Johan Schalin, PhD
Descendants of *ga- and *sta-, with vowels that unexpectedly rhyme with contracted descendats of dra(gha) ‘draw’ and ta(gha) ‘take’, occur(ed) in the easternmost (near-extinct) dialects of Estonian Swedish in Harju county, the northernmost dialects of Sweden in Norrbotten and the #FennoSwedish dialects of Ostrobotnia and Eastern Nyland. Attestations indicate that this has also been the case in other parts of Nyland as well as in the southwestern provinces of Åboland and Satakunda.
Descendants of *ga- and *sta-, where the vowel unexpectedly rhymes with descendants of “dra(gha)” ‘to draw’ and “ta(gha)” ‘to take’, occur in the eastern (near-extinct) dialects of Estonian Swedish in Harju county, in the northernmost dialects of Sweden in Norrbotten and in the #FennoSwedish dialects of Ostrobotnia and East Nyland. Early attestations indicate that this was also originally valid in the rest of Nyland and the south-western provinces of Åboland and Satakunda https://kaino.kotus.fi/fo/?p=article&fo_id=FO_1327b955da7c1120152e50b71df3b002&word=g%C3%A5
@linguistics @elmerot
I don’t think it exists online though. Bentlin does not discuss the #FennoSwedish problem in the equation much, even if he has extensive discussion elsewhere on the role of Swedish as an alternative source of loans.
https://www.finna.fi/Record/deutschebibliothek.30914
I don’t think it exists online though. Bentlin does not discuss the #FennoSwedish problem in the equation much, even if he has extensive discussion elsewhere on the role of Swedish as an alternative source of loans.
https://www.finna.fi/Record/deutschebibliothek.30914
@elmerot @linguistics That is definitely a possibility, but not a certain fact. That etymology would result in two different explanations for #FennoSwedish “mojn” and “morjens” respectively.
The Finnish greeting is discussed in Mikko #Bentlins doctoral thesis on Middle #LowGerman loanwords in #Finnish.
Equally intriguing, but not discussed anywhere, is the origin of Baltic #Finnic “hei”.
Among dialect scholars in Finland some want to name the dialect of #Kronoby as the most archaic. As a researcher specialised in #vocalism I willingly subscribe to that: unlike #Närpes (and unlike #Icelandic) no secondary diphthongisation and better preserved #OldNorse syllable quantity. Unlike some #FennoSwedish dialects a distinction is maintained between öi (vf. #WestNorse ey) and öu (cf. West Norse au) https://kronomagasinet.wordpress.com/om-krombi/
There was more elaborate discussion, behind the link below, on the subject of þ- turning into t- in ”small (commonly unstressed) #FennoSwedish lexemes (rather than d- as in mainstream #Scandinavian).
This development is known from some other periferal dialect areas as well, and from the #Faroese language:
https://mastodon.world/@simonwilliamson/109416718445355270
Simon (@[email protected])
@[email protected] would this þ/ð change to t be due to Finnish influence? I understand that the sound 'd' is rare in Finnish.
Before taking on harder subjects, let’s debunk a myth circulating in Finland and Sweden: No! The dialect in #Närpes or #Närpesiska is not the ”oldest” #FennoSwedish dialect! And moreover, it has remarkably little in common with “Swedish spoken in Stockholm in the 1500s” (see link). The myth is fuelled by the impression that “incomprehensible”=“archaic”. In fact Närpesiska is incomprehensible mainly for the opposite reason: it is full of phonological innovations. https://svenska.yle.fi/a/7-1281219
My first posting is on #FennoSwedish. In parallel in this chain you find two spontaneous samples from #Pargas between Turku and the Åland Islands.
Old traits common in Finland:
-Neuter & non-referential pronoun ”he” ’it’, also compounded ”hehe” ’it-that’ & ”hete” ’it-there’ -Small words with initial d- in Swedish begin with t- in dialect: ”teh” =”där” ’there’; ”To” =”Du” ’you’; ’tåte” =”dylik-där” ’such there’.
-Short stressed CV-syllables ”sama” ’same’.
-Retained diphthong ”göutar” ’boys’
Old traits common in Finland:
-Neuter & non-referential pronoun ”he” ’it’, also compounded ”hehe” ’it-that’ & ”hete” ’it-there’ -Small words with initial d- in Swedish begin with t- in dialect: ”teh” =”där” ’there’; ”To” =”Du” ’you’; ’tåte” =”dylik-där” ’such there’.
-Short stressed CV-syllables ”sama” ’same’.
-Retained diphthong ”göutar” ’boys’
@onlmaps In #FennoSwedish we have the words ”nock” and ”lock” for ’spider’ https://kaino.kotus.fi/fo/?p=article&fo_id=FO_98bfdfa938d935955efbbcda8f16484f&word=nock