South Jutlandic

South Jutlandic or South Jutish (South

Jutish:
Synnejysk; Danish: Snderjysk; Germa
n:Sdjtisch or Plattdnisch) is a
dialect of the Danish language. South
Jutlandic is spoken in Southern
Jutland (Snderjylland) (also called
Schleswig or Slesvig) on both sides of
the border between Denmark and
Germany.
Variants of the dialect include
Western and Eastern South Jutlandic
(including Alsisk). The former variant
in Angeln and Schwansen was known
as Angel Danish.

The other dialects classified as

belonging
to
the
Jutlandic or Jutish (Jysk) group of
dialects are West, East, and North
Jutlandic.
Usage

Map of Northern and Southern

Schleswig (Southern Jutland)
Northern Slesvig
Many older people will still speak a
distinct South Jutlandic dialect, both in
towns and rural areas. Younger people
and children are more likely to use a

dialect-tinted version of Standard

Danish, but everything ranging from
relatively pure dialect to Standard
Danish can be found. Many are able to
switch between both varieties.
A renewed popular interest in
preserving the South Jutlandic dialect
has been seen in recent years. This
revival has been fuelled by the works
of several local artists and authors as
well as Synnejysk Forening, a
society working for the promotion of
the dialect.
Several schools now offer the dialect
as
an
optional
subject,
although Rigsdansk,
the
official
Danish, remains a major, compulsory
subject.

Members of the South Jutlandic

speaking minority on the German side
of the border tend to emphasize their
South Jutlandic identity. Many
members of this minority are in one
way or another connected with
agriculture, the dialect being more
prevalent in rural communities. The
German minority usually speak South
Jutlandic with each other and with
Danish-minded people alike, but
prefer German for writing and official
occasions such as meetings. Standard
Danish is mastered as well, being
taught in schools along with Standard
German.
Southern Slesvig

South Jutlandic is still spoken to some

degree in villages up to about 15 km
south of the Danish-German border,
but hardly in the major city of
Flensburg, where the Danish speakers
speak Standard Danish. Most people
will be able to speak or understand
Low German and sometimes Frisian.
All will know High German, often
being the only language of young
people and children. Members of the
Danish minority are taught Standard
Danish as well in schools, but often
choose to communicate in German in
everyday life.
Language (and especially spoken
language) is not necessarily linked
with national identification. Family

ties and informal local contact across

the border used to be very common,
with South Jutlandic being the first
language of both Danish minded and
German minded people. Sometimes
the purest South Jutlandic may be
found among older people who
identify as German. Since they have
not attended Danish schools, their
speech is not influenced by Standard
Danish. With urbanization in the
recent decades this crisscross of
dialects and national sentiment has
faded, High German becoming the
first choice everywhere, but often
some South Jutlandic words are
retained in the vocabulary.
History

Historically, the Danish language had a

much larger extension in South Slesvig
than today. South Jutlandic was
spoken down to the Danevirke wall
south of Schleswig town, close to the
Viking
town
of Hedeby,
and
to Eckernfrde on the east coast.
South of this was a sparsely inhabited
area
which
after
the Viking
age became
populated
with Saxon settlers whose language is
now better known as Low German.
The western islands and the west
coast were settled by Frisians. A little
further inland Frisians and Danes were
mixed.
With the reformation in the 16th
century the national language was

installed in church instead of Latin. In

Slesvig this meant not the language of
the peasantry, but that of the dukes
and gentry, being first Low German
and later High German. German was
the language of administration in all of
Slesvig. In Northern Slesvig, however,
priests were educated at the chapter
of Haderslevand Danish was spoken in
church. The church language border
was very similar to the present-day
Danish-German border which was
created by plebiscite in 1920.
During the 17th and 18th century the
population in the area south of
the Schlei (Sli) inlet switched to Low
German, few details being known
about their former South Jutlandic

dialect.
The
people
of Angeln (Danish Angel),
the
countryside between Flensburg and
the Schlei where the Angles who
settled England also originally came
from, kept to their South Jutlandic
dialect for a longer time, but often had
some knowledge of Low German as
well.
The Angel dialect became extinct
around 1900. A few records of it exist,
showing it was similar to the South
Jutlandic of the Snderborg area in
North Slesvig, across the Flensborg
Fjord. The Low German dialect of
Angel still has a great deal of Danish
words and grammatical influence

which makes it difficult to understand

for other Low German speakers.
During the 19th century the South
Jutlandic dialect had a status inferior
to Low German, and parents started
to encourage their children to speak
Low German, so they would be better
prepared for school (where education
was in High German). Some scholars
assume that centuries with German
spoken in church made people identify
with the German nationality, even if
they still spoke a Danish vernacular at
home.
The Danish government, for political
reasons, wished to halt this language
shift from Danish to German. After
the First War of Schleswig, in 1851,

the government issued language

rescripts ordering that the school
language should be Danish in those
areas where the peasantry spoke
Danish and even in an area stretching
further south, into the Low German
speaking area. Church language would
alternate between Danish and
German. Standard Danish had never
been widely used in South Slesvig
even where the populace spoke a
Danish dialect. The dominant official
language was German, and the
measures of the government had
quite the adverse effect, reinforcing
anti-Danish sentiment. A pattern
emerged, the poorest in rural areas
sticking to South Jutlandic, the
wealthier peasants speaking Low

German as the lingua franca, and

educated townsmen speaking High
German.
An interesting variety of South
Jutlandic was spoken until the 1940s
in an area west of Schleswig town,
40 km south of the present border.
Called Fjoldedansk after
the
village Fjolde(German:
Vil)
or sydslesvigsk (southern
Schleswigian), the dialect had many
archaic features otherwise lost in
Danish, such as verbs fully inflected in
person and number. The village was
isolated
between
surrounding
moorland, creating a language-island,
similar to the case of theSaterland
Frisian language.

Place names
Place names in South Slesvig are of
almost exclusively Danish origin,
except in North Frisia and the
southernmost
area.
Typical
Scandinavian endings include -by, -bl,
-trup, -lund, -ved, -toft(in German
form: -by, -bll, -trup, -lund, -witt, toft). In some cases the South
Jutlandic form has been eradicated
from the Standard Danish variety of
the name, but is still visible in the
Germanised version:
Standard
Danish
Meden
Bilskov
Agtrup

South
Jutlandic
Mejn
Bilskau
Achtrup

German
Meyn
Billschau
Achtrup

Jydbk
Snderup

Jybk
Synnerup

Jbek
Snderup

In many other cases the Germanised

versions
are
out
of etymological context.
Examples
include
the
Danish
ending ns (isthmus) being replaced by -nitz,
a Slavic ending which is common in
eastern Germany. Such arbitrary
translations were often made by the
central Prussian government after the
whole of Slesvig was ceded
to Prussia after the war of 1864.
The South Jutlandic name of the town
of Schleswig (Slesvig), from which the
region
derives
its
name,
was Sljasvig with the stress on the
second syllable.