East Scandinavian with West Scandinavian elements (or Central Scandinavian)[2][3]
Dalecarlian
Elfdalian
Writing system
Latin (Elfdalian alphabet)
Dalecarlian runes (until the 20th century)
Official status
Regulated by
Swedish Language Council
Language codes
ISO 639-3
ovd
Linguist List
qer
Glottolog
elfd1234
Älvdalen Municipality in Dalarna, where Elfdalian is spoken in the southeastern half
Maps of settlements in Älvdalen parish, Sweden, and the percentage of the population speaking Elfdalian (2008 data).
Elfdalian or Övdalian (övdalsk or övdalską, pronounced[ˈœvdɐlskãː] in Elfdalian, älvdalska or älvdalsmål in Swedish) is a North Germanic language spoken by up to 3,000 people[4] who live or have grown up in the locality of Älvdalen (Övdaln), which is located in the southeastern part of Älvdalen Municipality in northern Dalarna, Sweden.
Like all other modern North Germanic languages, Elfdalian developed from Old Norse, a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age until about 1300. It has developed in relative isolation since the Middle Ages and is considered to have remained closer to Old Norse than the other Dalecarlian dialects.
Traditionally regarded as a Swedish dialect,[5] but by several criteria closer to West Scandinavian dialects,[2] Elfdalian is a separate language by the standard of mutual intelligibility.[6][7][8] There is low mutual intelligibility between Swedish and Elfdalian, but since education and public administration in Älvdalen are conducted in Swedish, native speakers are bilingual and speak Swedish at a native level. Residents in the area having Swedish as their sole native language, neither speaking nor understanding Elfdalian, are also common.
^Elfdalian at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
^ abKroonen, Guus. "On the origins of the Elfdalian nasal vowels from the perspective of diachronic dialectology and Germanic etymology" (PDF). Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics. University of Copenhagen. Archived (PDF) from the original on 6 February 2016. Retrieved 27 January 2016. In many aspects, Elfdalian, takes up a middle position between East and West Nordic. However, it shares some innovations with West Nordic, but none with East Nordic. This invalidates the claim that Elfdalian split off from Old Swedish
^Garbacz, Piotr (2008). Älvdalska – ett mindre känt nordiskt språk Archived 24 November 2016 at the Wayback Machine [Elfdalian – a lesser known Nordic language]. s. 1. Oslo universitet
^Barke, Anders. "Vad är Älvdalska?" [What is Elfdalian?]. Älvdalens kommun (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 13 February 2019. Retrieved 15 November 2018.
^Ekberg, Lena (2010). "The National Minority Languages in Sweden". In Gerhard Stickel (ed.). National, Regional and Minority Languages in Europe: Contributions to the Annual Conference 2009 of Efnil in Dublin. Peter Lang. pp. 87–92. ISBN 978-3-631-60365-9. Retrieved 6 March 2013.
^Dahl, Östen; Dahlberg, Ingrid; Delsing, Lars-Olof; Halvarsson, Herbert; Larsson, Gösta; Nyström, Gunnar; Olsson, Rut; Sapir, Yair; Steensland, Lars; Williams, Henrik (8 February 2007). "Älvdalskan är ett språk – inte en svensk dialekt" [Elfdalian is a language – not a Swedish dialect]. Aftonbladet (in Swedish). Stockholm. Archived from the original on 25 August 2012. Retrieved 7 March 2013.
^Dahl, Östen (December 2008). "Älvdalska – eget språk eller värsting bland dialekter?" [Elfdalian – its own language or an outstanding dialect?]. Språktidningen (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 7 December 2017. Retrieved 16 May 2013.
^Zach, Kristine (2013). "Das Älvdalische — Sprache oder Dialekt? (Diplomarbeit)" [Elfdalian — Language or dialect? (Masters thesis)] (PDF) (in German). University of Vienna. Archived (PDF) from the original on 17 February 2020. Retrieved 22 January 2016.
Elfdalian or Övdalian (övdalsk or övdalską, pronounced [ˈœvdɐlskãː] in Elfdalian, älvdalska or älvdalsmål in Swedish) is a North Germanic language spoken...
Swedish dialects Finland Swedish Estonian Swedish Dalecarlian language Elfdalian West Scandinavian Norwegian Bokmål (written) Nynorsk (written) Trønder...
Swedish. Linguistics Professor Guus Kroonen cites a number of features that Elfdalian, one of the most prominent languages within the Dalecarlian group, shares...
greytur, Norwegian grøt (nynorsk graut), Danish grød, and the Swedish and Elfdalian gröt, all meaning porridge, of which gruel is a subtype. The German "Grießmehl"...
refer to: Eth (ð), a letter used in Old English, Icelandic, Faroese and Elfdalian Th (digraph), a digraph in the Roman alphabet Pronunciation of English...
speak a traditional dialect, Dalecarlian, while in Älvdalen, they speak Elfdalian, a dialect which is very distinct from Swedish, Norwegian or Danish. Historically...
Idre (Southern Sami: Eajra, Elfdalian: Iðer) is a locality and ski resort situated in Älvdalen Municipality, Dalarna County, Sweden with 794 inhabitants...
most varieties of Tupí-Guaraní spoken in Bolivia. Polish, Navajo, and Elfdalian use a hook under the letter, called an ogonek, as in ą, ę. The Pe̍h-ōe-jī...
known as the Elfdalians, that lived in the locality of Älvdalen in the Swedish province of Dalarna. They spoke the language of Elfdalian, the language...
used. In northern and western Sweden there are also dialects with /w/. Elfdalian is a good example, which is one of many dialects where the Old Norse difference...
Norwegian and Swedish. It is the only language alongside Icelandic and Elfdalian to preserve the letter Ð, though unlike the others, it is not pronounced...
female; traditionally considered a dialect, but now often recognized as Elfdalian, a separate language Gräsö, Uppland; older male Sorunda, Södermanland;...
Middle English, Icelandic, Faroese (in which it is called edd), and Elfdalian. It was also used in Scandinavia during the Middle Ages, but was subsequently...
However, some "periphery" languages such as Gascon, Welsh, English, Elfdalian, Kven, Northern Sámi, Inari Sámi, Skolt Sámi, Ume Sámi, Mari, Greek, Albanian...
lost in most dialects by this time (but notably they are retained in Elfdalian and other dialects of Ovansiljan). See Old Icelandic for the mergers of...
Norwegian (Norway), Icelandic (Iceland), Faroese (Faroe Islands), and Elfdalian (in a small part of central Sweden).[citation needed] English has a long...
*Þunurr (evidenced by the poems Hymiskviða and Þórsdrápa, and modern Elfdalian tųosdag 'Thursday'), through the common Old Norse development of the sequence...
English, Icelandic and Scots, with /ð/ also remaining in the endangered Elfdalian language. Sardinian, the most conservative Romance language both lexically...
estimates. Other extant North Germanic languages are Faroese, Icelandic, and Elfdalian, which are more conservative languages with no significant Low German...
"uniquely Icelandic"), although they are not. Eth is also used in Faroese and Elfdalian, and while thorn is no longer used in any other living language, it was...
Swedish † Modern Swedish Norrland dialects Svealand Swedish Dalecarlian Elfdalian (considered a Swedish Sveamål dialect, but has official orthography and...
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