Dialects – speak the Värmland dialect

Värmländska, as it's known, is lots of different dialects with varying tonal "melody" and completely unique words, characters and pronunciation. Knut Warmland is a Master of Philosophy, author, reviewed and lecturer, and in 2010 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Karlstad University for his work in the field of literature and the language. Here, he'll give you a quick lesson on our Värmland dialects and their peculiarities.

”Dä ä gôtt mä kôrv”

What does it sound like when a normal Värmland person speaks, possibly someone a little older, who doesn't really speak much standard Swedish? Some vowels are typical. A short "a" is often similar to Norwegian, i.e. saying tack and backen sounds much the same as the "a" in tak and baken. The vowel "u" in hunn is the same as the one in hus, and the "ö" in höre is similar to the one in föse. The "ä" vowel in läre sounds like the one in läse.

So although we have fewer vowels than in standard Swedish, we make up for that with our predilection for "ô" and "û": pôjker, bôtten, hôll iddä, rôgen han växer, dä ä gôtt mä kôrv. In the western and northern parts of the county, "ô" is often replaced by "û": rôg (=råg, rye) is pronounced rûg, fôlk is pronounced fûlk. And "û", which can also be long, is pronounced more the less the same as the "u" in the Stockholm pronunciation of dumburk.

An "å" before an "ng" diphthong is pronounced with a short back "a": en lang trang gang, as in Norwegian, and "ungen är så tung" is pronounced ongen ä se tong (pure "o" vowels), again the same as in Norwegian.

A remarkable local phonetic shift changes "pt" to "ft". So the words knappt, köpt, djupt, döpt and recept are pronounced (at least among older people) knafft, köft, djuft, döft and resäft.

Endings and word class variants

Endings can vary in different parts of Värmland. The most common form in the definite plural is -era: hästera, jäntera, bilera, etc. But in the west, people say hästane, hästân is used in the north (with a long "a"), but up towards Sysslebäck the "a" is shorter: hästann.

Adjectives can have different endings for different purposes: stôlli, stôllet, stôllete, stôllut, but the first variant is the most common; it's almost "normal" Swedish.

The infinitives of verbs often end in -e: skrive, läse, göre/gäre, äte, måle. The declension of weak verbs is easy: måle, måla, måla. So "målade" (plural) and "målat" (singular) are the same.  The declension is even easier in northern Värmland: mål', mål', mål'. There, the final syllable is just dropped and the remaining syllable is pronounced with a double tone (known as apocopation): Ja mött' en gûbb' sûm ledd' e kvig' (jag mötte en gubbe som ledde en kviga).

Common Värmland words 

An essential word for any native of Värmland is jämt. As well as its standard Swedish meaning of "always", it can also mean "just", "very", a moment ago", etc., depending on context: Ja ska jämt in på apotek e vänning (Jag ska bara in på apoteket en vända).

Every bit as indispensable are the verb töle and the adjective töli. Töle can be translated as meaning making a fuss, nagging, being verbose, while töli means awkwards, boring (as in work), shilly-shallying, senile, childish. But note: töli mustn't be confused with tôli, meaning 'tålig' (patient)!

The intensifier skit is dret in Värmland; this is actually the same word as our English dirt.

When icy streets are slippery in Värmland, people say: – Dä ä glingt idag! In some places, the variant glint is preferred. The verb to fall becomes däppe or dätte. Living things also seem to become anna. The first "a" is a back "a" as in al, but short. Not only do we have våranna, ploganna and slôttanna (hay harvests) but also skåranna (rye, oat or wheat harvests); and when it's time to pick lingonberries, you might even hear the word krösanna.