Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-vfjqv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T07:00:04.328Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Relative linguistic homogeneity in a new society: The case of Iceland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 March 2011

Stephen Pax Leonard
Stephen Pax Leonard
Affiliation:
Trinity Hall, Cambridge, CB2 1TJ, United Kingdomspl42@cam.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The language of a speech community can only act as an identity marker for all of its speakers if linguistic norms are widely shared and if a minimal number of language varieties are spoken. This article examines briefly how a linguistic norm came to serve the whole of Iceland and how a situation of relative linguistic homogeneity was maintained for centuries. Sociolinguistic theory tells us that the speech community that we can reconstruct for early Iceland should lead to the establishment and maintenance of local norms. However, Iceland, arguably monodialectal, was certainly characterized by long-term linguistic homogeneity and remained a society where nucleated settlements barely formed over a thousand-year period. Scholars have argued that a mixture of dialects leveled shortly after the settlement of Iceland in the ninth century (Settlement). Studies show that dialect leveling requires dialect mixing, the convergence of people on one place, and sustained linguistic contact between the speakers. The settlement pattern of Iceland is indicative of population divergence (not convergence) and there is limited evidence of sustained contact. It is therefore proposed that the dialect leveling might be linked instead with significant population movements and social upheaval in mainland Scandinavia in the immediate pre-Viking period. The variety of Norse that was taken westward across the Atlantic might itself already have been the result of several earlier stages of mixing and koineization. It is only by combining linguistic, historical, and archaeological knowledge that this problem of how one linguistic norm came to serve the whole of Iceland can be understood.

Type
Articles
Information
Language in Society , Volume 40 , Issue 2 , April 2011 , pp. 169 - 186
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Helgason, Agnar (2000a). mtDNA and the origin of the Icelanders: Deciphering signals of recent population history. American Journal of Human Genetics 66:999–1016.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Helgason, Agnar (2000b). Estimating Scandinavian and Gaelic ancestry in the male settlers of Iceland. American Journal of Human Genetics 67:697–717.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Andersen, Henning (1988). Centre and periphery: Adoption, diffusion and spread. In Fisiak, Jacek (ed.), Historical dialectology: Regional and social, 39–85. (Trends in linguistics, Studies and monographs 37.) Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andersen, Henning (2002). Preglottalization in English and a North Germanic bifurcation. In Restle, David & Zaefferer, Dietmar (eds.), Sounds and systems: Studies in structure and change. A festschrift for Theo Vennemann, 15–35. (Trends in linguistics, Studies and monographs 141.) Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andersson, Hans (2003). Urbanisation. In Helle, Knut (ed.), The Cambridge history of Scandinavia, vol. 1: Prehistory to 1520, 312–42. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arge, Símun (2005). Cultural landscapes and cultural environmental issues in the Faroes. In Mortensen, Andras & SíArge, mun (eds.), Viking and Norse in the North Atlantic: Select papers from the Proceedings of the Fourteenth Viking Congress, Tórshavn, 19–30 July 2001, 11–21. Tórshavn: Føroya Fróðskaparfelag.Google Scholar
Auer, Peter; Hinskens, Frans; & Kerswill, Paul (2005). Dialect change: Convergence and divergence in European languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bandle, Oskar (1967). Studien zur westnordischen Sprachgeographie: Haustierterminologie im Norwegischen Isländischen und Färöischen. (Textband, Bibliotheca Arnamagnæna 28.) Kopenhagen: Munksgaard.Google Scholar
Bately, Janet (ed.) (1980). The Old English Orosius. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Benedictow, Ole Jørgen (2003). Demographic conditions. In Helle, Knut (ed.), The Cambridge history of Scandinavia, vol. 1: Prehistory to 1520, 237–50. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Solvason, Birgir (1993). Institutional evolution in the commonwealth period. Constitutional Political Economy 4(1):97–125.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Þórólfsson, Björn (1925). Um íslenskar orðmyndir á 14. og 15. öld og breytingar þeirra úr fornmálinu: Með viðauka um mýjungar í orðmyndum á 16. öld og siðar. Reykjavík: Fjelagsprentsmiðjan.Google Scholar
Þorsteinsson, Björn, & Ása Grímsdóttir, Guðrún (1989). Norska öldin. In Líndal, Sigurður (ed.), Saga Íslands IV, 61–258. Reykjavík: Hið íslenska bókmenntafélag & sögufélagið.Google Scholar
Celander, Hilding (1906). Om övergången av ð > d i fornisländskan och fornnorskan. Lund: Berlingska boktryckeriet.Google Scholar
Chapman, Kenneth (1962). Icelandic-Norwegian linguistic relationships. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.Google Scholar
Debes, Hans Jacob (1995). Føroya søga 2: Skattland og len. Tórshavn: Føroya skúlabókagrunnur.Google Scholar
Eckert, Penelope (2000). Linguistic variation as social practice: The linguistic construction of identity in Belten High. (Language in society 27.) Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Gísla saga Súrssonar. (1943). Ed. by Þórólfsson, Björn & Jónsson, Guðni. Íslenzk fornrit, vol. VI. Reykjavík: Hið íslenzka fornritafélag.Google Scholar
Grágás. Islændernes lovbog i fristatens tid. Ed. By Finsen, Vilhjálmur. Vols. Ia, Ib (1852), Vol. II (1879), Vol. III (1883). Odense: Odense University Press. [Reprinted 1974.]Google Scholar
Ólafur Hansson, Gunnar (1997). Aldur og útbreiðsla aðblásturs í tungumálum Norðvestur-Evrópu [The age and distribution of pre-aspiration in the languages of Northwestern Europe]. Reykjavík: University of Iceland M.A. thesis.Google Scholar
Haugen, Einar (1966). Dialect, language, nation. American Anthropologist 68:922–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haugen, Einar (1976). The Scandinavian languages: An introduction to their history. London: Faber & Faber.Google Scholar
Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar. (1977). Ed. by Mundt, Marina. Oslo: Norsk historisk kjeldeskrift-institutt.Google Scholar
Guðmundsson, Helgi (1977). Um ytri aðstæður íslenzkrar málþróunar. Sjötíu ritgerðir helgaðar Jakobi Benediktssyni 20. juli 1977, 314–25. Reykjavík: Stofnun Árna Magnússonar.Google Scholar
Þorláksson, Helgi (1979). Kaupmenn i þjónustu konungs. Mímir. Blað stúdenta í íslenzkum fræðum 13:5–12.Google Scholar
Benediktsson, Hreinn (1961–62). Icelandic dialectology: Methods and results. Íslensk tunga 3:72–113.Google Scholar
Benediktsson, Hreinn (1963). Review of Chapman 1962. Íslenzk tunga: Lingua Islandica 4:152–62.Google Scholar
Benediktsson, Hreinn (1964). Upptök íslenzks máls. In Halldórsson, Halldór (ed.), Þættir um íslenzkt mál eftir nokkra íslenzka málfræðinga, 9–46. Reykjavík: Almenna bókafélagið.Google Scholar
Þráinsson, Höskuldur; Petersen, Hjalmar P.; Jacobsen, Jógvan í Lon; & Hansen, Zakaris Svabo. (2004). Faroese: An overview and reference grammar. Tórshavn: Føroya Fróðskaparfelag.Google Scholar
Indrebø, Gustav (1951). Norsk målsoga. Bergen: John Grieg.Google Scholar
Jespersen, Otto (1954). Language: Its nature, development and origin. London: George Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Kerswill, Paul (1995). Phonological convergence and dialect contact: Evidence from citation forms. Language Variation and Change 7:195–207.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kerswill, Paul (1996). Milton Keynes and dialect levelling in South-Eastern British English. In Graddol, David, Swann, Joan, & Leith, Dick (eds.), English: History, diversity and change, 292–300. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Kerswill, Paul, & Williams, Ann (2000). Mobility versus social class in dialect levelling: Evidence from new and old towns in England. In Mattheier, Klaus (ed.), Dialect and migration in a changing Europe, 1–13. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Ottósson, Kjartan (2003). Heimenorsk innverknad på islandsk språk i mellomalderen, særleg i morfologien. In Árnason, Kristján (ed.), Útnorður: West Nordic standardisation and variation, 111–52. Reykjavík: University of Iceland Press.Google Scholar
Árnason, Kristján (2003). Icelandic. In Deumert, Ana & Vandenbussche, Wim (eds.), Germanic standardizations: Past and present, 245–79. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuhn, Hans (1935). Die sprachliche Einheit Islands. Zeitschrift für Mundartforschung 11:21–39.Google Scholar
Kuhn, Hans (1955). Zur Gliederung der germanischen Sprachen. Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum und deutsche Literatur 86:1–47.Google Scholar
Landnámabók. (1968). Ed. by Benediktsson, Jakob. Íslenzk fornrit, vol. I & II. Reykjavík: Hið íslenzka fornritafélag.Google Scholar
Lass, Roger (1997). Historical linguistics and language change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laxdæla saga. (1934). Ed. by Einar, Ól. Sveinsson. Íslenzk fornrit, vol. V. Reykjavík: Hið íslenzka fornritafélag.Google Scholar
Leach, Edmund (1982). Social anthropology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Le Page, Robert Brock, & Tabouret-Keller, Andrée (1985). Acts of identity: Creole-based approaches to language and ethnicity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lockwood, William Burley (1955). An introduction to modern Faroese. Tórshavn: Føroya skúlabókagrunnur.Google Scholar
Mæhlum, Brit (1997). Dølamål: Dialektene i bardu og målselv. Målselv: Målselv Mållag.Google Scholar
Mæhlum, Brit (1999). Mellom skylla og kharybdis: Forklaringsbegrepet i historisk språkvitenskap. Oslo: Novus.Google Scholar
Mesthrie, Rajend (1992). Language in indenture: A sociolinguistic history of Bhojpuri-Hindi in South Africa. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Milroy, James, & Milroy, Lesley (1985). Linguistic change, social network and speaker innovation. Journal of Linguistics 21:339–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milroy, Lesley (1980). Language and social networks. (Language in society 2.) Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Moag, Rodney (1977). Fiji Hindi. Canberra: Australia National University Press.Google Scholar
Mufwene, Salikoko (2001). The ecology of language evolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Myhre, Bjørn (2003). The Iron Age. In Helle, Knut (ed.), The Cambridge history of Scandinavia, vol. 1: Prehistory to 1520, 60–93. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Näsman, Ulf, & Lund, Jørgen (eds.) (1988). Folkevandringstiden i norden: En krisetid mellom ældre og yngre jernalder. Århus: Århus Universitetsforlag.Google Scholar
Lárusson, Ólafur (1944). Byggð og saga. Reykjavík: Ísafoldarprentsmiðja H. F.Google Scholar
Helgason, Pétur (2002). Preaspiration in the nordic languages: Synchronic and diachronic aspects. Stockholm: Stockholm University dissertation.Google Scholar
Ross, Malcolm (1997). Social networks and kinds of speech-community event. In Blench, Roger & Spriggs, Matthew, Archaeology and language 1: Theoretical and methodological orientations, 209–61. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Røyneland, Unn (2005). Dialektnivellering, ungdom og identitet: Ein komparativ studie av språkleg variasjon og endring i to tilgrensande dialektområde, Røros og Tynset. Dr. art. avhandling. Institutt for nordistikk og litteraturvitskap, Det historisk-filosofiske fakultet, Universitetet i Oslo.Google Scholar
Sandøy, Helge (1994). Utan kontakt og endring? In Kotsinas, Ulla-Britt & Helgander, John (eds.), Dialektkontakt, språkkontakt och språkforändring i norden: Föredrag från ett forskarsymposium, 38–52. Stockholm: Meddelanden från Institutionen för nordiska språk vid Stockholms universitet.Google Scholar
Sandøy, Helge (2001). Færøysk i vestnordisk språkhistorie. In Braunmüller, Kurt & í Lon Jacobsen, Jógvan (eds.), Moderne lingvistiske teorier og færøysk, 125–54. Oslo: Novus.Google Scholar
Sandøy, Helge (2005). Sociolinguistic structures chronologically IV: Icelandic and Faroese. In Bandle, Oskar, Lennart, Elmevik, & Widmark, Gun (eds.), The Nordic languages: An international handbook of the history of the North Germanic languages, vol. 2, 1923–32. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Sapir, Edward (1921). Language: An introduction to the study of speech. New York: Harcourt, Brace, & Co.Google Scholar
Schulte, Michael (2002). The phonological systems of Old Nordic 1: Old Icelandic and Old Norwegian. In Oskar, Bandle, Elmevik, Lennart & Gun, Widmark, The Nordic languages: An international handbook of the history of the North Germanic languages, vol. 1, 882–96. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Siegel, Jeff (1985). Koines and koineization. Language in Society 14:357–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Solheim, Randi (2006). Språket i smeltegryta: Sosiolingvistiske utviklingsliner i industrisamfunnet høyanger. Trondheim: NTNU, Det skapende universitetet.Google Scholar
Spurkland, Terje (2006). From tune to eggja: The ontology of language change. In Fellows-Jensen, Gillian, Stoklund, Marie, Nielsen, Michael, & Holmberg, Bente (eds.), Runes and their secrets: Studies in Runology, 333–45. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press.Google Scholar
Sudbury, Andrea (2001). Falkland Islands English: A southern hemisphere variety? English World-Wide 22(1):55–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thelander, Mats (1979). Språkliga variationsmodeller tilläpade på nutida Burträsktal I/II. (Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis 14.) Uppsala: Uppsala University.Google Scholar
Townend, Matthew (2002). Language and history in Viking Age England. Turnhout: Brepols.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trudgill, Peter (1986). Dialects in contact. (Language in society 10.) Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Trudgill, Peter (2004). New-dialect formation: The inevitability of colonial Englishes. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Trudgill, Peter (2008). Colonial dialect contact in the history of European languages: On the irrelevance of identity to new-dialect formation. Language in Society 37:241–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tuten, Donald N. (2003). Koineization in Medieval Spanish. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ulvestad, Bjarne (1964). Review of Icelandic-Norwegian linguistic relationships by Kenneth Chapman. Language 40:601–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vannebo, Kjell Ivar (2005). Written language and oral colloquial language in the 20th century: A survey. In Bandle, Oskar, Lennart, Elmevik, & Widmark, Gun (eds.), The Nordic languages: An international handbook of the history of the North Germanic languages, vol. 2, 1682–91. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Williams, Ann, & Kerswill, Paul (1999). Dialect levelling: Change and continuity in Milton Keynes, Reading and Hull. In Foulkes, Paul & Docherty, Gerard, Urban voices: Accent studies in the British Isles, 141–62. London: Arnold.Google Scholar