Scandinavian languages

[Adam Hyllested]

EGO:
> The genetic classification of languages is
> based on origins, not on linguistic similarities caused by later foreign
> influence.

LARRY TRASK:
> Exactly.  So, based on origins, we'd expect Norwegian to form a branch
> with Icelandic.

There should be absolutely no doubt that one of the Norwegian standards,
Nynorsk (lit. 'New Norwegian' or 'Modern Norwegian' - actually, the
archaic variety) belongs to the West Nordic Group together with Icelandic
and Faroese. Nynorsk is based on the original dialects of Norway, and
these all share the typical West Nordic linguistic features. The problem
arouses when one tries to include Bokmål (lit. 'Book
Language' or 'Written Language'), because this second standard has
developed from written *Danish* with Norwegian as a substrate.

LARRY TRASK:
> Yet all the published trees I've ever seen group Norwegian with
> Danish and Swedish, in defiance of the original state of affairs, but in
> line with modern realities.

Again, with one modification: this is only true of Bokmål.

EGO:
> A Germanic language stays Germanic forever, no matter how
> unrecognizeable it may have become. The leaves of a family language tree
> simply cannot move from one branch to another.

LARRY TRASK:
> According to the family-tree model, this is correct.  But my point was that
> this model does not suffice to capture all aspects of language history

Should it? To me, the family tree model is purely genetic.

LARRY TRASK:
> I might add that the well-known Pennsylvania tree for the IE family sees the
> entire Germanic branch as having done something similar: this view sees
> Germanic as having started off as part of an eastern cluster of IE languages,
> but then as having "migrated" (linguistically, I mean) into a western
> cluster.  The authors' final decision is to put Germanic into a western
> branch, but they explicitly acknowledge the inadequacy of this decision.

If Germanic started off as part of an eastern IE cluster, then even today
I would group it into this cluster to show its Eastern IE heritage.

Best regards,
Adam Hyllested