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On dialect syntax
What is dialect syntax?
Briefly put dialect syntax is the study of the syntax in and across dialects!
Syntax is the study of how words are put together into bigger units,
i.e. phrases and sentences, whereas one by a dialect understand a
variety of a language, either as determined by geography (‘geolect’),
sociological conditions (‘sociolect’), and/or ethnicity (‘ethnolect’).
Traditional dialectology and variational linguistics have primarily
focussed on differences in pronunciation and lexis across varieties of a
language, and to a lesser degree been concerned with differences in the
composition of sentences and phrases. But also when it comes to syntax
there are differences across dialects. We can consider a few examples
drawn from the Scandianvian domain.
Lack of subject/verb inversion in Norwegian dialects
In
great parts of Norway, from northern Norway and south along the western
coast into the county of Rogaland, and even in some inner parts of
eastern Norway, question words (wh-words) do not necessarily have to be
immediately followed by the finite verb – as is the case in standard
Norwegian and Scandinavian/Germanic more generally. Consider the
placement of sa ‘said’ in the following examples.
Ka du sa før nåkka? (North, Central, and Western Norwegian)
what you said
Kva sa du? (Nynorsk Standard Norwegian)
what said you
Å sa du for no? (Eastern and Southeastern Norwegian)
what said you for something
The central eastern Norwegian area and southeastern Norwegian,
i.e. from around the capital Oslo and southwards along the coast(s),
are the only areas where this lack of subject/verb inversion (Verb
Second) is not encountered.This is one of rather few syntactic
phenomena that have received some attention within Norwegian
dialectology.
Adjective incorporation in northern Swedish and central Norwegian dialects
In the traditional northern Swedish dialects adjectives are compounded when the latter bears the definite article. An expression like ‘the black horse’ (standard Swedish den svarta hästen will have the form schwarthestn ‘black-horse-the’ in for example the Västerbotten dialects. The phenomenon is also found in central Norwegian dialects. An important point in this respect is that such compounded expressions are used to determine specific referents in a particular context – in the example in question the expression will not refer to a horse which happens to bear the name “Svarthesten”, but rather to a horse which is (spontaneously) identified on the basis of its color.
Verb placement in embedded clauses
In dialects of Northern Ostrobothnia (Finland) and Northern Norway the finite verb of embedded clauses may appear in a different position than in Standard Swedish and Standard Norwegian. Consider the placement of måst/må relative to the other words in the following examples.
Vet du för va han måst alltjämt låna peng av kompisa sín? (Northern Ostrobothnia)
know you for what he must allways borrow money of buddies-the his
Vet du koffør han må alltid låne penga a vennan sin? (nordnorsk)
know you why he must allways borrow money of friends-the his
Veit du kvifor han alltid må låna pengar av vennenne sine? (nynorsk)
know you why he allways must borrow money of friends-the his
The issues here is that the verb (i.e. the finite auxiliary måste/må in this case) can precede a sentence adverb like alltid in the dialects in question whereas this is not possible in the standard languages.
More
These are but a few of numerous examples of syntactic variation in the Scandinavian language area. Under "Bibliography" in the left menu you will find on the one hand a searchable bibliographical database containing works on Scandinavian dialect syntax and on the other hand a list (in the submenu) of recent work by scholars involved in ScanDiaSyn.
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