Dialects and sociolects of spoken Norwegian
SAS1. March 11 th 2016
“The dialect paradise Norway – a truism with modifications”
Mæhlum, B. and Røyneland, U. (2009)
1 How do I say ‘I’ in Norwegian?
e eg æ æg æi æig i je jæ jei
How do I say ‘not’ in Norwegian?
2 4 dimensions of dialect. Approaching the Norwegian definition of ’dialect’
1. The user dimension: Who speaks dialect? 2. The delimitation dimension: How do we delimit one dialect from another linguistically and geographically? 3. The changeability dimension: What is the dialect’s potential for change? 4. The identity/attitude dimension: How do we view dialectal identity and dialectal attitude?
The Norwegian concept of ”dialect”
1) Everyone speaks dialect (urban and rural, geolects and sociolects) 2) The ”exact” borders between dialects are not so important 3) The dialects are continuously changing, and this dialect change does not necessarily lead to dialect death 4) Positive views of dialects: attached to local identity and personal identity
3 The (traditional) dialectological approach
4 main groups: Northern Norwegian (nordnorsk), Central Norwegian (trøndersk), Western Norwegian (vestlandsk), and Eastern Norwegian (østnorsk). Or 8 groups: Northern Norwegian > Nordlandsk No. and Troms and Finnmarks No . Midland Norwegian (midtlandsk) is a separate group, and Western Norwegian > 1) North-Western Nor. (nordvestlandsk) and 2) South-western Nor. (sørvestlandsk) and South Norwegian (sørlandsk)
4 Reasons for geographical variation
• Social, cultural and administrative unities = linguistic unities • Geography: Mountains divide, fiords, rivers and sea unites! • Migration (eks. Bardu and Målselv)
Reasons for spotted maps, with several dialect geographical ”islands” a) If it is an archaic feature: these are ’relict areas’. The novation has not reached these areas yet. b) If the feature is a novation: The phenomenon could have risen from internal factors in a number of places independently from each other
5 Norwegian dialects as part of a greater picture
Two alternative models of the Nordic language family:
1) Model of the relationship between the Nordic languages, based on historical language changes
2) Model of the relationship between the Nordic languages, based on mutual understanding
East Nordic features
- Less umlaut in East - Novations: - Assimilation of ON. nd, ld, ng and mb - Monophthongation - hv > v, hv > gv
6 Less umlaut in East than West Examples Nynorsk holt, roten, brote, kolle ; of Swedish hult, rutten, brutit, kulle a-umlaut (lowering) Examples Icel./Far./Nn kemur / kjem og grefur/ grevur/ grev ; of Da./Sw. : kommer og graver i-umlaut (forwarding) Nynorsk : søv Bokmål : sover
Examples Icel./ Nn : ösp/ osp, stöng / stong og þröngur/ trong of Danish asp, stang og trang u-umlaut (rounding)
7 Monophthongation in East
Da./Sw : sten, høg/hök, ø/ö ; No./Ice./Far. : stein/steinn/steinur , hauk/haukur/heykur og øy/ey/oyggj
hv > v, hv > gv
8 South Scandinavian features
• Novations: – reduction – lenisation – uvular r
Reduction
ON had final vowels a, i og u. In large parts of Scandinavia these vowels have now got a more central pronunciation. This change is called reduction. Full reduction: a purely southern feature
9 Lenisation («soft» consonants)
10 Uvular r
Invasion of uvular r: NRK programme
11 Central Scandinavian features
• The Central Scandinavian area has been the most productive area for the spreading of novations.
• Novations: – Jamvekt - reduction and jamning – Tjukk l – Retroflexes and postalveolares – Toneme realization – Toneme groups – Det (‘it’) as formal subject – Ha/ være in perfektum – The order of particle and direct object
12 jamvekt
• Germanic stress pattern: stress on first syllable: /’vera/ and /’bi:ta/ • ON: dialects in East, in Trøndelag and Northern-Sweden gets a new stress pattern where bisyllabic words with two short syllables is given even stress on both syllables /’ve’ra’/, but still /’bi:ta/.
13 • Jamvekt stress is not found today, but some remains may be heard in the dialect of Gudbrandsdalen. • Jamvekt had consequences for several developments: – Reduction – Jamning
Reduction again
ON had final vowels a, i og u. In large parts of Scandinavia these vowels have now got a more central pronunciation. This change is called reduction. Full reduction: a purely southern feature
14 • Reduction only affected unstressed syllables: overvektsord • In jamvektsord (with even stress on both syllables) the words kept their original vowel
Result: split infinite
jamning
• Jamning affected words that had even pressure (so only in central Scandinavia) and has made the stem vowel and the final vowel more similar.
15 Tjukk l
16 Toneme realization, toneme 1
C and D = low tone To be found in the jamvekt area
Toneme realization in Bergen and Oslo
17 Det as formal subject
Der/ her er komne tre båtar inn på hamna
Det er komme tre båtar inn på hamna
Det (‘it’) as a formal subject
18 19 North Scandinavian features
• http://www.ling.hf.ntnu.no/nos/?nosid=nos 09001 • Palatalisation of alveolars • Apokope • Lowering of vowels • Development of final r • Final t- drop • Drop of final nasals • The position of subjects in questions
Palatalized alveolars
alt (‘everything’) and mann (‘man’) > "ailt" and "mainn"
20 Palatalized dentals
Apokope
21 Salten: the North Norwegian core area for apokope
Apokope: den most extreme form of reduction
22 Vowel lowering
Following the quantity shift: short vowels got a lower pronunciation in North Scandinavian
23 NB! Omlydsklassen teller ikke med her. Ender og hender, røtter og føtter i deler av det skraverte området.
Final t-drop
• The whole of Norway, exept from Sør- Østfold. • Sometimes revived t in pronunciation influenced by written language Carl. I Hagen: /poli’ti:et/
24 West Nordic and West Norwegian
• http://www.ling.hf.ntnu.no/nos/?nosid=nos1 7001 • http://www.ling.hf.ntnu.no/nos/?nosid=nos1 5001 • Differensiation and Segmentation • Diftongation • The pronouns de (plural ‘you’) og me (‘ we’)
25 26 Segmentation
Maps copied from Helge Sandøy (2008): Talemål . Oslo: Novus
27 Diftongation of old long vowels
28 1. Person pronoun plural: me
Coastal features • Morfological reduction
29 Dative
The Bergen dialect vs. surrounding dialects
• Vowel reduction in unstressed syllables: – finne (not finna ), kaste (not kasta ) • Monophthongs – høre (not høyra ), ben (not bein ), høst (not haust ) • Lacks u-umlauted forms (rounding of vowels) – aske (not oske ), vante (not vott ) • strong verbs do not have i-umlauted (forwarding of back vowels) present tense stem and have to syllables – kommer (not kjem), sover (not søv)
30 The Bergen dialect vs. Norwegian in general
• Only two grammatical genders – common gender and neuter • Past tense ending -et for weak verbs – kastet (not kasta ) • «Garp» genitive – far sin hatt (not fars hatt , hatten til far or hatten hans far )
The Bergen dialect is the work of the Devil
31 Some Norwegian dialect samples: http://www.ling.hf.ntnu.no/nos/nos_kart.html
Nordic Dialect Corpus: http://tekstlab.uio.no/glossa/html/?corpus=sc andiasyn
Where do these maps come from?
• Who collected this knowledge? • What methods did they use? • What and who were their sources? • Do these maps give a true image of the linguistic sutiation in Norway today? • Have these maps ever given a true image of the linguistic situation in Norway? • If no, why have I just spent so much time showing them to you?
32 Diachronic and synchronic variation
Linguistic variation and linguistic change
• dialect – spoken variant of a national language • geolect – the geographical dimension • sociolect – the social dimension • idiolect – the individual dimension
Geolectal variation = linguistic variation between geographical areas
Sociolectal variation = linguistic variation between social groups
Idiolectal variation = linguistic variation on individual level
33 Speech variation on different linguistic levels
Phonological variation Morphological variation Syntactic variation Lexical variation Semantic variation Prosodic variation
Register variation
- Formal vs informal speech - Speech acommodation - Loyalty vs prestige
34 • Formal vs. informal situations – lab. test: the tendency to use -e infinitives rather than -a infinitives – i.e. gjøra > gjøre, væra> være • a registry of different modes, styles available to the user • frequency: the speaker uses some forms more or less frequent than others: /kasta/ vs. /kastet/
Norwegian sociolinguistic surveys
1. Speech variation within a limited geographic or social area
- A popular theme for Norwegian sociolinguistic surveys over the last 30 years: particularely surveys on the phonological, morphological, syntactic and lexical level
2. Speech variation connected to language users on the move
ex. Rekdal (1971), Mæhlum (1986, 1992), Omdal (1994), Røyneland (1994), Kleivenes (2002)
3. Speech variation connected to varieties on the move
ex. Steinsholt (1964, 1972), Skolseg (1994), Akselberg (2002), Skramstad (1999), Hernes (1999), Marøy (1998), Røyneland (2006), Solheim (2006)
35 Some ”traditional” social variables
- Age - Geographic origin - Gender Innovative women, traditional men? Labov (2001) Trudgill (1974) Eckert (1989)
Neutral women, marked men? Røyneland (2005)
- Class Blom and Gumperz (1972) Fintoft and Mjaavatn (1980) Gabrielsen (1983), Kristoffersen (1978), Elseth (1982), Goksøyr (1980)
- Parental background Papazian (1999) Haugen (2004) Hernes (2006)
• Gender – visible in cities as women have been using more high status forms • Trondheim male: /æ:/ (90%) • Trondheim female: /æ:/ (41%) (Fintoft and Mjåvatn 1980)
36 Synchronic age variation – an indictation of diachronic variation / change?
Age variation = variation between age groups a) reflecting change in the speech of the community as it moves through time (historical change) b) reflecting change in the speech of individuals as they move through life
Age variations
• Arendal project: – less variations as pupils grow older – however more variations as one leaves school
37 Class
Different approaches to the difficult concept of ’social class’ in Norway:
Blom and Gumperz (1972) Fintoft and Mjaavatn (1980) Gabrielsen (1983), Kristoffersen (1978), Elseth (1982), Goksøyr (1980)
38