North Germanic languages
Encyclopedia
The North Germanic languages or Scandinavian languages, the languages of Scandinavians
, 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
and the extinct East Germanic languages
. The language group is sometimes referred to as the Nordic languages, a direct translation of the most common term used among Danish
, Swedish
and Norwegian
scholars and laypeople. In Scandinavia
, Scandinavian languages is also used as a term referring specifically to the mutually intelligible languages of the three Scandinavian countries, and is thus used in a more narrow sense as a subset of the Nordic languages. The term Scandinavian arose in the 18th century, as a result of the early linguistic and cultural Scandinavist movement
, referring to the peoples, cultures and languages of the three Scandinavian countries and stressing their common heritage.
The term "North Germanic languages" is used in genetic linguistics, while the term "Scandinavian languages" appears in studies of the modern standard languages and the dialect continuum
of Scandinavia.
Approximately 20 million people in the Nordic countries
have a Scandinavian language as their mother tongue, including a Swedish minority in Finland
. Languages belonging to the North Germanic language tree are, to some extent, spoken on Greenland
and by emigrant groups mainly in North America
and Australia
.
, so that some individual varieties are difficult to classify. Dialects with the features assigned to the northern group formed from Proto-Germanic in the late Pre-Roman Iron Age
.
From 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 inscriptions.
and morphological
innovations shared with West Germanic:
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
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
among the Germanic languages spoken in central Europe, not reaching those spoken in Scandinavia.
periods, the North Germanic languages developed into an East Scandinavian branch, consisting of Danish
and Swedish
; and a West Scandinavian branch, consisting of Norwegian
, Faroese
and Icelandic
. Norwegian settlers brought Old West Norse to Iceland
and the Faroe islands
around 800 AD. Of the modern Scandinavian languages, written Icelandic is closest to this ancient language. An additional language, known as Norn
, developed on Orkney and Shetland after Vikings had settled there around 800 AD, 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. 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
' A Description of the Northern Peoples
. 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 the 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, England
, and Danish settlements in Normandy
. The Old Gutnish
dialect 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) and a continental group (Danish, Norwegian and Swedish). The division between Insular Scandinavian (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 lead to significant Danish influence on central and eastern Norwegian dialects (Bokmal
or Dano-Norwegian
).
, Faroese
and Icelandic
) and East Scandinavian languages (Danish
and Swedish
), along with various dialects and varieties. The two branches are derived from the western and eastern dialect group of Old Norse
, respectively. There was also an Old Gutnish
branch spoken on the island of Gotland
. The East Scandinavian languages (and modern Norwegian, through Danish) were heavily influenced by Middle Low German
during the period of Hanseatic expansion.
Currently, English
loanword
s 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 Scandinavian languages, despite the fact that it is the country that uses English most.
Another way of classifying the languages—focusing on mutual intelligibility
rather than the tree of life
-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, Traditional Standard Norwegian (Riksmål and Bokmål
) share most of the Danish vocabulary and grammar, and was virtually identical to written Danish until the spelling reform of 1907. (For this reason, Riksmål and Bokmål is sometimes considered East Scandinavian, and Nynorsk
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 Danish are somewhat more significant than the difference between the written. In writing, 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 (lit. "push; thrust"), developments which have not occurred in the other languages. However, Scandinavians are widely expected to understand the other spoken Scandinavian languages. Some people may have some difficulties, particularly older people who speak a dialect, but most people can understand the standard languages, as they appear in radio and television, of the other Scandinavian countries.
The lowest degree of intelligibility is between spoken Danish and Swedish. The relationships between the three languages Danish, Norwegian and Swedish may be summarised as per the following diagram; Norwegian is sometimes humorously described as "Danish spoken with a Swedish pronunciation" (or Danish as "Norwegian spoken with a German [or French] pronunciation"):
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
, demonstrated a better understanding of Danish than Swedish-speakers to the north. Access to Danish television and radio, direct trains to Copenhagen
over the Oresund Bridge
and a larger number of cross-border commuters in the Oresund 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 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; and youth in Copenhagen had a very poor command of Swedish, showing that the Oresund 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, reproduced below. The maximum score was 10.0:
Icelandic and 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 the mother tongue, as well as the highest average score. 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):
"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
in the popular mind as well as among most linguists. This is also because of the strong influence of the standard language
s, 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, can be considered to be quite normative. The formation of Nynorsk
out of western Norwegian dialects after Norway became independent of Denmark in 1814 added to making linguistic divisions match the political ones.
The Nordic Council
has on several occasions referred to the (Germanic) languages spoken in Scandinavia as "Scandinavian language" (singular); for instance, the official newsletter of the Nordic Council is written in "Scandinavian language".
. Divisions between subfamilies of North Germanic are rarely precisely defined: Most form continuous clines, with adjacent dialect
s being mutually intelligible and the most separated ones not.
Beside the two official written norms of Norwegian, there exist two established unofficial norms: Riksmål, similar to, but more conservative than Bokmål, which is used to various extents by numerous people, especially in the cities and Høgnorsk
"High-Norwegian", similar to Nynorsk, used by a very small minority.
Jamtlandic
shares many characteristics with both Trøndersk and with Norrländska mål. Due to this ambiguous position, it is contested whether Jamtlandic belongs to the West Norse or the East Norse language group.
Älvdalsmål
"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.
Traveller Danish, Norwegian
, and Swedish are varieties of their respective language with Romani
vocabulary, or Para-Romani
, known as the Scando-Romani languages. They are spoken by Norwegian and Swedish Travellers.
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
. In inter-Nordic contexts, texts are today often presented in three versions: Finnish, Icelandic, and one of the three languages Danish, Norwegian and Swedish. During centuries of interaction, Finnish and Sami have imported many more loanwords from North Germanic languages than vice versa.
The North-Germanic languages are majority languages in Denmark, Norway and Sweden, while Finnish is spoken by the majority in Finland. Another language in the Nordic countries is Greenlandic, the official languages of Greenland
.
In southernmost Denmark, German
is also spoken, being an official language there. Traditionally, Danish and German were the two official languages of Denmark-Norway.
Scandinavians
Scandinavians are a group of Germanic peoples, inhabiting Scandinavia and to a lesser extent countries associated with Scandinavia, and speaking Scandinavian languages. The group includes Danes, Norwegians and Swedes, and additionally the descendants of Scandinavian settlers such as the Icelandic...
, make up one of the three branches of the Germanic languages
Germanic languages
The Germanic languages constitute a sub-branch of the Indo-European language family. The common ancestor of all of the languages in this branch is called Proto-Germanic , which was spoken in approximately the mid-1st millennium BC in Iron Age northern Europe...
, a sub-family of the Indo-European languages
Indo-European languages
The Indo-European languages are a family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major current languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and South Asia and also historically predominant in Anatolia...
, along with the West Germanic languages
West Germanic languages
The West Germanic languages constitute the largest of the three traditional branches of the Germanic family of languages and include languages such as German, English, Dutch, Afrikaans, the Frisian languages, and Yiddish...
and the extinct East Germanic languages
East Germanic languages
The East Germanic languages are a group of extinct Indo-European languages in the Germanic family. The only East Germanic language of which texts are known is Gothic; other languages that are assumed to be East Germanic include Vandalic, Burgundian, and Crimean Gothic...
. The language group is sometimes referred to as the Nordic languages, a direct translation of the most common term used among Danish
Danish language
Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where it holds the status of minority language...
, Swedish
Swedish language
Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...
and Norwegian
Norwegian language
Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is the official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants .These Scandinavian languages together with the Faroese language...
scholars and laypeople. In Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
, Scandinavian languages is also used as a term referring specifically to the mutually intelligible languages of the three Scandinavian countries, and is thus used in a more narrow sense as a subset of the Nordic languages. The term Scandinavian arose in the 18th century, as a result of the early linguistic and cultural Scandinavist movement
Scandinavism
Scandinavism and Nordism are literary and political movements that support various degrees of cooperation between the Scandinavian or Nordic countries...
, referring to the peoples, cultures and languages of the three Scandinavian countries and stressing their common heritage.
The term "North Germanic languages" is used in genetic linguistics, while the term "Scandinavian languages" appears in studies of the modern standard languages and the dialect continuum
Dialect continuum
A dialect continuum, or dialect area, was defined by Leonard Bloomfield as a range of dialects spoken across some geographical area that differ only slightly between neighboring areas, but as one travels in any direction, these differences accumulate such that speakers from opposite ends of the...
of Scandinavia.
Approximately 20 million people in the Nordic countries
Nordic countries
The Nordic countries make up a region in Northern Europe and the North Atlantic which consists of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden and their associated territories, the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland...
have a Scandinavian language as their mother tongue, including a Swedish minority in Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
. Languages belonging to the North Germanic language tree are, to some extent, spoken on Greenland
Greenland
Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...
and by emigrant groups mainly in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
and Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
.
Origins and characteristics
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 to some degree during the Migration PeriodMigration Period
The Migration Period, also called the Barbarian Invasions , was a period of intensified human migration in Europe that occurred from c. 400 to 800 CE. This period marked the transition from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages...
, so that some individual varieties are difficult to classify. Dialects with the features assigned to the northern group formed from Proto-Germanic in the late Pre-Roman Iron Age
Pre-Roman Iron Age
The Pre-Roman Iron Age of Northern Europe designates the earliest part of the Iron Age in Scandinavia, northern Germany, and the Netherlands north of the Rhine River. These regions feature many extensive archaeological excavation sites, which have yielded a wealth of artifacts...
.
From 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 inscriptions.
Features shared with West Germanic
The North Germanic group is characterized by a number of phonologicalPhonology
Phonology is, broadly speaking, the subdiscipline of linguistics concerned with the sounds of language. That is, it is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning in any spoken human language, or the field of linguistics studying this use...
and morphological
Morphology (linguistics)
In linguistics, morphology is the identification, analysis and description, in a language, of the structure of morphemes and other linguistic units, such as words, affixes, parts of speech, intonation/stress, or implied context...
innovations shared with West Germanic:
- The retraction of Proto-Germanic ē (/ɛː/, also written ) to ā.
- Proto-Germanic *jēraN ("year") > North/West Germanic *jāraN > North Germanic *āra > Old Norse ár, and > West Germanic *jāra > Old High German jār, Old English ġēar /jæːɑr/. Compare Gothic jēr.
- The raising of /ɔː/ to /oː/ (and word-finally to /uː/). The original vowel remained when nasalised *ōN /ɔ̃ː/ and when before /z/, and was then later lowered to /ɑː/.
- Proto-Germanic *gebō ("gift", /ˈɣeβɔː/) > North/West Germanic *gebu > North Germanic *gjavu > (by u-umlaut) *gjǫvu > Old Norse gjǫf, and > West Germanic *gebu > Old English giefu. In Gothic, the result was a low vowel instead: giba.
- Proto-Germanic *tungōN ("tongue", /ˈtuŋgɔ̃ː/) > late North/West Germanic *tungā > *tunga > Old Norse tunga, Old High German zunga, Old English tunge (unstressed a > e). Compare Gothic tuggō.
- Proto-Germanic *gebōz ("of a gift", /ˈɣeβɔːz/) > late North/West Germanic *gebāz > North Germanic *gjavaz > Old Norse gjafar, and > West Germanic *geba > Old High German geba, Old English giefe (unstressed a > e). Compare Gothic gibōs.
- The development of i-umlautGermanic umlautIn linguistics, umlaut is a process whereby a vowel is pronounced more like a following vowel or semivowel. The term umlaut was originally coined and is used principally in connection with the study of the Germanic languages...
. - The rhotacismRhotacismRhotacism refers to several phenomena related to the usage of the consonant r :*the excessive or idiosyncratic use of the r;...
of /z/ to /r/, 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 /r/.
- The development of the demonstrativeDemonstrativeIn linguistics, demonstratives are deictic words that indicate which entities a speaker refers to and distinguishes those entities from others...
pronoun ancestral to English this.
Some have argued that after East Germanic broke off from the group, the remaining Germanic languages, the Northwest Germanic
Northwest Germanic
Northwest Germanic is a proposed grouping of the Germanic dialects, representing the current consensus among Germanic historical linguists. It does not challenge the late 19th-century tri-partite division of the Germanic dialects into North Germanic, West Germanic and East Germanic, but proposes...
languages, divided into four main dialects: North Germanic, and the three groups conventionally called "West Germanic", namely
- North Sea Germanic (IngvaeonicIngvaeonicIngvaeonic , also known as North Sea Germanic, is a postulated grouping of the West Germanic languages that comprises Old Frisian, Old English and Old Saxon....
, ancestral to Anglo-Frisian and Low GermanLow GermanLow German or Low Saxon is an Ingvaeonic West Germanic language spoken mainly in northern Germany and the eastern part of the Netherlands...
) - Weser-Rhine Germanic (IstvaeonicLow Franconian languagesLow Franconian, Low Frankish, or Istvaeonic, is a group of several West Germanic languages spoken in the Netherlands, northern Belgium , in the northern department of France, in western Germany , as well as in Suriname, South Africa and Namibia that originally descended from Old Frankish.- The...
, ancestral to Low Franconian) - Elbe Germanic (IrminonicHigh German languagesThe High German languages or the High German dialects are any of the varieties of standard German, Luxembourgish and Yiddish, as well as the local German dialects spoken in central and southern Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Luxembourg and in neighboring portions of Belgium and the...
, ancestral to High German)
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
Language contact occurs when two or more languages or varieties interact. The study of language contact is called contact linguistics.Multilingualism has likely been common throughout much of human history, and today most people in the world are multilingual...
among the Germanic languages spoken in central Europe, not reaching those spoken in Scandinavia.
Unique North Germanic features
Some innovations are not found in West and East Germanic such as:- Sharpening of geminate /jj/ and /ww/ according to Holtzmann's lawHoltzmann's LawHoltzmann's law is a Proto-Germanic sound law originally noted by Adolf Holtzmann in 1838.The law involves the gemination, or doubling, of PIE semivowels and in strong prosodic positions into Proto-Germanic and , which had two outcomes:* hardening into occlusive onsets:** / in North Germanic;**...
- Occurred also in East Germanic, but with a different outcome.
- Proto-Germanic *twajjôN ("of two") > Old Norse tveggja, Gothic twaddjē, but > Old High German zweiio
- Word-final devoicing of stopsStop consonantIn phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or an oral stop, is a stop consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases. The occlusion may be done with the tongue , lips , and &...
.- Proto-Germanic *band ("I/he bound") > *bant > Old West Norse batt, Old East Norse bant, but Old English band
- Loss of medial /h/ with compensatory lengthening of the preceding vowel and the following consonant, if present.
- Proto-Germanic *nahtuN ("night", accusative) > *nāttu > (by u-umlaut) *nǭttu > Old Norse nótt > /ɑː/ before /r/ (but not /z/)
- Proto-Germanic *sairaz ("sore") > *sāraz > *sārz > Old Norse sárr, but > *seira > Old High German sēr.
- With original /z/ Proto-Germanic *gaizaz > *geizz > Old Norse geirr.
- General loss of word-final /n/, following the loss of word-final short vowels (which are still present in the earliest runic inscriptions).
- Proto-Germanic *bindanaN > *bindan > Old Norse binda, but > Old English bindan.
- This also affected stressed syllables: Proto-Germanic *in > Old Norse í
- Vowel breaking of /e/ to /jɑ/ except after w, j or l (see "gift" above).
- The diphthong /eu/ was also affected (also l), shifting to /jɒu/ at an early stage. This dipththong is preserved in Old GutnishOld GutnishOld Gutnish was the dialect of Old Norse that was spoken on the Baltic island of Gotland. It shows sufficient differences from the Old East Norse dialect that it is considered to be a separate branch...
and survives in Modern GutnishModern GutnishModern Gutnish is the native language of the Gotlandic people on the island of Gotland in present-day Sweden. It was both a spoken and written language until late medieval times. Today it exists as a spoken language, but is to some degree mixed with Swedish, Danish and German. It is an open issue...
. In other Norse dialects, the /j/-onset and length remained, but the dipthong simplified resulting in variously /juː/ or /joː/. - 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.
- The diphthong /eu/ was also affected (also l), shifting to /jɒu/ at an early stage. This dipththong is preserved in Old Gutnish
- Loss of initial /j/ (see "year" above), and also of /w/ before a round vowel.
- Proto-Germanic *wulfaz > early North Germanic wulfaz > late ulfz > Old Norse ulfr
- The development of u-umlaut, which rounded stressed vowels when /u/ or /w/ followed in the next syllable. This followed vowel breaking, with ja /jɑ/ being u-umlauted to jǫ /jɒ/.
Middle Ages
After the Proto-Norse and Old NorseOld Norse
Old Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....
periods, the North Germanic languages developed into an East Scandinavian branch, consisting of Danish
Danish language
Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where it holds the status of minority language...
and Swedish
Swedish language
Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...
; and a West Scandinavian branch, consisting of Norwegian
Norwegian language
Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is the official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants .These Scandinavian languages together with the Faroese language...
, Faroese
Faroese language
Faroese , is an Insular Nordic language spoken by 48,000 people in the Faroe Islands and about 25,000 Faroese people in Denmark and elsewhere...
and Icelandic
Icelandic language
Icelandic is a North Germanic language, the main language of Iceland. Its closest relative is Faroese.Icelandic is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic or Nordic branch of the Germanic languages. Historically, it was the westernmost of the Indo-European languages prior to the...
. Norwegian settlers brought Old West Norse to Iceland
Iceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
and the Faroe islands
Faroe Islands
The Faroe Islands are an island group situated between the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, approximately halfway between Scotland and Iceland. The Faroe Islands are a self-governing territory within the Kingdom of Denmark, along with Denmark proper and Greenland...
around 800 AD. Of the modern Scandinavian languages, written Icelandic is closest to this ancient language. An additional language, known as Norn
Norn language
Norn is an extinct North Germanic language that was spoken in Shetland and Orkney, off the north coast of mainland Scotland, and in Caithness. After the islands were pledged to Scotland by Norway in the 15th century, it was gradually replaced by Scots and on the mainland by Scottish...
, developed on Orkney and Shetland after Vikings had settled there around 800 AD, 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. 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
Olaus Magnus was a Swedish ecclesiastic and writer, who did pioneering work for the interest of Nordic people. He was reported as born in October 1490 in Östergötland, and died on August 1, 1557. Magnus, Latin for the Swedish Stor “great”, is a Latin family name taken personally, and not a...
' A Description of the Northern Peoples
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 increased by the numerous woodcuts of people and their customs,...
. 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 Gutnish
Old Gutnish was the dialect of Old Norse that was spoken on the Baltic island of Gotland. It shows sufficient differences from the Old East Norse dialect that it is considered to be a separate branch...
. Old Icelandic was essentially identical to Old Norwegian
Old Norwegian
Old Norwegian refers to a group of Old Norse dialects spoken and written in Norway in the Middle Ages. They bridged the dialect continuum from Old East Norse to Old West Norse.-Old Norwegian vs Common Norse:...
, and together they formed the Old West Norse dialect of Old Norse and were also spoken in settlements in the Faroe Islands, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, the Isle of Man
Isle of Man
The Isle of Man , otherwise known simply as Mann , is a self-governing British Crown Dependency, located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, within the British Isles. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who holds the title of Lord of Mann. The Lord of Mann is...
, and Norwegian settlements in Normandy
Normandy
Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...
. The Old East Norse dialect was spoken in Denmark, Sweden, settlements in Russia, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, and Danish settlements in Normandy
Normandy
Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...
. The Old Gutnish
Old Gutnish
Old Gutnish was the dialect of Old Norse that was spoken on the Baltic island of Gotland. It shows sufficient differences from the Old East Norse dialect that it is considered to be a separate branch...
dialect was spoken in Gotland
Gotland
Gotland is a county, province, municipality and diocese of Sweden; it is Sweden's largest island and the largest island in the Baltic Sea. At 3,140 square kilometers in area, the region makes up less than one percent of Sweden's total land area...
and in various settlements in the East.
Yet, by 1600, another classification of the North Germanic language branches had arisen from a syntactic
Syntax
In linguistics, syntax is the study of the principles and rules for constructing phrases and sentences in natural languages....
point of view, dividing them into an insular group (Icelandic and Faroese) and a continental group (Danish, Norwegian and Swedish). The division between Insular Scandinavian (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 lead to significant Danish influence on central and eastern Norwegian dialects (Bokmal
Bokmål
Bokmål is one of two official Norwegian written standard languages, the other being Nynorsk. Bokmål is used by 85–90% of the population in Norway, and is the standard most commonly taught to foreign students of the Norwegian language....
or Dano-Norwegian
Dano-Norwegian
Dano-Norwegian is a linguistic term for a koiné that evolved among the urban elite in Norwegian cities during the later years of the union between the Kingdoms of Denmark and Norway . It is from this koiné that Riksmål and Bokmål developed...
).
Number of speakers
| Language | Speakers | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Swedish | 10,000,000 | 300,000 Swedish-speaking Finns |
| Danish | 6,000,000 | |
| Norwegian | 5,000,000 | approx. 85-90 % prefer Bokmål, 10-15 % Nynorsk |
| Icelandic | 320,000 | |
| Faroese | 70,000 | |
| Jamtlandic Jamtlandic Jamtlandic or Jamtish is a well-defined group of dialects of Scandinavia. It is spoken in the [Swedish] province of Jämtland... |
45,000 | |
| Elfdalian | 3,000 |
Classification
In historical linguistics, the North Germanic family tree is divided into two main branches, West Scandinavian languages (NorwegianNorwegian language
Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is the official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants .These Scandinavian languages together with the Faroese language...
, Faroese
Faroese language
Faroese , is an Insular Nordic language spoken by 48,000 people in the Faroe Islands and about 25,000 Faroese people in Denmark and elsewhere...
and Icelandic
Icelandic language
Icelandic is a North Germanic language, the main language of Iceland. Its closest relative is Faroese.Icelandic is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic or Nordic branch of the Germanic languages. Historically, it was the westernmost of the Indo-European languages prior to the...
) and East Scandinavian languages (Danish
Danish language
Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where it holds the status of minority language...
and Swedish
Swedish language
Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...
), along with various dialects and varieties. The two branches are derived from the western and eastern dialect group of Old Norse
Old Norse
Old Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....
, respectively. There was also an Old Gutnish
Old Gutnish
Old Gutnish was the dialect of Old Norse that was spoken on the Baltic island of Gotland. It shows sufficient differences from the Old East Norse dialect that it is considered to be a separate branch...
branch spoken on the island of Gotland
Gotland
Gotland is a county, province, municipality and diocese of Sweden; it is Sweden's largest island and the largest island in the Baltic Sea. At 3,140 square kilometers in area, the region makes up less than one percent of Sweden's total land area...
. The East Scandinavian languages (and modern Norwegian, through Danish) were heavily influenced by Middle Low German
Middle Low German
Middle Low German is a language that is the descendant of Old Saxon and is the ancestor of modern Low German. It served as the international lingua franca of the Hanseatic League...
during the period of Hanseatic expansion.
Currently, English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
loanword
Loanword
A loanword is a word borrowed from a donor language and incorporated into a recipient language. By contrast, a calque or loan translation is a related concept where the meaning or idiom is borrowed rather than the lexical item itself. The word loanword is itself a calque of the German Lehnwort,...
s 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 Scandinavian languages, despite the fact that it is the country that uses English most.
Another way of classifying the languages—focusing on mutual intelligibility
Mutual intelligibility
In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is recognized as a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related languages can readily understand each other without intentional study or extraordinary effort...
rather than the tree of life
Tree of life
The concept of a tree of life, a many-branched tree illustrating the idea that all life on earth is related, has been used in science , religion, philosophy, mythology, and other areas...
-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, Traditional Standard Norwegian (Riksmål and Bokmål
Bokmål
Bokmål is one of two official Norwegian written standard languages, the other being Nynorsk. Bokmål is used by 85–90% of the population in Norway, and is the standard most commonly taught to foreign students of the Norwegian language....
) share most of the Danish vocabulary and grammar, and was virtually identical to written Danish until the spelling reform of 1907. (For this reason, Riksmål and Bokmål is sometimes considered East Scandinavian, and Nynorsk
Nynorsk
Nynorsk or New Norwegian is one of two official written standards for the Norwegian language, the other being Bokmål. The standard language was created by Ivar Aasen during the mid-19th century, to provide a Norwegian alternative to the Danish language which was commonly written in Norway at the...
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 Danish are somewhat more significant than the difference between the written. In writing, 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 (lit. "push; thrust"), developments which have not occurred in the other languages. However, Scandinavians are widely expected to understand the other spoken Scandinavian languages. Some people may have some difficulties, particularly older people who speak a dialect, but most people can understand the standard languages, as they appear in radio and television, of the other Scandinavian countries.
The lowest degree of intelligibility is between spoken Danish and Swedish. The relationships between the three languages Danish, Norwegian and Swedish may be summarised as per the following diagram; Norwegian is sometimes humorously described as "Danish spoken with a Swedish pronunciation" (or Danish as "Norwegian spoken with a German [or French] pronunciation"):
 |
Mutual intelligibility
- See also Germanic languages#Vocabulary comparison.
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
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
and Danish-speakers in Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
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
Scania
Scania is the southernmost of the 25 traditional non-administrative provinces of Sweden, constituting a peninsula on the southern tip of the Scandinavian peninsula, and some adjacent islands. The modern administrative subdivision Skåne County is almost, but not totally, congruent with the...
, demonstrated a better understanding of Danish than Swedish-speakers to the north. Access to Danish television and radio, direct trains to Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
over the Oresund Bridge
Oresund Bridge
The Øresund or Öresund Bridge is a combined twin-track railway and dual carriageway bridge-tunnel across the Øresund strait.The bridge connects Sweden and Denmark, and it is the longest road and rail bridge in Europe. The Øresund Bridge also connects two major Metropolitan Areas: those of the...
and a larger number of cross-border commuters in the Oresund Region
Oresund Region
The Øresund or Öresund Region is a transnational region in northern Europe, centred on the cities of Copenhagen and Malmö. Located by the shores of the Øresund strait and connected by the Oresund Bridge, the Capital Region of Denmark and Region Zealand constitute the Danish side, while Skåne...
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 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; and youth in Copenhagen had a very poor command of Swedish, showing that the Oresund 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, reproduced below. The maximum score was 10.0:
| City | Comprehension of Danish |
Comprehension of Swedish |
Comprehension of Norwegian |
Average |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Århus, Denmark | ||||
| Copenhagen Copenhagen Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region... , Denmark |
||||
| Malmö Malmö Malmö , in the southernmost province of Scania, is the third most populous city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg.Malmö is the seat of Malmö Municipality and the capital of Skåne County... , Sweden |
||||
| Stockholm Stockholm Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area... , Sweden |
||||
| Bergen Bergen Bergen is the second largest city in Norway with a population of as of , . Bergen is the administrative centre of Hordaland county. Greater Bergen or Bergen Metropolitan Area as defined by Statistics Norway, has a population of as of , .... , Norway |
||||
| Oslo Oslo Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King... , Norway |
||||
Icelandic and 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 the mother tongue, as well as the highest average score. 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):
| Area/ Country |
Comprehension of Danish |
Comprehension of Swedish |
Comprehension of Norwegian |
Average |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Faroe Islands Faroe Islands The Faroe Islands are an island group situated between the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, approximately halfway between Scotland and Iceland. The Faroe Islands are a self-governing territory within the Kingdom of Denmark, along with Denmark proper and Greenland... |
||||
| Iceland Iceland Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population... |
||||
Is Scandinavian one or several languages?
The Scandinavian languages (in the narrow sense, i.e., the languages of Scandinavia) are often cited as proof of the aphorismAphorism
An aphorism is an original thought, spoken or written in a laconic and memorable form.The term was first used in the Aphorisms of Hippocrates...
"A language is a dialect with an army and navy
A language is a dialect with an army and navy
"A language is a dialect with an army and navy" is a description of the distinction between dialect and language. It points out the influence that political conditions can have over a community's perception of the status of a language or dialect...
". 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
Norwegian language
Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is the official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants .These Scandinavian languages together with the Faroese language...
, Swedish
Swedish language
Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...
, and Danish
Danish language
Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where it holds the status of minority language...
in the popular mind as well as among most linguists. This is also because of the strong influence of the standard language
Standard language
A standard language is a language variety used by a group of people in their public discourse. Alternatively, varieties become standard by undergoing a process of standardization, during which it is organized for description in grammars and dictionaries and encoded in such reference works...
s, 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
Prestige dialect
In sociolinguistics, prestige describes the level of respect accorded to a language or dialect as compared to that of other languages or dialects in a speech community. The concept of prestige in sociolinguistics is closely related to that of prestige or class within a society...
often referred to as "Eastern Urban Norwegian", spoken mainly in and around the Oslo
Oslo
Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...
region, can be considered to be quite normative. The formation of Nynorsk
Nynorsk
Nynorsk or New Norwegian is one of two official written standards for the Norwegian language, the other being Bokmål. The standard language was created by Ivar Aasen during the mid-19th century, to provide a Norwegian alternative to the Danish language which was commonly written in Norway at the...
out of western Norwegian dialects after Norway became independent of Denmark in 1814 added to making linguistic divisions match the political ones.
The Nordic Council
Nordic Council
The Nordic Council is a geo-political, inter-parliamentary forum for co-operation between the Nordic countries. It was established following World War II and its first concrete result was the introduction in 1952 of a common labour market and free movement across borders without passports for the...
has on several occasions referred to the (Germanic) languages spoken in Scandinavia as "Scandinavian language" (singular); for instance, the official newsletter of the Nordic Council is written in "Scandinavian language".
Family tree
All North Germanic languages are descended from Old NorseOld Norse
Old Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....
. Divisions between subfamilies of North Germanic are rarely precisely defined: Most form continuous clines, with adjacent dialect
Dialect
The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...
s being mutually intelligible and the most separated ones not.
- Proto-NorseProto-Norse languageProto-Norse was an Indo-European language spoken in Scandinavia that is thought to have evolved as a northern dialect of Proto-Germanic over the first centuries AD...
- West Scandinavian
- Greenlandic NorseGreenlandic NorseGreenlandic Norse is an extinct North Germanic language that was spoken in the Norse settlements of Greenland until their demise in the late 15th century...
(extinct) - IcelandicIcelandic languageIcelandic is a North Germanic language, the main language of Iceland. Its closest relative is Faroese.Icelandic is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic or Nordic branch of the Germanic languages. Historically, it was the westernmost of the Indo-European languages prior to the...
- FaroeseFaroese languageFaroese , is an Insular Nordic language spoken by 48,000 people in the Faroe Islands and about 25,000 Faroese people in Denmark and elsewhere...
- NornNorn languageNorn is an extinct North Germanic language that was spoken in Shetland and Orkney, off the north coast of mainland Scotland, and in Caithness. After the islands were pledged to Scotland by Norway in the 15th century, it was gradually replaced by Scots and on the mainland by Scottish...
(extinct) - NorwegianNorwegian languageNorwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is the official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants .These Scandinavian languages together with the Faroese language...
- Vestnorsk (Western and Southern Norway)
- Nordnorsk (Northern Norway)
- NynorskNynorskNynorsk or New Norwegian is one of two official written standards for the Norwegian language, the other being Bokmål. The standard language was created by Ivar Aasen during the mid-19th century, to provide a Norwegian alternative to the Danish language which was commonly written in Norway at the...
(written standard of Norwegian)
- Greenlandic Norse
- East Scandinavian
- DanishDanish languageDanish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where it holds the status of minority language...
- Island Danish
- East Danish (BlekingeBlekinge' is one of the traditional provinces of Sweden , situated in the south of the country. It borders Småland, Scania and the Baltic Sea.The name "Blekinge" comes from the adjective bleke, which corresponds to the nautical term for "dead calm"....
, HallandHalland' is one of the traditional provinces of Sweden , on the western coast of Sweden. It borders Västergötland, Småland, Scania and the sea of Kattegat.-Administration:...
, Skåne, BornholmBornholmBornholm is a Danish island in the Baltic Sea located to the east of the rest of Denmark, the south of Sweden, and the north of Poland. The main industries on the island include fishing, arts and crafts like glass making and pottery using locally worked clay, and dairy farming. Tourism is...
) - JutlandicJutlandicJutlandic or Jutish is a term for the western dialects of Danish, spoken on the peninsula of Jutland....
(or Jutish, in JutlandJutlandJutland , historically also called Cimbria, is the name of the peninsula that juts out in Northern Europe toward the rest of Scandinavia, forming the mainland part of Denmark. It has the North Sea to its west, Kattegat and Skagerrak to its north, the Baltic Sea to its east, and the Danish–German...
) - South Jutlandic (in South Jutland and Southern SchleswigSouthern SchleswigSouthern Schleswig denotes the southern half of the former Duchy of Schleswig on the Jutland Peninsula. The geographical area today covers the thirty or forty northernmost kilometers of Germany up to the Flensburg Fjord, where it borders on Denmark...
)
- SwedishSwedish languageSwedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...
- Dalecarlian dialects (DalarnaDalarna', English exonym: Dalecarlia, is a historical province or landskap in central Sweden. Another English language form established in literature is the Dales. Places involving the element Dalecarlia exist in the United States....
)- Elfdalian (DalarnaDalarna', English exonym: Dalecarlia, is a historical province or landskap in central Sweden. Another English language form established in literature is the Dales. Places involving the element Dalecarlia exist in the United States....
)
- Elfdalian (Dalarna
- Sveamål (SvealandSvealandSvealand , Swealand or Sweden proper is the historical core region of Sweden. It is located in south central Sweden and is one of three lands of Sweden, bounded to the north by Norrland and to the south by Götaland. Deep forests, Tiveden, Tylöskog, Kolmården, separated Svealand from Götaland...
) - Norrländska mål (NorrlandNorrlandNorrland is one of the three lands of Sweden , the northern part, consisting of nine provinces. The term Norrland is not used for any administrative purpose, but it is common in everyday language, e.g...
) - Götamål (GötalandGötalandGötaland , Gothia, Gothland, Gothenland, Gautland or Geatland is one of three lands of Sweden and comprises provinces...
) - Sydsvenska mål (BlekingeBlekinge' is one of the traditional provinces of Sweden , situated in the south of the country. It borders Småland, Scania and the Baltic Sea.The name "Blekinge" comes from the adjective bleke, which corresponds to the nautical term for "dead calm"....
, HallandHalland' is one of the traditional provinces of Sweden , on the western coast of Sweden. It borders Västergötland, Småland, Scania and the sea of Kattegat.-Administration:...
, Skåne, southern SmålandSmåland' is a historical province in southern Sweden.Småland borders Blekinge, Scania or Skåne, Halland, Västergötland, Östergötland and the island Öland in the Baltic Sea. The name Småland literally means Small Lands. . The latinized form Smolandia has been used in other languages...
) - Östsvenska målSwedish dialects in OstrobothniaOstrobothnian Swedish is a variety of Finland-Swedish, spoken in Finland. Outside the autonomous island province of Åland, which is officially monolingually Swedish, Ostrobothnia is the only region of Finland besides Åland where the Swedish-speakers are in the majority...
(FinlandFinlandFinland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
and formerly, EstoniaEstoniaEstonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...
) - JamtlandicJamtlandicJamtlandic or Jamtish is a well-defined group of dialects of Scandinavia. It is spoken in the [Swedish] province of Jämtland...
(JämtlandJämtlandJämtland or Jamtland is a historical province or landskap in the center of Sweden in northern Europe. It borders to Härjedalen and Medelpad in the south, Ångermanland in the east, Lapland in the north and Trøndelag and Norway in the west...
) (disputed as an East Scandinavian language)
- Dalecarlian dialects (Dalarna
- Danish
- Gutnish
- Old GutnishOld GutnishOld Gutnish was the dialect of Old Norse that was spoken on the Baltic island of Gotland. It shows sufficient differences from the Old East Norse dialect that it is considered to be a separate branch...
(extinct, GotlandGotlandGotland is a county, province, municipality and diocese of Sweden; it is Sweden's largest island and the largest island in the Baltic Sea. At 3,140 square kilometers in area, the region makes up less than one percent of Sweden's total land area...
)- Modern GutnishModern GutnishModern Gutnish is the native language of the Gotlandic people on the island of Gotland in present-day Sweden. It was both a spoken and written language until late medieval times. Today it exists as a spoken language, but is to some degree mixed with Swedish, Danish and German. It is an open issue...
(GotlandGotlandGotland is a county, province, municipality and diocese of Sweden; it is Sweden's largest island and the largest island in the Baltic Sea. At 3,140 square kilometers in area, the region makes up less than one percent of Sweden's total land area...
)
- Modern Gutnish
- Old Gutnish
- West Scandinavian
Beside the two official written norms of Norwegian, there exist two established unofficial norms: Riksmål, similar to, but more conservative than Bokmål, which is used to various extents by numerous people, especially in the cities and Høgnorsk
Høgnorsk
Høgnorsk, meaning "High Norwegian", is a term for varieties of the Norwegian language form Nynorsk that reject most of the official reforms that have been introduced since the creation of Landsmål...
"High-Norwegian", similar to Nynorsk, used by a very small minority.
Jamtlandic
Jamtlandic
Jamtlandic or Jamtish is a well-defined group of dialects of Scandinavia. It is spoken in the [Swedish] province of Jämtland...
shares many characteristics with both Trøndersk and with Norrländska mål. Due to this ambiguous position, it is contested whether Jamtlandic belongs to the West Norse or the East Norse language group.
Älvdalsmål
Älvdalsmål
Elfdalian or Övdalian is a linguistic variety of the Scandinavian language branch spoken in the old parish of Övdaln, which is located in the south-eastern part of Älvdalen Municipality in Northern Dalarna, Sweden.Traditionally regarded as a Swedish dialect, Elfdalian is today regarded by...
"Älvdalen Speech", generally considered a Sveamål dialect, today has an official orthography and is, because of a lack of mutual intelligibility with Swedish
Swedish language
Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...
, considered as a separate language by many linguists.
Traveller Danish, Norwegian
Rodi language
Rodi, also known by the ambiguous term Traveller Norwegian, is a language spoken by the indigenous Norwegian Travellers in Norway. It is an offshoot of Norwegian with significant influence of Sinti, Rotwelsch and, especially in recent decades, Scandoromani...
, and Swedish are varieties of their respective language with Romani
Romani language
Romani or Romany, Gypsy or Gipsy is any of several languages of the Romani people. They are Indic, sometimes classified in the "Central" or "Northwestern" zone, and sometimes treated as a branch of their own....
vocabulary, or Para-Romani
Para-Romani
Para-Romani is a term used in Romani linguistics to refer non-Romani languages adopted by Romani communities but with considerable admixture from Romani. Some Para-Romani have no structural features at all, taking only the vocabulary from Romani. The technical term in linguistics for such a...
, known as the Scando-Romani languages. They are spoken by Norwegian and Swedish Travellers.
Other languages in Scandinavia
Sami languagesSami languages
Sami or Saami is a general name for a group of Uralic languages spoken by the Sami people in parts of northern Finland, Norway, Sweden and extreme northwestern Russia, in Northern Europe. Sami is frequently and erroneously believed to be a single language. Several names are used for the Sami...
form an unrelated group that has coexisted with the North Germanic language group in Scandinavia since prehistory. Sami, like Finnish
Finnish language
Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...
, is part of the group of the Uralic languages
Uralic languages
The Uralic languages constitute a language family of some three dozen languages spoken by approximately 25 million people. The healthiest Uralic languages in terms of the number of native speakers are Hungarian, Finnish, Estonian, Mari and Udmurt...
. In inter-Nordic contexts, texts are today often presented in three versions: Finnish, Icelandic, and one of the three languages Danish, Norwegian and Swedish. During centuries of interaction, Finnish and Sami have imported many more loanwords from North Germanic languages than vice versa.
The North-Germanic languages are majority languages in Denmark, Norway and Sweden, while Finnish is spoken by the majority in Finland. Another language in the Nordic countries is Greenlandic, the official languages of Greenland
Greenland
Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...
.
In southernmost Denmark, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
is also spoken, being an official language there. Traditionally, Danish and German were the two official languages of Denmark-Norway.
See also
- Differences between Norwegian Bokmål and Standard DanishDifferences between Norwegian Bokmål and Standard DanishDanish and Norwegian Bokmål are very similar languages, but differences between them do exist...
- Scanian dialects
- SvorskSvorskSvorsk or Svorska is a term describing a mixture of the Swedish and Norwegian languages....
- North Germanic tribes
Further reading
Outlined scanian orthography including morphology and word index. First revision. Outlined scanian orthography including morphology and word index.- Iben Stampe Sletten red., Nordens sprog – med rødder og fødder, 2005, ISBN 92-893-1041-3, available online, also available in the other Scandinavian languages