Danish in Nordschleswig 1864-1920 - and what it means for Southern Jutlandic today

Aktivitet: Tale eller præsentation - typerForedrag og mundtlige bidrag

Malene Monka - Oplægsholder

With regard to spoken language, Denmark is one of the most standardized – in the sense of homogenized – countries in the world (Kristiansen 2019). However, a recent study has shown that some young people from Southern Jutland still speak dialect as their unmarked everyday language. Furthermore, in interviews, the young people refer to the dialect as we-code for the inhabitants of the region and report the importance of speaking and passing on the dialect (Maegaard et al. 2020). To explain these finding we need to focus on the history of the area. Present-day Southern Jutland only became a fully integrated part of Denmark after the Reunification in 1920. Before that, the area had been under alternating Danish and German rule for centuries. In the years 1864 to 1920, when the region was under Prussian rule, the dialect was not influenced by Standard Danish as the prestige language was German. Furthermore, in the same period the dialect was ascribed value as a means to show Danish sentiment, and as a way to stand up against the Germanization of the area. Following national romantic ideas, this meant that Southern Jutlanders considered their dialect tied to Denmark. And over time spoken and written Southern Jutlandic was ascribed a status as the Southern Jutlanders’ national language and referred to in definite as æ sproch (‘the language’) (Pedersen 2014: 286). After the Reunification, Standard Danish became the prestige language and changes have happened, but not as fast as one could expect. Kristiansen, Tore. 2019 Language standardization. In J. Darquennes, J. Salmons and W. Vandenbussche (eds.). Language Contact. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. 384-397. Maegaard, Marie, Malene Monka, Kristine Køhler Mortensen & Andreas Candefors Stæhr (eds.) 2020. Standardizations as Sociolinguistic Change. A Transversal Study of Three Traditional Dialect Areas. New York/London: Routledge. Pedersen, Karen Margrethe. 2014. Sønderjysk skriftsprog i 150 år. MUDS 15. 285–300.
24 aug. 2021

Begivenhed (Konference)

TitelDanish and German as European neighbour languages
Dato24/08/202125/08/2021
AfholdelsesstedUniversity of Copenhagen
ByCopenhagen
Land/OmrådeDanmark
Grad af anerkendelseInternational begivenhed

ID: 276905171