TheDanish language has a number of regional and localdialect varieties.[1][2] These can be divided into the traditional dialects, which differ from modern Standard Danish in both phonology and grammar, and the Danish accents, which are local varieties of the standard language distinguished mostly by pronunciation and local vocabulary colored by traditional dialects. Traditional dialects are now mostly extinct in Denmark, with only the oldest generations still speaking them.
The traditional dialects are generally divided into three main dialectal areas:Jutlandic dialect,Insular Danish, andEast Danish. Since the Swedish conquest of the Eastern Danish provincesSkåne,Halland andBlekinge in 1645/1658, the Eastern Danish dialects there have come under heavy Swedish influence. Many residents now speak regional variants ofStandard Swedish. However, many researchers still consider the dialects in Scania, Halland (Hallandsk) and Blekinge (Blekingsk) as part of the East Danish dialect group.[3][4] The Swedish National Encyclopedia from 1995 classifies Scanian asan Eastern Danish dialect with South Swedish elements.[5] AlsoBornholmish belongs to the East Danish dialect group. Jutlandic is divided into Southern Jutlandic and Northern Jutlandic, with Northern Jutlandic subdivided into North Jutlandic and West Jutlandic. Insular Danish is divided intoZealand,Funen,Møn, andLolland-Falster dialect areas – each with additional internal variation. The variant of Standard Danish spoken inSouthern Schleswig is calledSouth Schleswig Danish, the Danish variant on the Faroe IslandsGøtudanskt. Danish shares many similarities with theNorwegian (Bokmål). AlsoNorth Frisian[6] andGutnish (Gutamål) are influenced by Danish.[7]
| Jutlandic (Jysk) | Insular Danish (Ømål) | East Danish (Østdansk) | other variants |
|---|---|---|---|
| North Jutlandic (with Eastern and Western Jutlandic) | Zeelandic | Scanian | Southern Schleswig Danish |
| South Jutlandic (withAngel Danish) | Funen dialect | Blekinge dialect | Gøtudanskt accent |
| Møn dialect | Halland dialect | ||
| Lolland-Falster dialect | Bornholm dialect |
The realization ofstød has traditionally been one of the most importantisoglosses for classifying geographic dialect areas. There are four main regional variants ofstød:
In Zealand, thestød line divides Southern Zealand, withoutstød, and formerly directly under the Danish crown, from the rest of the island, formerly the property of various noble estates, withstød.[8]
In the dialects with pitch accent, such as the Southern Jutlandic ofAls (Synnejysk),stød corresponds to a low level tone, and the non-stød syllable in Standard Danish corresponds to a high rising tone:[10]
| Word | Rigsdansk | Synnejysk |
|---|---|---|
| dag 'day' | [daˀ] | [dàw] |
| dage 'days' | [daːə] | [dǎw] |
On Zealand, some traditional dialects have a phenomenon called short-vowelstød (kortvokalstød): some monosyllabic words with a short vowel and a coda consonant cluster havestød when the definite suffix follows:præst[pʁæst] 'priest' butpræsten[pʁæˀstn̩] 'the priest'.[11]
In Western Jutland, a secondstød, more like a preconsonantal glottal stop, occurs in addition to the one of Standard Danish.[12] It occurs in different environments, particularly after stressed vowels before final consonant clusters that arise through the elision of final unstressed vowels. For example, the wordtrække 'to pull', which is /trække/ in Standard Danish, is [tʁæʔk] in Western Jutlandic. Also, thepresent tensetrækker, which is /trækker/ in Standard Danish, is [tʁæʔkə] in Western Jutlandic.[13][14]
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