Jutlandic Totally Explained

Everything about Jutlandic totally explained

Jutlandic or Jutish (Danish: jysk or, in old spelling, jydsk [ˈjysg̊]) is a term for the western dialects of Danish, spoken on the peninsula of Jutland.
The different subdialects of Jutlandic differ somewhat from each other, and are generally grouped in three main dialects:

southern (sønderjysk)
eastern (østjysk)
western (vestjysk)

Generally, the eastern dialects are the closest to Standard Danish, while the southern dialect (Sønderjysk) is the one that differs mostly from the others, wherefore it's sometimes described as a distinct dialect, thus Jutlandic is by that definition actually two different dialects: general Jutlandic (nørrejysk; further divided into western and eastern) and Southern Jutlandic (sønderjysk).

Phonology

Jutlandic has a tendency to apocope, for example skipping the e [ə] often found in unstressed syllables, which is itself a weakening of an original North Germanic -i, -a or -u, for example kaste 'throw' [ˈkʰasd̥] = Standard Danish [ˈkʰæsd̥ə] (Swedish [ˈkʰasta]).

Western Jutlandic exhibits stød before pp, tt, kk in old two-syllable words, for example katte 'cats' [ˈkʰaˀt] = Standard Danish [ˈkʰæd̥ə]; ikke 'not' [ˈeˀ(t)] = Standard Danish [ˈeg̊ə]. Other Danish dialects don't have stød on short vowels before a stop and not in (original) two-syllable words.

The southernmost dialects don't have stød, but a distinction between two kinds of pitch like in Swedish and Norwegian, namely acute (rising and falling) and grave (rising, falling, rising), for example hus 'house' [ˈhúːs] = Standard Danish [ˈhuːˀs] ~ huse 'houses' [ˈhùːs] = Standard Danish [ˈhuːsə].

In Northern Jutlandic v is a labiovelar approximant before back vowels (in the northernmost dialects also before front vowels), whereas it's a Labiodental approximant in Standard Danish, for example vaske 'wash' [ˈwasg] = Standard Danish [ˈʋæsg̊ə]. The same dialects have voiceless variants of v and j in the initial combinations hj and hv, for example hvem 'who' [ˈʍɛmˀ] = Standard Danish [ˈʋɛmˀ], hjerte 'heart' [ˈçaɐ̯d̥,ˈçɑːd̥] = Standard Danish [ˈjaɐ̯d̥ə].

Long e, ø, o have been diphthongised to [iə,yə, uə] in most northern dialects, for example ben [ˈbiˀən] = Standard Danish [ˈbeːˀn] 'leg', bonde 'farmer' [ˈbuəɲ] = Standard Danish [ˈbɔnə] (< bōndi).

Long a and å have been raised to [ɔː] and [oː] respectively in northern Jutlandic, for example sagde 'said' [ˈsɔː] = Standard Danish [ˈsæː(ə)], gå 'go, walk' [ˈgoːˀ] = Standard Danish [ˈg̊ɔːˀ].

In most parts of Jutland, nd becomes [ɲ] (in the northernmost dialects [ɲ] with or without nasalisation), for example finde 'find' [ˈfeɲ] = Standard Danish [ˈfenə].

Scandinavian post-vocalic t becomes [ʁ] in the western and southern dialects or [ɪ̯] in some eastern dialects, for example mad 'food' [ˈmaʁ,ˈmaɪ̯] = Standard Danish [ˈmæð].

Scandinavian post-vocalic d becomes [ɪ̯] or disappears (especially after ø), for example smed 'blacksmith' [ˈsmɛɪ̯,ˈsme] = Standard Danish [ˈsmeð], rød 'red' [ˈʁøˀə] = Standard Danish [ˈʁɶðˀ].

In Southern Jutlandic, Scandinavian post-vocalic p, k become [f,χ] word-finally, whereas Standard Danish has b, g, for example søge 'to seek' [ˈsøːχ] = Standard Danish [ˈsøː(ɪ̯)], tabe 'lose' [ˈtʰɑːf] = Standard Danish [ˈtˢæːbə,ˈtˢæːʊ]. In the northern part of Southern Jutland, these sounds are fricatives between vowels, for example [v,ɣ]: for example søger 'seeks' [ˈsøːɣə] = Standard Danish [ˈsøːɐ], tabe 'loses' [ˈtʰɑːvə] = Standard Danish [ˈtˢæːˀbɐ,ˈtˢæʊ̯ˀɐ].

Grammar

Article

Western, southern and some eastern Jutlandic dialects place the definite article in front of the noun, similar to most European languages, but unlike all other Scandinavian languages which place the definite article after the noun as a suffix: Jutlandic æ hus, æ mand, Standard Danish huset, manden ('the house', 'the man').

Gender

Moreover, whereas Standard Danish has two genders (Common and Neuter), some Jutlandic dialects (especially western ones) lack any gender distinction – like English: for example en stor hund, en stor hus, but Standard Danish en stor hund ~ et stort hus ('a big dog', 'a big house'). Other Jutlandic dialects, on the other hand, have preserved the distinction of three genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter(like in German and Icelandic).

Pronouns

The first person pronoun is a or, in Thy and the southernmost dialects, æ, whereas Standard Danish has jeg [ˈja]. The difference goes back to different forms in Proto-Norse, namely ek and eka, both found in early Runic inscriptions. The latter form has a regular breaking of e to ja before an a in the following syllable. The short form, without breaking, is also found in Norwegian, Faroese and Icelandic.

Jutlandic regiolects

Today the old dialects, tied as they were to the rural districts, are yielding to new regional standards based on Standard Danish. Two factors have contributed to this process: 1) The dialects — especially in the northernmost, western and southern regions — are often hard to understand for people originating outside Jutland. 2) The dialects enjoy very little prestige both nationally (the population of Zealand like to believe that the Jutlanders are slower not only in speech, but also in thought) and regionally (the dialect is associated with conservatism).
The new Jutlandic "regiolects" are identical to the Copenhagen variety in most aspects and differs from it primarily with a distinct accent. Typical features are:

a higher tendency of apocope of unstressed [ə] (cf. above).

a higher pitch towards the end of a stressed syllable.

a slightly different distribution of stød, for example vej 'way' [ˈʋaɪ̯] = Standard Danish [ˈʋaɪ̯ˀ]; hammer 'hammer' [ˈhɑmˀɐ] = Standard Danish [ˈhɑmɐ].

the ending -et (definite article or passive participle) is pronounced [-(ə)d̥] instead of [-ð̩], for example hented 'fetched' [ˈhɛnd̥əd̥] = Standard Danish [ˈhɛnd̥ð̩]; meget 'very, much' [ˈmaːɪ̯d̥] = Standard Danish [ˈmaːð̩,ˈmɑːð̩]

postvocalic d is pronounced [ɪ̯] or, before i, [d̥] in certain varieties of the regiolect, for example bade 'bath' [ˈb̥æːɪ̯] = Standard Danish ˈb̥æːð̩], stadig 'still' [ˈsd̥æːd̥i] = Standard Danish [ˈsd̥æːði]. This pronunciation isn't favoured by the younger speakers.

or is pronounced [ɒː] in words where Standard Danish has [oɐ̯] (in closed syllables), for example torn 'thorn' [ˈtˢɒːˀn] = Standard Danish [ˈtˢoɐ̯ˀn]. On the other hand, one also hears hypercorrect pronunciations like tårn 'tower' [ˈtˢoɐ̯ˀn] = Standard Danish [ˈtˢɒːˀn].

the strong verbs have -en in the past participle, not only in adjectival use (as in Standard Danish), but also in the compound perfect tense, for example han har funden den = SD han har fundet den. These forms belong to the low register of the Jutlandic regiolects.

a frequent use of hans, hendes 'his, her' instead of the reflexive pronoun sin when referring to the subject of the sentence, for example han kyssede hans kone 'he kissed his wife' = Standard Danish han kyssede sin kone (the other sentence would mean that he kissed somebody else's wife).

a lack of distinction between transitive and intransitive forms of certain related verbs like ligge ~ lægge 'lie, lay', for example han lagde i sengen 'he lay in the bed' = Standard Danish han lå i sengen (eastern speakers don't distinguish the present and the infinitive of these verbs either).

there's a preference for certain words like træls [ˈtˢʁɑls] 'annoying' (~ SD irriterende [i(ɐ̯)ˈtˢeɐ̯ˀnə]), og [ˈʌ] 'too' (~ SD også [ˈʌsə]), ikke og [eˈg̊ʌ] or, in higher style, ikke også [eˈg̊ʌsə] 'isn't it' (~ SD ikke, ikke sandt [ˈeg̊(ə),eg̊ˈsænˀd̥]).Further Information

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