Iel Hokä Tuordšierssun!


--- In norse_course@..., Haukur Thorgeirsson <haukurth@...> wrote:
> Hail Eaglelight!
>
>
> > Here are two correct examples of long vowel + long consonant:
> > 'siitt' meaning 'have seen' (note that ON has 'séa'; Old Dalska
> > probably had 'sía')
> > 'twäädde' meaning 'washed' (note that ON has the
infinitive 'þvá', so
> > the 'ää' in dalska corresponds the i-umlauted 'á')
>
> Neither of these examples seem very interesting :-) That is, in both
> cases the long-long syllable is formed by a grammatical ending.
> Are there instances of long-long within the root of a word -
> such as ON "áttir" or "ótti"? I'm especially thinking of an instance
> where there is a phonemic difference between long-long and either
short-long
> or long-short (such as if "siit" or "sitt" is a word?).
>
>


I see what you mean here. I would believe that long-long has only
survived in context of grammatical endings. I think you should
contact either Lars Steensland (researches about Dalska) or Bengt
Åkerberg (teaches Dalska) about this. You can probably easily find
their e-mail addresses by e.g. www.google.com .

Other examples - not of your requested kind - I found in the
dictionary by Lars are
'nyytt' - neut sg nom of 'nyyr'/'nyy' (=new); ON 'nýtt'
'smoott' - neut sg nom of 'smoor'/'smoo' (=little); ON 'smátt'




> > These examples are found in 'Liten älvdalsk-svensk och svensk-
> > älvdalsk ordbok' by Lars Steensland. In fact I took the examples
from
> > the place in the book where he writes about this phenomenon.
>
> Do you know of any good book that discusses the phonology
> and morphology of Dalska?
>
>

You can order material at Ulum Dalska ("Skulum Dalsku") homepage
under the button 'Bokshoppen'. Because you are not from Sweden you
should contact them by the e-mail address ulumdalska@... and
order the material in a more personal way. My recommendations are:

Älvdalsk ordbok by Lars Steensland (60 SEK = 6.50 USD)
Grammatik 2000 by Bengt Åkerberg (60 SEK = 6.50 USD)

They will give you good theoretical understanding of Dalska. If you
really want to learn how it is spoken and used in everyday life, you
should order the following:

Tekster min kasett by Bengt Åkerberg (110 SEK = 12 USD)
Uärdlistur og kommentarer by Bengt Åkerberg (50 SEK = 6 USD)

There is also a more scientific book from the beginning of the 20th
century which is considered as a "bible" by the dalecarlians:

Älvdalsmålet, Lars Levander´s doctoral dissertation (40 SEK = 4.50
USD)

This would cost you some, but probably not more than 50 USD, like any
book in your course litterature for any course.


> > I've put up two poems in Dalska together with their soundfiles
(about
> > 370-380 KB each) at this site
> > http://www.geocities.com/jepe2503/hogsvenska/dalska_dikter.html
>
> Wow! That sounds like nothing I've heard before.
>

Some people thinks it sounds like Finnish.

> The spelling seems very eccentric - and unlike the other Dalska
> orthographies I've seen.

It's my own ortography that I used when presenting Dalska to a
norwegian guy. But it's in principle Bengt Åkerbergs standardized
spelling. Changed 'ä' to /ae/, 'ö' to /o-slash/, /eth/ to /thorn/ and
hooked vowels are transformed into circumflexed vowels etc.

Does everyone spell this language a different
> way?

Yes, of course. It's not an official language in Sweden. But I think
Bengt Åkerbergs ortography based on his specual font is someehat like
a standard today. But it can't be used in HTML for example.


This way seems, in some ways, to strive for phonological precision;
> as in the following example:
>
> Dalska: D[sh]inggum aut og inn.
>
> Old Norse: Gingum út ok inn.
>
> The "dsh" pronunciation of ON 'g' before fronted vowels is common in
> Scandinavian languages but most are content in spelling it with 'g'.

I have only heard 'dzh' (voiced 'sh' after the 'd') in Faroese,
Dalecarlian dialects and Norrbottniska (northeastern corner of
Sweden). My own dialect, standard Swedish and probably all Norwegian
dialects have the pronunciation 'j'. I don't know Icelandic here, but
I think you have either 'g' or 'j' before fronted vowels.

>
> On the other hand 'þ' is used in this spelling for something that
seems
> to be a plosive.
>

I used 'þ' after 'r' ('garþ', 'byrþ' etc) just as a matter of
ortography. There are Dalska dialects that have the /eth/-
pronunciation even after 'r' (according to Lars Steensland). I should
have changed this spelling before showing you the link.


> Some sentences are very transparent to me:
>
> Dalska: Og settum upp nogû autaus.
> Old Norse: Ok settum upp nökkur útihús.
>
> but a lot I don't understand at all.
>

You need to practice! I think it's as hard for an icelander as it is
for a typical swede to learn Dalska. My dialect has some common
features with dalska, so I was well-prepared in the beginning own my
own studies.


> Could you supply a translation to Rikssvenska / English / Old
Norse / Whatever? :-)
>

Here's the translations to Swedish (hope you'll manage it):

Vi hade en gård
---------------
Vi bodde här ett tag
vi gjorde en stuga på en lämplig tomt
och vi satte upp några uthus

Vi gick ut och in
vi tog in diverse
vi nötte det vi hade
vi hann byta somligt av det
vi hade ut somligt

Sedan stannade allt av
vi utvidgade inte något mer
Det började växa igen omkring oss
Riset kom och ingen röjde

Vi började glömma
och blev avglömda
Sedan blev allt tyst.

I början av nymånen
-------------------
Vi stod och tittade på månen
Barnbarnet ("den lille pojken") och hans farfar
Jag berättade om nymåne och nedan
och att fast det var alldeles i början av nymånen syndes hela
månrundan svagt som den sedan ska bli
när månen är full.

I början av nymånen har vi redan en aning
om hur månen är när den är full,
tänkte jag och kände hans lilla hand
genom min och hans vante
medan vi gick in hemma hos honom.
Jag brydde mig inte om att fundera något på nymånen.

Note: 'ny(måne)' and 'nedan' are two phases in the periodic "life" of
the moon.


> Kveðja,
> Haukur

/Annliuotä