The Languages Of Scandinavia

This work narrates the shared history of the seven languages of Scandinavia and their development from earliest times to the present: Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Icelandic, Faroese, Finnish, and Sami. These "seven sisters of the north" have coexisted in Scandinavia for millennia but come from two distinct language families: two of them are Finno-Ugric and five Germanic. Traditionally, studies of the linguistic history have considered the two families separately because of their ultimate differing origins. However, a crisscrossing of names, territories, and even to some extent language genetics in the North through millennia has created a body of shared culture, experience, and linguistic influence that is illuminated when these seven languages are told as a singular story, an approach that has been called language contact. This book breaks new ground by considering them together.