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Jutlandic
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Jutlandic or Jutish (Danish: jysk or, in old spelling, jydsk ) is a term for the western dialects of Danish, spoken on the peninsula of Jutland.
The different subdialects of Jutlandic differ somewhat from each other, and are generally grouped in three main dialects:
- southern (sønderjysk)
- eastern (østjysk)
- western (vestjysk)
Generally, the eastern dialects are the closest to Standard Danish, while the southern dialect (Sønderjysk) is the one that differs mostly from the others, wherefore it is sometimes described as a distinct dialect, thus Jutlandic is by that definition actually two different dialects: general Jutlandic (nordjysk; further divided into western and eastern) and Southern Jutlandic (sønderjysk).
Phonology
- Jutlandic has a tendency to apocope, i.e.
Discussion
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Encyclopedia
Jutlandic or Jutish (Danish: jysk or, in old spelling, jydsk ) is a term for the western dialects of Danish, spoken on the peninsula of Jutland.
The different subdialects of Jutlandic differ somewhat from each other, and are generally grouped in three main dialects:
- southern (sønderjysk)
- eastern (østjysk)
- western (vestjysk)
Generally, the eastern dialects are the closest to Standard Danish, while the southern dialect (Sønderjysk) is the one that differs mostly from the others, wherefore it is sometimes described as a distinct dialect, thus Jutlandic is by that definition actually two different dialects: general Jutlandic (nordjysk; further divided into western and eastern) and Southern Jutlandic (sønderjysk).
Phonology
- Jutlandic has a tendency to apocope, i.e. skipping the e often found in unstressed syllables, which is itself a weakening of an original North Germanic -i, -a or -u, e.g. kaste 'throw' = Standard Danish (Swedish ).
- Western Jutlandic exhibits stød before pp, tt, kk in old two-syllable words, e.g. katte 'cats' = Standard Danish ; ikke 'not' = Standard Danish . Other Danish dialects don't have stød on short vowels before a stop and not in (original) two-syllable words.
- The southernmost dialects don't have stød, but a distinction between two kinds of pitch like in Swedish and Norwegian, namely acute (rising and falling) and grave (rising, falling, rising), e.g. hus 'house' = Standard Danish ~ huse 'houses' = Standard Danish .
- In Northern Jutlandic v is a labiovelar approximant before back vowels (in the northernmost dialects also before front vowels), whereas it is a Labiodental approximant in Standard Danish, e.g. vaske 'wash' = Standard Danish . The same dialects have voiceless variants of v and j in the initial combinations hj and hv, e.g. hvem 'who' = Standard Danish , hjerte 'heart' = Standard Danish .
- Long e, ø, o have been diphthongised to in most northern dialects, e.g. ben = Standard Danish 'leg', bonde 'farmer' = Standard Danish (< bondi).
- Long a and å have been raised to and respectively in northern Jutlandic, e.g. sagde 'said' = Standard Danish , gå 'go, walk' = Standard Danish .
- In most parts of Jutland, nd becomes (in the northernmost dialects with or without nasalisation), e.g. finde 'find' = Standard Danish .
- Scandinavian post-vocalic t becomes in the western and southern dialects or in some eastern dialects, e.g. mad 'food' = Standard Danish .
- Scandinavian post-vocalic d becomes or disappears (especially after ø), e.g. smed 'blacksmith' = Standard Danish , rød 'red' = Standard Danish .
- In Southern Jutlandic, Scandinavian post-vocalic p, k become word-finally, whereas Standard Danish has b, g, e.g. søge 'to seek' = Standard Danish , tabe 'lose' = Standard Danish . In the northern part of Southern Jutland, these sounds are fricatives between vowels, i.e. : e.g. søger 'seeks' = Standard Danish , tabe 'loses' = Standard Danish .
Grammar
Article
Western, southern and some eastern Jutlandic dialects place the definite article in front of the noun, similar to most European languages, but unlike all other Scandinavian languages which place the definite article after the noun as a suffix: Jutlandic æ hus, æ mand, Standard Danish huset, manden ('the house', 'the man').
Gender
Moreover, whereas Standard Danish has two genders (Common and Neuter), some Jutlandic dialects (especially western ones) lack any gender distinction – like English: e.g. en stor hund, en stor hus, but Standard Danish en stor hund ~ et stort hus ('a big dog', 'a big house'). Other Jutlandic dialects, on the other hand, have preserved the distinction of three genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter (like in German and Icelandic).
Pronouns
The first person pronoun is a or, in Thy and the southernmost dialects, æ, whereas Standard Danish has jeg . The difference goes back to different forms in Proto-Norse, namely ek and eka, both found in early Runic inscriptions. The latter form has a regular breaking of e to ja before an a in the following syllable. The short form, without breaking, is also found in Norwegian, Faroese and Icelandic.
Jutlandic regiolects
Sociolinguistic
Today the old dialects, tied as they were to the rural districts, are yielding to new regional standards based on Standard Danish. Several factors have contributed to this process: The dialects — especially in the northernmost, western and southern regions — are often hard to understand for people originating outside Jutland. The dialects enjoy little prestige both nationally (the population of Zealand like to believe that the Jutlanders are slower not only in speech, but also in thought) and regionally (the dialect is associated with rural life). The Danish cultural, media and business life is centered around Copenhagen, and Jutland has only in recent decennia seen substantial economic growth. Through the 20th century dialects were usually suppressed by media, state institutions and schools. In recent decennia a more liberal attitude towards dialects has emerged, but since the number of speakers has decreased, and almost all of the remaining dialect speakers master a regional form of Standard Danish as well, dialects are now rather being ignored.
Descriptions
The new Jutlandic "regiolects" are identical to the Copenhagen variety in most aspects and differs from it primarily with a distinct accent. Typical features are:
- a higher tendency of apocope of unstressed (cf. above).
- a higher pitch towards the end of a stressed syllable.
- a slightly different distribution of stød, e.g. vej 'way' = Standard Danish ; hammer 'hammer' = Standard Danish .
- the ending -et (definite article or passive participle) is pronounced instead of , e.g. hented 'fetched' = Standard Danish ; meget 'very, much' = Standard Danish
- postvocalic d is pronounced or, before i, in certain varieties of the regiolect, e.g. bade 'bath' = Standard Danish , stadig 'still' = Standard Danish . This pronunciation is not favoured by the younger speakers.
- or is pronounced in words where Standard Danish has (in closed syllables), e.g. torn 'thorn' = Standard Danish . On the other hand, one also hears hypercorrect pronunciations like tårn 'tower' = Standard Danish .
- the strong verbs have -en in the past participle, not only in adjectival use (as in Standard Danish), but also in the compound perfect tense, e.g. han har funden den = SD han har fundet den. These forms belong to the low register of the Jutlandic regiolects.
- a frequent use of hans, hendes 'his, her' instead of the reflexive pronoun sin when referring to the subject of the sentence, e.g. han kyssede hans kone 'he kissed his wife' = Standard Danish han kyssede sin kone (the other sentence would mean that he kissed somebody else's wife).
- a lack of distinction between transitive and intransitive forms of certain related verbs like ligge ~ lægge 'lie, lay', e.g. han lagde i sengen 'he lay in the bed' = Standard Danish han lå i sengen (eastern speakers don't distinguish the present and the infinitive of these verbs either).
- remnants of a regional vocabulary; in Eastern Jutland these words include træls 'annoying' (~ SD irriterende ), og 'too' (~ SD også ), ikke og or, in higher style, ikke også 'isn't it' (~ SD ikke, ikke sandt ).
See also
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