Scania
A Region in Europe
An article on the Scanian language, published in Nordvästra Skånes Tidningar on 28 May, 2000 and written by Professor Helmer Lång, PhD in Literature.
The Scanian language
By Helmer Lång
From the beginning, language and dialect meant the same. The word “dialect” is from the Greek word “dialectos”, which means conversation. The Swedish word for language “språk” actually has the exact same meaning, a word borrowed from German with the old Germanic meaning of speech or rumour. The old Nordic word was “tunga” (tongue): one spoke in a Nordic or Norrön tongue. An ancient Nordic (Germanic) word is also “mål” (Old Norse “mal”) that also means “speech”, but perhaps originally referred to the gathering place where one spoke. The word still exists in the combinations “folkmål” (folk speech) and “tungomål” (tongue speech) etc. Many of you may remember that the Old Icelandic poem Havamal actually means “The speech of the High One (Oden)”.
Whether we call a “folkmål” (folk speech) a language or a dialect is a matter of definition. A dialect that is spoken and codified in one state will receive the status of a language. A good example is Dutch, which really is a Low German dialect. The closely related Flemish in Belgium has managed to maintain its position in spite of the fact that the dominant language in Belgium is French and the same applies to Friesian in Germany. The parallel between Scanian and these two “folkmål” (folk speech) in countries dominated by other languages is edifying. It was with the creation of the nation state that the thesis “one country, one national language” was born. It has been said that a language is “a dialect that is backed by an army”. The central powers in France attempted for a long time and with success to suppress both Breton (in Brittany) and Provencale or langue d’oc, a language with much older literary antecedents than French. In the new Europe where emphasis is on the culture of the regions and thereby their own languages, these languages have received an improved status. They are defined as regional languages. The same should apply to Scanian.
Thus, in the beginning our Nordic language was called “norrön tunga”. The various ways of speaking it in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and gradually also in Iceland and elsewhere, were thus dialects of Nordic or Scandinavian. Had the Kalmar Union, whose 600-year anniversary was celebrated in 1997, continued to exist, we would certainly have had a common Nordic language, probably called Scandinavian. Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic as well as Faroeish, Scanian, Gutnish would all have been called dialects – or regional languages. It is as simple as that. For long periods, Scania was an independent country and, of course, it had its own language, Scanian. This language lived on when Scania during the 800’s was incorporated into the Danish kingdom. On the Danish isles, primarily Sealand, another language was spoken, on Jutland a third language. There was not yet a uniform Danish language, “The King’s Danish” is (as is “the King’s Swedish”) a written construction, mainly based on the Danish of the isles that was formed during the 16th and 17th centuries. Consequently, Scanian cannot be called a “Danish dialect” since the written Danish language had just been formed when Scania was transferred from Denmark to Sweden.
It is even less accurate to call Scanian a “Swedish” dialect: the language had never been Swedish and it included the island of Bornholm that was still Danish. The common term used in Swedish textbooks “south Swedish dialects” for the popular languages spoken in southern Sweden is thus extremely misleading. It is just as wrong to call Scanian a Danish dialect, as it is to call it a Swedish dialect. The different variants of Scanian, including that spoken on Bornholm, should be called South Scandinavian, something that was actually suggested by the well known Swedish linguist Adolf Norreen in his work on the Nordic language at the end of the 19th century. We often hear the statement that Scanian has received so much input, primarily words, from Danish. But it is equally true to say the opposite. This is so because the Scanian language was the first language to be codified among all the languages in the Danish kingdom.
The standards that are the basis for a common written language both in Sweden and Denmark are of the same type: the legal language and the translation of the Bible.
The Scanian Law is the oldest of all the laws in the Danish kingdom. It was probably created during the 12th century and was in force not only in Scania (the provinces of Halland, Skåne, Blekinge, and Bornholm) but also for a century or so in the centre of the Danish kingdom on the islands, while the Jutland Law and the more recent Sealand Law were formed. This means that the Scanian language had a strong influence of the formation of the written Danish language. The same applies to a great extent to the Danish translation of the Bible. Professor Johs Brøndum-Nielsen, professor of philosophy in Copenhagen, showed in his thesis “Sproglig Forfatterbestemmelse” (Determination of Linguistic Authorship”) (1914) that the Danish translation of the New Testament, printed in 1524, was the work of three individuals: Chr. Vinter from Jutland, Hans Mikkelsen and Henrik Smith from Scania. Through the Bible translation, Scanian thus also had a strong influence in the development of the written Danish language. The island Danish had trouble asserting itself. As late as in the 17th century, a Danish grammarian warned against influences from Scanian in order to protect proper Danish.
Scanian has all the characteristics required for being a language – except its own army. It has old written sources, primarily the Scanian Law that was in force in all of Scania during the Danish time and that would have continued to be in force when it came under Swedish rule, had the Swedish government not immediately disregarded the terms of the Roskilde Peace Treaty stating that Scania would keep “its old laws and privileges”. The Scanian language has its own phraseology, its own special words and unique creations, its own sound developments, its own intonation, and partly, its own grammar and syntax that distinguish it from Danish and Swedish. It is “vatt” and not “vari(t)” or “været”, “tatt” and not “tagi(t)”, “ente” (inte), “him” (hem), “fjönt” (fjant, Danish pjattehoved), ”rollebör” (skottkärra, Danish trillebør). ”Rälig” is one of the most often used of all Scanian words, an Old Norse word that we have preserved: a contraction of ”rädselig”, i.e. that which frightens one or that of which one is afraid. Derivations were then made of this word: ”räliga” corresponding to the Swedish and Danish reinforcement word ”väldigt” (terribly), and ”rälus”, i.e. bad fellow or unpleasant man.
One of the characteristic Scanian sound developments is that “nn” (previously often “nd”) turned into “ng”: “kvinna” becomes “kvinga” (which in Scanian often means wife or fiancee), “rund” becomes “rung”. Even Scanians who believe they speak “official Swedish” - they are called by Scanian patriots “spanska i truten” (with a Spanish mouth) or “spissnosade” (pointy noses), usually say “ving-ögd” not “vindögd” or “vinnögd” as Swedes do. Take a trip to the countryside and talk about the weather. You won’t hear a regular Scanian say “vackert väder” (beautiful weather), they say “grannt vär” or the reverse “rälit vär” or “puged vär”. This is not how it’s said either in Danish or Swedish.
So, in many cases Scanian walked its own paths, we could call it an intermediate path between Danish and Swedish. In order to point this out, in our “Scanian-Swedish-Danish Dictionary” Sten-Bertil Vide and I, according to its title, translated Scanian words not only into Swedish but also into Danish, often with reference to Danish dialects where closely related words occur. When it comes to specifically Scanian words, I refer to this book although it only lists a fraction of such words, since we only include words that occur within the whole linguistic area of Scania. The Scanian language split into dialects early on, because its written form was prohibited during the Swedish rule. Ministers of the church were forced to preach their sermons in Swedish and legal affairs had to be conducted in Swedish. There was also a partially successful attempt at dividing the Scanians by creating two counties out of the previous general governorship of Scania. It contributed to the linguistic divisions. Even today, we find a pronounced difference in the Scanian language that follows the old county borders. I often call it the “pantoffle and päre border”. “Potatis” (the Swedish word was borrowed from the English potatoe) was called “panntoffla” in Malmöhus County, in Kristianstad County it was “päre”. The south Scanian word was borrowed from Flat German (Danish uses the High German word “kartoffel”, while the north Scanian word “pära” is a word constructed by the peasants: from the Middle Ages “päron” (pears) were known to the population and the similarity between the pear and the potatoe root was noted. The former was called “trä” (tree) or “frutta” (fruit) “pära” (pear), while the latter was called “jorpära” (ground pear). What is remarkable is that the Scanian language in spite of all attempts to eradicate it still lives strongly today. This can also be seen from new constructions such as “döstreg” (deadline, i.e. a translation from English), or “blega’skasill” which is easier to understand if we make it look more Swedish as in “bleck-ask-sill” (tinn can herring), and it consequently means canned fish.
That Scanian is alive is a fact of daily life. Modern poetry written in various Scanian dialects has naturally contributed to this. Among the names are Henrik Wranér, Nils Ludvig, Daniel Rydsjö and in our own time Birgit Lindström. But most of all, a number of Scanian writers have incorporated many Scanian words in their poems and stories, not just in dialogues but often also in text references: Victoria Benedictson, Hans Larsson, Gabriel Jönsson, Fritjof Nilsson Piraten, Max Lundgren – and the most recent Scanian writer Fredrik Ekelund of Malmö. A great many Scanian words are now being recorded, thanks to these writers, and in the dictionary of the Swedish Academy we now find typically Scanian words such as “påg”, “fälad” and “vång”.
And then there are all the songs in Scanian and all the stories and jokes where Scanian humour triumphs in a very colourful language. It pays to be stubborn. If we just use our Scanian words often enough, they will become part of the Swedish language. This may help Scanians feel more at home in the multicultural and multilingual Swedish society. It is primarily the language which carries Scanian identity. It is sad to hear from some linguists that Scanian is a Swedish dialect. As has been explained, it cannot be a Swedish dialect. In historical times, Scanian was certainly a distinct language and if we were to call it a dialect today, it definitely would not be a Swedish but a Danish dialect. With this characterisation, Scanian must be accorded the status of a minority language. Would it not be more reasonable to do as is done in the rest of the EU, call it a regional language?
© SSF