Modern Gutnish

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Modern Gutnish
Spoken in: Gotland and Fårö, Flag of Sweden Sweden
Language extinction: by the 18th century (19th century at the latest)
Language family: Indo-European
 Germanic
  North Germanic
   East Scandinavian
    Modern Gutnish
Language codes
ISO 639-1: none
ISO 639-2:
ISO 639-3: –
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

Modern Gutnish is the old language of the island of Gotland (in present day Sweden). It was used both as a spoken and written language until late medieval times. Today it still exists as a spoken language, but is to some degree mixed with Swedish, Danish and German. It is an open issue whether modern Gutnish is to be considered an independent language or merely a dialect of Swedish. It derives however its origin from Old Gutnish, which by no dispute is a separate branch of the Old Norse language family. The knowledge in Gutnish is pretty weak both with the Gutnish people and the Swedes. Gutnish is spoken mainly in the south-east parts of the island and in some parts of Fårö. Gutnish exists in two variants, Gutemal (mainland Gotland) and Faroymal on Fårö. The Faroymal is considered most archaic of the two forms. Gutnish is not to be confused with Gotlandic, which is the local form of Swedish spoken by most Gotlanders today.

Some features of Gutnish include the preservation of Old Norse diphthongs like ai in for instance stain, Swedish: sten, English stone and oy in for example doy, Swedish dö, English die. There is also a triphthong that exists in no other Norse languages: iau as in skjaute, Swedish skjuta, English shoot.

Contents

[edit] Comparison with other Germanic languages

English Dutch Norwegian (Bokmål) Norwegian (Nynorsk) Danish German Gutnish Icelandic Swedish
eye oog øye auga øje Auge auge auga öga
hear horen høre høyre høre hören hoyre heyra höra
sleep slapen sove sove sove schlafen sive sofa sova
evil kwaad ond vond ond Übel aumb vondur ond
ship schip skip skip skib Schiff skip skip skepp
sing zingen synge syngja synge singen singe syngja sjunga
high hoog høy høg høj hoch haug hár hög
right recht høyre høgre højre rechts hygar hægri höger
boat boot båt båt båd Boot bat bátur båt
over over over over/yver over über yvar yfir över
shoot schieten skyte skyta/skjota skyde schiessen skjaute skjóta skjuta

[edit] Example

Gutnish
KERLAIKINS SKAVLGARD
Ia gikk til kerlaikins skavlgard
U sag va ia aldri hade seit
A kýrko var der byggd
Der ia fýrr laikede pa de grøynu
U lukar til hissu kýrku var lukede
U ”Deu skalt inte”, ritet yvar duri
So ia vende mi til kerlaikins skavlgard
Sum so mange søyme blómar berde,
U ia sag hann fylldar me gravar
U gravstainar der blómar skulde vare
U prestar i svarte klédin, ganes seine rundar
U bindnes me napltynne, meine gledar u kéar
av William Blake (1757–1827)
English
THE GARDEN OF LOVE
I went to the Garden of Love,
And saw what I never had seen:
A Chapel was built in the midst,
Where I used to play on the green.
And the gates of this Chapel were shut,
And Thou shalt not. writ over the door;
So I turn'd to the Garden of Love,
That so many sweet flowers bore.
And I saw it was filled with graves,
And tomb-stones where flowers should be:
And Priests in black gowns, were walking their rounds,
And binding with briars, my joys & desires.
by William Blake (1757–1827)

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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Modern Germanic languages