--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "tgpedersen" <tgpedersen@...>
wrote:
>
>
> Swedish TV had a re-run of a feature on the Estonian Swedes, whose
> language almost disappeared during Socialism. I was puzzled over
some
> points of pronunciation: [g] was /g/ before front vowel as in
Danish,
> not /y/ as in all Swedish dialects I've heard of, [gj] was
> similarly /gj/, not /j/ (from a folk song); and [k] was
similarly /k/
> before front vowel, not /x´/ or /c^/ (a dialect quote from
memory).
> Also it seemed d -> zero, g -> zero in inlaut (Danish -> ð, -> G,
> dialectally -> zero).
>
>
> Torsten
A really archaic dialect, in a Medieval stage of phonetic
development.
This Swedish-speaking minority has always been in an inferior
position, but never vis-à-vis the Estonian majority with which it
shared the position of being serfs under German-speaking landowners.
In addition Estonia was under Swedish rule only for some 150 years,
between Danes and Russians.
The situation for the Swedish minority in Finland has been
completely different. Until the independence (and some decades
after) this minority has been in an overclass position
administrating the Grandprincipity independently of the Swedish king
or the Czar being the Grand-prince.
So the influence of an erudite class having connexions on both sides
of the Baltic has never been the case of the Estonian Swedes.
For further information there are the following sites:
http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estlandssvenska
http://susning.nu/Estlandssvenska
Lars