Gutnish (US: /ˈɡuːtnɪʃ/ GOOT-nish),[4] or rarely Gutnic[4] (Swedish: gutniska or gutamål), refers to the original language spoken on parts of the islands of Gotland and Fårö.[5] The different dialects of Gutnish, while stemming from the Old Gutnish (Swedish: Forngutniska) variety of Old Norse, are sometimes considered part of modern Swedish. Gutnish exists in two variants, Mainland Gutnish (Swedish: Laumål), mostly spoken in the southern portion of Gotland,[lower-alpha 1] and Fårö Gutnish (Gutnish: Faroymal; Swedish: Fårömål), spoken on parts of the island of Fårö. UNESCO defines Gutnish as a "definitely endangered language" as of 2010.[3]

Some features of Gutnish include the preservation of Old Norse diphthongs like ai in for instance stain (Swedish: sten; English: stone) and oy in for example doy (Swedish: dö; English: die). There is also a triphthong that exists in no other Norse languages: iau as in skiaute/skiauta (Swedish: skjuta; English: shoot).

Many Gotlanders do not understand Gutnish, and speak Gotlandic (Swedish: gotländska), a Gutnish-influenced Swedish dialect.[6]

There are major efforts to revive the traditional version of Modern Gutnish and Gutamålsgillet [sv], the Gutnish Language Guild, organizes classes and meetings for speakers of traditional Gutnish. According to the guild's webpage, there are now 1,500 people using Gutnish on Facebook.[7]

Phonology

the following contrastive vowels in Modern Gutnish: /ɪ/, /ʏ/, /e/, /œ/, /a/, /ɔ/, /u/ Of these all but /u/ have a short and a long version. with /u/ which is expected since what is etymologically a long /uː/ has been broken into the sequence [ʉu], A distinctive feature of Gutnish is the existence of a large number of sequences of vowel plus [ɪ] or [u] which form vocalic phonemes of their own. These sequences are the following: /eɪ/, /ɛɪ/, /œʏ/, /aɪ/, /ɔɪ/, /ʉu/, /eu/, /au/, /ɔu/

• Sounds /e, eː/ when preceding other vowels, /r/ or post-alveolar sounds have a tendency to be more open as [æ, æː].
• In Fårö Gutnish, sounds /a, aː/ are pronounced further back as [ɑ, ɑː].
• /ɔ, ɔː/ can also be realized as more close [o, oː] when preceding sonorant sounds.
• /u/ can be heard as [ʊ] when is unstressed position.

Some of these sequences alternate with short vowels between different morphological forms of the same lexeme, cf. such pairs as "veit" /vɛɪt̪ʰ/ ‘white’(f.) ∼ /vɪt̪ʰ:/ ‘white’(n) BS.[8]

• Stops /p, t̪, k/ can also be heard as aspirated [pʰ, t̪ʰ, kʰ].

Lexicon

Gutnish has many words of its own that make it different from Swedish. The following is a small selection of Gutnish's everyday vocabulary:[9]

Status

Gutnish is now under pressured influence of the Swedish standard language, both through speaker contact and through media and (perhaps most importantly) written language. As a result, Gutnish has become much closer to the Swedish standard language. Due to the island's Danish and Hanseatic period there were also influences from Danish and German.[10] There are also many Gotlanders who do not learn the language, but speak a regionally colored variant of the standard Swedish (Gotlandic). This is characterized mainly by its intonation, but also by diphthongs and triphthongs, some lexical peculiarities as well as the infinitive ending -ä.

The Gutamålsgillet association, which has been working for the preservation and revitalization of Gutnish since 1945, estimates that Gutnish is spoken today by 2,000 to 5,000 people.[2] How many are still passive, is not specified. However, an interest in Gutnish seems to be present: From 1989 to 2011, the radio show Gutamål ran in Radio Gotland,[11] which regularly reached about 15,000 to 20,000 listeners,[12] and in 2008 Gotland University offered their first course in Gutnish. Gutamålsgillet collects writings of authors and poets who write their texts in Gutnish, and maintains a Swedish-Gutnish dictionary and an ever-growing list of Gotlandic neologisms.

Examples

Nätt'l för manfolk u kungvall för kune.
Neie slags örtar för ymsedere.
Svalk di bei saudi, styrk di me dune
um däu jär djaupt i naudi nere!
Vävald pa raini, rindlaug i hagen
täusen sma kluckar gynnar ljaude.
Die aimar fran marki u rydmen av dagen
slucknar langum för livnes u daude.

— Gustaf Larsson, Um kvälden, [13]

Staingylpen gärdä bryllaup,
langhalu bigravdä läik,
tra torkä di däu sigderäivarä
va fyrä komst däu intä däit?

— Nach P.A. Säve, Staingylpen, [14]

Notes

References

External links

• Official site of the Modern Gutnish Guild

На других языках

[fr] Gutnisk

[ru] Гутнийское наречие