naming a language

[Östen Dahl]

As one of those who has promoted the term "Elfdalian", I feel I should make
a couple of comments on Henrik Rosenkvist's posting. 

There are a few arguments in favour of this term: it is based on the
traditional Latinization of the toponym Älvdalen ("Öwdaln") which Henrik
forgot to mention), which goes back at least to the 17th century (when
people coming from Älvdalen called themselves "Elfdalius" or "Elfdalia"),
and it is reasonably easy to pronounce in English (how are you supposed to
pronounce "Oevdalian"?). It is an exonym, but so are many other common
denominations of non-standard varieties in Europe, e.g. "Bavarian",
"Ostrobothnian", "Alsatian" etc. In fact, when the ending of the name is
changed from "-ska" to "-ian" it is arguably "exonymicized" in any case. As
for the connotations of "Elfdalian", I think there may be different views on
them.

It should also be noted that "övdalska" is not the traditional name of the
language; the usual way of referring to it is as "dalska", that is, the
speakers do not single it out as different from the surrounding Dalecarlian
varieties. So "övdalska" can be seen as a calque on the Swedish "älvdalska",
which, by the way, is a term that has become popular fairly recently,
replacing the traditional "älvdalsmål", probably because the latter sounds
more like a dialect than a language. 

Incidentally, there is an older English name, based on the traditional
autonym "dalska", viz. "Dalian", which was used by immigrants in the United
States. 

I guess there is no ideal solution to this problem, and it is unfortunate
that linguists cannot agree on questions of terminology, but maybe we will
have to live with this kind of linguistic diversity - after all many people
seem to think diversity is always a good thing. ;-)

Östen Dahl 


> -----Original Message-----
> From: funknet-bounces at mailman.rice.edu [mailto:funknet-
> bounces at mailman.rice.edu] On Behalf Of Henrik Rosenkvist
> Sent: den 18 mars 2009 16:00
> To: funknet at mailman.rice.edu
> Subject: [FUNKNET] naming a language
> 
> Dear Funknetters,
> 
> the last couple of years me and some of my colleagues have been working
> with a language variety which traditionally has been considered a
> Swedish dialect, but which, from a pure linguistic perspective, probably
> should be considered a language of its own. In the near future, we will
> publish some studies in this field in English, and we have been debating
> what we should call this language in English.
> 
> The Swedish name for the dialect is Älvdalska (/älv/ = river, /dal/ =
> valley, -/ska/ = -ish, as in Danish etc.). The speakers themselves say
> "Övdalska". We do not consider /Elfdalian/ an option (it is an exonym
> and has unwanted connotations), but are trying to decide between the
> alternatives  /Oevdalian/ and /Övdalian. /The former may sound archaic,
> but the latter contains the Swedish <ö>.
> 
> Considering the great experience in the field of typology which this
> list represents, could you possibly guide us in this matter? We expect
> that our coming work will have some impact, and would like to make the
> right choice from the beginning. So, what is the best choice? Are there
> better English alternatives?
> 
> The speakers themselves are quite illitterate when it comes to foreign
> languages, by the way, and they are not able to aid us.
> 
> all the best
> 
> Henrik R.