The Swedish language belongs to the branch of North Germanic languages, and it developed from Old Norse. It is spoken by approximately ten million people worldwide and is the main language in Sweden and Finland. It is divided into six main dialectal regions. The branch of linguistics that studies dialects is called dialectology. A dialect is commonly defined as a language variant spoken in a specific geographic area. In dialectology, the concepts of isoglosses and dialect continua are also important. An isogloss is a boundary that separates different regional dialects on a map. The dialect continuum describes similarities between neighboring varieties that are mutually intelligible and those that are not due to differences that have arisen from the distance between the varieties. Norrland is the northernmost part of Sweden, covering 60% of its territory. The Norrland dialect is spoken throughout Norrland except in the northernmost and southernmost parts. It is divided into eight smaller sub-dialects. Each subgroup of Norrland dialects has its specific features in pronunciation and grammar.