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Swedish dialects are the various forms of theSwedish language, particularly those that differ considerably fromStandard Swedish.
The linguistic definition of a Swedishtraditional 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 toOld Norse. Many of the genuine rural dialects have very distinct phonetic and grammatical features, such as plural forms of verbs or archaiccase 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 individualparishes and are referred to by Swedish linguists assockenmål (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 fromSvenska Dagbladet's dialect project.
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 theBothnian Sea. The grey areas do not have any independently developed Swedish dialect, as other languages vastly predominate.
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 only in north | Primary and secondary | Primary and secondary |
| Final-a dropping | No | Weakened in parts of the area | No | Vowel balance | Vowel balance | Weakened in most of the area |
| Final-n dropping | No | Yes | Small part of the area | Yes | No | Yes |
| Final-t dropping | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Intervocalicg >j orw | Most of the area | No | No | No | No | No |
| Longa/aː/ >å/oː/ | Yes (secondary diphthong) | Yes | Yes | Mostly, except the north | Partially | No |
| Long vowel in short stemmed words, before voicelessobstruents | Yes | Yes | No | Some of the system of short stemmed words preserved | Some of the system of short stemmed words preserved | No |
| Palatalized initialg,k,sk | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Plosive voicing | Most of the area | No | No | No | No | No |
| Preterite-de dropping | Some of the area | Some of the area | Yes | Yes | Yes | Only the-e is dropped |
| Plural-r dropping | Yes | Yes | No | In north | No | No |
| Postpositive possessive pronouns | No | Only family words | Only family words | Yes | Yes | Only family words |
| Retroflex coalescence | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Some of the area | No |
| Stem voweli, y >e, ö | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| "Thick l"[ɺ] | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Some of the area | No |
| Vowelallophones beforer | Back | Back and front | Front | Front | Front | Front |
| Vowel length/tenseness 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 inVästergötland,Dalsland, northernHalland, northernSmåland andÖstergötland although they are also heard inBohuslän,Värmland (a special case, in many ways), andÖland. Examples of Götaland dialect features arevowel reduction, vowel shortening in front of endings and loss of-r in suffixes (as inhästa' (hästar = horses)).
A characteristic of Svealand dialects is thecoalescence of thealveolar trill with followingdental andalveolar consonants — also over word-boundaries — that transforms them intoretroflex consonants that in some cases reduces the distinction between words (as for instancevana —varna, i.e. "habit" — "warn"). This feature is also found inEast Norwegian,North Swedish and in some dialects ofScottish Gaelic.
The following dialect groups are sometimes classified as "Swedish" in the broadest sense (North Scandinavian):[6]
Dalecarlian is intermediate in some respects between East andWest Scandinavian. TheScanian dialect is southern East Scandinavian, along withDanish andJutish.