Complex sentence: The deviations are more abundant in older birch bark letters than in the younger ones, and this development indicates, contrary to what is expected, that the development was convergent rather than divergent, with regard to other northern East Slavic dialects.
Split into simpler sentences: The deviations are more abundant in older birch bark letters than in the more recent finds. This fact indicates, contrary to what may be expected, that the development was convergent rather than divergent, with regard to other northern East Slavic dialects.