A small English to

Swedish, to Lule Bondska or Lule

Westrobothnian wordlist and phrase-list – Sven
Isaksen

Lulemål or Lulebondska is one of the more northern varieties of Bondska, it has some of the
most unique phonological variations, unique from Pitemål, Skelleftemål and Kalixmål. It is
often quite hard even for other speakers of Bondska to understand. In Lulemål the Old Norse
long a remains, pa ‘on’, Swedish på, fa ‘get’, Swedish få. The Lule language has unusual
examples of diphthongisation and differs considerably from other Bondska dialects.

English Swedish Lule Bondska

at, by vid atve
he wrote han skrev hån skreiv
old gammal gåmal
today i dag idä
Sweden Sverige Swärje
what? vad? bo/vo?
our language språket vårt maLe veort
I can jag kan jö kän
self själv sjöLv
her hennes henarSch
his hans hånsch
say säga seeg
yesterday i går igar
I jag jö
you (singular) du do/dö
he han hån
she hon ho
it (neuter) det he
we vi ve
you (plural) ni je
they de (dom) dom
I bought jag köpte jö tjööpt
I had read the book jag hade läst boken jö häädd lest beoka
in Swedish på Svenska pa swäänSk
how much? hur mycket? huri mitji?
welcome välkommen veLkumin
he went past han gick förbi hån djikk förböy
 what did you think about? vad tänkte du på? bo täänkt do pa?
I know jag vet jö veit
I heard jag hörde jö hoord
the language språket (målet) maLe
I have jag har jö hä
I have written the book jag har skrivit boken jö hä skrivi beoka
the town byen böyn
or eller el
big stor steor
suggestion förslag föschLäg
out ut eot
not inte ånt
has done har gjort hä djårt
I am called jag heter jö heit
a man en man in kar
the place platsen pLätsn
I want to have/will have jag vill ha jö vil håva
speak tala tåLa
in i ini
at night på natten pa nåtta
the water vatnet vättne
he shall help… han ska hjälpa… hån sko jöLp…
the evening kvällen kweLn
you were outside the house du var utanför huset do vär eotaför heose
do göra djera

There are differences in the Lule Bondska diphthongs across different parts of the valley,
even in the quite localized lower area of the valley, the diphthong eo in steor can also be öo,
stöor, with other variants of this diphthong such as åo in ståor spoken not far away. Long
vowels can vary from one district to another, like höörd instead of hoord. There are
differences in the way some speakers use v and w, or where the sch sound develops.

Another dialect spoken to the north of the main Lule Bondska area is the Koikul dialect. The
Koikul dialect was spoken far to the north, subsequently some Meänkieli and Sámi words
have entered the dialect.

English Swedish Koikul Bondska

I jag djög
I am jag är djög djer
I do jag gör djög djeer
I was jag var djög väär
I shall go/walk out jag ska gå ut djög sko gää iot
you (singular) du diou
what is it? vad är det? vo djer he?
what are you doing? vad gör du? vo djeer diou?
who are you? vem är du? vom jer diou?
 who is he? vem är han? vom jer hånn?
a table ett bord i baoL
she knows hon vet ho vejt
she has been hon har varit ho hää vuuri
to till dil
big stor schtaor
not inte ånt
long lång lääk

Further reading

More can be found out about the Koikul dialect at this website http://www.koikul.se, I was
lucky to learn some of the dialect from some of its remaining speakers. It is difficult to find
resources on the other Lule dialects without going there and learning from the people who
speak it, but there is one dictionary Ordbok över lulemålet : på grundval av dialekten i Antnäs
by, Nederluleå socken by Jan-Olov Nyström.