File talk:Old norse, ca 900.PNG

Crimean Gothic was Not North Germanic
Crimean Gothic was an East Germanic language not a North Germanic (Scandinavian) language.

The name "Goths" (as well as their oral history) seems to establish that they did originate in the Baltic -- but this origin was during the 1st Millenium B.C., prior to the split of Germanic into 3 branches.

See Wulfila's Bible, written in Visigothic.

So Crimean Gothic should appear on this map as "Other Germanic" -- probably with a note on its East Germanic status for clarity. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 75.7.18.181 (talk) 02:22, 20 December 2006 (UTC).

Well now I'm seeing that the legend for the map is actually text. But it is some kind of template -- "Old Norse language map" -- that I can't find to edit.

The template text should be edited something like:

"Crimean Gothic" (an East Germanic language with which Old Norse retained some mutual comprehensibility)"

"The West Germanic language group (with which Old Norse retained some mutual comprehensibility)"

Or the colored rectangles could be divided into two groups -- "Old Norse Dialects", "Other Germanic Language Groups"... or something.

Eastern Border of West Germanic?
What is the source for the linguistic borders of West Germanic on the map?

Was southern Schleswig-Holstein really Slavic speaking (or whatever) at that time?

Had the Kingdom of Burgundy already adopted French?

I'm not sure -- just asking for fact checks. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 75.6.245.38 (talk) 02:44, 20 December 2006 (UTC).

Yeah, this should be fixed. The area around Hamburg would have been dominated by Low German (Old Saxon). There may have been occasional Slavic incursions in that time, see Obotrites, but the boundary should probably best drawn along the w:Limes Saxoniae, which stood from the early 9th century. See File:Limes.saxoniae.wmt.png. --dab (𒁳) 13:16, 25 January 2012 (UTC)

Old Gutnish in Hordaland?
Was Old Gutnish ever spoken in Hordaland or any other part of Norway? According to this map it was, but I highly doubt that.Inge 14:47, 18 September 2007 (UTC)

Yellow?
what language(s) does the yellow color over most of britain correspond to? - Metanoid (talk, email) 04:00, 6 December 2007 (UTC)


 * found it, duh :p - Metanoid (talk, email) 04:03, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Map
Do we really need to be distinguishing "East Norse" and "West Norse", two totally modern constructs based largely on certainly elements within the modern Norwegian nationalist movement? These terms are unattested and anachronistic, and come up badly when placed in northern England which had settlers from both Norway and Denmark who all mixed together and no comment on language difference was ever made. BTW, there is no evidence English was the language of Wigtownshire or even Kirkcudbrightshire in 900; the color should be removed from these areas. Deacon of Pndapetzim ( Talk ) 05:24, 27 January 2009 (UTC)


 * What are you talking about? The linguistic distinction between East and West Norse is generally accepted. (its usefulness as a description of the modern languages is another matter). It has nothing to do with Norwegian nationalism - Were you thinking of Bokmål vs Nynorsk? That's another story. "Unattested and anachronistic"? It's a linguistic distinction. Nobody claimed it was a contemporary one. None of the terms in the image were used at that time. Also, the article Old Norse makes it quite clear that they didn't make that distinction. Of course no comment on linguistic differences was made. There were no linguists back then, and written sources are scarce enough in themselves. Nor would there have been much reason to comment - the languages were still completely mutually intelligible to them. (and largely still are a thousand years later). Nevertheless, differences between East and West Norse were quite real. --Pykk (talk) 22:58, 1 September 2009 (UTC)


 * Actually, there were linguists back then... ᛭ LokiClock (talk) 17:45, 16 June 2010 (UTC)