Elfdalian - Sweden's Most Conservative Language 

The "Elf" in the name has nothing to do with elves though. It's just that "elv" or "älv" (in norweigan or swedish spelling) is the scandinavian word for river. "Älvdalen" means literally "the river valley".

I live in Älvdalen, and i speak and understand elfdalian. So Nice video

As a Swede I can confirm that it is easier to understand Norwegian or Danish than this.

I am native Icelandic and Faroese speaker and also know some Danish/Swedish/Norwegian and while I feel this language sounds somewhat oddly familiar I only understood maybe about 20-30% of this sample. Edit: I just came back to it now two weeks later and I understood 80% immediately. I can tell I am relying on both the Icelandic and Faroese to make sense of this. Very interesting!

The Little Prince has been translated to a surprisingly large number of lesser known and/or endangered languages. That little book is a gem in more ways than just being a nice story.

An eð fel ulað bruk språtjeð sos laindj an dug glåmå! (~Use the language for as long as you can speak!)

I am a 2nd generation American, my grandfather came to America from Loka, a small village just outside Älvdalen, in 1881. My grandfather married twice in America, his first wife died in childbirth in June of 1893 and in early 1896 he married the girl who would be my grandmother. My grandfather taught all of his children the Övdalsk language and I feel very privileged and proud to have some strong memories of this language, which is my family’s mother tongue, from my childhood! A message from me for the Swedish parliament… it is not possible for Övdalsk to be a dialect of Swedish because the Övdalsk language is older than the Swedish language!! Ig ir ettling tä Waikingg fro Swerre, og eð ir guoð!

Nice video. I'm an Elfdalian scholar and learing speaker from Sweden. Here is a list of characteristics describing archaisms and innovations in the language from wikipedia, of which some I have written: "Archaisms : Lack of syllable lengthening. Retention of voiced fricatives /ð/, /ɣ/ and /β/. Retention of nominative, accusative and dative cases. Retention of Proto-Germanic, Proto-Norse and Old Norse nasal vowels. Retention of Proto-Germanic voiced labio-velar approximant /w/: wattn ('water'), will ('wants'), wet ('knows'): compare English water, will, and wit and Swedish vatten, vill and vet. Innovations and unique developments More frequent assimilation of pre-Norse mp, nt and nk to pp, tt and kk, as in West Scandinavian dialects. Shift of a to o before Pre-Norse nk (but not kk). Shift of Old Norse ei, ey and au to ie, ä and o. Diphthongization of Old Norse long high vowels í, ý, ú to closing diphthongs ai, åy, au and of long rounded mid vowels ó, œ to opening diphthongs uo, yö. Vowel harmony (present also in other dialects of Central Scandinavia). Loss of h: compare Elfdalian aus with Swedish hus (or English house) and Elfdalian imil with Swedish himmel."

Thank you so much for making a video about Elfdalian. My father comes from Älvdalen and my grandfather was a fluent speaker of Elfdalian. Unfortunately, he died before I was born so I was never exposed to the language. However, as a Swede, I can assure you that it is extremely different from Swedish and there are barely any similarities between the two languages, both lexically and grammatically. Funny story, I remember attending a funeral in Älvdalen when I was 14 and some elderly people who sat beside me starting speaking to me in Elfdalian, and I had no idea what they were saying! I remember feeling so embarrassed, since I didn't know any phrases in Elfdalian and my dad never passed the language on to me. Since then, I've been trying to learn it as there are very few speakers left and because I feel very attached to the language since my ancestors must have spoken Elfdalian back in their day. It is a shame though, because there are very few resources available for those who want to learn the language, which makes it harder to learn it. Lastly, I also can't fathom why the government refuses to recognize Elfdalian as an official minority language, since it only contributes to the downfall of the language. Funnily enough, this April, a Swedish politician starting speaking Elfdalian in the Swedish parliament as a way to mock the government, since they still believe that it is a dialect. No one could understand him, and he was even told by the Speaker of Parliament that speaking another language in the parliament is not allowed and that he had to switch to Swedish if he wanted to continue. Mind you, the politician who was before him spoke with a thick southern dialect (skånska) but nobody had an issue with that since his speech was intelligible. Needless to say, I think he got his point across... Edit: Thought I would add that my grandmother bought me a game in Elfdalian as a present, to help me learn Elfdalian many years ago. It was a memory game that showed the name of the animals in Elfdalian, and some of my favorite ones are still to this day: myödumbel - bee (Swedish: humla), pillermaru - dragonfly (Swedish: trollslända), rakke - dog (svenska: hund), aikuonn - squirrel (Swedish: ekorre) and tjyötmaungg - great tit (Swedish: talgoxe).

Funnily enough Minecraft is actually the reason I know Elfdalian exists, One day I saw it listed there (I think I was actually looking at some place to contribute to the translations for the game and saw it there, not certain though), And was curious so I looked it up. Even though the Swedish government doesn't recognise it as its own language, At least we know their most popular video game does!

Hella underrated languages channel.

My experience is that at first glance it seems completly unintelligible to me, but after a second reading/hearing it makes sense and I can understand enough to get what is being said. It is probably easier if you yourself speak with a dialect. I feel like if you take other dialects of swedish and go thick enough you could get a similar (but not as extreme) effect. It is a really cool dialect/language and I really hope the locals keep it alive and thriving!

Thank you for spreading knowledge of our wonderful language, elfdalian. Keep up the good work! /proud elfdalian speaker

I grew up about 70 km north of Älvdalen and now live 40 km south of it and I’ve spend a lot of time in Älvdalen as well, It’s really cool to see a video about elfdalian, thank you!

As a Kurd i can say that all states are using same ways to kill the other languages and the experiences of minority people are pretty similar ! People are ashamed to use their language after these things and if it can stay alive until a proud movement founded may can be survived . Long live all languages !!!

I don’t know how you don’t have more followers? You seem to make great content, I followed you after I found your Breton language video which was very informative. I hope you keep going

That sentence as you gave as an example was almost impossible to understand as a Swedish speaker. But other sentences can be far more comprehensive. But that's also the case for other Germanic languages such as Dutch and Icelandic. It is a joke though that Elfdalian is regarded as a dialect when Norwegian and Danish is classified as separate languages from Swedish and is 98% understandable in written form.

A similar thing happened with the old Gutnish language. Spoken on the Island of Gotland. There are but a few speakers left. And it is the last remaining link to the now extinct Gothic language. I am not talking about Swedish with a gutnish dialect.. But the actual Gutnish language.

I'm Faroese. I had to listen to this three times before I understood most of this (the English translation is way too inaccurate to be of any help), but about fifteen years ago I heard young people speaking this "dialect" on Danish radio and understood almost everything. It's definitely it's own language! But then Faroese was considered a Danish language (Faroese has no direct relation to danish at all) until V.U. Hamershaimb did something about it. Linguists are whimps for allowing politics to decide what is a language and what is a dialect

After reading/listening a couple of times it actually starts making sense, as a Swede who knows some gutnish. It’s sound a bit similar to bondska, another one of those old dialects which aren’t widely spoke anymore, with the weirdest parts being some words and some of the grammar. I think the reason why most Swedes wont understand this is that the language has become so standardized during the last century that people not from the countryside have lost touch with the more traditional dialectical varieties of Swedish.

What a fascinating video! Listening to this was very reminiscent of recreations of old English/old Norse/proto-Germanic i've seen, much more so than the other languages they've evolved into.

Great outline. However, Elfdalian is as far from Swedish as Icelandic, but not more similar to Icelandic than to Swedish. Truely, it has a great deal of archaic features, but at the same time it has a great deal of innovative features, too. As a whole, Icelandic is more archaic e.g. when it comes to lexicon and morphology.

A couple of points: 1) dh/th is still prsereved at dialectal level in dalarna, in some villages it's even more noticeable then in elfdalian 2) there are other Swedish dialects that also have preserved nasals, but not to the extent you see in elfdalian

Wow, I literally just was curious about the QWERTY keyboard and then I stumbled upon the Elfdalian language. This is a really cool video by the way, and I really appreciate your work this. Thanks👍🏽.

You're the most underrated channel ever!

I was born 40km from Älvdalen and I just wanted to say you made a very good video. Cheers.

Fascinating that *little* has the High Germanic sound shift from t > s as *lissl* .

This randomly being in my recommended is so perfect :')

Elfdalian actually isn't the only Dalecarlian dialect with nasal vowels and ð, Våmhusmål also has them. Elfdalian isn't as unique as people think, it's not that different from the other dialects in Ovansiljan.

I actually understand it pretty well. I speak an Ostrobothnian dialect. A dialect of Swedish spoken in Finland. Much of the vocabulary and pronunciation is identical to either my own dialect or other dialects in the region I grew up in.

I am from Älvdalen, and that village is super-friendly. I almost never hear of any problems here whatsoever, and people get along really well everywhere.

As a Swede with a casual interest in linguistics and language, hearing Älvdalska for the first time sounded oddly similar to my experience with Isländska. If you told me to try and tell the difference between the two, I probably couldn't. Still, reading the language in this video, some of the Älvdalska words seemed strangely familiar in their makeup, which is also something I experienced with Isländska. It's like looking at an ancient example of a forge, and then looking at the modern equivalent, and seeing how the initial process inspired the future. Or like looking at the difference between medieval and modern English, for that matter. What fascinates me the most however, is how a language like this could exist almost completely in the middle of mainland Scandinavia, right between Sweden and Norway, yet remain as close to original old Norse as it is, even compared to Icelandic which was on a faraway island in the northen middle of the Atlantic! The ability for this language to exist as it does... It boggles my mind! And it makes me very curious about the history of Älvdalen, and Dalarna in general... Just how isolated do you have to be to be even more linguistically conservative than Iceland? It's fascinating!

Norwegian here. "Autå te tegg ed", sounds a lot like "utan å ha togge det" which soundes even more similar in some dialects, like vallemål. "Sweg" and "svelji" or "svelger". "Ielt" and "heilt" or "helt". "Dier" and "dei". "Månadi" and "månader". "Såvå" and "søv" or "sover" even more similar in some dialects. "Åtå" and "et" also more similar in different dialects, people say "åt". "Sett ielt" and "i eitt sett". That's the similarities I found between alvdalsk and norwegian in the first text. If I hadn't read the translated text in english, I wouldn't have understood a thing, but i'm sure people speaking other dialects here in Norway would understand a lot more of it. Sounds like swedish though, with the only exception that it makes little sense to my ears.

I'm Swedish. I had no idea this was a thing that existed. Pretty cool! Thanks for covering this. I'll have to go read more about it.

As a swede I urge you to look in to Jamska. Its an old norse language still but rarely used in northern Jämtland, Sweden

The elfdalians have fought to get their language recognized for years now. But there is only one party that have it on their agenda. I hope they are able to get the government to give it it's desserved language minority status. (Edit) For preferences, said party is only cooporating with the current government, not actualy apart of it. But this still means there is more hope for elfdalian than ever before. I don't even speak it myself, but losing this beautifull language would be such a shame, and as a swede I actualy have some ability to help influence this topic. I hope you get your support elfdalian, I really do.

Elfdalian is not as unique as people think, it's very similar to the other dialects in Ovansiljan, especially Våmhusmål. *Elfdalian:* ”Men uą, ukin wask!” saggd Mumun, fuost gaundjin ą̊ såg Masse. Eð war ienn morgun, straks etter juolę. Eð war liuotkollt og eð add snieð um ną̊tę. Mumun war ą̊ weg aut etter wiðim, og eð war dą̊ ą̊ fikk sją̊ ienn liuotmagran katt, so såt upą̊ baurstinnum. Eð war ann ą̊ kolld för ”wastjin”. Masse kuogäð ą̊ kelindję so kam og djikk yvyr gardn. Ann tainkt: ”Ir ą̊ farlin, truo? Eð ir fell best pass sig!” Mumun stelld frą̊ sig wiðåkordjin og byrd ą̊ glåmå min Masse: - ”Al du it kumå jųot so ig ną̊r að klå dig? Uą, ur kollt eð ir! Friuos du it? Eld du unggrun, kannstji?” *Våmhusmål:* "Men oj, oj, oj, ukin ienn wisäl!" sadd Mormor fuost gaundjin ą̊ så Missä. Eð wa ienn morgun tras että jölį. Eð wa rässklit kollt o eð add snitt undä nåtį. Mormor wa ą̊ weg aut että wiðn, dą̊ ą̊ fikk sjǫ̈ iena magra kattu, so såt upą̊ erberstinnä. Eð wa änä ą̊ kolld fe "wisäl". Kattą så ą̊ kelindsį so kam o djikk yvy gardn. Ą̊ taintjäd: "Ir ą̊ fallin, truo? Eð ir naug best te pass sig!" Mormor stelld frą̊ si wiðåkordjin o byrd ą̊ tålå wið Missä: - "Ska du int kumå jöt so ig fą̊ klå ði? Uff, ur kollt eð ir! Frjös du int? Ir du unggrun, kannstsi?" *Orsamål:* ”Men öj, öj, öj, ukön eländin stakkar!” sad Momo föst göndjön o såg Måssä. Ed war jenn mörgon trast ettör joli. Ed war räskli köllt ö ed add snitt um noti. Momo war o weg ait ettör widem, ö ed wa do o fikk sjå jenå färskretjeli mågra kattu, sö såt uppo ärbresbrun. Ed war onå o kölltä fär ”stakkarn”. Katta såg o kelindji sö kåm ö djikk evör gardn. Ånn tenktä: ”Ir o fallin, tro? Ed ir nug best te pass si!” Momo stelld fro si widåkördjön ö bird o tålå mi Måssä: - ”Ska du int kumå jot sö i fo kläi di? Uff, ur költ ed ir! Fros du int? Ir du unggrön, kånnstji?” *Moramål:* Men åj, uken wask!” sagd Mårmår föst gåndjen o såg Missan. Ä wa jenn mårgun trast ettär jole. Ä wa ljotkållt, å ä add snjogo upå nåte. Mårmår wa å weg åit ettär wirn, å ä wa då o fikk sjå jenn mågran katt, så såt upå erbresbrune. Ä wa ann o kålled fe ”wastjen”. Missan titted å dora kelindje, så kåm keklendes yvur gardn. Ann tenkt: ”E o falen, tro? Ä e full best pass se.” Mårmår stelled frå se wiråkårdjen å byrd å tålå min Missan: ”Ska int du kumå jon så I når a te klå de? Uj, ur kållt ä e! Frjos du int? E du unggrun, kannstji?” *Oremål:* ”Men åj, åj, åj, uken eländug stakkärä!” sa Mormor först gônjen o såg Katto. Ä wa jänn môrgun strast ättär jul. Ä wa wale kôllt ô ä add snjoga på nåte. Mormor wa på wäg ôit ättär wid ô ä wa då o fikk si jäna haskle magra katto, sum såt på härbrästrappo. Ä wa ännär o kôlled fô ”stakkärn”. Katta titted på kälinje sum kam ô gikk ywär gåln. O tenkt: ”E o farlen, tro? Ä e nôg bäst ô pass se!” Mormor ställd ifrå se widokôrjen ô byrd ô prata mä Katto: - ”Ska int du kumo jot sô i kann kläi de? Twi, wa kôllt ä e! Fros int du? E du kannstje hungrug?” *Sollerömål:* ”Men ååj, ukän varäls!” säjd Mormor fösst gåndjän o såg Missan. Ä va iänn mårrgån alldeläs ättär joln. Ä va ljotkållt, å ä add snjoga um nåti. Mormor va upå veg åit fö tä ta inn vid, å ä va då o fikk sjå ie magär katta, så såt upå ärrbäsbrun. Ä va on o kållät fe ”varäls”. Missan glonät å doda kelindji så kam krällnd åitär gardim. Ann tänkt: ”Må'sej um o e falin? Ä e full bäst tä pass si.” Mormor ställät frå si vidåkårrdjän å byrd å prat vi Missan: ”Sa int du kumå jån a mi ä, så i når tä kläj di? Uj, ur kållt ä e! Frjos int du? E du unggrån å, kannstji?” Here's some Dalecarlian dialects from Nedansiljan: *Rättviksmål:* ”Men åj, åj, åj, token eländu stakkârô!” sad Momor fåst gånjôn o såg katta. Ä va en mårgån trast ättôr jul. Ä va vådli kâllt å ä add snugâ på nattä. Mormor va på väg ut ättôr vôd å ä va då o fek si e asskli magôr katta, som såt på ârbrôstrappån. Ä va ônom o kalla får ”stakkârn”. Katta titta på tjärinjä som kåm å gek ivir gåln. Ân täntjô: ”Äro o farlin, tro? Ä ä nog bäst tä pass sä!” Mormor ställô frå sä vôdåkårjôn å bôrjô pratâ mâ kattån: ”Skâ dun´t kom it sô je kân kläj dä? Usch, vâ kâllt ä ä! Fris du´nt? Kânstje du ä ungrugin?” *Leksandsmål:* ”Men åjäjåj, ockän eländig kattstackär” sad Mormor, fôst gångjän o såg Missa. Ä va trast ätt jul. Ä va våli kâllt å, ä, a snöga på nattä. Mormor va på väg ut ätt vôd a, ä, va då o feck si i tôcka oskapli magär katta, som satt på ârbâsbrona. Å ä va o o kallä för kattstackâr. Missä koxä på gumma som kamm gåändäs yvär gåln. O tänkt: ”Äro falin tro? E nôg bäst tä pass sä!” Mormor ställd ifrå sä vôdkorjän å bôrd a språk vô'na. ”Skâ du'nt kom it sä je får klapp dä litä? Usch, varä va kâllt. Frys du'nt? E'nt du ungrug å?” *Bodamål:* ”Männ åj, åj, åj, tokin eländu stakkârô.” sad momor fåst gånjôn o såg katta. Ä va enn mårgån trast ättôr juḷ. Ä va vådli kâllt å ä a snugâ på nattä. Momor va på väg ut ättôr vôd å ä va då o fek si e asskḷi magôr kattâ, som såt på hârbrôstrappån. Ä va hônom som o kâllô får ”stakkârn”. Katta tittô på tjärinjä som kåm å gek ivir gåḷn. Ânn täntjô: ”Äro farlin tro? Ä e nog bässt tä pass sä!” Momor ställô frå sä vôdåkårjôn å bôrd å pratâ mâ kattån: ”Skâ du'nt kom hit sô je kânn kḷäjj dä? Usj, vâ kâllt ä e! Fris du'nt? Kânstje du ä hungru?” And here's two Dalecarlian dialects from Västerdalarna: *Nåsmål:* ”Hôss, hôrrênn kravil”, sa Morrmo fôsst gånnjên o såg kattn. Hä va enn môrrgo strâss ätt jul. Hä va utgåle kâllt, rent sviut, ô ä add snjögâ ômm nâtta. Morrmo va på väg ut ätt ve, ô ä va då o fekk si enn sô ohâsskle magêr katt sômm satt utå hârrbrästrappên. Hä va hânn o kâll fôr ”kraviln”. Kattn kokkst på gumma sômm kamm gåêndês ivir gåln. Hânn tänkt: ”E o farlen, tro? Hä e nog bässt pass sä!” Morrmo sätt frå sä vekôrrjân ô tog på tal ve kattn: ”Skâ'nt du kômm ina, sô je kânn klå dä? Fi snon, sô kâllt ä e! Fris du? E du hungru tro?” *Malungsmål:* ”Men ôj, ôj, ôj, hôkken stâkkâr” sa o Mormor fösst gannin o fikk sjå kâtta. Ä va en måro trâst ätt julâ. Ä va ogalä kâllt ô ä âdd snög mä nâttâ sô ä va âlldeles vitt. O Mormor va på väg ut ätt ve, ô ä va då o fikk sjå o da mager kâtta, sôm såt på härbästrâppôn. Ä va ho o kâl fö ”stâkkân”. Kâtta sågt på männistsa sôm kâm gaon yvvy gan. O tänkt: ”E o falä, tro? Ä e full bäst en pâss säg!” O Mormor ställd fro sä´ väkôrin ô tog te ô talô ve kâtta: ”Skâ´nt du kôm jåt, sô i får strök dä´ litä? Usch, sô kâllt ä e! Frös´nt du? Hän e du hungru kâsstsi?”

I'm Swedish from Göteborg (En: Gothenburg), which is located some 500 km south of where they speak Elfdalian, and I couldn't understand a word of it from this video. The rhythm it is similar to Swedish, but that's about it. Also, Elfdalian has nothing to do with elfs. The Swedish name for the region is Älvdalen and that translates as The River Valley. Älv has been the Swedish word for river for a very long time, but you can also use the more modern word flod. (Fun fact: in Swedish, the word flod can also mean flood or high tide.)

As a norwegian, i understood a few words of elfdanian, but the general example sentence that you showed was nearly impossible, i have seen other videoes of elfdanian speech, and i understand around maybe 10 - 20% of it. Just as a sidenote, Selbu in Norway has (or atleast had untill very recently) nasal vocals, in words like: bygdã (bygda) and gã (gå)

My grandma, who passed away one year ago spoke grew up in Älvdalen and spoke Elfdalian. I don't live in Älvdalen but have visited family there and I really want to learn the language but there are no resources online to help me.

Thanks! I'm trying to write my own fantasy novel something similar to A World of Ice and Fire, and I'm interested in learning rare languages to see if I can understand and create something very similar to them, then if the novels become popular, help bring more focus from the world,, towards the dying languages

i wish i could learn about this language .. im really interested in learning it .. but its so hard to find content

I am Finnish and know swedish quite well, and I understood way less than I would swedish, and some words I had to figure out, but eventually understood by comparison to swedish words. Also I love your channel so much, quite new here!!!

Yup it is fascinating how different it is from Swedish and that the language had evolved differently and they have their own alphabet and its close to Icelandic and would love too learn it by any chance.

There’s a clip on YT of Lena Willemark, a well-known Swedish folk singer and fiddler, reading the Christmas gospel in Älvdalska.

As a Swedish person I have honestly never even heard about Älvdalska and fully believed Icelandic was the closest to old nordic still spoken. Would be cool seeing if people from Iceland have an easier time understanding them then us swedes do!

They should totally introduce the runic alphabet again super cool!

Norrbotten here, I can see some word choices here that are used by older speakers of "bondska", the old regional dialekt of the coastal communities of northern Sweden. Duga and kunna for example. Truly a charming language.

I visited not too long ago, and the area is BEAUTIFUL. Hope they manage to keep their langugage alive.

I live in Göta Älvdalen, never heard of this language before and it makes perfect sense after some time to think and a third listen.

I live in the lower part of Sweden and i have never heard this before, i hope this dialect gets the recognition it deserves.

As a Swede from the South I could only guess a few words in this text - very interesting! I understand much more of the Dutch language.

I am Swedish, and I had no idea about this dialect. And we loooooove talking about dialects in Sweden, that is is a true mystery how this one is not more known.

There is a hilarious exchange in swedens parliament where an MP from the Center party speaks elfdalian, get’s reprimanded by the speaker (cause you are only allowed to speak Swedish is parliament) to which the MP answered that he is happy that the speaker agrees with him that elfdalian should be recognised as its own language.

Mad cool.

I grew up in Sundsvall, and I went to summer camp in Älvdalen. I remember being really confused why all the road signs weren’t in Swedish and why some of the locals spoke in a way I couldn’t understand. I wish we’d have been educated about Elfdalian when I was there.

I live in sweden but I never heard of it... Always fun to learn new things.

I am Swedish and I was supposed to make my military service in Älvdalen. It was a total hellhole, cold, snowy and isolated. Horror movie material. Of 250 recruits 50 of us (me included) claimed reasons not to be able to perform their service. A bunch of us didn't even wanna wait for the army bus so we called a cab from Mora and payed 500 bucks a head to get out of there.

las eð 'read I' (las eg) ... Boa-uormar 'Boa-snakes' (Boa-ormar) .... sjæks månaði 'six months' (seks mánaðir) - ( ) = Faroese. So we would probably understand each other if we got used to each others language.

Faroese is also very close to Old Norse, if I may please add this to the video. Otherwise, very nice and good, informative, and educational video! All the best and plenty of success with your channel!

For me as a Swedish speaking Finn it is interesting to notice that Elfdalian has preserved the 'kortstavighet' that is short vowel followed by short consonant in 2:55 'jätå', an Old Germanic feature that I thought was preserved only in Finland Swedish (fara, vara etc with short vowel). I heard this also in some other clips. That makes it sound really old.

I could of course be wrong, but I would venture Älvdalen refers to the geography (pretty common theme in Swedish names) which would roughly translate to Rivervale.

the consonant "dh" (pronounced as "th" in the English words "there, this, these") is also present in Danish, not only Icelandic and Elfdalian. Also in Sweden there are Norwegian dialects to be encountered, for instance Tronderska (Trondheim dialect) which are classified as Swedish simply because they are spoken on Swedish territory.

As a Norwegian I can sometimes understand whole sentences, then the next sentence I may understand one or two words.

I live in Southern Sweden. I was once in call with a dude from the northern part of Sweden. We spent like.. 10 minutes, laughing at each others dialect and the fact we didnt understand what we were saying to each other.. The amount and the depth of dialects in Sweden is pretty crazy. Especially the northern dialects are pretty extreme.

You should do a video of "Närpesiska", an old swedish dialekt spoken i some villages in western Finland. It's not realated to finish at all but is not understandable for a Swedish speaker either.

Im swedish and i only understand about every tenth word of elfdalian. Never knew this language existed, cool video!

The thing with the language and dialect thing is that linguistics and politics have very different opinions when it comes to the definitions. And while not exactly scientific Weinreich's quip kinda captures the essence of what reality (politics) looks like: "A language is a dialect with an army and a navy."

I am Swedish And I can make some sense of most of it mainly when listening to it because that sounds more similar to the Swedish word of today , (just gotta take my word for it when I say “I didn’t cheat” honest, on my grandmothers grave) But as I’ve been saying for fccc knows how long by now, is that it’s WAY easier for most people like me to understand most Norwegians and even Danes than some of the more northern Swedish dialects

I thought I understood one word Åvenad thinking it meant turn, return, or turn back like Swedish vända or återvända. Then I jumped back and read the English text and nope I did not understand anything. Listening to it again in the context of the English text, I could pick out a few words that sounded similar to Swedish but it was so far off that I can not see how anyone would call this a dialect. Great video thank you.

Is there a link to that "I Love Languages" video?

This is the same for a lot of old dialects in Sweden. Where I live we had Westrobothnian (bondska) which I remember my great grandparents speaking and which I couldn't understand at all as a kid. This was also replaced by standard Swedish in schools, ridiculed as "bondska" (which basically means the language of farmers, as opposed to Swedish which was the language of the educated) and almost disappeared as a living dialect, as today most people here just speak standard Swedish where only pronounciation is somewhat influenced by Westrobothnian. There have been similar attempts to keep it alive in later years though, like students being able to take Westrobothnian classes in school. But in the end, it's more of a curiosity these days - you need standard Swedish for anything you do, so you can't really function in society speaking Westrobothnian. When you can't really use a language or dialect for anything in your daily life, sadly is seems like it's just a matter of time before it disappears as there are no real reasons to keep it alive (other than for its own sake, which isn't really enough of a reason for anyone other than those who are really interested in the language or dialect for its own sake).

My son speaks Danish, English, some Icelandic, and just started on German (now in 8th grade). He says it sounds oddly like Icelandic with some Swedish and a little German in it. He also said he didn't understand a single word. 😅

At first, I was blown away by a that very Swedish sounding melody being incomprehensible to me. With the help of the English translation, I found some of the embedded old style Swedish words (and one English!) though and could understand about half of it. Although that's cheating.

Contains some words typical to österbotten in Finland. In southern Finland it is more the way of speaking that has been contaned, unfortunately also a lot of standard language.

I understood "sleeping six months", and thats it, as a Norwegian. And also, "I read" in the beginning.

Danish doesn't have the letter ð, but it has the sound, pretty much in the same positions as Spanish does.

I'm a Swede and I got that it was about Boa snakes, after that I had no clue, but comparing it to the translation makes me understand a few more words. Sjäks månadi for example.

I'm a Swede living in Norway and I have experience from hearing many Swedish and Norwegian dialects. Älvdalsmål (=Elfdalian) is probably the hardest one I've heard and it reminds a lot of Icelandic, but it isn't unique, and I did get the gist of it even without knowing the context. The reason Swedes don't recognize dialects as official languages is that many problems would come as a result of it. Norway recognizes Bokmål and Nynorsk as official dialects with their own spelling and it's a nightmare for law and education. Sweden has many dialects, but only one official way of spelling things, so there are never any real quarrels about how to interpret a sentence in a legally binding contract, and that is simply better.

We speak a similar language here in Överkalix even though it is going extinct, try to find a film called "Wir Bellum - en film om landet bortom" a film about Älvdalsmålet, Gotländska i När socken på sydöstra Gotland, Överkalixmålet and Träslövläge på halländska västkusten who share a similar language. An example of the similarities between Älvdalska och Överkalixmålet: Katn tytser int um dar ed rajner og snair. And in Överkalix we say: Kätta titts änt om da ne rajn å sni. The cat doesn't like when it's raining and snowing. 🙂 Interesting video, wonder why I have missed it? Hope your Estonian is getting better ;-)

4:02 Not true, the dialects of Våmhus, Skattungbyn in Orsa, and Bonäs in Mora have nasal vowels too. The Våmhus dialect and the dialect in Östnor in Mora also have ð.

The language is strongly influenced by Sapmi sounds or intonation, we may speak of an outlier here BOTH in terms of remnant of the past, since the story of Nordic languages is not properly known, as well as (the faeroese language is a case in point as it 'sounds' like English but is Norweigian at the core of it/ old Norse) this sound-structural surface character or 'robe' - wow great show!!!

Native Swedish speaker here. Couldn't understand a thing from the speech. From the writing it would have been possible to grasp what the text is about. Much like the situation with Danish actually. "Kamelåså!“ 😂

As a Norwegian I had no idea what the sample said, but I understood most of it when after reading the translation. Without being Knowles, I think it sounds kinda like Icelandic with a Swedish accent!

Would you ever make a video on the Norn language

Danish here - I understood/recognized about 5 words without looking and 2 more when reading the translation. The subject itself (about a constrictor snake) makes it very difficult. Context is important. Anyway, I agree, it sounds like a different language, and I would guess it to be a Norwegian dialect, if you didn't tell me.

So as an Älvdalensk speaker it’s like we understand everyone and they don’t know us. I don’t understand. Lol.

in 75% speed I understood about 1/3 of it. The word order and the word forms make it sound ancient.

As a Norwegian speaker from the west of our country (where we speak and write nynorsk, the more conservative form of Norwegian and the one closest to Old Norse), I understood maybe 1 or 2 words, and I wouldn't have had a slightest bit of chance if it was spoken, even with me being used to probably 1000s of unique dialects here in Norway. Even with Icelandic, I can definitely understand many of the words there, where sometime when I'm reading it, I can understand 90% of it, other times

Hah, native swede here, I've never heard about this, but I do know that this is not the only place that have had it's own "language", many places have had dialects that sounds like their own language, especially in the northern parts of sweden. I do know another place that have had a very weird dialect, namely södermanland, close to Strängnäs. It's been lost to ages, and I had the luck to hear it through a clip I found on the net when I was like 15 years old, on a school computer. I've tried finding it again, but I can't :/ The only reason I know this is only because I used to live in södermanland and we had a school project where we had to research local dialects, which is also where I first heard about the local dialect of boden (or very close above it) and it also sounded like it's own language. A lot of local dialects/languages have been lost to the ages in sweden :/

Does anyone know if it is simmilar to vallemål from Valle in Norway?

Eth is still a sound in the dialect of Sunnmøre. Rarely used though. I say it only because im too lazy to say D sometimes.

it was easy for me to understad since i understand the "gutamål" dialect. The grammar in both älvdalska and gutamål are similar, which is a remnant of old swedish

Very nice video but I think the delivery is much too fast. I’m glad to learn about Elfdalian which I had never heard about

As a swede, i literally can only understand a couple words from this. Its crazy that we dont get taught this, it should definititvly be a language

As a Swede, this is beyond fascinating

I am a native Swedish speaker who's also learning old Norse as a hobby. Calling Älvdalska a dialect of modern Swedish or even of old Norse is ridiculous. Yes it has some features from old Norse like the ð sound, but other than that it's not very reminiscent of old Norse or modern Swedish at all. It's basically a wild mix of all northern/eastern/western baltic-bordering languages combined into one.

Fun fact: Älv means River but also Fairy in Swedish. River and Rivers in Swedish are Älv and Älvar. Fairy and Fairies in Swedish are Älv Älva and Älvor also Fe and Feer. Elf and Elves in Swedish are Alv and Alver. So technically you could call it The Fairy Valley but it's probably The River Valley. 🤓

It is also similar in neighbour territories in the region of dalecarlia south of rivervalley like Mora,Våmhus, north from rivervalley will remind a bit more of norwegian as it used to belong there once. I grow up in Rot rivervalley but moved to Mora,i had a difficult time understand both my elderly relatives from färnäs mora and rivervalley,still dont understand. Sad that the school system did not teach this to us kids.

I live in Linköping and speak Övdalska. My family is from Älvdalen. It should really be considered an own language.