This study addresses gender assignment in six North Scandinavian varieties with a three-gender system: Old Norse, Norwegian (Nynorsk), Old Swedish, Nysvenska, Jamtlandic, and Elfdalian. Focusing on gender variation and change, we investigate the role of various factors in gender change. Using the contemporary Swedish varieties Jamtlandic and Elfdalian as a basis, we compare gender assignment in other North Scandinavian languages, tracing the evolution back to Old Norse. The data consist of 1,300 concepts from all six languages coded for cognacy, gender, and morphological and semantic variation. Our statistical analysis shows that the most important factors in gender change are the Old Norse weak/strong inflection, Old Norse gender, animate/inanimate distinction, word frequency, and loan status. From Old Norse to modern languages, phonological assignment principles tend to weaken, due to the general loss of word-final endings. Feminine words are more susceptible to changing gender, and the tendency to lose the feminine is noticeable even in the varieties in our study upholding the three-gender system. Further, frequency is significantly correlated with unstable gender. In semantics, only the animate/inanimate distinction signifi-cantly predicts gender assignment and stability. In general, our study confirms the decay of the feminine gender in the Scandinavian branch of Germanic.

中文翻译：

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六种北斯堪的纳维亚语言中的性别分配：变异和变化的模式

本研究采用三性别系统解决了六个北斯堪的纳维亚品种的性别分配问题：古挪威语、挪威语（尼诺斯克）、古瑞典语、尼斯文斯卡语、贾姆特兰语和埃尔夫达利语。着眼于性别变异和变化，我们研究了各种因素在性别变化中的作用。使用当代瑞典变体 Jamtlandic 和 Elfdalian 作为基础，我们比较了其他北斯堪的纳维亚语言中的性别分配，将演变追溯到古诺尔斯语。数据包含来自所有六种语言的 1,300 个概念，这些概念被编码为认知、性别、形态和语义变异。我们的统计分析表明，性别变化的最重要因素是古诺斯语弱/强屈折、古诺斯语性别、有生命/无生命的区别、词频和借用状态。从古挪威语到现代语言，由于词尾词尾的普遍丢失，语音分配原则趋于弱化。女性词更容易受到性别变化的影响，即使在我们研究中支持三性别系统的变体中，失去女性的趋势也很明显。此外，频率与不稳定的性别显着相关。在语义学中，只有有生命/无生命的区别才能显着预测性别分配和稳定性。总的来说，我们的研究证实了日耳曼语斯堪的纳维亚分支中女性性别的衰落。频率与不稳定的性别显着相关。在语义学中，只有有生命/无生命的区别才能显着预测性别分配和稳定性。总的来说，我们的研究证实了日耳曼语斯堪的纳维亚分支中女性性别的衰落。频率与不稳定的性别显着相关。在语义学中，只有有生命/无生命的区别才能显着预测性别分配和稳定性。总的来说，我们的研究证实了日耳曼语斯堪的纳维亚分支中女性性别的衰落。