|
1
Scandiasyn-bloggen i september 2010
Tisdag 21. september
Leksand i Dalarna och Hälsingland i september
Under fyra dagar i september reste vi (Sanna Skärlund och Tiina Pitkäjärvi) från Lund till Leksand i Dalarna, och Ovanåkers kommun och Delsbo i Hälsingland. Vi talade med 12 informanter och hade även två inspelare, en för Dalarna respektive en för Hälsingland. Frågan om hur pass dialektal inspelningen borde vara (om varje ort skulle ha haft sin egen inspelning) aktualiserades i såväl Leksand, som i Ovanåker och Delsbo, då informanterna påpekade orternas dialektala särprägel gentemot inspelningarna. Ibland behövde meningarna omformuleras, t.ex. genom efterställda genitivattribut (katten sin), för att de skulle godtas av informanterna.
I Ovanåker registrerades tydligt svansar efter negation av typen Moster Lisa har nog inte kommit än-ne.
Vis Opptakssteder - ScanDiaSyn i et større kart
Fältarbete i norra Norrland och i Österbotten
Efter ScanDiaSyns stormöte i Tromsø i juni gjordes intervjuer i Arjeplog och Vilhelmina. Som fältarbetare fungerade Anna Kaijser och Tiina Pitkäjärvi. Fältarbetet genomfördes som planerat med informanter som också deltog i SweDia2000, och intervjuerna gjordes hemma hos informanterna och på lärcentrum i Vilhelmina. Etapperna i Lappland klarades till största del med buss, förutom från Arvidsjaur till Vilhelmina då vi kunde använda Inlandsbanan som är i drift under sommarmånaderna.
I augusti gjordes intervjuer med fyra informanter i österbottniska Larsmo i Finland. Intervjuerna gjordes som en del av det finlandssvenska delprojektet. Den svenska originalenkäten har bearbetats och översatts till de olika dialekterna av inspelarna för de finlandssvenska intervjuerna, vilket har krävt mycket förarbete. I vissa fall har testmeningar från det svenska originalformuläret lämnats bort i översättningarna till dialekt, i andra fall har meningarna när det varit möjligt ändrats för att syntaktiskt passa undersökningen. Informanterna i Larsmo intervjuades var för sig. De två äldre informanterna deltog i projektet Spara Talet (2005 – 2008) medan de yngre informanterna var nya. Larsmo är en skärgårdskommun som består av fyra byar; alla informanter var från samma by, Holm, som också är kommunens centralort.
– Tiina
Vis Opptakssteder - ScanDiaSyn i et større kart
Sundag 19. september
Her om dagen fekk [eg] eit brev frå Sparebank1 Nord-Norges Gavefond v/utvalsleiar Jarle Aarbakke. I brevet stod det at søknaden om kr. 450.000 til prosjektet nordnorsk.uit.no vert støtta med – ja, nettopp – 450.000. Full utteljing med andre ord!
Dette er faktisk den tredje løyvinga frå Sparebanken Nord-Norge til delprosjekt under eller relatert til ScanDiaSyn – totalt har vi no fått drygt 1 million frå dei. Den første løyvinga vart gitt til innsamling av data frå nordnorske målepunkt og den kom på eit tidspunkt då Noregs forskingsråd enno ikkje hadde støtta prosjektet. Den andre løyvinga vart gitt for å utvikla ein allmennretta nettstad om nordnorske dialektar, nordnorsk.uit.no. Dette arbeidet er no i gang – Pavel Iosad byggjer for tida opp eit publiseringssystem for nettstaden slik at det seinare vert lett for oss andre å fylla den med innhald.
Nettstaden er tenkt som noko à la nettstaden for SweDia 2000, men meir omfattande og meir dynamisk, og den siste løyvinga rekk til seks forskarmånadsverk som skal brukast til å skriva stoff til nettstaden, t.d. skildringar av målmerke, bestemte dialektar, kartografiske oversyn o.l. Dette arbeidet kan såleis sjåast i samanheng med det dei tre forskarane i NorDiaCorp/NorDiaSyn skal gjera når dei etterkvart startar opp (jf. nyleg utlysing med søknadsfrist 15. september.)
– Øystein
 |
| Sparebank1 Nord-Norge, avd. Tana. Foto: Øystein A. Vangsnes |
Fredag 17. september
 |
| Martha at the Vesterheim Museum, Decorah, IA.
Photo: Janne Bondi Johannessen. |
Monday morning we broke camp to set trail for Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum where we had a swift, but very enlightening guided tour kindly lead by the very knowledgeable Martha Griesheimer. In addition to an extremely impressive collection of Norwegian traditional artifacts and exhibitions illustrating the history of Norwegian immigration into the US, here was an open air exhibition of buildings, traditional Norwegian buildings and authentic buildings from the first settlers homesteading in the areas near Decorah. This was followed by a talk by Janne and Signe about the project, where the audience was mostly the guides and volunteers at Vesterheim, but there were also others in the audience, people who turned up simply to enlighten themselves about the project. Janne and Signe had already travelled in the Midwest once before this year, in March, to collect data on the Norwegian dialects spoken in the area. Therefore they already had some research results to present at their talk from their pilot study. The crowd was diligently listening to everything, and there were a lot of questions and comments after the talk. Finally everyone queued up for coffee and home-made traditional Norwegian cookies, generously brought to us by Martha.
 |
| A nice little American-Norwegian farmhouse at the museum: Beate, Signe, Martha, Arnstein, Marit and Kristin.
Photo: Janne Bondi Johannessen. |
Robert Rosendahl used to be one of the guides at Vesterheim, and he even offers guided tours in Norwegian for occasional visitors from the old country. Of course we had to record him speaking Norwegian, and there was also another informant on site who also immediately had to submit himself to our merciless recorders.
Later in the afternoon we continued our journey to visit the house of Sonja G. for an interview with her and her good friend Mildred. Mildred volunteered that she had not spoken Norwegian for 65 years, at least not for a long conversation like the one she was having now. That was quite hard to believe, because the Norwegian words came floating out of the two ladies’ mouths at an increasingly fast rate, and their stories had us mesmerized for hours. At the end they decided that they really missed speaking Norwegian, and plotted to speak Norwegian at the Bridge table so nobody could understand. After thinking about it, they reached the conclusion that too many people understand Norwegian in their Bridge club; they would never be able to get away with it. So maybe they could start speaking Norwegian to the cat instead. Poor thing, they said, she is in for a shock when she has to learn Norwegian.
 |
| Interior at Borgen’s Café in Westby.
Photo: Janne Bondi Johannessen |
On Tuesday morning, now in Westby, we were joined by another group of researchers, three people from the University of Oslo (Prof. Ingeborg Kongslien, Prof. Anne Golden, and Prof. Elizabeth Lanza), Prof. Joe Salmons from the University of Wisconsin, and PhD student Leiv Inge Aa from NTNU (Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim). At his point we decided it would be a good idea to split into two groups; each with a little different program for the day.
In Westby we had some very nice lunches at Borgen’s café, which makes no attempt to hide its owners’ ancestry.
One group arrived at the lovely home of Phyllis and Birger to meet a group of informants. While Signe, Leiv Inge and Arnstein joined the two informants Myron and Rand in the basement for a video recording, Marit and Kristin talked to Florence and Elisabeth, respectively. Their dialect clearly reveal the origin of the first Norwegian settlers in this area, their dialect could almost have been spoken in Gudbrandsdalen today, at least by the elder segment of the inhabitants.
 |
| Erma G. Photo: Kristin Melum Eide. |
After we had worn out these informants, we talked to Milan and Erma. Their stories took us back to a time when Norwegian language was spoken in every home and every farmhouse in Skogdalen, near Westby. There were maybe six or seven families in the area of non-Norwegian origin, mainly Irish Catholics, but these children had a hard time since everybody else spoke Norwegian. But of course, English was the langue spoken in “skolestua”, i.e. school. The teachers were not supposed to let them speak Norwegian in school, but when the “School mama” was Norwegian, they could usually get away with it. Erma was not confirmed in Norwegian, but her late husband and her siblings who were a bit older, all had their confirmation in Norwegian. She also told us that her older sister spoke nothing but Norwegian when she started school, and she understood nothing from the lessons which were all in English. The family solved the problem in a somewhat original way, an aunt took the children to school every day and acted as a translator for the unhappy child, helped her with her homework and helped the “school mama” understand the attempts from the young Norwegian girl.
 |
| Myron and his accordion. Photo: Janne B. Johannessen. |
Meanwhile the guys in the basement were discussing music and literature. Myron is a singer and also plays the accordion, and he has even been to Norway (Vestre Gausdal) to give a concert. Rand is very interested in Norwegian literature, and is currently reading a novel by P. Petterson in Norwegian. The two next informants, Archie and Larry, had a lot to tell about tobacco farming and moonshining in the old days, revealing that Norwegians in this area have been industrious and quite self sufficient at all times.
The second group set course to the farm of the two brothers Ernest and Joseph, who were accompanied by their first cousin Elnor and his wife Marjorie. The four of them spoke Norwegian very well, and the two brothers, unlike most other Norwegians in this area, speak Norwegian on a daily basis. A typical speaker of the Norwegian dialect in the Midwest will usually sprinkle his conversation with a number of English loan words, often wrapped in Norwegian morphology. This was a lot less the case for these brothers, who seemed instead to have total access to the original Norwegian vocabulary. All four of them were recorded, on video (by Janne and Beate) and also on audio recordings (by Ingeborg, Anne and Elizabeth).
A special feature of the farm was the unmistakably Norwegian barn; seemingly there is a particular Wisconsin way of placing the buildings on the farm which is very much Norwegian in its nature. This was also the case for the farm of these brothers, and one might say that the farm matched the way the brothers were speaking; i.e. very true to their Norwegian heritage.
Next stop was the home of Tilford and Eleanor in Skogdalen. The two of them are musicians and performed a number of Norwegian evergreens for the grateful audience of researchers. Again, the informants turned out to master Norwegian fluently and their dialect could easily have been spoken in Gudbrandsdalen, Norway. Unlike many other informants, these two had spoken Norwegian to their children, making Norwegian a regular part of their homely conversation. This couple was also accompanied by a third informant, Cousin Clinton, who added to the already impressive number of Norwegian-speaking informants we have met on this trip. Clinton meets a lot of tourists via his engagement in the museum in Norskedalen, and this partly explains his current fluency in the Norwegian language.
Music was also played at the Eklovs, who hospitably offered their house to the recording sessions, perfectly arranged by Ron I. in the Sons of Norway branch. We had a great time talking to our nice informants and singing Norwegian traditional songs with Myron, who played the accordion. For Signe and Janne, it was very touching to meet again two informants we had got to know in March on our previous tour: Archie and Florence. It was good to see that they seemed even younger than before, at ages 80 and 88. Sadly, our field work has come to an end now.
– Kristin
 |
| Leiv Inge Aa (NTNU), Kristin Melum Eide (NTNU), Janne Bondi Johannessen (University of Oslo), Ingeborg Kongslien (University of Oslo), Beate Taranrød (University of Oslo), Marit Westergaard (University of Tromsø), Anne Golden (University of Oslo), Elizabeth Lanza (University of Oslo), Signe Laake (University of Oslo), Arnstein Hjelde (Øsfold University College).
Photo: Barbara. |
Tysdag 14. september
 |
| At Norris’ farm. Photo: Jill S. |
Saturday morning started with a visit at the farm of Norris and his wife Betty in Harmony, Minnesota. We had talked beforehand to Emma and Milford, and Emma’s sister Geneva, but met even more people there than expected, and even Jill from the association Giants of the Earth. The farm was beautifully situated, and we got lots of food and drink, but of course the best was to talk to so many people in Norwegian. It continues to make an impression that so many people have kept a language that they generally stopped speaking a long time ago, sometimes decades. Not all are as lucky as one of our informants, in his eighties, who spoke Norwegian regularly until his mother died, a few months ago at age 105!
Being six researchers turns out to work well when we have so many informants. We can share them between us and get a bit more time with each. Of course, it has to be said that it all becomes a bit hectic at times. As before, we have a lot of recording equipment, so it will all be kept for future use.
 |
| Janne and Kristin happy inside the viking ship in the parade.
Photo: Signe Laake |
Later on Saturday we were invited to take part in the Steam Engine Parade in nearby Mabel. We were sitting in a viking ship on wheels pulled by a car, and were singing Norwegian folk songs and waving flags and feeling stupidly patriotic. But it was great fun, and the crowds that had lined up to watch the parade seemed to think that we were good entertainment, and they were waving back. Our new friends from the Sons of Norway Lodge also were very happy that we had been singing, since this was the first time ever in the Steam Engine Parade.
Saturday afternoon brought even more pleasures, as we went to nearby Spring Grove and the beatiful Sylling House. This house has been restored to an old American style, both inside and outside, and its owners had graciously offered for us to use it for meeting informants, via aforementioned Jill. It worked perfectly, and we met lots of very nice informants that we had arranged with prior to arriving in the US. There was even a cocktail party with members of Giants of the Earth, one of them including a young Norwegian girl who had married a local Spring Grove man and settled in this little town of 1200 people. Spring Grove is a really nice place, friendly and peaceful.
 |
| Allan and his wife. Photo: Signe Laake |
Sunday was also Spring Grove day, as we had been invited to the Trinity Lutheran Church for church coffee. However, we had been asked to also attend the service, which we did. We were quite suprised when the vicar had a special greeting to the guests from Norway, and we all had to rise up and get a round of applause. At the church coffee we met many of our informants, which was very nice. We also met more people who spoke Norwegian. After church the group divided into two groups. Signe and Beate went to Harold, who was a great informant, who had had a very interesting life, and after that took Kristin along to Tweeten nursing home, where they met Mildred, 95 years old, but who seemed more like half that age. It should be mentioned that they also met a 100 year old woman, whose lack of hearing made Signe realise that next time she must remember to have hearing-aid batteries in her pocket! They even went home to yet another informant, Allan, who spoke Norwegian really well and was very nice. He told them about how lucky he was to have had a lot of contact with his grand parents and speaking Norwegian with them, since his parents were too busy to think about Norway, because ”de hadde det så travelt med å lage leving” (so busy making a living). The rest of us went to a future museum at the Ballard House, and later we (Janne, Arnstein and Marit) went for a little wine visit to some of the members of Giants of the Earth.
– Janne
 |
| Our viking ship getting ready for parade in Mabel.
Photo: Luke Annear |
Måndag 13. september
NorDiaSyn’s daughter project NorAmDiaSyn is established to collect data from descendants of Norwegian immigrants to The United States. A number of researchers from several Norwegian universities are currently assisting project leader Professor Janne Bondi Johannessen, University of Oslo, in these efforts. This particular NorAmDiaSyn field work to the Midwest consists in two major sections, each with a little different inventory of researchers partaking. The first section of the field work started on Friday September 10th in the small town of Blair, Wisconsin. The researchers participating here are Arnstein Hjelde (Associate Professor, University College of Østfold), Professor Marit Westergaard (leader of CASTL, Tromsø University), Beate Taranrød (Student, University of Oslo), Signe Laake (research assistant, Oslo University), project leader Janne Bondi Johannessen, Kristin Melum Eide (Professor, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim), and Luke Annear (student, University of Wisconsin, Madison).
 |
| The NorAmDiaSyn fieldwork group, September 2010. Photo: Kathrine Myrah |
 |
| Welcome cake in Blair. Photo: Kristin Melum Eide |
Our contact in Blair, Salome Hjelsand, had arranged for a surprisingly big turn-up, so upon our arrival in First Lutheran Church in Blair, the venue was already crowded with people eager to reveal their inner Norwegian to an exited team of researchers. There could be no shred of doubt that we were expected and very welcome, the tables were packed with all kinds of delicious dishes, and Norwegian specialities, kransekake and lefse, pickled herring and meat balls, and they had even brought in a fantastic cake specially designed for this particular event.
– Alle er skilt i Blair
Many of the informants spoke Norwegian on a surprisingly high level of proficiency, and some even quite fluently. Already their first utterances readily revealed a Norwegian source dialect area. As we started asking them about their relatives and relations to each other, several informants stated what to the untrained ear sounded like “alle er skilt i Blair”, i.e. ‘everyone is divorced in Blair’. A more thorough questioning reveled of course that what the utterance was “alle er skyldt i Blair”, i.e. everyone is related in Blair. But this significant piece of language also reveals that many of the inhabitants in Blair descend from people who acquired their Norwegian mother tongue in the area around Solør and Våler (close to the Swedish border). One famous feature of these dialects is that the sound which in most other Norwegian dialects is pronounced [y], comes out as "i".
 |
| Elaine Johnson Lee and Signe Laake in cheerful conversation
Photo: Kristin Melum Eide |
Many of the informants told a similar story, that Norwegian used to be the only language spoken in their home, since their grandparents, living in the same house, spoke very little English. This may sound as a nice and homely situation, but to an immigrant child not mastering English was a huge disadvantage when they started school, and made the Norwegian children lag behind. As one informant put it, “Je trur itte je lærte noen tingen, jeg, I fysste graden, nei.” (I don’t think I learned anything in the first grade).
For others, English was definitely their first language, but they had learned Norwegian from their grandparents. 70-80 years later, the words and grammar of their grandparents are still imprinted and very much alive in their minds.
– Kristin
|
