Re: Estonian Swedish

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "squilluncus" <grvs@...> wrote:

> --- 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.
>
> http://susning.nu/Estlandssvenska

That was the song they used in the feature.


But the thing I found interesting was that 'hard' /g/ and /k/ were
preserved. According to that same feature, the Estonian coast was
colonised by Swedes in the 13th century, but possibly earlier.
Estonia was a Danish possesson 1219 - 1346. I think it's strange
that Swedes should have colonised Estonia during that time, before
the Union of Kalmar.
Possible solutions:

1) Estonia was colonised by Swedes after 1346

2) Estonia was colonised very early by Eastern Norse speakers?

3) The Estonian Swedes were swedified Danish colonists?

At what time did palatalisation of velars before front vowels take
place in Swedish?


Torsten