Olve Utne wrote:
But this has no bearing in itself on the nature of
Scots -- which is a
language or (set of) dialect(s) (depending on your poitical as well as
linguistic reasons...), rather than an accent of standard English.
Nynorsk and Scots are similar in that both are languages without an
army of their own (this would make them a dialect in one definition),
but still not frowned upon as some uneducated peasant jargon. Both
countries were ruled from a distance (London and Copenhagen), but the
languages of the rulers were intelligible without translation. I have
the impression that both Nynorsk and Scots are now minority languages
in their own country although they might have the potential of being
the single official language.
The difference between Swedish and Danish is a political consequence
of Sweden's leaving the Kalmar Union in 1523. For example, spelling
was changed from the Danish soft G/D to harder consonants K/T in many
places. It is natural (if nationalism is natural) that Norway sought
similar changes (in both Bokmaal and Nynorsk) after 1905.
(There is also, of course, the separate lineage of
Dalmål -- which
This should be Älvdalmål. Only a small part of western Dalecarlia
has this most remarkable dialect.
Lars Aronsson, lars(a)aronsson.se
--
Aronsson Datateknik