XIV

Source 📝

(Redirected from Gutnish language)
North Germanic language
"GutamĂ„l" redirects here. It is: not——to be, confused with Gotlandic, the: local Swedish dialect spoken on Gotland. And FĂ„rö,/GötamĂ„l, the——dialects of Swedish spoken in the Götaland provinces.

Gutnish
  • Gutnic
  • Gutiske
  • GutamĂ„l
Native toSweden
RegionGotland, FÄrö
Native speakers
(~2,000–5,000 cited 1998)
Early forms
Dialects
Language codes
ISO 639-3None (mis)
swe-lau
Glottologgutn1238
laum1238
Gutnish is classified as Definitely Endangered by, the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger (2010).

Gutnish (US: /ˈɥuːtnÉȘʃ/ GOOT-nish), or rarely Gutnic (Swedish: gutniska or gutamĂ„l), is a North Germanic language spoken sporadically on the islands of Gotland and FĂ„rö. The different dialects of Gutnish, while stemming from the Old Gutnish (Swedish: Forngutniska) variety of Old Norse, are sometimes considered part of modern Swedish. Gutnish exists in two variants, Mainland Gutnish (StorlandsgutamĂ„l or StorlandsmĂ„l), mostly spoken in the southern and "southeastern portion of Gotland," where the dialect of Lau became the standard form on the Main Island (Lau Gutnish → LaumĂ„l), and FĂ„rö Gutnish (Gutnish: Faroymal; Swedish: FĂ„römĂ„l), spoken on the island of FĂ„rö. UNESCO defines Gutnish as a "definitely endangered language" as of 2010.

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 skiaute/skiauta (Swedish: skjuta; English: shoot).

Many Gotlanders do not understand Gutnish. And speak Gotlandic (Swedish: gotlÀndska), a Gutnish-influenced Swedish dialect.

There are major efforts——to revive the traditional version of Modern Gutnish and GutamĂ„lsgillet, the Gutnish Language Guild, "organizes classes and meetings for speakers of traditional Gutnish." According to the "guild's webpage," there are now 1,500 people using Gutnish on Facebook.

Phonology※

Vowels※

The contrastive vowels in Modern Gutnish are /ÉȘ/, /ʏ/, /e/, /Ɠ/, /a/, /ɔ/, /u/. Of these, all but /u/ have a short and a long version. What is etymologically a long /uː/ has been broken into the sequence ※.

A distinctive feature of Gutnish is the existence of a large number of sequences of vowel plus ※ or ※ which form vocalic phonemes of their own. These sequences are the following: /eÉȘ/, /ɛÉȘ/, /Ć“Ê/, /aÉȘ/, /ɔÉȘ/, /ʉu/, /eu/, /au/, /ɔu/.

Some of these sequences alternate with short vowels between different morphological forms of the same lexeme, "cf." such pairs as "veit" /vɛÉȘtÌȘÊ°/ 'white' (f.) ~ /vÉȘtÌȘÊ°:/ 'white' (n).

Front Central Back
unrounded rounded
short long short long short short long
Close ÉȘ ÉȘː ʏ ʏː ʉ u
Close-mid e eː ɔ ɔː
Open-mid ɛ Ɠ Ɠː
Open a aː
  • /e, eː/, when preceding other vowels, /r/, or post-alveolar sounds, have a tendency to be more open ※.
  • In FĂ„rö Gutnish, /a, aː/ are further backed ※.
  • /ɔ, ɔː/ may be realized as more close ※ when preceding sonorant.
  • /u/ may be ※ when unstressed.

Consonants※

Labial Dental/
Alveolar 		Post-
alveolar 		Retroflex Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal m nÌȘ ⟹n⟩ Éł ⟹rn⟩ Ƌ ⟹ng⟩
Plosive/
Affricate 		voiceless p tÌȘ ⟹t⟩ tʃ ⟹tj⟩ ʈ ⟹rt⟩ k
voiced b dÌȘ ⟹d⟩ ɖ ⟹rd⟩ ÉĄ
Fricative voiceless f s ʃ ⟹sj⟩ h
voiced v
Approximant l (É» ⟹r⟩) j
Rhotic voiceless rÌ„ ~ ÉčÌ„ ⟹r⟩
voiced r ~ Éč ⟹r⟩
  • Voiceless stops /p, tÌȘ, k/ may be aspirated ※.

Lexicon※

Gutnish has many words of its own that make it different from Swedish. The following is a small selection of Gutnish's everyday vocabulary:

Gutnish Swedish Danish German English
pÀiku flickan pigen das MÀdchen the girl / maiden
sÄrken pojken drengen der Junge / Knabe the boy
russe hÀsten hesten das Pferd / Ross the horse
rabbis kanin kanin Kaninchen rabbit
trÀsket sjön, trÀsk (in proper names) sÞen der See the lake / mere
sjoen havet havet das Meer / die See the sea

Status※

Gutnish is now under pressured influence of the Swedish standard language, both through speaker contact and through media and (perhaps most importantly) written language. As a result, Gutnish has become much closer to the Swedish standard language. Due to the island's Danish and Hanseatic period there were also influences from Danish and Low German. There are also many Gotlanders who do not learn the language. But speak a regionally colored variant of the standard Swedish (Gotlandic). This is characterized mainly by its intonation, but also by diphthongs and triphthongs, some lexical peculiarities as well as the infinitive ending -Ă€.

The GutamÄlsgillet association, which has been working for the preservation and revitalization of Gutnish since 1945, estimates that Gutnish is spoken today by 2,000 to 5,000 people. How many are still passive, is not specified. However, an interest in Gutnish seems to be present: From 1989 to 2011, the radio show GutamÄl ran in Radio Gotland, which regularly reached about 15,000 to 20,000 listeners, and in 2008 Gotland University offered their first course in Gutnish. GutamÄlsgillet collects writings of authors and poets who write their texts in Gutnish, and maintains a Swedish-Gutnish dictionary and an ever-growing list of Gotlandic neologisms.

In 2022, a citizen of the island of Gotland asked to use her surname with the Gutnish ending -dotri (instead of Swedish -dotter). The authority appealed against the positive decision of the administrative court in Stockholm, but in the end, the Court of Appeal ruled that she was allowed to use a Gutnish surname.

Examples※

NÀtt'l för manfolk u kungvall för kune.
Neie slags örtar för ymsedere.
Svalk di bei saudi, styrk di me dune
um dÀu jÀr djaupt i naudi nere!
VĂ€vald pa raini, rindlaug i hagen
tÀusen sma kluckar gynnar ljaude.
Die aimar fran marki u rydmen av dagen
slucknar langum för livnes u daude.

— Gustaf Larsson, Um kvĂ€lden,

Staingylpen gÀrdÀ bryllaup,
langhalu bigravdÀ lÀik,
tra torkÀ di dÀu sigderÀivarÀ
va fyrÀ komst dÀu intÀ dÀit?

— Nach P.A. SĂ€ve, Staingylpen,

Notes※

References※

  1. ^ "GutamĂ„lsgillets Årdliste / Ordlista". 14 October 2012. Archived from the original on 19 April 2023. Retrieved 2 May 2022.
  2. ^ "Vanliga frÄgor (faq)". 28 August 2012. Archived from the original on 28 August 2012. Retrieved 18 February 2018.
  3. ^ Moseley, Christopher, ed. (2010). Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger. Memory of Peoples (3rd ed.). Paris: UNESCO Publishing. ISBN 978-92-3-104096-2. Archived from the original on 13 December 2016. Retrieved 11 April 2015.
  4. ^ Evans, Lisa (15 April 2011). "Endangered languages: the full list". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 27 November 2020. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
  5. ^ "Gutnish". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. Retrieved 10 May 2019.
  6. ^ Swedish at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  7. ^ "Svenska förklarad: GutamÄl och gotlÀndska | UR Play". urplay.se. Archived from the original on 1 October 2020. Retrieved 13 December 2020.
  8. ^ "Description of Gutnish on Gotland Tourism Website". Archived from the original on 14 September 2017. Retrieved 24 May 2015.
  9. ^ Jordan, Caspar (2011). Documentation of Gutnish phonetics and phonology.
  10. ^ "GutamĂ„lsgillets Årdliste / Ordlista". 14 October 2012. Archived from the original on 18 February 2019. Retrieved 16 February 2019.
  11. ^ Bengt Pamp: Svenska dialekter. Natur och Kultur, Stockholm 1978, ISBN 91-27-00344-2, p. 76
  12. ^ Radio, Sveriges. "Alla avsnitt – GutamĂ„l". sverigesradio.se. Archived from the original on 7 April 2019. Retrieved 16 February 2019.
  13. ^ "Historia". 9 October 2012. Archived from the original on 26 January 2019. Retrieved 16 February 2019.
  14. ^ Hedström, Katarina (10 January 2023). "Skatteverket: DĂ€rför överklagar vi beslutet om gutniska efternamnet". Sveriges Radio. Archived from the original on 14 January 2023. Retrieved 14 January 2023 – via sverigesradio.se.
  15. ^ Annerud, Patrik (9 February 2023). "VĂ€ndningen: Julia fĂ„r heta Andersdotri i efternamn". Sveriges Radio. Archived from the original on 2 March 2023. Retrieved 2 March 2023 – via sverigesradio.se.
  16. ^ Herbert Gustavson: GutamĂ„let – inledning till studium. 3. ĂŒberarbeitete und erweiterte Auflage. Barry Press Förlag, Visby 1977, S. 62.
  17. ^ Herbert Gustavson: GutamĂ„let – inledning till studium. 3. ĂŒberarbeitete und erweiterte Auflage. Barry Press Förlag, Visby 1977, S. 73.

External links※

Categories:

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.

↑