Jutlandic

Infobox Language
name = Jutlandic
nativename = "jysk" or "jydsk"
familycolor = Indo-European
states = Denmark [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=jut Ethnologue entry] ]
region = Jutland (Denmark) and in the northern parts of Southern Schleswig (Germany). [http://www.jyskordbog.dk/ Jysk Ordbog ] ]
speakers = unknown
fam1 = Indo-European
fam2 = Germanic
fam3 = North Germanic
fam4 = East Scandinavian
fam5 = Danish-Swedish
fam6 = Danish-Riksmal
fam7 = Danish
iso1 =
iso2 = gem [Germanic, other]
iso3 = jut

Jutlandic or Jutish (Danish: "jysk" or, in old spelling, "jydsk" IPA| [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:

# 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 ("nørrejysk"; further divided into western and eastern) and Southern Jutlandic ("sønderjysk").

Phonology

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

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" IPA| [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.

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:

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

References

* [http://www.jyskordbog.dk/hjemmesider Jysk Ordbog] , by "The Peter Skautrup Centre of Jutlandic Dialect Research" at the University of Århus
* [http://www.statsbiblioteket.dk/dlh/dialekt/dialekt.html Danish dialect audio samples (in Danish)]

ee also

*Danish dialects
*South Jutlandic