Elfdalian language
| Elfdalian | |
|---|---|
| Övdalian | |
| Övdalsk | |
| Native to | Sweden |
| Region | Älvdalen, Dalarna |
| Ethnicity | Elfdalians (Swedes) |
|
Native speakers
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c. 2,000 (2009) |
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Indo-European
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Latin (Elfdalian alphabet) Dalecarlian runes (until the 20th century) |
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| Official status | |
| Regulated by | Swedish Language Council |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
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Linguist list
|
qer |
| Glottolog | None |
Älvdalen Municipality in Dalarna, where Elfdalian is spoken in the southeastern half.
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Elfdalian or Övdalian (Övdalsk or Övdalską in Elfdalian, Älvdalska or Älvdalsmål in Swedish) is a North Germanic language spoken by up to 3000 people who live or have grown up in the parish of Älvdalen (Övdaln), which is located in the southeastern part of Älvdalen Municipality in northern Dalarna, Sweden.
Like all other modern North Germanic languages, Elfdalian developed from Old Norse, a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age until about 1300. It developed in relative isolation since the Middle Ages and is considered to have remained closer to Old Norse than the other Dalecarlian dialects.
Traditionally regarded as a Swedish dialect, but by several criteria closer to West Norse dialects, Elfdalian is a separate language by the standard of mutual intelligibility.
A comprehensive Elfdalian–Swedish dictionary was published on the Internet in September 2015.
Elfdalian belongs to the Northern branch/Upper Siljan branch of the Dalecarlian dialects or vernaculars, which in their turn evolved from Old Norse, from which Dalecarlian vernaculars might have split as early as in the eighth or ninth century, i.e., approximately when the North Germanic languages split into Western and Eastern branches.
Archaisms:
Innovations and unique developments:
Elfdalian is comparable to Swedish and Norwegian in number and quality of vowels, but also has nasal vowels. It has retained the Old Norse dental fricative in the middle and end of words. Alveolo-palatal affricate consonants occur in all Uvåsiljan (Swedish Ovansiljan, north of Siljan) dialects. Like many variants of Norwegian and Swedish, all Dalecarlian dialects except Orsamål assimilate /rt, rd, rs, rn, rl/ into retroflex consonants. Stress is generally on the first syllable of a word.
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Wikipedia