Swedish dialects are the various forms of the Swedish language, particularly those that differ considerably from Standard Swedish.
Traditional dialects
The linguistic definition of a Swedish traditional dialect, in the literature merely called dialect, is a local variant that has not been heavily influenced by Standard Swedish and that can trace a separate development back to Old Norse. Many of the genuine rural dialects have very distinct phonetic and grammatical features, such as plural forms of verbs or archaic case inflections. These dialects can be nearly incomprehensible to most Swedes, and most of their speakers are also fluent in Standard Swedish.
The different dialects are often so localized that they are limited to individual parishes and are referred to by Swedish linguists as sockenmål (lit. "parish speech"). They are generally separated into the six traditional dialect groups, with common characteristics of prosody, grammar and vocabulary.[1] The color represents the core area and the samples are from Svenska Dagbladet's dialect project.
Gotland dialects (light green); (Gotland, När Socken, Gotlands södra härad).
The areas with mixed colors as stripes are transitional areas.[2] The parts in yellow with coloured dots represent various distinct dialect areas which are not easily defined as belonging to any of the six major groups above.[2] The areas west of the core for Norrland dialects, west of Svealand dialects and north of Götaland dialects are related to each of these, respectively, indicated by the colour of the dots. Samples from these areas: Jämtland, Föllinge socken[3] (related to Norrland dialects), Dalarna, Älvdalens socken[4] (related to Svealand dialects) and Värmland, Nordmarks härad, Töcksmarks socken[5] (related to Götaland dialects). The dialects of this category have in common that they all show more or less strong Norwegian influences, especially the dialects in Härjedalen, Northwestern Jämtland and Northwestern Dalarna. Dialects often show similarities along traditional travelling routes such as the great rivers in Northern Sweden, which start in the mountains at the Norwegian border and then follow a South-Easterly path towards the Bothnian Sea.
The grey area does not have any independently developed Swedish dialect.
Here is a summary of some of the most important differences between the major groups.[2]
Feature
South Swedish dialects
Götaland dialects
Svealand dialects
Norrland dialects
Finland Swedish dialects
Gotland dialects
Diphthongs
Secondary in most of the area
No
No
Primary everywhere, secondary in north
Primary and secondary
Primary and secondary
Long a > å
Yes (secondary diphthong)
Yes
Yes
Yes (changed back to long a in north)
Only partially
No
p, t, k > b, d, g
In most of the area
No
No
No
No
No
Intervocalic g > j or w
In most of the area
No
No
No
No
No
Ending vowel -a
Remains
Weakened in parts of the area
Remains
Vowel balance
Vowel balance
Weakened in most of the area
Dropping of -r in plur.
Yes
Yes
No
In north
No
No
Allophone of r
Back
Back and front
Front
Front
Front
Front
Postpos. poss. pron.
No
Only family words
Only family words
Yes
Yes
Only family words
Softening initial g, k, sk
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Dropping of -n
No
Yes
Only in a small part of the area
Yes
No
Yes
Dropping of -t
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
"Thick" l, also of rd
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
restricted to some areas
No
Supradentals
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
restricted to some areas
No
Dropping of -de in pret.
In parts of the area
In parts of the area
Yes
Yes
Yes
Only -e is dropped
Prolong. vowel in short stemmed words, also in front of p, t, k, s
Yes
Yes
No
Some of the system of short stemmed words preserved
Some of the system of short stemmed words preserved
No
Stem vowel i, y > e, ö, also in long stemmed words and in front of i, u
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
No
Vowel balance
No
No
No
Yes
Yes
No
Note that this table does not hold for the distinct (dotted) or transitional (striped) areas.
Götaland dialects are mostly used in Västergötland, Dalsland, northern Halland, northern Småland and Östergötland although they are also heard in Bohuslän, Värmland (a special case, in many ways), and Öland. Examples of Götaland dialect features are vowel reduction, vowel shortening in front of endings and loss of -r in suffixes (as in hästa' (hästar = horses)).
Pettersson, Gertrud (1996). Svenska språket under sjuhundra år: En historia om svenskan och dess utforskande (in Swedish). Lund: Studentlitteratur. ISBN91-44-48221-3.
External links
More samples, from many dialects not listed in this article. (Swedish site)