Norwegian Dialects Research Articles

Perceptive evaluation of Levenshtein dialect distance measurements using Norwegian dialect data

The Levenshtein dialect distance method has proven to be a successful method for measuring phonetic distances between Dutch dialects. The aim of the present investigation is to validate the Levenshtein dialect distance with perceptual data from a language area other than the Dutch, namely Norway. We calculate the correlation between the Levenshtein distances and the distances between 15 Norwegian dialects as judged by Norwegian listeners. We carry out this analysis to see the degree to which the average Levenshtein distances correspond to the psychoacoustic perception of the speakers of the dialects. The present article reports on part of a study supported by NWO, the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research. We are grateful for the permission from Kristian Skarbo and Jorn Almberg to use their material and for the help of Jorn Almberg during the whole investigation. We thank Saakje van Dellen for her obliging help with the data entry and Peter Kleiweg for letting us use the programs that he developed for the visualization of the maps and dendrograms in this article. Finally, we would like to thank John Nerbonne for valuable comments and for correcting our English.

Relexification in a Northern Norwegian dialect?

This paper explores how the process of relexification can contribute to the understanding of the genesis of the new Norwegian dialect of Sappen in Nordreisa. The dialect has emerged in the context of language shift from Finnish to Norwegian, and the dialect syntax has features that might be regarded as products of relexification. One example is declarative main clauses with the finite verb in the third position (V3). The discussion adheres to a more general discussion of approaches to language genesis, where substratist and universalist (and also superstratist) theories often are regarded as contrary to each other. I argue that different theories can contribute to the understanding of different aspects of the same question.

Word order in wh-questions in a North Norwegian dialect: some evidence from an acquisition study

While standard Norwegian is a V2 language, some Norwegian dialects exhibit V3 in certain types of wh-questions. In some previous work on the Tromsø dialect, V3 has been considered the ‘true’ dialect and speakers' acceptance of V2 simply a result of the influence from the standard language. Based on child and adult data from a study of the acquisition of word order in the Tromsø dialect, I will argue that both V2 and V3 orders are part of the dialect – used by adult speakers and acquired (more or less) simultaneously by children. It will further be argued that the choice between the two depends on the information structure of the sentence, more specifically, on the interpretation of the subject as given or new information.

Norwegian dialects examined perceptually and acoustically

Gooskens (2003) described an experiment which determined linguistic distances between 15 Norwegian dialects as perceived by Norwegian listeners. The results are compared to Levenshtein distances, calculated on the basis of transcriptions (of the words) of the same recordings as used in the perception experiment. The Levenshtein distance is equal to the sum of the weights of the insertions, deletions and substitutions needed to change one pronunciation into another. The success of the method depends on the reliability of the transcriber. The aim of this paper is to find an acoustic distance measure between dialects which approximates perceptual distance measure. We use and compare different representations of the acoustic signal: Barkfilter spectrograms, cochleagrams and formant tracks. We now apply the Levenshtein algorithm to spectra or formant value bundles instead of transcription segments. From these acoustic representations we got the best results using the formant track representation. However the transcription-based Levenshtein distances correlate still more closely. In the acoustic signal the speaker-dependent influence is kept to some extent, while a transcriber abstracts from voice quality. Using more samples per dialect word (instead of only one as in our research) should improve the accuracy of the measurements.

The Distribution of Reflexive Pronouns in Norwegian

This paper reports on the findings of a pilot study to investigate Long Distance Reflexives (LDR) in Norwegian. It begins with an introduction to the main features of Norwegian LDR, then examines data from several Norwegian dialects, showing that both the perspective model of LDR and the Logocentric Hierarchy is relevant to LDR in Norwegian. The final section presents some more data which highlight semantic differences between Norwegian anaphors which do not obey the Complementarity Principle.

The Distribution of Reflexive Pronouns in Norwegian

This paper reports on the findings of a pilot study to investigate Long Distance Reflexives (LDR) in Norwegian. It begins with an introduction to the main features of Norwegian LDR, then examines data from several Norwegian dialects, showing that both the perspective model of LDR and the Logocentric Hierarchy is relevant to LDR in Norwegian. The final section presents some more data which highlight semantic differences between Norwegian anaphors which do not obey the Complementarity Principle.

Frontiers of Brain Mapping of Speech Prosody

A key issue for the study of language and the brain in the twenty-first century is the delineation of the neural substrate underlying the perception and production of prosody in relation to linguistic and affective components of the speech signal. The notion of speech prosody dates back to MonradKrohn’s (1947) case study of a woman who was unable to produce the phonemic tone contrasts in her native Norwegian dialect even though she retained considerable musical ability. Because of its multiple functions (e.g., linguistic, attitudinal, affective) and its multiple phonetic cues (e.g., pitch, duration, loudness), the neural substrate of speech prosody remains elusive and controversial to the present day (Baum & Pell, in press). During the second half of the twentieth century, two major, competing lines of investigation have emerged concerning hemispheric specialization for speech prosody. One emphasizes task-dependent or domain-specific effects (e.g., Van Lancker, 1980; Ross & Mesulam, 1979), and the other cuedependent effects that cut across task domains (e.g., Robin, Tranel, & Damasio, 1990; Ivry & Robertson, 1998). In speech perception, for example, task-specific hypotheses assume that unique, neural mechanisms are recruited for the speech domain, whereas cue-dependent hypotheses claim that speech processing is subserved by neurobiological mechanisms specialized for particular aspects of the acoustic signal, irrespective of communicative or linguistic relevance. Evidence for or against these hypotheses has been drawn primarily from neurologically impaired populations with unilateral lesions to the left (LH) or right hemisphere (RH) as well as from studies using dichotic listening procedures or the Wada technique. Within the past decade, empirical evidence has also begun to appear from functional neuroimaging studies.

The Diffusion of a New Morphology in Norwegian Dialects

The most obvious tendency in modern Norwegian dialect change is regional levelling. The aim of this paper is to discuss the pattern of this levelling process, and I aim to test a hypothesis of urban jumping. This will be tested in detail for the region of Mid-Norway, with Trondheim at the top of a hierarchy and other towns and centres as subordinated nodes. The noun morphology of five dialects in Mid-Norway is compared, and we see that the regional capital of Trondheim has a fairly complex system compared to its subordinated towns and centres. The subordinated towns have been exposed to simplifications independent of the Trondheim dialect. The modern changes themselves are dependent on the urbanisation process, which has prevailed at different times in the various communities. Linguistically ‐ in our case in noun morphology ‐ the process seems to be more in the nature of simplification than of adapting the prestigious standard or central system. Accordingly, the new hypothesis suggests the following: Within a region, the dominating centre exerts some influence on the direction of language change, but the simplification processes manifest themselves first in new centres, i.e. in subordinated nodes in the regional hierarchy. Today the Trondheim dialect seems to be adopting certain simplifications. In the other towns and centres these changes were known generations ago. From these bare facts one could perhaps deduce that the regional centre of Trondheim is sensitive to changes in the subordinated towns. This conclusion is strengthened by data from Northern Norway, but not from Eastern Norway, where the changes seem to follow a different route.

Acoustical evidence for the role of preaspiration in Norwegian

The Norwegian quantity system exhibits two main rhyme types; V[long]C[short] and V[short]C[long]. In addition, the two rhyme types may contain both voiced and voiceless consonants. Preaspiration is a scarce phenomenon in the world’s languages, but it is found in varying degrees in Norwegian dialects. A pilot study showed no preaspiration in rhymes containing voiced consonants. Acoustical evidence is presented as documentation for the presence of preaspiration in the production of Norwegian rhymes containing voiceless consonants. Through looking at preaspiration as a relative value of overall rhyme duration, it is shown that preaspiration is significantly greater in V[short]C[long,voiceless] rhymes compared to V[long]C[short,voiceless] rhymes. Thus preaspiration may be considered a cue to V[short]C[long,voiceless] rhymes in Norwegian. A gender difference was noted as female speakers exhibited more preaspiration than male speakers in V[short]C[long,voiceless] rhymes, perhaps due to breathier voice qualities among females. It is assumed that preaspiration in Norwegian has diminished through the development from Old Norse into modern Norwegian, and a perception study shows that preaspiration holds no perceptual value in today’s spoken Norwegian. The Norwegian quantity system is compared to the Icelandic quantity system, which resembles Old Norse. The Norwegian dialect used in the study is the Tro/nder dialect.

VOT in Norwegian stops.

The stops from three Norwegian dialect areas [Eastern Norwegian (EN), Tro/nder dialects (TD), and the Bergen dialect] were recorded. Native speakers of Norwegian read mono- and disyllabic words twice in a carrier phrase. Stressed vowels were [e:], [eh], [u:], and [closed omega]. All three dialects have /bd open gee ptk/, EN and TD have retroflex stops /hooked tee hooked dee/ and TD also have palatal stops /c inverted eff/. Measurements of VOT were made using a wave-editing program at Haskins Laboratories. It was hypothesized that (1) the traditionally labeled ‘‘voiced’’ stops would have zero or short lag onset. This turned out to be the case for most of the speakers, but some of them had extraordinarily long lead onsets. Free speech from the same subjects showed no or smaller lead onsets in /bd open gee/, however. (2) VOT in labials <dentals/alveolars<velars. Measurements showed clear distinction in VOT between labial and dental/alveolar stops, but there was smaller difference in VOT for dentals/alveolars and velars. These results will be corroborated with perception tests with synthesized stops in CV syllables. [Work supported by the Norwegian Research Council for the Humanities.]

New methodologies in the Nordic Syntax Database: Word order variation in Norwegian wh-questions

Across Norwegian dialects, wh-questions show variation concerning word order possibilities, with many dialects allowing non-V2 word order. The acceptance of this order differs across dialects and depends on the complexity and function of the wh-element. This study examines data from 409 informants across 105 sites in the Nordic Syntax Database (NSD). Throughout the study, new methodologies are used in an attempt to overcome some of the limitations of the NSD-map building tool as well as present new insights from a more detailed assessment of the acceptability judgements. Analysis of the frequency of these acceptability judgements on four test items showed that four grammars could be distinguished: those that allow either only V2 word order; non-V2 word order across all wh-questions; non-V2 in all but long non-subject wh-questions; or non-V2 only with short whs. An apparent-time study of the data supports a diachronic connection between some but not all of the varieties.

Heilskapens detaljar i Ivar Aasen-tunet

John Aage Gjestrum and the Ivar Aasen Centre – the whole and the details The last project John Aage Gjestrum was able to conclude in Norway was ’Ivar Aasen-Tunet’, The Ivar Aasen Centre for Norwegian Language and Literature, which was established on the site where Ivar Aasen was born. The institution is specifically dedicated to the documentation, development and promotion of ’Nynorsk’, New Norwegian, which was the result of the lifelong work of the linguist Ivar Aasen (1813–1896). He devoted himself to the study, collection and publication of Norwegian dialects with a view to liberating the Norwegian language from the strong Danish influence apparent in the official ’bokmål’, Dano-Norwegian. Ivar Aasen thus became a key figure in the movement which, since 1885, succeeded in getting the two Norwegian idioms officially accepted.

Tonemicity: A Technique for Determing [sic] the Phonemic Status of Supra-Segmental Patterns in Pairs of Lexical Units, Applied to a Group of West Norwegian Dialects, and to Faroese

Tonemicity: A Technique for Determing [sic] the Phonemic Status of Supra-Segmental Patterns in Pairs of Lexical Units, Applied to a Group of West Norwegian Dialects, and to Faroese

BROTHER EBBEN IN HIS NATIVE COUNTRY

BROTHER EBBEN IN HIS NATIVE COUNTRY BY OYSTEIN ORE While browsing through one of the antiquaries in Oslo some time ago I came across a curious little play, "Brother Ebben in His Native Country, or, the Voyage to America: A Play in Four Acts," by H. Allum.1 It is a naive play without dramatic value of any kind, yet a few sections deal with contemporary views on the problems of emigration to the United States. About the life of the author, Hans Allum, relatively little is known, although he must have been an unusual person. He was born at Botne, near Holmestrand, in 1777, received his training as a schoolteacher at the newly created seminary in T0nsberg, and taught in Holmestrand from 1800 onward. Later he became a deacon at Skoger, near Drammen ; he was, briefly, a newspaper editor in Drammen; and finally he taught in Arendal, where he died in 1848. His chief claim to fame lies in the folk songs (stev) that he composed in the Eiker dialect. These were mainly printed on song sheets to be peddled in the streets. From the number of them that were produced, they must have been immensely popular; and the songs still survive. Among the best known are: "Jae sku au ha l0st t'aa jifte mei" (I Should Also Like to Get Married); "Naa jenta bare er konfsermera" (As Soon As the Girl Has Been Confirmed); and "Alle karfolk har saa m0e aa si" (All Men Have So Much to Complain About) . Allum wrote lyrical effusions of the most varied kind, among them descriptions of the silverworks at Kongsberg and a cookbook in verse. When, as is usual, he uses the offi1 Broder Ebben i fýdelandet eiler Amerikareisen: Skuespü i fire akter (Christiania , 18S9). 86 BROTHER EBBEN 37 ciai Dano-Norwegian language, his style is awkward and he is plainly ill at ease; students in Christiania wrote parodies on his verse. But whenever he expresses himself in the Norwegian dialects, as in the folk songs, his words come to life and the style is honestly homespun and juicy. He was an early advocate of general use of the Norwegian dialects, and suggested the desirability of compiling a dictionary. Allum's poems apparently did not always show good taste; at one time he wrote an epos in eight songs entitled "Satan"; it is reported that the audience fled the hall in terror before he had finished reciting the first song. A number of his publications are contributions to polemical discussions. The principal figure in the play is "Brother Ebben" Rindai , a shipowner and manufacturer who returns to his native Norway after making his fortune in the United States; he is accompanied by his faithful friend Edmar Belton, a young Southerner. Rindai obviously expresses the views and sympathies of the author. He is outspoken and direct, scorning the empty distinctions and servile expressions of the time. In contradistinction the author heaps ridicule on Heibuk, the royal chamberlain, who seeks to obtain wealth in a marriage to Rindal's sister. Heibuk, before being introduced to Rindai, asks the poet Travelund about him: Chamberlain. So I will know best how to handle these people, please, my friend, before we approach them, tell me a little about their ways of thinking, speaking, and acting, about their prejudices , whims, and peculiarities; in short, point out the weak sides of the fortifications. In addition to the two silver talers I have promised you for the wedding song, you may also count on my protection and recommendation. Travelund. My head and my tongue are completely at your service. I understand full well how to describe character; I might even be compared to Scribe, the newly famous Parisian.2 The main trait in Ebben Rindal's character is his firm belief in class equality. A count and a tradesman, with your high permission, are both worth the same to him, the latter sometimes even more. aThe French playwright, Augustin Eugène Scribe (1791-1861). 38 OYSTEIN ORE Should His Majesty himself visit him, he would no doubt only say, "You are welcome, my good man." Chamberlain. ( Takes a pinch of tobacco) I know these newfashioned French ideas...

The Vowel System of a Norwegian Dialect in Wisconsin

1. Most speakers of Norwegian in the Middle West belong to the farming class.' Nearly all are bilingual, and many of them handle the English language better than the Norwegian. It is often easy to detect their Scandinavian background in listening to their English, even in the case of secondor third-generation Americans. They were usually educated in a grade school and a NorwegianLutheran parochial school. The parochial school, until relatively recent times, was conducted in Norwegian; the children were taught to read and write the language. As a result, only the youngest speakers of Norwegian are without any knowledge of its literary form. Literary Dano-Norwegian is still used in church services, and is the familiar form of the language to those of the city population who cultivate the idiom of their ancestors in the Sons of Norway lodges; but the country communities use dialects almost exclusively. As a rule, a community has only one main dialect. The pioneers preferred to settle with people from their own district in Norway; if people from two districts settled close together, the dialect that counted the larger number of speakers usually replaced the other. Dialect mixtures is seldom to be found except in individual speakers; only one case has been reported where a mixed dialect seems to be the language of a community. Only the largest settlements, for instance the Koshkonong settlement near Madison, have maintained several dialects with equal prestige. The dialects have been influenced by American English (chiefly in the form of loanwords) to a very large extent, so much in fact that newcomers from Norway often find it difficult to understand the speakers. This is true even if the newcomer knows English; for most English words, including a large part of those most commonly used in American Norwegian, do not sound English in a Norwegian context, and the speaker is often unaware that such-and-such a word is not pure Norwegian. It is this phonemic aspect of the loanwords that will be dealt with here.

Phonological Shifting in American Norwegian

Problems connected with the borrowing of words from language to language have occupied the attention of many linguists. In most cases this attention has been focused on languages of the remote past, where opportunity for first-hand phonetic observation has been cut off entirely. In the meanwhile borrowing has been going on within the United States on a scale rarely equalled in history, between English on the one hand and all the immigrant languages on the other. Here it becomes possible to record by modern means and to study by modern methods the phonetic form of each word in each of its incarnations, foreign, American, or hybrid. In the following study of one such dialect the writer wishes to present a concrete instance of the possibilities inherent in this kind of research. My informant concerning the particular dialect of American Norwegian here discussed is Mr. Odin Anderson, a student at the University of Wisconsin without previous training in linguistics, whose interest had been aroused to the extent that he spent many weary hours preparing a tentatively complete list of the words employed in his Norwegian dialect. That this list is not actually complete is shown by the fact that it contains only some 5500 words (of which about 1300 are English loanwords), which is probably too little for any actual language. In spite of this, it must be regarded as an impressive contribution toward complete knowledge of this very interesting dialect. The gathering of words has reached a point at which new words do not suggest themselves easily, but come to mind only rarely and fortuitously. This vocabulary represents the speech of a specific family living near the town of Blair in western Wisconsin, in the midst of a solidly Norwegian country community. No living member of this family has ever seen Norway,' and my informant is a third generation immigrant. His grandfather and greatgrandfather emigrated from Norway and

The Linguistic Development of Ivar Aasen's New Norse

It does not often happen that a language form created by conscious deliberation and planning wins the warm support and widespread acceptance which has fallen to the lot of New Norse, the creation of Ivar Aasen (1813–1896). A large body of serious literature has grown up in this artificial common denominator of Norwegian dialects; possibly a fourth of the school-children of Norway receive their chief instruction in it. Although New Norse is far from its goal of supremacy, it is a factor of the utmost significance in Norwegian history, and a phenomenon of great interest to students of language and literature.The earliest detailed study of Aasen's linguistic practice is found in Johan Storm's polemic pamphlet Det nynorske Landsmaal. That brilliant scholar here applied his wit and ingenuity to proving that New Norse (Landsmaal) as written, was not and could not be a language, because of its inevitable tendency to crumble up into the dialects of which it was created. To this end he analyzed in some detail the language of the various New Norse writers, among them Aasen. His purpose did not, however, involve an exhaustive study of Aasen's works, many of which were then unknown or scattered. Hence his classification was inadequate and at times definitely incorrect. He divided Aasen's New Norse into an older form, represented by Prøver af Landsmaalet (1853) and Fridtjofs Saga (1858), and an intermediary form used in Ervingen (2d ed., 1874), Heimsyn (1875) and Symra (3d ed., 1875). But this rough division (based chiefly on the change in 1858 from dan, dat to den, det) gives us no conception whatever of the gradual steps by which Aasen passed from form to form and the experimentation out of which his completed New Norse norm was shaped.

A Study of Norwegian Dialect in Minnesota

A Study of Norwegian Dialect in Minnesota