Sønderjysk

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The grammatical gender in the Danish dialects. Three genders were still used on Zealand until recently. To the west of the red line, the article is placed before the noun.

Sønderjysk or Südjütisch (sønderjysk: Synnejysk , German also: South Jutland ) is a Danish dialect that is spoken or was spoken in the area of ​​the former Duchy of Schleswig on both sides of today's German-Danish border. In German, Sønderjysk is sometimes simply referred to as "Plattdänisch" based on the term Low German ; on the other hand, there is “ High Danish ” (more correct: Standard Danish or Imperial Danish ). Sønderjysk is or was spoken in several ways. For example, the variant of the Angelner and Schwansener area is called Angeldänisch (Angeldansk) .

classification

Linguistically, Sønderjysk is assigned to the Jut dialect group within Danish . Within this group, it is most closely related to West Jutian , but also shares features with the dialects of the southern Danish islands. The vocabulary is influenced by Low German, this also applies to a certain extent to the pronunciation (see properties ).

West Germanic hypothesis

Occasionally there is the opinion that Sønderjysk is a separate language or a Jutish-Low German mixed language. In part, this hypothesis goes back to the linguistic theories of Jacob Grimm , according to which the originally West Germanic Jutes and Angles were displaced or mixed with them by immigrated North Germanic Danes in the 5th century , whereby a North Germanic language form on a West Germanic substrate would have arisen. An important argument was that the specific article is not appended (as is usually the case in Scandinavian), but placed in front of the noun (as in German, Frisian, Dutch and English). However, the article is also appended in East and North Jutian, similar to the island Danish . Runic inscriptions as well as early written sources testify that the article did not yet appear in the Germanic languages ​​at that time (5th century), but was written centuries later. There is also no evidence of West Germanic residual vocabulary in South Jutian that could justify the substratum theory; the Low German and High German loanwords can be attributed to later influences.

The West Germanic hypothesis also played a role in the dispute over the gold horns of Gallehus . According to today's interpretation, the runic inscription on the horns, which date from around AD 400, is not regarded as specifically West or North Germanic; however, the pronoun ek suggests a North Germanic connection (the West Germanic form would be ik ).

When the North Germanic and West Germanic dialects diverged during the migration of peoples , there was no soft transition between them ( language continuum ), but a hard language boundary. According to one theory, the separation of the languages ​​took place in a geographical separation, e.g. B. because of the advance of Slavic tribes, which penetrated into the space between Danes / Jutes / Angles and Saxony and interrupted contacts between north and south. The undeniably hard language border between German and North Germanic speaks rather against the theory that Sønderjysk is a mixed language.

It remains to be clarified, however, what origin the preceding article has in South and West Jutian. In the view of traditional Danish dialectology, it is hardly a matter of borrowing from German or English, but rather an independent Jutland development. Recently, some linguists and historians have been dealing with language and cultural contacts in the North Sea region, e. B. between Jutes , Frisians and Dutch , but here, too, the question of the preceding article has not been further explored.

properties

syntax

The most obvious characteristic, which is also found in West Jutian, is the prefixing of the definite article as opposed to the appending, which is typical for Scandinavian ; z. B. æ barn "the child", in High Danish "barnet", or æ hjørn "the corner", in High Danish "hjørnet".

Like Imperial Danish, the dialect has two grammatical genders.

pronunciation

The Scandinavian tonal accent has been retained on Rømø , Als and Sundeved . Today, however, the traditional geographic boundaries between areas with and without are due to the greater mobility of the population impact sound or with musical accent harder to detect.

At the end, b and g become f and ch sounds. The long e, ø and o are pronounced a little diphthong like ei, øy and ou . These are characteristics of Low German . The Empire Danish about does not have the Low German ch -Laute.

vocabulary

The vocabulary is characterized by more loan words from Low German and High German than is the case in other Danish dialects. The proportion of these German loanwords varies depending on the geographical, historical and cultural location. The variant spoken south of the border is interspersed with more German words than the variant spoken in Denmark. After the Danish loss in the German-Danish War (1864) and the incorporation of Schleswig into Prussia, the number of German loanwords increased with German school lessons; German vocabulary decreased somewhat for speakers born after Northern Schleswig was ceded to Denmark (1920). A special example is the greeting moin , which was initially perceived as a German intruder in Northern Schleswig because it replaced the Jutian godaw ( hello , Danish goddag ). In recent decades, however, the moin (in Danish mojn ) has become very popular, and today it is mostly seen as typical Sønderjysk. It is also used by speakers of Imperial Danish in northern Schleswig.

The influence of the German is not clear. In some cases, Sønderjysk has a very conservative vocabulary in that it has retained old Scandinavian words that have been replaced by innovations or even by German loanwords in other Danish dialects and in standard Danish. Examples are Sønderjysk fikk (≈ pocket, Swedish ficka , Low German ficke, Danish lomme ), grander (≈ Klug, Danish klog, older Danish gran, Icelandic grannur ), snel (≈ friendly, Danish nimble, Swedish snäll, Icelandic snjall ).

The word for I ( Empire Danish and island Danish jeg, spoken [jɑɪ]) is called on Sønderjysk æ but [ɛ], in the northernmost Nordschleswig a as in most of Jutland. In the east of North Schleswig it is pronounced in the direction [e], as well as on the island of Als.

Dialects

The following dialects are distinguished:

north of the German-Danish border
  • western Sønderjysk including the islands of Mandø and Rømø ( Rømømål as a sub-dialect), which also extends into today's Germany;
  • Eastern Sønderjysk including Alsisk (Alsisch) on the island of Als (Alsen) and Sundevedsk on the Sundeved peninsula (Eng . Sundewitt );
south of the German-Danish border
  • the Angelmål (also: Angeldänisch, Angeldansk or Angelbomål) in fishing and swans (now extinct);
  • the Fjoldemål (also: Viöler Danish) around the place Viöl in central Schleswig (now extinct);
  • the Mellemslesvigsk on the Geest in central Schleswig.

Shibboleth

A shibboleth -like set for the Südjütische is the following, the successive nine vowels is: A u æ å æ ø i æ å "I'm out on the island in the Au".

history

Until the end of the Middle Ages, Sønderjysk was the only colloquial language in northern and central Schleswig up to the Husum- Dannewerk -Eckernförde line, as the place names in central and eastern Schleswig attest. South of this line, on Fræzlæt , the country was not settled until the High Middle Ages by the Saxons coming from the south . North Frisian was spoken on the Frisian Islands, partly North Frisian and partly Sønderjysk in the coastal area.

Language change

The language change to Low German took place on the Schwansen peninsula in the 17th and 18th centuries, and in fishing only in the 19th century. It is believed that the inhabitants of these areas had an active knowledge of Low German (and passive knowledge of High German) several centuries before the language change. Overlaying the national disputes in the 19th century, the Angelites switched to Low German, a process that took place within a few decades. It is discussed whether and to what extent the language change paved the way for the German attitude or vice versa. Another reason for the language change is emphasized that the teaching of Low German should make it easier for the children to later learn the High German school and church language, and that South Jutian was associated with a low social status. Around 1900 it was only used in a few villages on the Flensburg Fjord. The Angeliter variant of South Jutian, also called Angeldänisch, was very similar to the dialect on Sundewitt and Alsen (north of the Flensburg Fjord ).

South Jutish stayed longer on the Geest between Husum and Schleswig, where the Danish dialect of Viöl long formed an island of languages . This southern variant had retained ancient features such as the complete number and person inflection of the verbs after they had long since disappeared in other Danish dialects. The last speakers of Viöl Danish - Fjoldemål - died in the 1930s.

With the arrival of many expellees from the east of Germany in the years after 1945 as well as settlements in the course of the North program initiated in 1953, South Jutian was almost completely displaced by Standard German as an everyday language south of the border.

Todays situation

Schleswig-Holstein 1898. The language border is shown with a green line.

Those who speak a southern Jutland dialect in Northern Schleswig today come from both the Danish majority and the German minority. Many later learn Imperial Danish in the Danish schools or High German and Imperial Danish in the institutions of the German minority. So Sønderjysk is nationally neutral. According to estimates by the Bund Deutscher Nordschleswiger , around two thirds of the members of the German minority use Sønderjysk as their everyday language, with Sønderjysk having a particularly identifying value for this group.

However, the mobility and the higher status of Imperial Danish mean that dialectal expressions are increasingly being replaced by standard language expressions and displaced from everyday language. Sønderjysk is used more strongly than the dialects in other parts of Denmark in amateur theater performances, local satires, short stories, songs and in advertising. The much acclaimed feature film Kunsten at græde i kor from 2006 was shot entirely on Sønderjysk.

To the south of the border, Sønderjysk only exists in a few border municipalities between Flensburg and Niebüll . For a long time , the language was a lingua franca that was spoken independently of national convictions and that could also be used for contacts across the border. Sønderjysk is estimated to be no more widespread among members of the Danish minority than it is among the German majority, as the former mostly use High German, Low German or Imperial Danish .

Sønderjysk is a predominantly spoken dialect, but it is occasionally used in literature and the media. In 2000, Æ Synnejysk Forening was founded, an association active in language politics , for which many members of the German minority also campaign . South of the border there has been a South Jutian amateur theater since 1972 with Æ Amatøer from Leck .

The language is not officially promoted in Denmark or Germany and is endangered due to the declining number of speakers.

See also

literature

  • Heather Amery: Min føøst tusin 'oe å synnejysk. Oversat til sønderjysk af Elin Fredsted . Æ Synnejysk Forening, Tønder 2002, ISBN 87-989172-1-8 .
  • Jørn Buch: Synnejysk History. Sønderjyllands historie fortalt for børn & voksne. Æ Synnejysk Forening, Tønder 2005, ISBN 87-989172-2-6 .
  • Gertrud Nordmann-Stabenow: Low German & Low Danish in the Schleswig border region. Husum Druck- und Verlagsgesellschaft, Husum 1980, ISBN 3-88042-096-3 .
  • Gertrud Nordmann-Stabenow: 1000 words in Low Danish, compared to Low German, Standard German and Imperial Danish. = 1000 ord Sønderjysk, combined with plattysk, højtysk and rigsdansk. 2nd Edition. Husum Druck- und Verlagsgesellschaft, Husum 1997, ISBN 3-88042-644-9 .

Individual evidence

  1. according to the University of Copenhagen. See Dialekter , accessed on January 9, 2015 (Danish)
  2. Peter Dragsbo, Inge Adriansen, Kirsten Clausen, Hans Helmer Kristensen and Torben Vestergaard: I centrum ved grænsen - portræt af Sønderborg Kommune . Ed .: Museet på Sønderborg Slot & Historisk Samfund for Als og Sundeved (=  Fra Als og Sundeved . Band 84 ). Sønderborg 2006, ISBN 87-87153-52-1 , E sproch - dansk og tysk, alsisk og sundevedsk, p. 128-131 (Danish).
  3. Example taken from shz from October 10, 2016 - ( here online )
  4. Program North ( Memento of the original from February 10, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Society for Schleswig-Holstein History @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.geschichte-sh.de
  5. Grenzlandportal  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www. Grenzlandportal.eu  

Web links