tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6568915967186844196.post3488703585751659094..comments2024-03-26T14:19:33.332-07:00Comments on Bench Grass: Smelting the World: AnderitaErik Lundhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05728486209757153685noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6568915967186844196.post-1548849583384082042016-03-16T11:42:24.792-07:002016-03-16T11:42:24.792-07:00Yes: clearly by far the most interesting aspect of...Yes: clearly by far the most interesting aspect of what's going on with Icelandic is that linguistic homogeneity is established and then maintained over several centuries during the high medieval period prior to the establishment of Norwegian-Danish sovereignity, and maintained without a state, or, by the saga-authorised narrative, church. <br /><br />That just doesn't tell us very much about Iceland's prehistory, the key pre-870 period which is still arguably not a period of Icelandic human history at all. Just like you warned me! I'm just salvaging what I can from the discussion by drawing the conclusion that Leonard's case works better, the more founding lingustic diversity is allowed. <br /><br />At the moment, a saga-authorised history of Iceland that incorporates what we actually know of early Norwegian history would suggest that the founding population came from a relatively limited part of even Norway, and that although many of these people had lived in much more exotic places before moving to Iceland, their connections still went back to the future Norwegian core territories around Bergen and Trondheim.Erik Lundhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05728486209757153685noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6568915967186844196.post-45032921151902418642016-03-16T11:13:40.367-07:002016-03-16T11:13:40.367-07:00> "it seems that the mystery requires us t...> "it seems that the mystery requires us to see the early settlers as speakers of many languages or at least Norse dialects, in order that they will require a koine to communicate with each other"<br /><br />I don't see how that follows. No doubt there were at least some Irish speakers around, and no doubt they did start out speaking different dialects of Norse - Norway is not a country that lends itself to dialectal homogeneity even today. But the fact that they managed to avoid dialect variation would be remarkable even if they had started out perfectly linguistically homogeneous. In the presence of barriers to travel, diversification is what we expect; the maintenance of homogeneity requires an explanation no less than homogenisation does.Lameen Souag الأمين سواقhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00773164776222840428noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6568915967186844196.post-39545295390248923202016-03-15T03:44:43.702-07:002016-03-15T03:44:43.702-07:00Off topic, and thanks for the response, but I thin...Off topic, and thanks for the response, but I think you'll like this lone data point: https://twitter.com/britishmuseum/status/709689191903449088Alexhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17153530634675543954noreply@blogger.com