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Classification
An oft-cited source for classification of Swedish dialects is Elias Wessén’s work Våra folkmål (“Our dialects”, 1935). In this work, Wessén classifies Norrland dialects as one of six major Swedish dialect groups alongside Southern Swedish dialects, Göta dialects, Svea dialects, Eastern Swedish dialects and Gotland dialects. In Wessén's definition, Norrland dialects are spoken along the coast of Norrland, starting from northern Hälsingland and up to the Nederkalix and Överkalix parishes in Norrbotten, as well as further inland in Jämtland and southern Lappland. Wessén presents seven examples of features that are characteristic for—but not necessarily unique to—Norrland dialects
 * 1) Vowel balance
 * 2) Vowel harmony
 * 3) Retention of /a/ before /rð/
 * 4) Medial palatalization
 * 5) Loss of present tense ending -er in strong verbs
 * 6) Non-initial stress in compounds
 * 7) Adjective incorporation

Karl-Hampus Dahlstedt and Per-Uno Ågren also draw on the same classification in their work Övre Norrlands bygdemål (“Dialects of upper Norrland”, 1954), in which they—like Wessén—consider the southern border for Norrland dialects to run through the middle of Hälsingland. They also, however, acknowledge the transitionary nature of Hälsingland from a linguistic perspective, pointing out that from a Norrland dialect perspective, the grouping might instead be considered to start with Medelpad, north of Hälsingland, with the isogloss for vowel balance (in which case it would also include Härjedalen and northwesternmost Dalarna), while from an Upper Swedish (Svea dialect) perspective, it could instead be considered to start south of Hälsingland. Lars-Erik Edlund similarly writes that the southern border for Norrland dialects runs through Hälsingland, so that northern Hälsingland dialects belong to Norrland dialects, while southern Hälsingland dialects belong to Svea dialects, but that the isogloss for vowel balance alternatively can be considered to be the southern border.

In addition to the characteristic features mentioned by Wessén, Dahlstedt & Ågren also present a number of additional features found in Norrland dialects. Some examples of these include:
 * 1) Final t- and d-loss in polysyllabic words
 * 2) Preservation of older diphthongs
 * 3) Preservation of the dative case
 * 4) Preservation of plural agreement in verbs
 * 5) Postadjectival indefinite article
 * 6) att ‘to’ + infinitive to introduce a subordinate clause of intention
 * 7) Preproprial articles

They also mention certain vocabulary shared among Norrland dialects, including mylta, multa etc. or snåttren, snôttran etc. for ‘cloudberries’, bäckre, bäcker for ‘ram’, and the Saami loan koxik for ‘Siberian jay’.

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