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@aronsson.se