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Home , Gutnish, Languages of Sweden, Modern Swedish, Old Gutnish, Old Swedish, Stockholm dialects

18/04/2016

The languages of and

April 15 th 2016

Splits in the North Germanic family

800: Split between East Scandinavian and West Scandinavian/

1200: Split between South and North

Post 1500: Deeper split between Mainland Scandinavian and Insular Nordic

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East vs. West Scandinavian/Old Norse

• East Scandinavian = Old Danish, and Old . • West Scandinavian/Old Norse = Norwegian, including the then Icelandic, Faroese and Norn (on Orkney and in Shetland) • Does not reflect a real dialect or language boundry: • Distinction /o:/ ( bro , tro , ko in ES) and /u:/ ( bru , tru , ku in WS) • ES acquired an initial /j/ in jeg /jag • WS preserved old diphthongs /ei/, /au/, /øy/ when ES simplified them to /e:/, /ø:/ ( stein /sten , laus /løs ) • Later distinction: ES only two gender: common gender and neuter

South vs. North Scandinavian

• Superseded the East-West division: represents a real language boundary • Split between Denmark and Norway/Sweden • South: – neutralization of unstressed in inflectional endings > schwa: holde, timer, stjerner (Da.) vs. hålla, timmar, stjärnor (Sw.) – lenition (weakening of unvioced plosives following long vowels): ptk>bdg > frikatives – glottal stop (vs. tonem system in North)

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Mainland vs. Insular Nordic • Superseding the N-S division: deeper split • Far-reaching morphological simplifications in breaking down the case system in nouns and adjectives and reducing the conjugation of verbs. • No toneme system in IN. • Lexical development: Hanseac league → virtual transformation of Scandinavian vocabulary

Denmark

Funen Zealand

"Da-map". Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Da-map.png#/media/File:Da-map.png

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s- mOy8VUEBk

Chronology

• Old Danish 800–1100 • Early Middle Danish 1100–1350 – split Danish vs. North Scandinavian, 1200 • Late Middle Danish 1350–1525 – influence of reached its peak – morphological simplifications and phonological revolution • Early Modern Danish 1525–1700 – more stable period – standardization of written language • Modern Danish 1700–

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Curious position

• suppressing other languages as an imperial language in the Scandinavian union • had to assert itself at home against and German dominance

Written Danish • First (law)text from 13 th C. (most text written in Latin) • Certain dominance of Zealandic forms from the late • From 14 th C. some more texts in different genres. • Orthographic standardization began in 16 th C; printing and Lutheran Reformation important – The Bible of Christian III (1550) with consistent orthography and “pure” Danish style – Law of King Christian V (1683) • 17 th C: First Danish grammars, mainly based on upper-class Copenhagen speech.

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But:

• German the prestige language of the court and the nobility (the Oldenburg dynasty from 1450) • French acquired a prestigious position in 17 th and 18 th C.

“Each man who drank deeply of wisdom, On paper he only wrote Latin; With the ladies French, and German with his dog, And Danish he spoke with his servant”

Purism in 18 th century

• A purist language movement wanted to make Danish more authentic and more intelligible to the general public. • This movement was inspired by Germans and directed its aggression primarily against French and Latin words. • Purist wave subsided after some decades, and Danish has been rather liberal in accepting loanwords ever since.

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• Dominance of German declined towards the end of 18 th C. • Orthographic standardization largely completed before 1800, but discussions about spelling continued through most of the 19 th C.

Standard variety

• firmly based on upper-class Copenhagen speech • most of the traditional dialects have disappeared due to urbanization, communication and education • some regional variations (Vikør 2001: 191)

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• Danish is the Scandinavian language where spelling and pronunciation have grown the farthest apart, so far that a spelling reform with completely phonological orthography would make the language unreadable

Sweden

http://www.ezilon.com /maps/europe/sweden -maps.html

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Chronology

• Runic Swedish 800–1225 – used in everyday life until late Middle Ages even though the Roman alphabet was introduced in 11 th and 12 th C. • Classical Old Swedish 1225–1375 – 1225: Older Law of West Guthnia written down using Roman characters – in Swedish – Latin dominant written language • Late Old Swedish 1375–1526 – intensified use of Swedish from the latter half of 14 th C. – Birgittine order used Swedish heavily influenced by Danish and Norwegian • Early 1526–1732 – 1526: Swedish translation of the > modern independent state with as its state religion • Modern Swedish 1732–

Anti-Danish sentiments

• Danish and German had exerted a strong influence on the written Swedish chancery style. • strong anti-Danish sentiments accompanied Sweden’s struggle for national liberation. • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalmar_Union • written standard, based on the speech of central Sweden and , stressed its differences from Danish as much as possible (inflectional ending -a and different characters: ä and ö instead of æ and ø)

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The Gustav Vasa Bible

• Published 1541 • Based on the speech of the Stockholm district • Some degree of orthographic standardization • Rather archaic style

Chancery style

• Sweden one of the most well-organized states under the Vasa dynasty (1523–1654) • Chancery style dominant in the worldly sphere • Morphologically simpler and more modern than the Bible • Strongly marked by Latin syntax • Many foreign words

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“Swedicization”

• Language policy by Swedish authorities after 1660. • Newly acquired southern provinces (, Blekinge and ) where the population still felt Danish. • Succeeded after only one generation.

Then Swenska Argus

• Linguistically influential and culturally important journal • 1732 • New and more oral and direct style, less Latinized than the conventional style • New code of law from 1734 supported this development.

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18 th Century

• Purist tendency appeared, but with less intensity than in Denmark • Strong influence of French • Increasing preoccupation with the cultivation of the

Standard spoken Swedish

• Became first visible in the 17 th C. • Main roots in the aristocratic speech of a wide area of central Sweden, particularly Stockholm. • Influenced by spelling • Several accepted accents within the standard

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Swedish dialects

The dialects have been retreating during the last several generations. have been maintained better than in Denmark, but less well than in Norway. Six major dialect groups: – South Swedish (in Scania and adjacent areas) – Guthnic dialects (in Gutnia, northwest of Scania) – Central Swedish – North Swedish – Gutnish (on ) – East Swedish (in )

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