Sociolinguistics in historical language contact: the Scandinavian languages and Low German during the Hanseatic period

Jahr, Ernst Håkon

doi:10.1515/9783110807653.119

Cited by 31 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…Previous research has shown that feminine gender is vulnerable in a number of dialects in Norway -and that it is non-existent in certain varieties in the cities Bergen and Oslo (Jahr 1998(Jahr , 2001Trudgill 2013;Lødrup 2011) as well as in contact dialects such as Nordreisa and several Finnmark dialects (Conzett et al 2011;Stabell 2016).…”

Section: Previous Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

The loss of feminine gender in Norwegian: a dialect comparison

Busterud

Lohndal

Rodina

et al. 2019

J Comp German Linguistics

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It is well known that grammatical gender systems may change historically. Previous research has documented loss of the feminine gender in several Norwegian dialects, including those spoken in Oslo and Tromsø (Lødrup 2011; Rodina and Westergaard 2015a). In these dialects, the change is characterized by substitution of the feminine indefinite article ei (e.g., ei bok 'a book') with the masculine form en (e.g., en bok). Child and adult native speakers of the Trondheim dialect (N=71) participated in two production experiments that tested gender marking in indefinite and double definite forms, using an identical methodology to the Tromsø study. Results show that both children and adults are affected by the change. The Trondheim-Tromsø comparison reveals that the change is more advanced in the Trondheim dialect. We conclude that the loss of the feminine gender reflects a general development taking place across a number of dialects at the current time, presumably due to the high prestige of a spoken variety of one of the written standards of Norwegian.

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Section: Previous Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

The loss of feminine gender in Norwegian: a dialect comparison

Busterud

Lohndal

Rodina

et al. 2019

J Comp German Linguistics

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“…It is well known that M and F genders have collapsed into common gender (C) in many Germanic languages and dialects. This change has taken place e.g., in Dutch, Danish, and the Bergen dialect of Norwegian (Jahr, 1998 ; Nesse, 2002 ; Trudgill, 2013 ). Furthermore, Conzett et al ( 2011 ) have attested a similar change in certain dialects in North Norway (Kåfjord and Nordreisa).…”

Section: Grammatical Gender In Acquisition and Attritionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Grammatical Gender in American Norwegian Heritage Language: Stability or Attrition?

Lohndal

Westergaard

2016

Front. Psychol.

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This paper investigates possible attrition/change in the gender system of Norwegian heritage language spoken in America. Based on data from 50 speakers in the Corpus of American Norwegian Speech (CANS), we show that the three-gender system is to some extent retained, although considerable overgeneralization of the masculine (the most frequent gender) is attested. This affects both feminine and neuter gender forms, while declension class markers such as the definite suffix remain unaffected. We argue that the gender category is vulnerable due to the lack of transparency of gender assignment in Norwegian. Furthermore, unlike incomplete acquisition, which may result in a somewhat different or reduced gender system, attrition is more likely to lead to general erosion, eventually leading to complete loss of gender.

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“…Within Norway, Low German was an especially important language in Bergen, where the Hanseatic League had one of its four main trading stations, the Kontor. For several hundred years, a large colony of Germans lived and worked there, and this intensive contact situation has been used as an explanation for some peculiar features of the Bergen dialect (Jahr 1999;Nesse 2002). However, the same situation did not necessarily apply to the rest of the country, and Nesse (2008: 51) emphasises that the receptive diglossia she assumes for Bergen was a local system, "not something to be expected all over Scandinavia".…”

Section: Receptive Multilingualism Revisitedmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Bartram Bene was born in Rostock (Nedkvitne 2014: 92). translators in Bergen or other Scandinavian towns" needs qualification. Nedkvitne is a historian and bases his claims on Braunmüller (1995a) and Jahr (1999), but even the cautious qualifications these scholars give are ignored in Nedkvitne's interpretation.…”

Section: An Asymmetric Relationshipmentioning

confidence: 99%

A note on the relationship between Scandinavian and Low German

Berg

2016

Journal of Historical Sociolinguistics

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Note: This is a postprint version of an article in Journal of Historical Sociolinguistics 2:2, pp. 189-210. DOI: 10.1515189-210. DOI: 10. /jhsl-2016. For citation, please consult the published version. AbstractRecent work on language contact between Scandinavian and Low German during the Middle Ages widely assumes that the varieties were linguistically close enough to permit some kind of receptive multilingualism, and hence an example of dialect contact. Two arguments that have been invoked in support of this scenario are the lack of (1) meta-linguistic comments on flawed understanding, and (2) attested bilingualism. However, towards the end of the most intense contact period, in the early sixteenth century, there is indeed meta-linguistic information in the preserved sources suggesting that intelligibility was restricted. Furthermore, there are also examples of code-switching and active bilingualism indicating that the varieties were clearly perceived as distinct languages. This paper presents such examples from Norwegian primary sources that have not been observed in recent scholarship. Based on this evidence, it is argued that the relationship between the languages by the early sixteenth century was asymmetric, Scandinavians being able to understand Low German more often than vice versa.

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Sociolinguistics in historical language contact: the Scandinavian languages and Low German during the Hanseatic period

Cited by 31 publications

References 4 publications

The loss of feminine gender in Norwegian: a dialect comparison

The loss of feminine gender in Norwegian: a dialect comparison

Grammatical Gender in American Norwegian Heritage Language: Stability or Attrition?

A note on the relationship between Scandinavian and Low German

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