Jutlandic

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Jutlandic or Jutish (Danish: jysk or, in old spelling, jydsk [ˈjysg̊]) 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:

1. southern (sønderjysk)
2. eastern (østjysk)
3. 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 (nørrejysk; further divided into western and eastern) and Southern Jutlandic (sønderjysk).

[edit] Phonology

1. Jutlandic has a tendency to apocope, i.e. skipping the e [ə] often found in unstressed syllables, which is itself a weakening of an original North Germanic -i, -a or -u, e.g. kaste 'throw' [ˈkʰasd̥] = Standard Danish [ˈkʰæsd̥ə] (Swedish [ˈkʰasta]).
2. Western Jutlandic exhibits stød before pp, tt, kk in old two-syllable words, e.g. katte 'cats' [ˈkʰaˀt] = Standard Danish [ˈkʰæd̥ə]; ikke 'not' [ˈeˀ(t)] = Standard Danish [ˈeg̊ə]. Other Danish dialects don't have stød on short vowels before a stop and not in (original) two-syllable words.
3. 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' [ˈhúːs] = Standard Danish [ˈhuːˀs] ~ huse 'houses' [ˈhùːs] = Standard Danish [ˈhuːsə].
4. 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' [ˈwasg] = Standard Danish [ˈʋæsg̊ə]. The same dialects have voiceless variants of v and j in the initial combinations hj and hv, e.g. hvem 'who' [ˈʍɛmˀ] = Standard Danish [ˈʋɛmˀ], hjerte 'heart' [ˈçaɐ̯d̥, ˈçɑːd̥] = Standard Danish [ˈjaɐ̯d̥ə].
5. Long e, ø, o have been diphthongised to [iə, yə, uə] in most northern dialects, e.g. ben [ˈbiˀən] = Standard Danish [ˈbeːˀn] 'leg', bonde 'farmer' [ˈbuəɲ] = Standard Danish [ˈbɔnə] (< bōndi).
6. Long a and å have been raised to [ɔː] and [oː] respectively in northern Jutlandic, e.g. sagde 'said' [ˈsɔː] = Standard Danish [ˈsæː(ə)], gå 'go, walk' [ˈgoːˀ] = Standard Danish [ˈg̊ɔːˀ].
7. In most parts of Jutland, nd becomes [ɲ] (in the northernmost dialects [ɲ] with or without nasalisation), e.g. finde 'find' [ˈfeɲ] = Standard Danish [ˈfenə].
8. Scandinavian post-vocalic t becomes [ʁ] in the western and southern dialects or [ɪ̯] in some eastern dialects, e.g. mad 'food' [ˈmaʁ, ˈmaɪ̯] = Standard Danish [ˈmæð].
9. Scandinavian post-vocalic d becomes [ɪ̯] or disappears (especially after ø), e.g. smed 'blacksmith' [ˈsmɛɪ̯, ˈsme] = Standard Danish [ˈsmeð], rød 'red' [ˈʁøˀə] = Standard Danish [ˈʁɶðˀ].
10. In Southern Jutlandic, Scandinavian post-vocalic p, k become [f, χ] word-finally, whereas Standard Danish has b, g, e.g. søge 'to seek' [ˈsøːχ] = Standard Danish [ˈsøː(ɪ̯)], tabe 'lose' [ˈtʰɑːf] = Standard Danish [ˈtˢæːbə, ˈtˢæːʊ]. In the northern part of Southern Jutland, these sounds are fricatives between vowels, i.e. [v, ɣ]: e.g. søger 'seeks' [ˈsøːɣə] = Standard Danish [ˈsøːɐ], tabe 'loses' [ˈtʰɑːvə] = Standard Danish [ˈtˢæːˀbɐ, ˈtˢæʊ̯ˀɐ].

[edit] Grammar

The distribution of one, two, and three grammatical genders in Danish dialects. In Zealand the transition from three to two genders has happened fairly recently. West of the red line the definite article goes before the word as in English or German; east of the line it takes the form of a suffix.

[edit] 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').

[edit] 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).

[edit] Pronouns

The first person pronoun is a or, in Thy and the southernmost dialects, æ, whereas Standard Danish has jeg [ˈja]. 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.

[edit] Jutlandic regiolects

Today the old dialects, tied as they were to the rural districts, are yielding to new regional standards based on Standard Danish. Two factors have contributed to this process: 1) The dialects — especially in the northernmost, western and southern regions — are often hard to understand for people originating outside Jutland. 2) The dialects enjoy very 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 conservatism).

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:

1. a higher tendency of apocope of unstressed [ə] (cf. above).
2. a higher pitch towards the end of a stressed syllable.
3. a slightly different distribution of stød, e.g. vej 'way' [ˈʋaɪ̯] = Standard Danish [ˈʋaɪ̯ˀ]; hammer 'hammer' [ˈhɑmˀɐ] = Standard Danish [ˈhɑmɐ].
4. the ending -et (definite article or passive participle) is pronounced [-(ə)d̥] instead of [-ð̩], e.g. hented 'fetched' [ˈhɛnd̥əd̥] = Standard Danish [ˈhɛnd̥ð̩]; meget 'very, much' [ˈmaːɪ̯d̥] = Standard Danish [ˈmaːð̩, ˈmɑːð̩]
5. postvocalic d is pronounced [ɪ̯] or, before i, [d̥] in certain varieties of the regiolect, e.g. bade 'bath' [ˈb̥æːɪ̯] = Standard Danish ˈb̥æːð̩], stadig 'still' [ˈsd̥æːd̥i] = Standard Danish [ˈsd̥æːði]. This pronunciation is not favoured by the younger speakers.
6. or is pronounced [ɒː] in words where Standard Danish has [oɐ̯] (in closed syllables), e.g. torn 'thorn' [ˈtˢɒːˀn] = Standard Danish [ˈtˢoɐ̯ˀn]. On the other hand, one also hears hypercorrect pronunciations like tårn 'tower' [ˈtˢoɐ̯ˀn] = Standard Danish [ˈtˢɒːˀn].
7. 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.
8. 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).
9. 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).
10. there is a preference for certain words like træls [ˈtˢʁɑls] 'annoying' (~ SD irriterende [i(ɐ̯)ˈtˢeɐ̯ˀnə]), og [ˈʌ] 'too' (~ SD også [ˈʌsə]), ikke og [eˈg̊ʌ] or, in higher style, ikke også [eˈg̊ʌsə] 'isn't it' (~ SD ikke, ikke sandt [ˈeg̊(ə), eg̊ˈsænˀd̥]).

[edit] References

• Jysk Ordbog, by The Peter Skautrup Centre of Jutlandic Dialect Research at the University of Århus
• Danish dialect audio samples (in Danish)

[edit] See also

• Danish dialects
• South Jutlandic