish wri ...
'' is more conservative than Bokmål (that is, closer to Danish) and is used to various extents by numerous people, especially in the cities and by the largest newspaper in Norway, ''
Aftenposten ( in the masthead; ; Norwegian for "The Evening Post") is Norway's largest printed newspaper by circulation. It is based in Oslo. It sold 211,769 copies in 2015 (172,029 printed copies according to University of Bergen) and estimated 1.2 millio ...
''. On the other hand, ''
Høgnorsk Høgnorsk (, ; meaning ''High Norwegian''), is a term for varieties of the Norwegian language from Nynorsk that reject most of the official reforms that have been introduced since the creation of . Høgnorsk typically accepts the initial reforms t ...
'' (High Norwegian) is similar to Nynorsk and is used by a very small minority.


See also

* Comparison of Norwegian Bokmål and Standard Danish * Ingvaeonic languages * Low Franconian languages *
Gender in Danish and Swedish In standard Danish and Swedish, nouns have two grammatical genders, and pronouns have the same two grammatical genders in addition to two natural genders similar to English. Overview Historically, nouns in standard Danish and Swedish, like ...
*
High German languages The High German dialects (german: hochdeutsche Mundarten), or simply High German (); not to be confused with Standard High German which is commonly also called ''High German'', comprise the varieties of German spoken south of the Benrath an ...
* Scanian dialect *
Svorsk Svorsk () or Svorska () is a portmanteau of '' svensk(a)'' 'Swedish' and '' norsk(a)'' 'Norwegian' to describe a mixture of the Swedish and Norwegian languages. The term ''svorsk'' is used to describe the language of someone (almost exclusively ...
* East Germanic languages *
West Germanic languages The West Germanic languages constitute the largest of the three branches of the Germanic family of languages (the others being the North Germanic and the extinct East Germanic languages). The West Germanic branch is classically subdivided into t ...
*
South Germanic languages South Germanic is a term used for a number of proposed groupings of the Germanic tribes or dialects. However, it is not widely used and has no agreed definition. Uses The following uses of the term "South Germanic" are found: * As a straightforwar ...


References


Sources

* * . * . * Outlined Scanian orthography including morphology and word index. First revision. * Maurer, Friedrich (1942), ''Nordgermanen und Alemannen: Studien zur germanischen und frühdeutschen Sprachgeschichte, Stammes- und Volkskunde'', Strasbourg: Hünenburg. * Rowe, Charley. The problematic Holtzmann's Law in Germanic. (Indogermanische Forschungen Bd. 108, 2003). * Iben Stampe Sletten red., ''Nordens sprog – med rødder og fødder'', 2005,
available online
also available in the other Scandinavian languages.


External links







* ttp://www.ezglot.com/most-similar-languages.php?l=dan#most-similar-languages Most similar languages to Danish {{DEFAULTSORT:North Germanic Languages