> In Italy, too, many people try to ged rid of their dialect in order
> to upgrade their own social/cultural status. Nowadays this is a
> common pehenomenon all over in Europe, but how old is it? I guess
> that the Danes of, say, the 19th century didn't feel ashamed of
> their dialect(s). Have you ever made any search to establish which
> social groups spoke Danish dialects till the 19th century?
The language of the three landscape laws of the 13th century, Jyske
Lov, Sjællandske Lov and Skaanske Lov, are written in different
dialects, Jyske Lov the most creolized (with the most simplified
grammar, for you traditionalists out there), Skaanske Lov the least,
which is also the case of the dialects of those landscapes later.
With Danske Lov of 1683 those were replaced by a constitution with
more centralized power than even France.
Until the mid 19th century half the population of Copenhagen spoke
German; that changed with Schleswig wars.
There were no power structure to back up any dialects, so they have
never had a civil servant class to promote and improve them. Until
recently, the bourgeoisie (when we had such a thing) in the larger
cities spoke a watered down version of the local dialect.
In the mid 18th century, Odense and Christiania (ie. Oslo) were said
to speak the most beautiful Danish. At the time, the relationship
between Denmark and Norway was reminiscent of the one between England
and Scotland.
Torsten