West Scandinavian languages

E102361

West Scandinavian languages are a branch of the North Germanic language family that includes varieties such as Icelandic, Faroese, and certain Norwegian dialects, characterized by conservative grammatical features and shared historical development.

All labels observed (3)

How this entity was disambiguated

Statements (49)

Predicate Object
instanceOf branch of North Germanic languages
language group
alsoKnownAs Insular Nordic languages
West Scandinavian languages
surface form: West Nordic languages
characterizedBy complex verb conjugation patterns
conservative grammatical features
distinct phonological developments from Old Norse
retention of case distinctions to a greater extent than East Scandinavian
retention of grammatical gender distinctions
rich inflectional morphology
contrastedWith East Scandinavian languages
developedFrom Norse
surface form: Old Norse

Proto-Germanic
Proto-Indo-European
Proto-Norse
distinguishedFrom Danish language
Swedish language
geographicDistribution Faroe Islands
Iceland
Norway
Orkney Islands
surface form: Orkney Islands (historically)

Shetland
surface form: Shetland Islands (historically)

parts of western Sweden (for some dialects)
hasAncestralLanguage Old Icelandic
surface form: Old West Norse
hasDescendant modern Faroese
modern Icelandic
modern Norwegian dialects of western and central Norway
hasMember Elfdalian
surface form: Elfdalian language

Faroese language
Icelandic
surface form: Icelandic language

Norn language
Northern Norwegian dialects
Trøndersk dialect
surface form: Norwegian dialects of Trøndelag

Nordfjord dialect
surface form: Norwegian dialects of Western Norway

Norwegian language
surface form: Norwegian language varieties
hasWritingSystem Latin alphabet
surface form: Latin script
historicallyIncludes Old Icelandic
surface form: Old West Norse
linguisticClassificationCriterion shared historical development from Old West Norse
shared morphological features
shared phonological innovations
sharesFeatureWith Faroese language
Icelandic
surface form: Icelandic language

Norwegian dialects
studiedInField Germanic linguistics
North Germanic languages
surface form: Nordic linguistics
subclassOf Germanic languages
Indo-European language family
surface form: Indo-European languages

North Germanic languages
timePeriod medieval period to present

How these facts were elicited

Referenced by (3)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

North Germanic languages hasSubgroup West Scandinavian languages
West Scandinavian languages alsoKnownAs West Scandinavian languages
this entity surface form: West Nordic languages
East Scandinavian contrastedWith West Scandinavian languages
this entity surface form: West Scandinavian