Norrland dialects () make up one of the six major dialect groupings of the Swedish language. It comprises most dialects traditionally spoken in Norrland, except for those of Gästrikland and southern Hälsingland, which are usually classified as Svealand Swedish, as well as some local dialects of Härjedalen and northernmost Jämtland, which are usually classified as a Norwegian dialect.
The border between Norrland dialects and Svealand Swedish runs through Hälsingland, such that the northern Hälsingland dialects are regarded as Norrland dialects and the southern ones as Svealand Swedish; an alternative delineation follows the southern border of Medelpad.
The old northern border of the Swedish language in coastal Norrbotten largely followed the eastern and northern borders of the present-day Kalix and Överkalix municipalities. From there, a vaguely defined linguistic border ran through Lappland from the northernmost point of Överkalix parish in an arc to the south of Porjus, then followed the Lule River to the border with Norway.
History Norrland dialects arose from the combined influence of the Old West Norse spoken in Trøndelag to the west and the Old East Norse spoken to the south. The westerly influences were notably strong in the centuries leading up to the Viking Age. The shift to East Norse progressed through the Middle Ages. As Norrland gradually came to be more and more under Central Swedish influence in the Modern Era, many of the older West Norse characteristics disappeared.
The strong West Norse influences can still be seen today in the toponymy of Norrland in placenames ending in -ånger (, "harbour"). Parish names such Skön and Indal (both in Sundsvall Municipality) have West Nordic origins. The dialect of Norrbotten displays less West Nordic influence than other more westerly dialects. The greatest West Nordic/Norwegian, or perhaps least East Nordic/Swedish, influence is found in Jämtland.
As with other regiolects, it is difficult to clearly define a unique set of characteristics for the Norrland dialects. The distribution of different features of the dialect have differing boundaries (called isoglosses), which are described in the following summary of phenomena regarded as typical of Norrland dialects. In Norrland, traditional local dialects are on the decline as in many other parts of the world. Aside from characteristic peculiarities in intonation, there are certain grammatical traits that still survive: the infinitive måsta (Standard Swedish: måste), present tense forms such as han gå (Standard Swedish: han går, "he goes") and han ropa (Standard Swedish: han ropar, "he calls"), and the uninflected predicative in a statement such as dom ä trött (Standard Swedish: de är trötta, "they are tired").
Features
Vowel balance and apocope
Unlike present-day Standard Swedish, syllables in Old Swedish could be both light and heavy, and in the Norrland dialects the two syllable types developed in diverging ways, resulting in a number of phonological developments. In words with an original heavy syllable, the final vowel is often reduced or lost (apocope). The former is common in southern Norrland dialects, as in the infinitive ending of verbs ( > or ), e.g. kaste ‘to throw’ (Standard Swedish kasta). The latter is common in northern Norrland dialects as well as in Jämtland, e.g. kast or more commonly kaast, with preserved double-peak pitch accent (so-called “circumflex” accent). In words with an original light syllable, no such reduction is found, e.g. taḷa ‘to speak’ (< Old Swedish tăla; Modern Standard Swedish tala). This weight-conditioned ending system is known in Swedish dialectology as vowel balance (Swedish vokalbalans).
Vowel balance is abundant throughout the grammatical system. Outside the infinitive of verbs, it is also found in the nominal system, where it affects for instance so-called weak masculines and weak feminines, e.g. Luleå dialect bääkk ‘hill’ (< oblique bakka; backe) vs. po:sa ‘bag’ (with lengthened root vowel, from OSw. pŭsa; Mod.Sw. påse); kḷookk ‘clock’ (< OSw. klokku; Mod.Sw. klocka) vs. lö:do ‘barn’ (< OSw. lăþu; Mod.Sw. lada).
Vowel balance is found in a large contiguous area in Northern Scandinavia. In Sweden it occurs in the entire Norrland dialect area with the exception of northern Hälsingland, in Härjedalen and in upper Dalarna. Outside of Sweden, it occurs in northern Ostrobothnia in Finland and in Østlandet, Trøndelag and parts of Nordland in Norway. It is also notably found in several East Swedish dialects in southern Finland and Estonia. The dialects of northern Hälsingland, like most northern Svea dialects and Standard Swedish, generally preserve the -a of Old Swedish, i.e. kasta. There is evidence to support that vowel balance was once a more geographically widespread phenomenon than in the early 20th century (when traditional dialects were still widely spoken). For instance, there are traces of vowel balance in Upper Swedish dialects, and in Old Swedish texts, vowel balance can be found as far south as eastern Småland.
The north Scandinavian apocope has a similar geographical distribution pattern, but is found further to the north, prototypically covering Lappland, Norrbotten and Västerbotten, as well as most of Jämtland and parts of northern Ångermanland. In Norway it covers Trøndelag and parts of Nordland and in Finland the northern part of Ostrobothnia. It is also found in other areas such as northern Värmland and Öland in Sweden, and Jutland in Denmark. General reduction of unstressed ending vowels is, by contrast, a more widespread phenomenon, also found in e.g. Östergötland and Småland as well as in Standard Bokmål Norwegian and Standard Danish.
It has been suggested by Russian linguist Jurij Kusmenko that the Scandinavian vowel balance arose in contact with Saami languages where a similar phenomenon was previously found. This hypothesis has, however, been deemed unconvincing by several scholars of Scandinavian languages.
Vowel harmony In a subset of dialects with vowel balance, a process known as vowel harmony is found (also known as vowel levelling or vowel metaphony; Swedish tilljämning). Vowel harmony is restricted to words with an old light root syllable and is an assimilation of the root vowel and the ending vowel. The assimilation process is usually regressive, i.e. the root vowel adopts features from the ending vowel, although progressive assimilation is also found in dialects in Norway and Dalarna.
Vowel harmony has its center of intensity in Eastern Norway, Trøndelag and upper Dalarna, but is also found in Norrland dialects. For instance, the in Old Swedish oblique lăþu ‘barn’ has in many dialects been raised and rounded, e.g. in the Luleå dialect to : lödo, in Jämtland dialects with full assimilation to : ludu. In southern Västerbotten dialects, root vowel harmony with original is common, e.g. in past participles such as lissi ‘read’ (< OSw. læ̆sit) and skyri ‘cut’ (< OSw. skŭrit, skŏrit).
Retention of before In most Norrland dialects, Old Swedish has been preserved before the consonant cluster (which, however, has changed into , a retroflex flap). This is unlike Standard Swedish, and the traditional dialects further to the south, where has shifted to in this context. Examples include Medelpad (Torp dialect) aḷ ‘ard’ (< arþer; årder) and svaḷ ‘pork rind’ (< OSw. svarþ; Mod.Sw. svål). Jämtland does not share this feature, having changed into (or ), as in Jämtland vååḷ ‘to become’ (< OSw. varþa).
Lexical exceptions exist to this rule, notably the word ‘farm’, which is gåḷ in most of Norrland (< OSw. garþer; Mod.Sw. gård), likely due to influence from the standard language. The retention of is also found in adjacent dialects in Ostrobothnia in Finland to the east, as well as in Dalecarlian and Norwegian dialects to the (south)west.
Medial palatalization The Old Swedish initial velar consonants and , as well as the cluster underwent palatalization before front vowels in almost all dialects of Swedish. In Norrland dialects unlike Standard Swedish, this change also took place in medial position, resulting in > ; > ; > , e.g. Arnäs dialect (Ångermanland) rôjjen ‘the rye’ (< rŭgin; rågen); Älvsbyn dialect (Norrbotten) fåḷtje ‘the people’ (< OSw. folkit; Mod.Sw. folket); Burträsk dialect (Västerbotten) fissjen ‘the fish’ (< OSw. fiskin; Mod.Sw. fisken).
Medial palatalization is especially common in the definite form of masculine and neutral nouns, as shown above. However, in many dialects the change unproductive and has been gradually reversed due to analogy with other unpalatalised forms in the paradigm, hence the definite form of ‘the fish’ in the Burträsk dialect is either palatalized fissjin or unpalatalized fisken. In words where there are no related unpalatalized forms, palatalization is more robust, e.g. myttje ‘much’ (< OSw. mykit, Mod.Sw. mycket.)
The southern border for medial palatalization runs through Uppland, Västmanland and Värmland in Svealand. It is also found in Ostrobothnia and parts of Uusimaa (Nyland) in Finland, as well as parts of Norway. There are also indications that medial palatalization formerly reached even further south, into the archipelago of Södermanland and Östergötland.
Stress in compound words In many Norrland dialects, the primary stress in compound words is placed on the second element, e.g. Ångermanland neverˈtak ‘birch roof’ or veaˈkast ‘wood pile’. This type of stress is especially found in Ångermanland and Norrbotten, but also further south in northern Uppland and Södertörn, as well as western Åland. Similar stress phenomena are found in western Uusimaa (Nyland) in Finland, as well as in Skåne and southern Halland.
Use of the definite form Norrland dialects are known for using the definite form for more grammatical functions than does Standard Swedish, where the corresponding form is often a bare noun.
A primary use of the definite article is with non-count nouns and nouns denoting an unlimited quantity. For this reason, calls this use of the definite form “partitive”, since the partitive use is similar to e.g. the French partitive, while Östen Dahl calls this non-delimited use. Examples of this usage include Arnäs dialect (Ångermanland) såddä svejjrôgen ‘sowed burn-beaten rye’ (Standard Swedish sådde svedjeråg); Skellefteå (northern Västerbotten) väärm mjölka ‘heat milk’ (Standard Swedish värma mjölk). This use of the definite form is common in dialects in Västerbotten, Norrbotten, Ångermanland, Jämtland as well as in the settler dialects of Lapland. There are also attested examples from Medelpad. In addition, it is also common in Ovansiljan in northern Dalarna, as well as in Ostrobothnia in Finland.
Furthermore, the definite form is also used in generic statements, i.e. when a general statement is made about the entity the noun phrase refers to, e.g. beavers build dams or gold is expensive. This usage also includes “citation uses”, e.g. Ersmark dialect (northern Västerbotten) he kall ve fö sjanostn ‘this we call sand cheese’. This usage of the definite form is even more widespread and apart from the areas listed above, it is also found in Värmland, southern Finland and parts of Norway.
Dahl also lists a number of other contexts where the definite article is used, including after quantifiers, e.g. Sorsele dialect (southern Västerbotten) tre brödren ‘three brothers’ (Standard Swedish tre bröder); with so called “low referential” singular count nouns, e.g. Burträsk dialect (northern Västerbotten) vi hadd hästn ‘we had a horse’ (Standard Swedish vi hade häst). In cases like these, the referent is not important but rather the property of owning a horse. In addition, the definite is also often used in instrumental phrases, e.g. Bjurholm dialect (Västerbotten–Ångermanland transitional) ät såppa ve skea ‘eats soup with a spoon’ (Standard Swedish äter soppa med sked), as well as a few other cases.
Present tense of verbs