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Stability and Divergence in Language Contact: Factors and Mechanisms
Edited by Kurt Braunmüller, Steffen Höder and Karoline Kühl
[Studies in Language Variation 16] 2014
► pp. 179–207

Gender and noun inflection

The fate of ‘vulnerable’ categories in Northern Norwegian

| Universitetet i Tromsø
| Universitetet i Tromsø
| Universitetet i Tromsø

Research has predicted an uncertain future for gender and noun inflection in Northern Norwegian varieties. Gender is expected to disappear and the noun inflection system to undergo simplification. The driving force is said to be contact between Norwegian, a gender language, and Sámi and Kven, non-gender languages. On the basis of data from the Nordic Dialect Corpus, we argue that these predictions are not borne out. Gender is a stable category and noun inflection has divergent patterns. These findings are interpreted in light of the sociohistorical background of language contact and shift characterising the region.

Published online: 26 November 2014
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/silv.16.09sol
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