Scanian Dialects - Vocabulary

Vocabulary

Scanian used to have many words which differed from standard Swedish. In 1995 Skånska Akademien released Skånsk-svensk-dansk ordbok, a dictionary with 2,711 Scanian words and expressions. It should be mentioned however that not all of these words are in wide use today. While the general vocabulary in modern Scanian does not differ considerably from Standard Swedish, a few specifically Scanian words still exist which are known in all of Scania, occurring frequently among a majority of the speakers. These are some examples:

  • påg, "boy" (Standard Swedish: pojke, former Danish: poge / pog)
  • tös, "girl" (Standard Swedish: flicka or tös (archaic), Danish: pige or tøs)
  • rälig, "disgusting", "ugly", "frightening" (Standard Swedish äcklig, ful, skrämmande/otäck, former Swedish rälig, dialect Danish: rærlig)
  • vann, "water" (Standard Swedish: vatten, Danish: vand)
  • hutta, "throw" (Standard Swedish: kasta)
  • hoe, "head" (Standard Swedish: huvud)
  • mög, "dirt" (Standard Swedish: smuts, smutsigt, dåligt)

There are other Scanian words that are well known in Scania but could be considered old-fashioned or extremely rural in general usage:

  • pantoffel or pära, "potato" (Standard Swedish: potatis, Danish: kartoffel; pära related to Swedish päron, "pear", Danish: pære "pear").
  • rullebör, "wheelbarrow" (Standard Swedish: skottkärra, Danish: trillebør)
  • sylten, "hungry" (Standard Swedish: hungrig, Former Swedish svulten, Danish sulten)

Read more about this topic:  Scanian Dialects

Famous quotes containing the word vocabulary:

    “My vocabulary dwells deep in my mind and needs paper to wriggle out into the physical zone. Spontaneous eloquence seems to me a miracle. I have rewritten—often several times—every word I have ever published. My pencils outlast their erasers.”
    —Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)

    “The vocabulary of pleasure depends on the imagery of pain.”
    —Marina Warner (b. 1946)

    “A new talker will often call her caregiver “mommy,” which makes parents worry that the child is confused about who is who. She isn’t. This is a case of limited vocabulary rather than mixed-up identities. When a child has only one word for the female person who takes care of her, calling both of them “mommy” is understandable.”
    —Amy Laura Dombro (20th century)