Gutnish

"Gutamål" redirects here. Not to be confused with Gotlandic, the local Swedish dialect spoken on Gotland and Fårö, or Götamål, the dialects of Swedish spoken in the Götaland provinces.

Gutnish
  • Gutnic
  • Gutiske[1]
  • Gutamål
Native toSweden
RegionGotland, Fårö
Native speakers
(~2,000–5,000 cited 1998)[2][3]
Early forms
Dialects
Language codes
ISO 639-3None (mis)
swe-lau
Glottologgutn1238
laum1238
Gutnish is classified as Definitely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger (2010).[4]

Gutnish (US: /ˈɡuːtnɪʃ/ GOOT-nish),[5] or rarely Gutnic[5] (Swedish: gutniska or gutamål), is a North Germanic language spoken sporadically on the islands of Gotland and Fårö.[6] 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 (Storlandsgutamål or Storlandsmål), mostly spoken in the southern and southeastern portion of Gotland, where the dialect of Lau became the standard form on the Main Island (Lau Gutnish → Laumål), and Fårö Gutnish (Gutnish: Faroymal; Swedish: Fårömål), spoken on 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.[7]

There are major efforts to revive the traditional version of Modern Gutnish and Gutamålsgillet, 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.[8]

  1. ^ "Gutamålsgillets Årdliste / Ordlista". 14 October 2012. Archived from the original on 19 April 2023. Retrieved 2 May 2022.
  2. ^ "Vanliga frågor (faq)". 28 August 2012. Archived from the original on 28 August 2012. Retrieved 18 February 2018.
  3. ^ a b Moseley, Christopher, ed. (2010). Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger. Memory of Peoples (3rd ed.). Paris: UNESCO Publishing. ISBN 978-92-3-104096-2. Archived from the original on 13 December 2016. Retrieved 11 April 2015.
  4. ^ Evans, Lisa (15 April 2011). "Endangered languages: the full list". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 27 November 2020. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
  5. ^ a b "Gutnish". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. Merriam-Webster. Retrieved 10 May 2019.
  6. ^ Swedish at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  7. ^ "Svenska förklarad: Gutamål och gotländska | UR Play". urplay.se. Archived from the original on 1 October 2020. Retrieved 13 December 2020.
  8. ^ "Description of Gutnish on Gotland Tourism Website". Archived from the original on 14 September 2017. Retrieved 24 May 2015.