Dalecarlian language

Dalecarlian (dalmål in Swedish) is a group of West Scandinavian languages, and their respective dialects spoken in Dalarna County, Sweden. In the northernmost part of the county (i.e., the originally Norwegian parishes of Särna and Idre), a characteristic dialect reminiscent of eastern Norwegian is spoken. Some Dalecarlian varieties can be regarded as part of the Swedish dialect group in Gästrikland, Uppland, and northern and eastern Västmanland. Others represent a variety characteristic of a midpoint between West and East Nordic, unlike the Swedish language. They also show some similarities with the dialects of the other counties bordering Dalarna. One usually distinguishes between the Dalecarlian Bergslagen dialects, which are spoken in south-eastern Dalarna, and  [sv].^[2]

Dalecarlian takes up an intermediate position between East Nordic (Swedish–Danish) and West Nordic (Norwegian, Icelandic and Faroese). Kroonen cites a number of features that Elfdalian in particular shares with West Nordic, and writes: "In many aspects, Elfdalian, takes up a middle position between East and West Nordic. However, it shares some innovations with West Nordic, but none with East Nordic. This invalidates the claim that Elfdalian split off from Old Swedish."^[1]

Geographical distribution[]

Varieties of Dalecarlian are generally classified geographically:

• , north of the Siljan lake: sockens , , , (Elfdalian), , , .
• , south of the Siljan lake: sockens , , , , , , .
• Upper : sockens , .
• Lower Västerdalarna: sockens , , , , , the parishes of in Gagnefs socken.
• Floda and Mockfjärd can be considered a separate group.

Dalecarlian proper (especially in Älvdalen, Mora and Orsa, to some extent also in Ore, Rättvik and Leksand), as well as western Dalecarlian varieties are markedly different from Swedish, and are considered to be distinct language varieties by linguists, despite their lack of recognition as such. Elfdalian is the one of the Dalecarlian languages that best kept their older features. It attracted interest from researchers early on, as it is labeled a dialect by the Swedish authorities despite that it developed independently from Swedish or Old Swedish. In many ways, it is very archaic. In other ways, it has distinguished itself from the ancient language and developed special features that are rare in other languages. A characteristic of the varieties are a pronunciation split in a number of easily distinguishable local dialects, which often only cover a single village or even part of a village.

For strangers, Dalecarlian varieties are virtually incomprehensible without special studies. However, this does not apply to the same extent with the Rättvik and Leksand dialects. They are more easily understood and can be considered to form a transitional stage between the Dalecarlian languages, and a dialect of Swedish with Dalecarlian remnants. Such transition tongues are also the tongues of Ål, Bjursås and Gagnef. The Gagnef dialect approaches the western Dalecarlian varieties, which to some extent can also be regarded as transitional dialects, but which in many respects take on a more independent position, especially in the upper parishes. They may show similarities with neighbouring Norwegian dialects.

There is a quite large difference between Gagnef and the dialect, which belongs to the , a relatively uniform and fairly normal Swedish dialect complex that covers the entire southern Dalarna (, and ). The most unique within this complex are the dialects of and western Bergslagen, which are approaching and Western Dalecarlian proper, respectively (via and ). Dalecarlian Bergslagen dialects are also spoken in the northern part of Västmanland. The Dalecarlian Bergslagen dialects are quite closely connected with the neighbouring Svealand Swedish, perhaps most with the dialects of eastern Västmanland.

In everyday speech, many with Dalecarlian often also refer to regionally coloured Standard Swedish from Dalarna, that is, a lexically and morphologically "national" Swedish with characteristic Dalarna intonation and prosody. In linguistics, one distinguishes between regionally coloured national languages and genuine dialects, and Dalecarlian is used exclusively for dialects in the latter sense.

References[]

Notes[]

Sources[]

• Adolf Noreen "Dalmålet. I. Inledning till dalmålet. II. Ordlista öfver dalmålet i Ofvansiljans fögderi" ur Svenska landsmålen IV, Stockholm 1881 + 1882
• Carl Säve "Dalmålet" 1903
• Lars Levander "Dalmålet: beskrivning och historia I-II", Uppsala 1925-28
• Bengt Pamp, "Svenska dialekter", Lund 1978

Further reading[]

• Noreen, Adolf (1911). "Dalmålet". Spridda studier. Samling 2 [Scattered studies. Collection 2] (in Swedish). Stockholm. pp. 96–108. 482241.

External links[]

• Listen to Dalecarlian
• Leksandsmål – Sanfrid Blomquist (choose "äldre man", older man)
• Map of different variants of Dalecarlian (PDF, from an article about Elfdalian)
• Dalarna: Dalarnas folkspråk, runeberg.org