Ok, notice first that this language is called sognamålet. According
to my source (who speaks it), it is pronounced sognamaúle (the t is
here silent). The aú sound is identical to Icelandic á and occurs
where the chanracter aa/å is found. Notice also the genitive
plural 'sogna', over against Dano-Norwegian 'sogne'. Notice that the
pronunciation is sogna, not songna (but written sogne), as is the
case everywhere else in Norway (and Denmark), with the exception of
a few neighboring areas to Sogn. Furthermore, note that long o
(written ó in Icelandic) is no longer just a long version of short
o, but a new diphthong (oú - the same sound as in Icelandic). Notice
that a > á (aú) before nk/ng (as in Icelandic):laong taong baong
(Ice: löng töng banki). Notice u > ú (written o in Sogn) before
nk/ng: tong monk (Ice þung(ur) munkur) o here = ú. Notice ll > dl:
kalla (pronounced kadla - as in Icelandic) - but this rule goes even
further in Sogn than in Icelandic: 'kenna' is pronounced 'kenna' in
Icelandic, 'kedna' in Sogn. Lastly, rn > dn is completed in Sogn,
but not yet in Icelandic (headed that way though): born korn
(Icelandic börn korn) are pronounced bodn kodn. Icelandic
pronunciation of börn is something like bördn (but bödn is
occuring). Notice also the comments in the link I provided about the
dative, that it is still living in Voss, Sunnfjord, Sognfjøra, and
in parts of Indre Sogn (all neighboring areas). Notice also nn > dn
in many environments (se link). So, it is really not that surprising
that folk thus speaking are often mistaken for being Icelanders who
are speaking Norwegian. Lastly, notice also that this language just
has stress on the first syllable (like Icelandic), and lacks the
quality called 'tonefall' in Norwegian. This quality produces the
unique sing-song effect in Norwegian dialects and is notoriously
difficult to learn. There are many local variations and folk tend to
find them charming, but can't reproduce them. In Soganmålet, there
is the staccato instead (just like in Icelandic). Hearing Sognamålet
has given me a whole new ideas about ON pronunciation history. Now,
as we can see that Sognamålet and Icelandic agree on the consonants,
and on the vowels so far, lets see where they disagree. Ok, au is au
(au not aú, like Ice á/Sogn å, but a plus u - an original ON sound
preserved in Sogn, but not in Icelandic, which says ey here). This
one is tricky. aa/á and au are very diffent sounds in Sogn, but the
first is = Ice. á, while au is an archaic survival of the original
ON sound in this instance, which Ice. once had (after hearing it and
comparing it to Ice. au (=ey), I can almost hear how the change went
into effect, as they are quite close in a way, especially after loss
of original ey in Icelandic (>ei, but written ey). So, essentially,
there is one more diphthong in Sogn (both Ice. and Sogn have more
than ON, which had only 3, but both also write only the 3 old ones
as real diphthongs). ei is ei. _but_ (please note): in Icelandic not
only is ey ei, but y is i and ý is í. Big changes? Well, some would
call Icelandic pronunciation totally isolated and unlike ON. Not so
fast. Many Norwegian dialect pronounce ey as ei, y as i and ý as í,
including parts of Sogn, parts of Nordmøre, etc.etc., even though it
is not a majority pronunciation. Thus, there is really _nothing_
isolated about Icelandic prounuciation with the possible exception
of au=ey (I am uncertain about this one, but will ask about it). So,
one should note that the pronunciation preserved by the descendants
of the last ON speakers in Norway agrees with Icelandic to a degree
that is shocking, in near total contradiction on a very large number
of point with the entirety of modern mainland Scandinavia. It should
be obvious that West Norse was heading a certain way by the time of
black death, and that the pronunciations that survived the black
death (when most folk died, causing radical changes in society and
language) in Iceland, Norway, and Faroes were extremely similar, and
that not much separates them even today.