Åland dialects

Åland dialects (åländska) are dialects of Swedish spoken in Åland, an autonomous province of Finland. The Åland dialects have similarities to both Finland Swedish and the historical dialects of Uppland, but are generally considered to be part of Eastern Swedish (östsvenska mål, varieties of Swedish spoken in Finland and Estonia).

Swedish is the sole official language of Åland, and its status is protected in the självstyrelselag, a law that guarantees the islands' autonomy within Finland.

Phonology
As in Finland Swedish, the tonal word accent that distinguishes certain minimal pairs is not present in Åland. Thus Central Swedish ('the duck') and  ('the spirit') are both pronounced.

Characteristics
Certain expressions are typical of Åland dialects. For example, the double genitive in Vemses flicka/pojke är du då? ("Whose's girl/boy are you?" (Vems flicka/pojke är du då in Standard Swedish)) carries the implication that the asker might know the parents of the person asked, likely in a small society such as Åland. Another characteristic is the substitution of inte (not) with inga (no, nobody, none; in Standard Swedish a plural form): Jag har inga varit där ("I have not been there").

A feature that Åland shares with Finland Swedish is the reduction of the words inte (not), skulle (should) and måste (must) to int, sku and måst respectively.

Vocabulary
The dialectal vocabulary of Åland Swedish is composed of words that are either characteristic of Eastern Swedish or have passed out of use (but are still understood) in the Swedish spoken in Sweden. Traces of Finnish, Russian and English can also be found in the dialect because of historical contact.

Below is a selection of dialectal words and expressions used in Åland Swedish:

Differences between dialects in Western and Eastern Åland
The Western Åland dialect is characterized by its connection to the dialects of eastern Uppland (Roslagen). This applies especially to the municipality of Eckerö. There are several similarities between Eckerö's and Roslagen's dialects, including the initial h-drop whereby, for example, hus, hitta, and halm are pronounced as "us", "itta", and "alm" and an h sound is atypically inserted before the words ösa and eta (äta), producing "hösa" and "heta", respectively. On the other hand, the Eastern Åland dialects share features with Swedish dialects in Åboland and southern Ostrobothnia.

Between the dialects of Western and Eastern Åland, there are also several distinctions in vocabulary. For example, in Western Åland, as well as in Uppland, the verb krypa and the adjective kullig are used. The corresponding words in Eastern Åland are kräka and snuvig.

Samples of dialects
Eckerö-dialect (West Åland) recorded in 2006 (see file för transcription).



Föglö-dialect (East Åland) recorded in 1971 by Per Henrik Solstrand.