Slanted speech ( (; also and ) was a sound change which was widespread in the first half of the 20th century in Iceland, especially in
the West
West is a cardinal direction or compass point.
West or The West may also refer to:
Geography and locations
Global context
* The Western world
* Western culture and Western civilization in general
* The Western Bloc, countries allied with NAT ...
and
South
South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east.
Etymology
The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...
.
The vowels and (written or and respectively) were lowered so that (, ) was pronounced (as if written ) and (, a
kind of yogurt) as (like ), while the vowels ''e'' and ''ö'' were raised such that (, ) sounded like (as if ) and (, ) as (as if ).
This sound change was thought to be very ugly and called ().
It was prominent from 1940 in the speech of people from the Southwest and the Eastfjords, but also in the North and in Húnavatnssýsla.
A special campaign was carried out during 1940–1960 in primary schools to eliminate flámæli.
RÚV
Ríkisútvarpið (, ; abbr. RÚV ) is Iceland's national public broadcasting, public-service broadcasting organization.
Founded in 1930, it operates from studios in the country's capital, Reykjavík, as well as regional centres around the count ...
and
Þjóðleikhúsið
The National Theatre of Iceland (NTI) (, pronounced ) in Reykjavík, is the national theatre of Iceland.
The theater, designed by Guðjón Samúelsson, was formally opened on 20 April 1950. Since 2020, the artistic director of The National Thea ...
enforced a policy that the so-called phonological error would not be allowed.
In 1929 42% of children in
Reykjavík
Reykjavík is the Capital city, capital and largest city in Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland on the southern shore of Faxaflói, the Faxaflói Bay. With a latitude of 64°08′ N, the city is List of northernmost items, the worl ...
spoke with flámæli but by 1960 it had been eradicated among children.
See also
*
Dialect
A dialect is a Variety (linguistics), variety of language spoken by a particular group of people. This may include dominant and standard language, standardized varieties as well as Vernacular language, vernacular, unwritten, or non-standardize ...
*
Linguistic purism
Linguistic purism or linguistic protectionism is a concept with two common meanings: one with respect to foreign languages and the other with respect to the internal variants of a language (dialects).
The first meaning is the historical trend ...
*
Sound change
In historical linguistics, a sound change is a change in the pronunciation of a language. A sound change can involve the replacement of one speech sound (or, more generally, one phonetic feature value) by a different one (called phonetic chan ...
References
Icelandic language
Sound changes
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