Scandinavian prehistory & Ostrobothnia

The dialects spoken in Ostrobothnia, particularly those of Narpes is similar to Icelandic, therefor it comes from the old west norse not the old east norse

The first major expansion of R1a took place with the westward propagation of the Corded Ware (or Battle Axe) culture(2800-1800 BCE) from the northern forest-steppe in the Yamna homeland. This was the first wave of R1a into Europe, the one that brought the Z283 subclade to Germany and the Netherlands, and Z284 to Scandinavia.

The Germanic branch

The first major expansion of R1a took place with the westward propagation of the Corded Ware (or Battle Axe) culture(2800-1800 BCE) from the northern forest-steppe in the Yamna homeland. This was the first wave of R1a into Europe, the one that brought the Z283 subclade to Germany and the Netherlands, and Z284 to Scandinavia.

The Germanic branch of Indo-European languages probably evolved from a merger of Corded-Ware R1a and the later arrival of R1b people from Central Europe. This is supported by the fact that Germanic people are a R1a-R1b hybrid, that these two haplogroups came via separate routes at different times, and that Proto-Germanic language is closest to Proto-Italo-Celtic, but also shares similarities with Proto-Slavic. The Corded Ware R1a people would have mixed with the pre-Germanic I1 and I2 aborigines, which resulted in the first Indo-European culture in Germany and Scandinavia, although that culture could not be considered Proto-Germanic - it was simply Proto-Indo-European at that stage, or perhaps or Proto-Balto-Slavic.

My Guess

The Malax people seem to speak a version of Swedish related to the Trondheim Norwegian. This region was very rich are of bronze age culture as bellow

Nordic Bronze Age (1700–500 BC)[edit source | editbeta]

Further information: Nordic Bronze Age

The Bronze Age started in 1800 BC and involved innovations such as plowing fields with ards, permanents farms with houses and yards, especially in the fertile areas around the Oslofjord, Trondheimsfjord, Mjøsa andJæren.[5] Some yields were so high that it allowed farmers to trade furs and skins for luxury items, especially with Jutland.[6] Ca. 1000 BC Finno-Ugric arrived in the north and assimilated with the indigenous population becoming the Sami people.[4]

A climate shift with colder weather starting about 500 BC. The forests, which had previously consisted of elm, lime, ash and oak, were replaced with birch,pine and spruce. The climate changes also meant that farmers started building more structures for shelter. Knowledge of iron was introduced by Celts, resulting in better weapons and tools.[6]

Ostrobothnian Swedish is a variety of Finland-Swedish, spoken in Finland. Outside the autonomous island province of Åland, which is officially monolingually Swedish, Ostrobothnia is the only region of Finland where Swedish-speakers are the majority (51%).[1] Ostrobothnian Swedish-speakers are traditionally farmers, and as such, isolation of the communities produces strongdialectal variations.

One famous Swedish dialect in Ostrobothnia is the Närpes dialect, whose mutual intelligibility with other forms of Swedish is questionable. Finland-Swedes have difficulties with understanding the Närpes dialect, and it is almost unintelligible to anyone else, so speakers of the Närpes dialect have to learn standard Swedish, as well.

Some of the most archaic Nordic dialects in Mainland Scandinavia are found in Ostrobothnia, especially regarding pronunciation. The abovementioned Närpes dialect is in syntax, grammar and vocabulary fairly close to Icelandic, hence the difficulties in understanding.

The approximate extent of Old Norse and related languages in the early 10th century:

Old West Norse dialect

Old East Norse dialect

Old Gutnish

Old English

Crimean Gothic

Other Germanic languages with which Old Norse still retained some mutual intelligibility