Jamtlandic Dialects - Language

Language

Since the early 20th century it has been wildly debated if Jamtlandic is a dialect or a language. Proponents of Jamtlandic as a language point to the differences in vocabulary and pronunciation. A great percentage of the Jamtish speakers recognise Jamtish as a language rather than a Swedish dialect. There have been efforts to make the Swedish government recognise it as a minority language just as the Yiddish and Sami languages have been. One of the more prominent people that have been active in the effort to make Jamtish a recognised language is Bo Oscarsson. Oscarsson has written books about the Jamtish language/dialect and even compiled dictionaries.

Read more about this topic:  Jamtlandic Dialects

Famous quotes containing the word language:

    They who in folly or mere greed
    Enslaved religion, markets, laws,
    Borrow our language now and bid
    Us to speak up in freedom’s cause.
    Cecil Day Lewis (1904–1972)

    Just as language has no longer anything in common with the thing it names, so the movements of most of the people who live in cities have lost their connexion with the earth; they hang, as it were, in the air, hover in all directions, and find no place where they can settle.
    Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926)

    Translate a book a dozen times from one language to another, and what becomes of its style? Most books would be worn out and disappear in this ordeal. The pen which wrote it is soon destroyed, but the poem survives.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)