Dalecarlian Dialects - Historical and Geographic Context

Historical and Geographic Context

Dalecarlian is a North Germanic language that has existed since the Swedish language separated from Norwegian. Upper Dalecarlia is divided into three geographical areas; Västerdalarna, Uvosiljan (Upper Siljan) and Nidåsiljan (Lower Siljan), each parish having its own Dalecarlian dialect(s). Uvosiljan is then divided into seven dialects; Evmol or Övmål, Orsmol, Vuomusmål or Wåmusmol, Wänåsmål, Mormål, Sooldmol and Örmol. Sooldmål, Wänåsmål and Vuomusmål often used to be included in Mormål, even if Vuomusmål is more reminiscent of Elfdalian (Övmål). Probably due to historical summer pasture culture, Örmål is more closely related to Mormål rather than Orsmol, even though Ore is geographically closer to Orsa.

The three main dialects of the Dalecarlian language, Övmål, Mormål and Orsmol are mutually intelligible but not readily interintelligible with surrounding dialects of Rettvik, Leksand, Särna or neighbouring province Hälsingland. It is therefore more correct to specify these three together to constitute the language Dalecarlian, whilst Elfdalian or Övmål is one of the three main dialects and traditionally all three may be divided into village dialects. Traditionally, in some of the major Mora villages such as Östnor, Bonäs or Vika, several different dialects were discernable within the same village, the differences between these internal dialects surviving for generations.

The Dalecarlian language proper is spoken only in the Uvosiljan area. The lower Dalecarlian dialects are intermediates between this language and standard Swedish.

It should be noted that Dalecarlian is not spoken upstream from the village of Rot. The defence fort Rots Skans was an outpost on the Norwegian border until the peace treaty of Brömsebro in 1645. Thus, the local language spoken in the northern two-thirds of Älvdalen municipality (pink on map), i.e. the parishes Särna and Idre, is a dialect of eastern Norwegian.