Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
Swedish is one of the Nordic or North Germanic languages, as the national language of
Sweden is shares a close relationship to standard Danish, Riksdansk and to the variety of
Norwegian known as Østnorsk which came from the formal 'Danish' used in Norway, but not
to the traditional dialects of Norse in Norway. Standard Swedish shares a closer link to the
standard Danish and Østnorsk languages than it does to the so called dialects of Swedish in
Sweden. For the Nordic languages, the close political ties between the three countries have
had more influence in the formation of the standard languages than the local dialects spoken
outside of urban areas.
It is very difficult to draw any conclusive dialect maps of Scandinavia, whether or not
Danish, Østnorsk and Swedish are separate languages, or variations of a Scandinavian
standard to suite short distances in geography between the most urbanized areas of these
countries, having little to do with the traditional dialect make up which divides different
districts. In this article attention will be drawn to three unofficial languages in Sweden which
share typical Swedish features of Norse with Swedish, but which can't realistically be called
dialects of standard Swedish.
Some of the differences between dialects or languages in Scandinavia can be looked at in the
comparison of sample sentences, here “I am not a man” is translated into several Norse
dialects.
eg er ikkje ein mann - Nynorsk, similar to many dialects in West Norway (and elsewhere)
eg e isje ein mann – Stavangersk
eg er isje ein mann – Bergen
eg e ekje en mann – Sognefjord
In many parts of Western Norway, like in Bergen and Sunnmøre, the diphthong ei is
pronounced /æi/, but this is not so in Stavanger.
Trøndersk Norwegian
Northern Norwegian
jag är inte en man – Swedish, in more old fashioned formal speech jag är icke en man.
jeg er ikke en mand – Danish
jeg er ikke en mann - Norwegian Bokmål and Standard Østnorsk
jeg er ikke en mand - Gøtumål Danish (Faroe Islands)
Dalecarlian
The Bothnian Languages are a unique group of languages or dialects in the northern Baltic
region. The languages seem to have formed an early Norse dialect long before they developed
regional differences and were influenced by Swedish. The original language was an early
kind of Germanic, it may have once had similarity to the Gutnish language in the southern
Baltic, both languages are typical for using jer or jär instead of är or er in other Norse
dialects.
The Bothnian languages are divided into eastern and western groups, the eastern branch may
include many of the Finlandsvenska dialects in Finland, with the exception of some like
Närpesiska which are certainly Eastern Bothnian and in the same dialect group but were
already their own dialect or language from an early point in time, the other Finlandsvenska
dialects and the Estlandsvenska dialects to the south are slightly different. The eastern
Bothnian dialects include the dialects of Malax and other parts of Eastern Bothnia on the
Baltic coastline of Finland.
The Westrobothnian, or Bondska languages form the western branch in the northwest Baltic.
Several major valleys run inland from the Baltic, along great rivers like the Luleälven and
Piteälven valleys. The inland areas of Swedish Lappland were historically the territory of
Sámi and likely Finnish speaking people, but the coastal region has long been culturally
isolated from the people inland and from other Norse speakers, except those that trade was
maintained with in Eastern Bothnia and in other parts of the Baltic. These northern Nordic
dialects were isolated from the Swedish language but they share similarity with some of the
neighbouring dialects such as Jämtlandic in the south, itself related to the Trøndersk and
northern dialects of Norway which all form a sort of sprachbund, even if the language in
these areas is increasingly influenced by the standard form of language on both sides of the
border.
Bondska has several dialects, a small sentence like “I am not” can be used to show this
variation.
Pitebondska has dialects within itself, some speakers do not use the sch sound commonly,
others replace v with w in some words, like wo for vo.
In the present Bondska has influenced the local dialects of Swedish. The city of Kiruna has its
own northern variant of standard Swedish, that has adopted words from the local Meänkieli
and Sámi languages, but also an influence from Bondska as people moved inland to Kiruna
from the coast. The Kiruna dialect is not a traditional Bondska dialect though, jag är inte
would be rendered jag är int.
Dalecarlian
Like in Icelandic and Faroese the verbs are conjuncted for more persons.
Gutnish is another lesser known Nordic language which has been classed as a Swedish
dialect. The island of Gotland was very important in the medieval era and had its own distinct
dialect from early. The dialect has some things in common with Bothnian, both are spoken in
the Baltic Sea area and might have come from a common group of dialects, but Gutnish is
distinct from Bothnian and still preserves a lot of the Old Norse dialect, although the modern
language has been influenced quite a lot by Swedish. There are also several different dialects
of Gutnish, some more influenced by Swedish than others.
Gutnish, like Setesdalsk in Norway, uses acute accents on vowels to represent where long
vowels have become diphthongs. The language is not too difficult to pronounce for English
speakers. Note that k and g are always hard sounds, and not softened as they are in Swedish.
The Swedish 'sh' sound is a modern addition to the language. ó represents [ou], í comes from
Old Gutnish long i, becoming /ei/ or /æi/ in the modern dialects, but today it has mainly
merged with ei which came from Old Gutnish long e. ý represents öy in Swedish based
orthography..
hvaim jest dú? - who are you?
ja jer ann mann - I am a man
dú jest ann mann – you are a man
ja jer inte ann mann – I'm not a man
ja haitar Svain - I'm called Sven
hvarlains har ír det? - how are you?
sjóen jer stúrar - the sea is big
húset jer stúrt - the house is big
ja gikk forbí býn - I went past the town
óe bat jer pa sjóen meid di andre - our boat is on the sea with the others
sjóen blaist grýnar, u ja fór yvar vatnet – the sea became green, and I went over the water
u ja sag ann mann – and I saw a man
ja skraiv – I wrote
Further reading
The information in all my articles comes from information that I have personally recorded
and researched, but I should like to thank all those friends who have helped me with
corrections and extra details. More information about Elfdalian can be found in the book
Introduktion till Älvdalska by Gunnar Nyström och Yair Sapir.