Gutnish

Gutnish (US: /ˈɡuːtnɪʃ/ GOOT-nish),[5] or rarely Gutnic[5] (Swedish: gutniska or gutamål), is the original language spoken on parts of the islands of Gotland and Fårö.[6] The different dialects of Gutnish, while stemming from the Old Gutnish (Swedish: Forngutniska) variety of Old Norse, are sometimes considered part of modern Swedish. Gutnish exists in two variants, Mainland Gutnish (Storlandsgutamål or Storlandsmål), mostly spoken in the southern and southeastern portion of Gotland, where the dialect of Lau became the standard form on the Main Island (Lau Gutnish → Laumål), and Fårö Gutnish (Gutnish: Faroymal; Swedish: Fårömål), spoken on the island of Fårö. UNESCO defines Gutnish as a "definitely endangered language" as of 2010.[3]

"Gutamål" redirects here. It is not to be confused with Gotlandic, the local Swedish dialect spoken on Gotland and Fårö, or Götamål, the dialects of Swedish spoken in the Götaland provinces.

Gutnish
  • Gutnic
  • Gutiske[1]
  • Gutamål
Native toSweden
RegionGotland, Fårö
Native speakers
(~2,000–5,000 cited 1998)[2][3]
Early forms
Dialects
Language codes
ISO 639-3None (mis)
swe-lau
Glottologgutn1238
laum1238
Gutnish is classified as Definitely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger (2010)[4]

Some features of Gutnish include the preservation of Old Norse diphthongs like ai in for instance stain (Swedish: sten; English: stone) and oy in for example doy (Swedish: dö; English: die). There is also a triphthong that exists in no other Norse languages: iau as in skiaute/skiauta (Swedish: skjuta; English: shoot).

Many Gotlanders do not understand Gutnish, and speak Gotlandic (Swedish: gotländska), a Gutnish-influenced Swedish dialect.[7]

There are major efforts to revive the traditional version of Modern Gutnish and Gutamålsgillet, the Gutnish Language Guild, organizes classes and meetings for speakers of traditional Gutnish. According to the guild's webpage, there are now 1,500 people using Gutnish on Facebook.[8]

Phonology

Vowels

The contrastive vowels in Modern Gutnish are /ɪ/, /ʏ/, /e/, /œ/, /a/, /ɔ/, /u/. Of these, all but /u/ have a short and a long version. What is etymologically a long /uː/ has been broken into the sequence [ʉu].

A distinctive feature of Gutnish is the existence of a large number of sequences of vowel plus [ɪ] or [u] which form vocalic phonemes of their own. These sequences are the following: /eɪ/, /ɛɪ/, /œʏ/, /aɪ/, /ɔɪ/, /ʉu/, /eu/, /au/, /ɔu/.

Some of these sequences alternate with short vowels between different morphological forms of the same lexeme, cf. such pairs as "veit" /vɛɪt̪ʰ/ 'white' (f.) ~ /vɪt̪ʰ:/ 'white' (n).[9]

Front Central Back
unrounded rounded
short long short long short short long
Close ɪ ɪː ʏ ʏː ʉ u
Close-mid e eː ɔ ɔː
Open-mid ɛ œ œː
Open a aː
  • /e, eː/, when preceding other vowels, /r/, or post-alveolar sounds, have a tendency to be more open [æ, æː].
  • In Fårö Gutnish, /a, aː/ are further backed [ɑ, ɑː].
  • /ɔ, ɔː/ may be realized as more close [o, oː] when preceding a sonorant.
  • /u/ may be [ʊ] when unstressed.

Consonants
Labial Dental/
Alveolar		 Post-
alveolar		 Retroflex Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal m n̪ ⟨n⟩ ɳ ⟨rn⟩ ŋ ⟨ng⟩
Plosive/
Affricate		 voiceless p t̪ ⟨t⟩ tʃ ⟨tj⟩ ʈ ⟨rt⟩ k
voiced b d̪ ⟨d⟩ ɖ ⟨rd⟩ ɡ
Fricative voiceless f s ʃ ⟨sj⟩ h
voiced v
Approximant l (ɻ ⟨r⟩) j
Rhotic voiceless r̥ ~ ɹ̥ ⟨r⟩
voiced r ~ ɹ ⟨r⟩
  • Voiceless stops /p, t̪, k/ may be aspirated [pʰ, t̪ʰ, kʰ].

Lexicon

Gutnish has many words of its own that make it different from Swedish. The following is a small selection of Gutnish's everyday vocabulary:[10]

Gutnish Swedish German English Danish
päikuflickandas Mädchenthe girl / maidenpigen
sårkenpojkender Junge / Knabethe boydrengen
russehästendas Rossthe horsehesten
rabbiskaninKaninchenrabbitkanin
träsketsjönder Seethe lake / meresøen
sjoenhavetdas Meer / die Seethe seahavet

Status

Gutnish is now under pressured influence of the Swedish standard language, both through speaker contact and through media and (perhaps most importantly) written language. As a result, Gutnish has become much closer to the Swedish standard language. Due to the island's Danish and Hanseatic period there were also influences from Danish and Low German.[11] There are also many Gotlanders who do not learn the language, but speak a regionally colored variant of the standard Swedish (Gotlandic). This is characterized mainly by its intonation, but also by diphthongs and triphthongs, some lexical peculiarities as well as the infinitive ending -ä.

The Gutamålsgillet association, which has been working for the preservation and revitalization of Gutnish since 1945, estimates that Gutnish is spoken today by 2,000 to 5,000 people.[2] How many are still passive, is not specified. However, an interest in Gutnish seems to be present: From 1989 to 2011, the radio show Gutamål ran in Radio Gotland,[12] which regularly reached about 15,000 to 20,000 listeners,[13] and in 2008 Gotland University offered their first course in Gutnish. Gutamålsgillet collects writings of authors and poets who write their texts in Gutnish, and maintains a Swedish-Gutnish dictionary and an ever-growing list of Gotlandic neologisms.

In 2022, a citizen of the island of Gotland asked to use her surname with the Gutnish ending -dotri (instead of Swedish -dotter). The authority appealed against the positive decision of the administrative court in Stockholm,[14] but in the end, the Court of Appeal ruled that she was allowed to use a Gutnish surname.[15]

Examples

Nätt'l för manfolk u kungvall för kune.
Neie slags örtar för ymsedere.
Svalk di bei saudi, styrk di me dune
um däu jär djaupt i naudi nere!
Vävald pa raini, rindlaug i hagen
täusen sma kluckar gynnar ljaude.
Die aimar fran marki u rydmen av dagen
slucknar langum för livnes u daude.

— Gustaf Larsson, Um kvälden, [16]

Staingylpen gärdä bryllaup,
langhalu bigravdä läik,
tra torkä di däu sigderäivarä
va fyrä komst däu intä däit?

— Nach P.A. Säve, Staingylpen, [17]

Notes

    References
    1. "Gutamålsgillets Årdliste / Ordlista". 14 October 2012. Archived from the original on 19 April 2023. Retrieved 2 May 2022.
    2. "Vanliga frågor (faq)". 28 August 2012. Archived from the original on 28 August 2012. Retrieved 18 February 2018.
    3. Moseley, Christopher, ed. (2010). Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger. Memory of Peoples (3rd ed.). Paris: UNESCO Publishing. ISBN 978-92-3-104096-2. Archived from the original on 13 December 2016. Retrieved 11 April 2015.
    4. Evans, Lisa (15 April 2011). "Endangered languages: the full list". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 27 November 2020. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
    5. "Gutnish". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. Retrieved 10 May 2019.
    6. Swedish at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
    7. "Svenska förklarad: Gutamål och gotländska | UR Play". urplay.se. Archived from the original on 1 October 2020. Retrieved 13 December 2020.
    8. "Description of Gutnish on Gotland Tourism Website". Archived from the original on 14 September 2017. Retrieved 24 May 2015.
    9. Jordan, Caspar (2011). Documentation of Gutnish phonetics and phonology.
    10. "Gutamålsgillets Årdliste / Ordlista". 14 October 2012. Archived from the original on 18 February 2019. Retrieved 16 February 2019.
    11. Bengt Pamp: Svenska dialekter. Natur och Kultur, Stockholm 1978, ISBN 91-27-00344-2, p. 76
    12. Radio, Sveriges. "Alla avsnitt – Gutamål". sverigesradio.se. Archived from the original on 7 April 2019. Retrieved 16 February 2019.
    13. "Historia". 9 October 2012. Archived from the original on 26 January 2019. Retrieved 16 February 2019.
    14. Hedström, Katarina (10 January 2023). "Skatteverket: Därför överklagar vi beslutet om gutniska efternamnet". Sveriges Radio. Archived from the original on 14 January 2023. Retrieved 14 January 2023 – via sverigesradio.se.
    15. Annerud, Patrik (9 February 2023). "Vändningen: Julia får heta Andersdotri i efternamn". Sveriges Radio. Archived from the original on 2 March 2023. Retrieved 2 March 2023 – via sverigesradio.se.
    16. Herbert Gustavson: Gutamålet – inledning till studium. 3. überarbeitete und erweiterte Auflage. Barry Press Förlag, Visby 1977, S. 62.
    17. Herbert Gustavson: Gutamålet – inledning till studium. 3. überarbeitete und erweiterte Auflage. Barry Press Förlag, Visby 1977, S. 73.
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