Estonian Swedish ( sv, estlandssvenska; et, rannarootsi keel, lit=Coastal Swedish) are the eastern varieties of

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

that were spoken in the formerly Swedish-populated areas of

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

(locally known as ''

Aiboland Aiboland (also known as Swedish Estonia and Egeland) is the Estonian Swedish name for the historically Swedish-speaking areas and towns of northern and western Estonia. Historical Aiboland encompasses Nuckö, Ormsö, Runö, Odensholm, ...

'') on the islands of Ormsö (Vormsi),

Ösel Saaremaa is the largest island in Estonia, measuring . The main island of Saare County, it is located in the Baltic Sea, south of Hiiumaa island and west of Muhu island, and belongs to the West Estonian Archipelago. The capital of the island i ...

(Saaremaa),

Dagö Dagö is a folk rock band from Tallinn, Estonia. Dagö was formed in 1998 by Lauri Saatpalu, Peeter Rebane and Tiit Kikas. Dagö is the old name of Hiiumaa, an Estonian island. The band's first album, ''Dagö'', was released in 2000, and receiv ...

(Hiiumaa) and Runö (Ruhnu), and the peninsula (former island) of Nuckö (Noarootsi), by the local Estonian Swedes. Until the evacuation of the

Estonian Swedes The Estonian Swedes, or Estonia-Swedes ( sv, estlandssvenskar, colloquially ''aibofolke'', "island people"; et, eestirootslased), or "Coastal Swedes" ( et, rannarootslased) are a Swedish-speaking minority traditionally residing in the coastal ...

near the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, both Swedish and Estonian were commonly spoken on the named islands. It is not clear if there are any mother-tongue speakers left. After Estonia's independence following the

dissolution of the Soviet Union The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...

, Estonian Swedish experienced a revival, with courses in the language being offered on Dagö and Ösel. Svenskbygder svatlas

Currently, the number of native speakers is unknown, but assumed to be low.

Samples

Estonian Swedish comprises a number of sub-dialects, for example ''Nuckömål'' and ''Rågömål''. An example of the ''Nuckömål'' dialect from the ''

Nordisk familjebok ''Nordisk familjebok'' (, "Nordic Family Book") is a Swedish encyclopedia that was published in print from between 1876 and 1993, and that is now fully available in digital form via Project Runeberg at Linköping University. Despite their consi ...

'', compared with standard modern Swedish: : Standard Swedish: : English translation: :Stick the paring knife in the pole and turn the pole on the sledge, put the Helmet and Helmets for the sledge and drive to Nuckö. The

Gammalsvenska (locally ; literally "Old Swedish") is an Estonian Swedish dialect spoken in Gammalsvenskby, Ukraine. History It derives from the Estonian Swedish dialect of the late 1700s as spoken on the island of Dagö (Hiiumaa). While rooted in Swedish, ...

dialect of Swedish spoken in Ukraine is an archaic dialect of Estonian Swedish, having been brought to the village of

Gammalsvenskby Gammalsvenskby ( sv, Gammölsvänskbi, label=Gammalsvenska, lit=Old Swedish Village; uk, Старошведське, translit=Staroshvedske; german: Alt-Schwedendorf) is a former village that is now a neighbourhood of Zmiivka ( uk, Зміїв ...

in the late 1700s by settlers from Dagö.

Writing system

Noarootsi Swedish is written with the same letters as Standard Swedish with a few phonetic additions:Brunberg 2010 *Long vowels are indicated with a subscribed macron: . *Long consonants are doubled : . *The /d/ and / n/

rhotics In phonetics, rhotic consonants, or "R-like" sounds, are liquid consonants that are traditionally represented orthographically by symbols derived from the Greek letter rho, including , in the Latin script and , in the Cyrillic script. They ...

are denoted with a dot below . *The

Voiced retroflex flap The voiced retroflex flap is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is r`. Features Features of the voiced ...

/ɽ/, called "thick L", is noted with a dot below . *The

voiceless postalveolar fricative A voiceless postalveolar fricative is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The International Phonetic Association uses the term ''voiceless postalveolar fricative'' only for the sound , but it also describes the voiceless ...

consonant /ʃ/ is noted with a dot below .

Samples

Writing system

See also

References

Further reading