Värmländska

Definition

The name Värmländska refers to the speech varieties of the traditional Swedish province of Värmland. It is one of the dialects that form the group Götamål, as opposed to Sveamål, South Swedish dialects, Norrland dialects, Gutnish and Finland-Swedish dialects, in an often used classification of Swedish dialects. The mountain range Kilsbergen, although having a modest altitude, has in historic times been enough of a barrier to communication to form a distinct boundary between Sveamål in the east and Götamål (represented by Värmländska) in the west.

Xxxxx (xxx) gives the number of speakers of Värmländska as xxxxxxx. However, any attempt to put a number on speakers of a Swedish dialect in the modern situation is likely to be contested. What counts as Värmländska is a matter of definition. If we were to define it as a speech variety that has a grammatical system clearly distinct from Standard Swedish — such as for example a consistently made distinction between the three grammatical genders (see below) — the number will be small and mostly consisting of elderly speakers. On the other hand, if we define it on more phonological grounds — such as having a vowel sound [ɶ] and having a reduced schwa-like vowel sound in many word endings which in Standard Swedish have 'a' — we will in all likelihood include a majority of people living in the traditional province of Värmland, and that would mean more than 150,000 people, since the traditional province of Värmland, defined as Värmland County plus the two adjacent municipalities Karlskoga and Degerfors, in March 2017 had a population of 319,675.

Phonology

Characteristic features

One feature setting Värmländska apart from most other Swedish dialects is the existence of a vowel sound [ɶ] (often written as 'ô'), existing both as a long vowel as in e.g. sôve [sɶ:və] (=to sleep) and as a short vowel as in kôrv [kʰɶɾv] (=sausage).

The vowel phoneme /ø:/ typically does not have the allophone [œ:] (before 'r') found in Standard Swedish and many other dialects (compare for example Värmländska [fø:rə] with Standard Swedish [fœ:rə] for före (=before)).

Word-final 'a' in Old Norse words has been reduced to schwa [ə] in southern varieties and dropped altogether in northern varieties. This can be seen in the uninflected forms of many feminine nouns, in the infinitive form of verbs, in the present tense verb suffix -ar and in the plural noun suffix -ar. It has resulted in a consistent conflation of Swedish suffixes -er and -ar to just -er.

However, this does not mean that Värmländska has no full, unreduced vowels in word endings, because there have been secondary developments of suffixes with 'a' in them:

1) The loss of the ending -de in the past form of the largest group of weak verbs has led to a contrast such as for example past tense härma (=imitated) as distinct from the infinitive härme (=to imitate).

2) A process whereby the definite suffix for singular feminine nouns has developed into -a, as can be seen in for example natta (=the night) as opposed to natt (=night).

3) A process similar to 2) above whereby the definite suffix for plural neuter nouns has developed into -a, as can be seen in for example orginala (=the excentric people) as opposed to orginal (=an excentric person).

Phenomena 2) and 3) (???) can be found even in varieties where word-final Old Norse 'a' has been dropped altogether.

Phonological variation within the province

Through the province goes a boundary between two distinct ways of pronuncing the consonant sound represented in Swedish orthography by 'sj', 'stj', 'skj' etc. To the west of Väse the sound is a retroflex sibilant [ʂ], whereas to the east it is a velar fricative [x].

The use of two distinct allophones of the phoneme /r/, a phenomenon commonly known as 'götamåls-r' because of its use in the provinces of Västergötland and Östergötland, can be found in the southeastern part of the province. In those areas word-initial /r/ as in for example rektit (and for at least some speakers also double word-medial /r/ as in for example herre) is pronounced as [ʁ] instead of [ɾ].

Grammar

Värmländska has preserved the Proto-Indo-European three-gender system for nouns. This can be seen in:

1) The use of personal pronouns han, ho and dä for masculine, feminine and neutral nouns respectively, e.g. referring to masculine himlen (=the sky) as han and to feminine skattskrivinga (=the registration for tax purposes) as ho.

2) The use of distinct feminine forms of possessive pronouns and articles, typically lacking the consonant 'n', where Standard Swedish uses the masculine forms. Examples include mi mamma (=my mother) vs. min ti (=my time), which in Standard Swedish both would have min, and e moster (=an aunt) vs. en mugg (= a mug), which in Standard Swedish both would have en, as well as tjärringa (=the woman) vs. gubben (=the man), which in Standard Swedish both would have the definite suffix -en.

The imperative of the verb is simply formed by dropping the -e from the infinitive (in the varieties which have kept this infinitive ending — see above). In contrast, the imperative in Standard Swedish is identical to the verb stem, which in the majority of verbs ends with -a, making it identical to the infinitive.

Definite plural masculine and feminine nouns typically have the suffix -era (at least in southern varieties) instead of Standard Swedish -arna, -erna and -orna.

Vocabulary

A few examples of differences between Värmländska and Standard Swedish include:

ho vs. Standard Swedish hon (=she)

gôtt vs. Standard Swedish härligt (=nice, great, wonderful — note that Standard Swedish gott has a much narrower semantic range)

imôra vs. Standard Swedish imorgon (=tomorrow)

dret (cognate with English dirt) vs. Standard Swedish skit (=shit)

stri vs. Standard Swedish bråka, tjata (=argue, nag)

snöge vs. Standard Swedish snöa (=to snow)

the prefix gôr- to indicate very — compare Standard Swedish jätte-

References

Sources

• Bergkvist, Karl L:son & Jacobsson, Jacob (2000). Dalbyordboken: ordbok över det värmländska dalbymålet (in swe). Sysslebäck: Kultur-koppra. ISBN 91-630-9460-6.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
• Elert, Claes-Christian (1995). Allmän och svensk fonetik (in swe). Stockholm: Norstedts. ISBN 11-11-11111-1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
• Magnusson, Lennart (1976). Ett försök till beskrivning av karlskogamål. in Karlskoga bergslag förr och nu 1976.
• Pamp, Bengt (1978). Svenska dialekter. Natur och kultur-serien, 99-0132198-0 ; 11 (in swe). Stockholm: Natur o. kultur. ISBN 91-27-00344-2.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
• Svenska dialektmysterier, season 2 episode 1 (TV documentary, first broadcast on Swedish SVT on 14 March 2012)
• Warmland, Knut (19xx). Värmländsk ordbok. Xxxxxxxx (in swe). xxxxx: xxxxxx. ISBN 11-11-11111-1. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)

External links

• [1] (in Swedish)
• [2] (in Swedish)
• [3] (in Swedish)

Literature written in Värmländska

Bibelord på Dalbymål (Stories from the Bible in the Dalby dialect, a northern variety)