AHC: Scandinavian Language in the British Isles

Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to have a surviving Scandinavian language somewhere in the British Isles, with these rules

-The POD must be after the reign of Alfred the Great

-The language must have over 20,000 speakers

-The language, or its attached ethnic group, must be the focus of some regional autonomy/separtist movement of some kind (doesn't have to be very big, or have a wide following, but the language has to produce enough of an ethnic identity for the concept to exist)
 
Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to have a surviving Scandinavian language somewhere in the British Isles, with these rules

-The POD must be after the reign of Alfred the Great

-The language must have over 20,000 speakers

-The language, or its attached ethnic group, must be the focus of some regional autonomy/separtist movement of some kind (doesn't have to be very big, or have a wide following, but the language has to produce enough of an ethnic identity for the concept to exist)

Ethelred the Unready doesn't massacre the Danish population in York but still annoys Sweyn Forkbeard enough to invade England. Canute eventually becomes King and his sons are able to establish a Danish dynasty that butterflies away the Norman conquest. You may have eventually have an England that still uses Anglo Saxon but ahs a sizeable Danish minority in the north that survives.
 

Valdemar II

Banned
If we avoid a collapse of Danelagn, while the south survives, we would likely have seen North England turn Danish, if we when can keep the Danes from conquer the south and move forwar a to the late medieval periode, we may see the British isle have four Germanic languages.

Saxon* in the south, Danish* in the North, Anglish in the Scottish lowland and rump Northumbria (may be united) and Norn in Caithness, Shetland and Orkney.

Saxon would be the big gorilla and would likely com at top in time, but I don't think it's impossibe for the Danelagn surviving at least as long as Scotland did. If it did the two languages would likely be quite distinct through almost intelligible, through not quite there, so it would need different written languages. Anglish on the other hand isolated from other West Germanic language would likely take even more Scandinavian trait and as a border dialect in the dialect continuum between West Germanic and North Germanic (Scandinavian) would likely shift side.

The result would be 30 million Saxon speakers, 15-20 million Danish speakers and 10 million Anglish speakers and around 50-150 000 Norn speakers (would likely include Faroese).

*they would likely be distinct from their continental counterparts
 
Seems like by far the most likely possibility, given the POD. After all, it didn't even lose them until 1469, if I remember my random dates which I have no reason to remember...

Weren't the Orkney Islands given to Scotland as a security against a dowry, if I'm not mistaken?
 
If we avoid a collapse of Danelagn, while the south survives, we would likely have seen North England turn Danish, if we when can keep the Danes from conquer the south and move forwar a to the late medieval periode, we may see the British isle have four Germanic languages.

Saxon* in the south, Danish* in the North, Anglish in the Scottish lowland and rump Northumbria (may be united) and Norn in Caithness, Shetland and Orkney.

Saxon would be the big gorilla and would likely com at top in time, but I don't think it's impossibe for the Danelagn surviving at least as long as Scotland did. If it did the two languages would likely be quite distinct through almost intelligible, through not quite there, so it would need different written languages. Anglish on the other hand isolated from other West Germanic language would likely take even more Scandinavian trait and as a border dialect in the dialect continuum between West Germanic and North Germanic (Scandinavian) would likely shift side.

The result would be 30 million Saxon speakers, 15-20 million Danish speakers and 10 million Anglish speakers and around 50-150 000 Norn speakers (would likely include Faroese).

*they would likely be distinct from their continental counterparts
What are you thinking of for borders here? Are there good natural north-south borders that don't result in the Anglo-Saxons having enough land to conquer the others?
 
As said above, the Orkneys

In addition, the Hebrides had Norse rule for a while.

It's amusing to read stuff set in the Isles were e.g. "Torfin" is a "Gaelic" name...

Keeping Norse dominant should be possible even in Scottish ruled islands, although I'm not sure how to do it.
 

archaeogeek

Banned
If we avoid a collapse of Danelagn, while the south survives, we would likely have seen North England turn Danish, if we when can keep the Danes from conquer the south and move forwar a to the late medieval periode, we may see the British isle have four Germanic languages.

Saxon* in the south, Danish* in the North, Anglish in the Scottish lowland and rump Northumbria (may be united) and Norn in Caithness, Shetland and Orkney.

Saxon would be the big gorilla and would likely com at top in time, but I don't think it's impossibe for the Danelagn surviving at least as long as Scotland did. If it did the two languages would likely be quite distinct through almost intelligible, through not quite there, so it would need different written languages. Anglish on the other hand isolated from other West Germanic language would likely take even more Scandinavian trait and as a border dialect in the dialect continuum between West Germanic and North Germanic (Scandinavian) would likely shift side.

The result would be 30 million Saxon speakers, 15-20 million Danish speakers and 10 million Anglish speakers and around 50-150 000 Norn speakers (would likely include Faroese).

*they would likely be distinct from their continental counterparts

Large areas of the saxon crown, which is now incredibly weakened, would be speaking welsh and anglish actually - it would likely be spread over large parts of the midlands either as a minority or a plurality language. I'm not so sure it would survive in Cornwall and Devon but given even in OTL England it somehow lasted to the end of the middle ages in Devon and to the 19th century in Cornwall, I'd say it has better chances.
 
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