Tag Archives: Scanian

List of common expressions that differ between Scanian and Sweonic

S = axato (reliable indicator of which dialect)
H = historic difference – the dominating form set in red.
E = blog author was taught in school that the stricken form is “grammatically” wrong.

English Scanian Sweonic
S in the past förr förut
S more (adverb) mer mera
S nowadays nu för tiden numera
S of av utav
S our vår (m,f)/ vårt (n) våran (u) / vårat (n)
S your er (m,f)/ ert (n) eran (u)/ erat (n)
H Where do we go? Var går vi? Vart går vi?
H here, there här, där hära, dära
H it seems like det verkar som om det verkar som att
H both bägge båda
E inside inne i inuti
E one each vars en varsin
on/upon på [pu] på/uppå/å
allthough även om även fast
since/because eftersom eftersom att
even (comparative) än/etter allt
back (adverb) tebaks/tillbaks tillbaka
-s (feminine plural) -or [ɔʁ] -er [ɛr]
turn on (imperative) sätt på slå på
from below underfrån underifrån
based (up)on baserat på utifrån
down ner ned
Why?/How so? Varför det? Varför då?
yet än ännu
S Y N T A X
S start sentence with
“Yes but..” or “No but ..”		 strictly never often, as do Danes:
“Ja men ..”, “Nej men ..”
repetition with pronoun:
“this thing, it burns”		 almost never
exception: lyrics		 often
start sentence with
“So, ..”		 happens: “Så, ..” never

Scanian expressions have been normalized to Swedish orthography.

Comparison between Bornholmsk and Mainland Scanian sounds

A table which compares the phones of Bornholmsk (Espersen 1908 & Prince 1924) with those in mainland Scanian (from the north-western area according to Lucazin 2010).

Phoneme Bh IPA Scy. IPA words so pronounced
/a/ [a] [ɑ] or [a] land (country/land), kat (cat)
/ā/ [aː] [aː] or [ɑː] fara (travel), kar (man/chap)
/ɑ̄/ [ɑʊ]1 [aʊ̭], [ɑʊ̭] or [ɑː] dag (day), klar (clear)
/e/ [e] [ɛ] fett (fat/grease)
/ē/ or /ei/ [eː] [eː]2 ner (down), reza (journey v.)
/ai/ [æi] [ai] Scy. fail/Sv. fel (failure/wrong)
/ī/ [iː] [ei]3 kniʋ (knife)
/i/ [i] [i] or [ei̭] brink (brink), sil (herring)
/o/ no info [ʊ] or [eʊ̭]4 ondra (lower), gold (gold)
/ō/ “English oh“ [eʊ] sol (sun)
/ū/ [ʉː]?? [øʉ] skruʋa (screw)
/ȳ/ [yː] [øʏ] sky (sky), myra (ant)
/ǣ/ [əe] [ai] or [ɛː] knæ (knee)
/ø̄/ “i in bird“ [øː]5 rød (red), bøste (loin/flank/ham)
/ɔ̄/ [eʊ] — nål (needle), see ō
/b/ [b] [b] bæra (carry), flab (mouth)
/d/ [d] [d] dra (drag/pull)
/f/ [f] [f] fæ (cattle)
/h/ [h] [h] —
/j/ [j] [ɪ̭] jord (earth)
/l/ [l] [l] luka (weed v.)
/m/ [m] [m] —
/p/ [p] [p] —
/t/ [t] [t] —
/g/ and /j/ [g] and [j] [g] and [ɪ] —
/z/ [z] [s] snaka (talk)
/s/ [s] [s] Bh. sten/Scy. stain (stone)
/r/ [r] [ʁ] —
/k/ and /ɕ/ [k], [t͡ɕ] and [ɕ] [k], [t͡ɕ] and [ɕ] —
/n/, /ɲ/ and /ŋ/ [n], [ɲ] and [ŋ] [n] and [ŋ] springa (chink/slit)
/ʋ/ [ʋ] [ʋ] kiʋa (row/quarrel v.)

1 Since the sources predate IPA, Prince doesn’t mention it and it doesn’t exist in Danish, my sources really don’t say what it sounds like, but [ɑʊ] is likely.

2 [eː] I am pretty confident that this sound isn’t a common realization of /ē/ in NW Scania, since I grew up in NW Scania and I can pronounce it in speech only with very much difficulty. [ei̭] possible.

3 actually [ei̭ː] is the notation in Lucazin p. 27. Certainly, in the NW, the i is pronounced longer than the e.

4 [o] is my guess for both accents.

5 This should probably be a diphthong instead.

Literature used:
Utkast till ortografi över Skånska Språket (2010), M Lucazin.
The Danish Dialect of Bornholm (1924) John Dyneley Prince.
Bornholmsk Ordbog (1908) J C S Espersen & Konglige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab.