Man'kov Aleksandr

The Dialect of Gammalsvenskby: an attempt at compiling a dictionary of an endangered language (disk - drǟas)

Abstract

In this paper we continue to publish materials for the dictionary of the present-day dialect of Staroshvedkoye (Gammalsvenskby), which is the only surviving Scandinavian dialect in the territory of the former Soviet Union. The present-day state of this dialect has not been described in linguistic literature. In connection with this, the only source of the factual material is oral interviews with speakers of the dialect recorded by the author during his trips to the village. The main objective of this work is to present material recorded in the interviews in the most complete way and to show the real state of the vocabulary and inflection of the dialect. The entries include the following information: type of inflection; translation; phrases, sentences or short texts illustrating the usage (with initials of the informants). In many cases full paradigms are given as well. They include all phonetic and morphological forms that have occurred in the interviews.

Keywords

language documentation, documentary linguistics, field linguistics, endangered language, present-day Swedish dialects, Swedish dialects of Estonia, Gammalsvenskby, dialect dictionary.

Information about the author

Man'kov Aleksandr