Estonian Swedish

Estonian Swedish
estlandssvenska
Estonian Swedes on Ruhnu, 1937
RegionEstonia, Ukraine, Sweden
Indo-European
Dialects
Language codes
ISO 639-3–
Glottologesto1259
IETFsv-EE

Estonian Swedish (Swedish: estlandssvenska; Estonian: rannarootsi keel, lit. 'Coastal Swedish') are the eastern varieties of the Swedish language that were until the mid-20th century spoken in the Aiboland, the coastal areas and islands of western and northern Estonia which had been inhabited since the Middle Ages by the Estonian Swedes.[2]

Until the evacuation of the Estonian Swedes near the end of World War II, both Swedish and Estonian were commonly spoken in the Aiboland coastal areas and islands. Today, small groups of remaining Estonian Swedes are regrouping and re-establishing their heritage, by studying the Swedish language and culture. They are led by the Estonian Swedish Council, which is backed by the Estonian government. In 2000, Swedes were the 21st largest ethnic group in Estonia, numbering only 300.[3] There are however many elderly native speakers of Estonian Swedish as well as descendants of Estonian Swedes residing in Sweden.

Currently, the number of native speakers is unknown, but assumed to be low.[1]

Usage

The Gammalsvenska dialect of Swedish spoken in Ukraine is an archaic dialect of Estonian Swedish, having been brought to the village of Gammalsvenskby in the late 1700s by settlers from Hiiumaa (Dagö).[4]

Writing system

Noarootsi Swedish is written with the same letters as Standard Swedish with a few phonetic additions:[5]

  • Long vowels are indicated with a subscribed macron: ⟨a̱, ä̱, å̱, e̱, i̱, o̱, u̱⟩.
  • Long consonants are doubled : ⟨bb, dd, ...⟩.
  • The /d/ and /n/ rhotics are denoted with a dot below ⟨ḍ, ṇ⟩.
  • The voiced retroflex flap /ɽ/, called "thick L", is noted with a dot below ⟨ḷ⟩.
  • The voiceless postalveolar fricative consonant /ʃ/ is noted with a dot below ⟨ṣ⟩.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Rosenkvist, Henrik (2018). "Estlandssvenskans språkstruktur" [The linguistic structure of Estonian Swedish] (PDF) (in Swedish). University of Gothenburg. Archived (PDF) from the original on 1 August 2020. Retrieved 18 June 2020.
  2. ^ "Svenska ortnamn i Estland" [Swedish place names in Estonia]. sprakinstitutet.fi (in Swedish). Institute for the Languages of Finland. Archived from the original on 9 April 2022. Retrieved 15 November 2019.
  3. ^ 2000. Aasta rahva ja eluruumide loendus (Population and Housing Census) (in Estonian and English). Vol. 2. Statistikaamet (Statistical Office of Estonia). 2001. ISBN 9985-74-202-8. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 July 2019. Retrieved 23 September 2009.
  4. ^ "Gammölsvänsk". The Language Archive. Nijmegen, Netherlands: Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics. hdl:1839/00-0000-0000-0008-A981-0. Archived from the original on 3 August 2021. Retrieved 2 March 2021.
  5. ^ Hans Pöhl : estlandssvenskarnas hövding : en biografi över Hans Pöhl (1876-1930), estlandssvenskarnas främste företrädare och ledare : rannarootslaste eestvõitleja : Hans Pöhli (1876-1930), Eesti rootslaste vaimse liidri ja valgustaja elulugu | WorldCat.org. OCLC 938832453.

Further reading


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