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Scanian (linguistics)

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Linguistics

   Skåne in southern Sweden
   Enlarge
   Skåne in southern Sweden

   Scanian ( skånska ) is a closely related group of dialects spoken in
   the Southern-Swedish region Skåne (Scania). It is considered by some
   Scandinavian linguists to be a dialect of Swedish, by other
   Scandinavian linguists to be a dialect of Danish, while many early
   linguists, including Adolf Noreenand G. Sjöstedt, classified it as
   "South-Scandinavian". It is however classified as a separate language
   by SIL International ( ISO 639-3:scy) and is assumed to include not
   only the dialect of Skåne but also those of Halland (halländska),
   Blekinge (blekingska), and the Danish island of Bornholm (bornholmsk).

Status

   Scanian is considered a separate language mainly from a historical,
   cultural or ethnic point of view. It is not regarded as a separate
   language by a majority of Swedes, but with the establishment of the
   Scanian Academy and with recent heritage conservation programs funded
   by the Swedish Government, there is a renewed interest in the region
   for Scanian as a cultural language and as a regional identity,
   especially among younger generations of Scanians. Many of the genuine
   rural dialects have been in decline subsequent to the industrial
   revolution and urbanization in Sweden. However, Scanian regionalist
   debaters express the view that Scanian is a suppressed minority
   language, and that it therefore should be considered an official
   minority language.

   It is classified as a separate language by SIL International ( ISO
   639-3:scy) and is assumed to include not only the dialect of Skåne but
   also those of Halland (halländska), Blekinge (blekingska), and the
   Danish island of Bornholm (bornholmsk). This larger definition
   coincides with the extent of Skåneland (Terra Scaniae), a medieval term
   which has regionalist overtones but also historical substance. The
   medieval Skånske Lov (Codex Runicus) applied to all four provinces and
   in the Landsting (Thing), the governing assembly, the four provinces
   chose and paid homage to the king as a unity. According to SIL
   International there were 80.000 people who spoke the Scanian language
   in Sweden in 2002, with Scania, Halland and Blekinge having a combined
   population of about 1,6 million people.

   The population of Skåne consists of around 13% of the total population
   in Sweden. Scanian is one of the most distinctive dialects in Sweden.
   In an internet poll on the website of a major newspaper in which more
   than 30,000 people have voted, Scanian is currently ranked in second
   place (12,5%) for most beautiful dialect, but also considered the
   dialect most people consider ugly (39,4%).

History

   Anders Sunesøn's 13th century version of the Scanian Law and Church
   Law, containing a comment in the margin called the "Skaaningestrof":
   "Hauí that skanunga ærliki mææn toco vithar oræt aldrigh æn." (Let it
   be known that Scanians are honorable men who have never tolerated
   injustice.)
   Enlarge
   Anders Sunesøn's 13th century version of the Scanian Law and Church
   Law, containing a comment in the margin called the "Skaaningestrof":
   "Hauí that skanunga ærliki mææn toco vithar oræt aldrigh æn." (Let it
   be known that Scanians are honorable men who have never tolerated
   injustice.)

   After the Swedish acquisition of the Danish districts Skåne, Blekinge,
   and Halland (collectively known as Skåneland) with the Treaty of
   Roskilde in 1658, a process of Swedification was introduced, including
   a switch of languages used in churches and restrictions imposed on
   cross border travel and trade. A similar change occurred within other
   newly acquired provinces along the west coast and along the border with
   Norway. Bornholm was once part of Skåneland, but it was lost by Sweden
   in 1659. Scanian remained in use in Bornholm as a functioning
   transitional stage before Standard Danish became dominant in official
   contexts. In Scania, the Swedish government officially limited the use
   of Scanian in 1719 by nullifying the self-rule granted in The Treaty of
   Roskilde, where Scania had initially been granted the right to continue
   with the old privileges, laws and customs. The assimilation has
   accelerated during the 20th century with the dominance of Standard
   Swedish language radio and television, urbanization, and movement of
   people to and from the other regions of Sweden.

Historic shifts

   The gradual transition to Swedish has resulted in a local creolisation,
   with many new Swedish characteristics introduced since the 18th
   century. The result of this slow shift is a distinct Scanian form of
   pronunciation, with details of grammar and vocabulary that in some
   aspects differ from Standard Swedish. The degree of contrast between
   Scanian and Swedish could be considered comparable to the differences
   between American and Australian English. As pointed out by the
   researchers involved in the project Comparative Semantics for Nordic
   Languages, it is difficult to quantify and analyze the fine degrees of
   semantic differences that exist, even between Danish, Swedish and
   Norwegian: "[S]ome of the Nordic languages [..]are historically,
   lexically and structurally very similar.[...]Are there systematic
   semantic differences between these languages? If so, are the formal
   semantic analytic tools that have been developed mainly for English and
   German sufficiently fine-grained to account for the differences among
   the Scandinavian languages?"

   The characteristic Scanian diphthongs, which do not occur in Danish or
   Swedish, are in popular belief often seen as signs of Scanian natives'
   efforts to adapt from a Danish to a "proper" Swedish pronunciation.
   However, linguists reject this explanation for the sound change; at
   present, there are no universally-accepted theories for why sound
   changes occur. Danish research supports the assertion that Scanian was
   a distinct dialect before the Swedish acquisition of most of old
   Skåneland. One of the artifacts supporting this is a letter from the
   16th century, where the Danish Bible translators were advised not to
   employ Scanian translators since their language was not proper Danish.

Historic preservation

   Scanian once possessed many unique words which do not exist in neither
   Swedish nor Danish. In attempts to preserve the unique aspects of
   Scanian, these words have been recorded and documented by the Institute
   for Dialectology, Onomastics and Folklore Research. Preservation is
   also accomplished through comparative studies, such as the
   Scanian-Swedish-Danish dictionary project, commissioned by the Scanian
   Academy. This project is led by Dr. Helmer Lång and involves a group of
   scholars from different fields, including Professor Birger Bergh,
   linguistics, Professor Inger Elkjær and Dr. Inge Lise Pedersen,
   researcher in Danish dialects. Many specialty Scanian dictionaries have
   been published through the years, including one by Dr. Sten Bertil
   Vide, who wrote his doctoral thesis on the names of flowers in Scanian.
   This publication, and a variety of other Scanian dictionaries are
   available through Department of Dialectology and Onomastics in Lund.

   The words and pronunciation differ around Scania, as they were
   sometimes only spoken by a small number of people in remote villages.
   Villages close to the sea, for example, such as Falsterbo and Limhamn,
   had many unique words connected to fishing. Most of these words no
   longer have any use in the spoken language.

Modern history

   General public and academic interest in protecting the Scanian dialect
   or language was first established in the early 19th century with the
   advent of folkloristics and romantic nationalism in Scandinavia (see
   for example Norwegian romantic nationalism). According to Helmer Lång,
   Scanian and the folklore of the region had not been given proper
   attention because the Swedes considered them Danish, and the Danes, on
   the other hand, avoided dealing with this area which they had lost.

   An early advocate was Henrik Wranér (1853-1908) who wrote books on
   Scanian (Kivikja Snackk..., 1901). His contribution was manifested with
   his Selected Works (Valda Verk) which was published in 1922-23. His
   primary successor was Axel Ebbe (1869-1941), who wrote Rijm å
   rodevelske in Scanian along with a witty translation of the Bible
   (Bibelsk historie, 1949).

   Scanian was not well known north of Skåneland and its adjacent
   districts until the Scanian movie actor Edvard Persson sang his way
   into the hearts of the Swedish nation during the 1930s and 1940s. More
   recently, radio voices Kjell Stensson and Sten Broman have popularized
   the dialect.

Today

   There are a sizable number of singers and other celebrities who speak
   Scanian and use it in their professional life. Artist Mikael Wiehe,
   voted "Scanian of the Year" in 2000, explained his relation to Scanian
   by referring a "love, knowledge of and pride in Scania's history and
   uniqueness": "To be a Scanian, to love Scania, to take an interest in
   its history and to cherish its uniqueness [...] has helped me to
   understand and respect other people's love for and pride over their
   native area. [...] In the same way, I love the Scanian language. Not
   because it is better than other languages, but because it is the
   language I express myself best in. This love for my native region and
   my language has given me a security and confidence which has made it
   possible for me to go out and explore the world without fear." Wiehe
   received the Swedish Martin Luther King Award of 2005 for his work at
   home and internationally for peace, freedom, justice and solidarity.
   Hans Alfredson, a popular showman, producer, singer and performer
   during the last 50 years, has produced several movies with Scanian
   dialogue, including the internationally recognized movie "The
   Simple-Minded Murder", starring Scanian-speaking Stellan Skarsgård who
   grew up in Malmö. Thomas Öberg, the singer of Swedish rock group bob
   hund, is a notable speaker of Scanian, who also sings in Scanian. The
   rock band Kal P. Dal, considered a cult favourite in some areas, Björn
   Afzelius, rock artist Peps Persson and the band Joddla med Siv are also
   popular examples of Scanian artists. The folk-singer Danne Stråhed is
   very popular in some regions, not the least due to his trademark song
   När en flicka talar skånska ("When a girl speaks Scanian").

   Recently, several humorously written Scanian dictionaries have been
   published. As there is no Scanian language standard, the choice of
   words to be included is always under debate.

Sounds

   Scanian realizes the phoneme /r/ as a uvular trill, [ʀ] in clear
   articulation, but in everyday speech more commonly as a voiceless, [χ]
   or voiced uvular fricative, [ʁ], depending on phonetic context. This is
   in contrast to the alveolar articulations and retroflex assimilations
   in most Swedish dialects north of Småland. The realizations of the
   highly variable and uniquely Swedish fricative /ɧ/ also tend to be more
   velar and less labialized than in other dialects. Though the phonemes
   of Scanian correspond to those of Standard Swedish and most other
   Swedish dialects, long vowels have developed into diphthongs which are
   unique to the region. In the southern parts of Skåne many diphthongs
   also have a pharyngeal quality, similar to Danish vowels.

Vocabulary

   While the general vocabulary does not differ considerably from Standard
   Swedish, a few specifically Scanian words exist which are known in all
   of Scania, occurring frequently among a majority of the speakers. These
   are some examples:
     * påg , "boy" (Standard Swedish: pojke, former Danish: poge / pog)
     * tös, "girl" (Standard Swedish: flicka, Danish: tøs)
     * rälig, "disgusting", "ugly" (Standard Swedish äcklig, ful, dialect
       Danish: rærlig)

   There are other Scanian words that are well-known in Scania but could
   be considered old-fashioned or extremely rural in general usage:
     * pantoffel, "potatoe" (Standard Swedish: potatis, Danish: kartoffel)

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