Oh, I forgot the dialects of north Norrbotten, which could be
either "§ North Norse" or "§ East Norse". Especially the so
called "Överkalixbondska" has strong East Norse elements, e.g. the
breaking 'ia' in 'iar' (English 'is', Swedish 'är', Icelandic 'er'
etc).
One sound sample of Överkalixbondska:
http://www.umu.se/daum/dialekter/socknar/overkalix.htm
Four sound samples of Överkalixbondska
http://swedia.ling.umu.se/Norrland/Norrbotten/Overkalix/index.html

/Jens


--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, "Jens Persson" <arnljotr@...>
wrote:
> It is quite amusing to draw linguistical borders in Scandinavia.
One
> thing that is clear is that the borders in 14th and 15th centuries
> seem to have been more or less static during the years. I would
like
> to propose the following rough subdivision of the Norse dialects
> (note that I have rejected the traditional definition of East and
> West Norse):
>
> § South Norse
> * Jutlandic dialects
> * Själlandic dialects
> * Scanian dialects
>
> § East Norse
> * Svealandic dialects
> * Ålandic dialect
> * Norse spoken in southwest Finland
>
> § "Far East" Norse
> * Gotlandic
> * Farish
> * Baltic Norse (including Ucrainian divison)
>
> § Central Norse
> * East Norwegian dialects
> * Dialects spoken in Götaland
> * Dialects spoken in Värmland
>
> § West Norse
> * West Noprwegian dialects
> * Faroese dialects
> * Icelandic dialects
>
> § North Norse
> * Tröndish dialects
> * Jamtlandic dialects
> * Norrlandic dialects
> * Norse spoken in west Finland
>
> Dalecarlian may be put in either "§ East Norse" or "§ North Norse"
> (originally the former, I guess).
> Northern Norwegian may be put in either "§ West Norse" or "§ North
> Norse" (originally the former, I guess).
> The dialect of Bohuslän may be put in either "§ South Norse" or "§
> Central Norse" (probably the latter).
> One could also think of putting some South Norwegian dialects in
> either "§ West Norse" or "§ South Norse" (probably the former).
> I also wonder if some Norse dialects in Finland and Russia should
be
> in "§ East Norse" or in "§ "Far" East Norse" (probably the former).
>
> I think this subdivision is more adequate than the simple East and
> West Norse one, at least for the period 1400-1900. In fact, instead
> of speaking about an important west vs east branch of Norse, one
> should speak about a south vs north branch, and an Atlantic branch
vs
> a mainland one (probably equally important, more or less).
>
> I hope Konrad will give his personal opinion on this.
>
> Skål ta mej faan!
>
> /Arnljotr (or whatever my name is)
>
>
> --- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, "konrad_oddsson"
> <konrad_oddsson@...> wrote:
> > Here is what Gordon says about Old Norwegian:
> >
> > "Icelandic and Norwegian remained very similar until the 13th
> > century, when important differences began to appear. There were
> > dialects within Norwegian itself, which may be divided into two
> > groups, East and West Norwegian. The dialectical boundary was
> > roughly a line drawn from Grenland to Raumsdal. East Norwegian
> > differed from Icelandic more than West Norwegian, agreeing with
Old
> > Swedish in most of the additional differences."
> >
> > I fully agree with Gordon on this. Having recently examined some
of
> > the surviving early manuscripts in Old Norwegian of the western
> > variety, I have come to the rather old conclusion that Norway is
> > linguistically speaking two separate countries. One can
understand
> > why speakers of surviving West Norse dialects in Norway have had
to
> > fight an unending battle for recognition against the richer and
> more
> > numerous Danish-speakers in the south. Had it been up to
linguists
> > to decide where the boundary lines were drawn, they would likely
> > have followed Gordon and partitioned Norway into two countries. I
> > can testify from my own personal reading that the languages of
the
> > Faroe Islands, Iceland and Northern and Western Norway were for
all
> > practical purposes the same language into the 13th century. In
> fact,
> > the diffences were so few that one could almost get away with
using
> > the phrase 'exactly the same'. Old West Norse is a unique
> language,
> > even within Scandinavia. It differs at times rather widely from
the
> > Eastern Scandinavian languages in various ways, including the way
> in
> > which it re-analyzed the Proto-Norse vowel-system. It even
differs
> > at times in the gender and declension of nouns, the conjugation
of
> > verbs, and other obvious features. Before the Black Death killed
> off
> > more than half the population of Norway and what remained fell
> under
> > Danish administration, the seat of Norwegian power was in the
> north.
> > It is strange for those of us living today to imagine a Norway
> where
> > West Norse was not only spoken over a rather wide area, but was
> even
> > the administrative language of the land. Most of the surviving
manu-
> > scripts in Old Norwegian are in West Norse and are believed to
have
> > been written in some of the numerous monastaries which once
existed
> > throughout Norway before the Black Death and the Reformation. To
> say
> > that the loss of Norway was a major tragedy for the West Norse
> world
> > would be an understatement. It was a near death-blow. The changes
> > that began in Norway with the Black Death effectively wiped out
the
> > majority of West Norse speakers and most of the language itself
in
> > less than 100 years. When the seat of national power moved to
Oslo
> > in the south, the process was complete - West Norse had
effectively
> > become extinct. During the many centuries to come, the emerging
> > merchant class centered in the south would determine the future
of
> > the country. Unfourtunately for West Norse speakers, this
merchant
> > class consisted mostly of 3 non-West Norse speaking groups: 1)
the
> > descendants of East Norse speaking natives from before the Black
> > Death 2) the Danish East Norse speaking immigrants who came to
fill
> > in the buisness and administrative void 3)Germans and others from
> > the mainland of continental Europe, including many Scots and
Dutch.
> >
> > When Snorri uses the phrase 'dönsk tunga' to describe his
language,
> > he is merely applying a formal title to the speech of Scandinavia
> > during the centuries leading up to his time. 'Dönsk Tunga' makes
a
> > fine proper title for the common language of Gothic Scandinavia -
> it
> > has a formal ring to it (at least to West Norse ears). However,
> from
> > a strictly linguistic point of view, it is rather obvious why
West
> > Norse was and is properly called 'Norroena' (or more
> correctly 'Norð-
> > roena') - no serious linguist would take issue with this. There
are
> > simply too many differences between the East and the West, both
in
> > Norway itself as in all of Scandinavia.
> >
> > Regards,
> > Konrad.