The languages of Sweden and Denmark

The languages of Sweden and Denmark

April 15^th 2016

Splits in the North Germanic family

800: Split between East Scandinavian and West Scandinavian/Old Norse

1200: Split between South and North

Post 1500: Deeper split between Mainland Scandinavian and Insular Nordic

East vs. West Scandinavian/Old Norse

• East Scandinavian = Old Danish, Old Swedish and Old Gutnish.

• West Scandinavian/Old Norse = Norwegian, including the then Norwegian dialects Icelandic, Faroese and Norn (on Orkney and in Shetland)

• Does not reflect a real dialect or language boundry: dialect continuum

• 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• Superseded the East-West division: represents a real language boundary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 vowels 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)

Mainland vs. Insular Nordic

• Superseding the N-S division: deeper split

• Far-reaching morphological simplifications in Scandinavia breaking down the case system in nouns and adjectives and reducing the

conjugation of verbs.

• No toneme system in IN.

• Lexical development: Hanseatic league → virtual transformation of Scandinavian vocabulary

Denmark

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

Zealand Funen

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 Low German reached its peak

– morphological simplifications and phonological revolution

• Early Modern Danish 1525–1700

– more stable period

– standardization of written language

• Modern Danish 1700–

Curious position

• suppressing other languages as an imperial language in the Scandinavian union

• had to assert itself at home against Latin 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 Middle Ages

• 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.

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

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.

• 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)

• 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

Chronology

• Runic Swedish 800–1225

– runes 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 Modern Swedish 1526–1732

– 1526: Swedish translation of the New Testament > modern independent state with Lutheranism 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 Stockholm, stressed its differences from Danish as much as possible (inflectional ending -a

and different characters: ä and ö instead of æ and ø)

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

“Swedicization”

• Language policy by Swedish authorities after 1660.

• Newly acquired southern provinces (Scania, Blekinge and Halland) 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.

18

Century

• Purist tendency appeared, but with less intensity than in Denmark

• Strong influence of French

• Increasing preoccupation with the cultivation of the Swedish language

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

Swedish dialects

The dialects have been retreating during the last

several generations. They 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 Gotland)

– East Swedish (in Finland)