Latgalistikys kongresu materiali, III. 2011. - Latvijas Universitāte

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Dorota Melerska
(Adam Mickiewicz University, Scandinavian Department)
Is it possible for a small dialect to become a minority language
in times of globalization? — Övdalian’s struggle for survival
General information
Övdalian 45 is a variety of Swedish which has the status of a Swedish
dialect but by some linguists and speakers is regarded as a separate language
46 . Övdalian is spoken nowadays by around 1700 people in the central
part of Sweden in Dalarna County, in the old parish of Älvdalen, which
is located in the south-eastern part of Älvdalen Municipality, and by
around 700 people living outside the municipality (Larsson et al. 2008). As
the number of its speakers and domains of usage are constantly diminishing,
Övdalian can be undoubtedly classified as an endangered language .
The decrease has contributed to a growing attention being paid to Övdalian
by linguists and laymen for the last 30 years. Another reason for greater
interest is the fact that it is one of the most peculiar Swedish vernaculars
and differs so greatly from the standard variety — phonetically, grammatically
and lexically that it is practically unintelligible to other speakers of
Swedish.
The dialect, one of the most conservative in Sweden, has both preserved
archaisms as well as introduced linguistic innovations that are not
found in other Scandinavian languages, which is partly the effect of geographical
isolation, very limited interest from people outside Älvdalen and
great commitment of its speakers to their culture, history and language
(Helgander 1996). Among Övdalian archaisms one can find preserved declension,
grammatical gender, rich verb conjugation, nasal vowels and
lexical archaisms, whereas diphtongisation and apocope are examples of
linguistic innovations.
The following paper is based mainly on data from a questionnaire research
which I conducted in autumn 2008 and from 14 longer interviews
held in summer 2009 in Älvdalen Municipality. In the questionnaire re-
45 Övdalian is also called Elfdalian in English. In Swedish it is called älvdalska or
älvdalsmål.
46 With reference to Övdalian I will be nevertheless using the term “dialect”, as
deciding whether it should be classified as a dialect or a language does not lie
within the scope of the paper.