Re: -e -a gender distinction in Swedish

> Coming to think about it, in substantivated adjectives gender
> distinction –e/-a is used in all parts Sweden, naturally in all
> layers of the language, like the use of proper names such as
> Inge/Inga, Helge/Helga Rune/Runa Tore/Tora etc.
> A translation of the film classic The Good, the Bad, the Ugly with
> Den ond-a, den god-a, den ful-a would for every now living Swede
> lead to association with Cat Woman rather than Clint Eastwood (I
> don't remember if he was "Den god-e" or "Den ond-e"; certainly
> not "Den fule").

Of course, in Danish, we've lost the opportunity to distinguish as
in Swedish between 'make' and 'maka' "mate". Both are 'mage'.

>
> > Half correct. I think (with Kuhn) that the NWpeople (in

NWGermany

> > and the Netherlands, more precisely the area between Weser/Aller
> and
> > Somme/Oise) were infiltrated and subdued by the Proto-Germanic
> > speakers coming from Thuringia, who at the same time infiltrated
> > Denmark (South & East Jutland and Fyn), then Sweden, then

Norway,

> > and last Sjælland, if Snorri's chronology is to be trusted.
> > In other words, Scandinavia wasn't Germanic-speaking before

appr.

> > the first century BCE.
>
> Interesting about Själland. Could that have any reference to your
> posting about –löse some weeks ago?

The very same thing. My uncle Jon Galster wrote a book about his
reconstruction of events ('Guldhornenes Tale), based on the old
distinction between 'North Danes' and 'South Danes'. He also thought
that the pre-Germanic central city was Ringsted, from around where
Absalon came, and the center of Germanic conquest was Roskilde, and
that the Bjarkimál was a memory of the conquest, coming from
Halland. This would be why the partnership between Absalon and
Valdemar was important, since they represented the two factions.
Also this might be why the Scanians rebelled against Absalon, who
was from the old rival Sjælland, but not against Valdemar.

> >
> > And a self-correction: According to Brøndum-Nielsen the original
> two-
> > gender area is eastern Jutland. The islands, including Sjælland,
> are
> > solidly three-gender, except for Amager (these are old data!).

> Interesting about Amager. The last stronghold of Pregermanic
> Själland?
>
>

That very same Christian imported Dutch farmers to Amager to see to
the foodstuff needs of Copenhagen. That might be the answer. But I
also think one should bear in mind what dialectologists do: they
record what deviates from the standard speech. That means that those
who use final -a in Småland will be overlooked as standard-speaking,
and that evidence that some Scanians used final -e in the Danish
times will also tend to be disregarded. If one took a statistical
sample of who have used -a and -e in the old border region, one
might get another result.


Torsten