21: More on the Gummark Dialect of Bondska
Written and published by Linden Alexander Pentecost, completed in September 2023. This article contains: "Introduction:", "Pronunciation notes:", "Example sentences in Swedish, Gummark Bondska, and English (18 sentences):", "A brief discussion of dialect features (three points):", and "A note on further information by the author on Bondska dialects:". This article contains 2015 words.

 

Introduction:

Like other articles on the Bookofdunbarra website (this website), the material in this article and all other online articles is not found in any of the ebooks downloadable from and published via this website, nor in any other book I have published through a different website or means. I have discussed Gummark Bondska before, a little, but this article contains new information with example sentences. Gummark Bondska is a localised form of the Skelleftemål language, a variety of Bondska North-Germanic, Bondska is a group of related North-Germanic languages spoken on and around the Baltic coast of Northern Sweden. Sometimes the Bondska language is referred to as "Westrobothnian dialects", but this term "Westrobothnian" is not used by native speakers, nor is an etymologically equivalent word spoken in Bondska or in Swedish. It is also perhaps incorrect to say that Bondska is a group of dialects, I think there is a much better case for classifying Bondska as a group of closely related languages, rather than as a group of dialects, and certainly not as a group of Swedish dialects, and personally I believe that the Bondska language came into existence thousands of years before Sweden and "Swedish" were conceived languages and a territory in the sense that they are now.

Although I wrote the example sentences in Gummark Bondska, a native speaker, Mr Holmström, taught me what I know of the dialect, and corrected the example sentences given, many of which contained mistakes in their original form, partially because I became confused between the Gummark-Skelleftemål language and the Burträsk language. This article is titled "More on the Gummark dialect of Bondska", as many years ago, I wrote a little about Gummark Bondska with the help of Mr Holmström, and eventually published it in my ebook A guide to some Nordic languages, consisting of some of my work from before December 2022, including material never before published, in this book I accidentally referred to Gummark as Gunnmark, which is a shame. But nevertheless, some further, and different information to what is in this online article (the one you are reading), is in the aforementioned book, with the Gummark dialect being discussed on the lower part of page 66 and beginning part of page 67, there are quite a number of Gummark Bondska words given. In the aforementioned book I refer to Skelleftemål and Gummark Bondska as separate dialects, and, it can be said that Skelleftemål as a whole shows things that are not necessarily found in Gummark Bondska; but nevertheless Gummark Bondska can be considered a form of Skelleftemål or a dialect connected to the Skelleftemål language.

Although Gummark Bondska is similar to other nearby dialects of Bondska, there are clear differences, for example nearby dialects of Bondska have forms such as i häit - I am called, but Gummark and Skellefteå Bondska i hait, Pite Bondska i häjt or i hèjt, standard Swedish: jag heter.

 

Pronunciation notes:

There are many varieties of the Bondska language, and in a sense they all have various written forms and their own written traditions. For example it has become a habit to write the thick L and retroflex sounds as capital letters in Pitemål, whilst other capital letters in Pitemål have pronunciations I am unsure of the meaning of, and at least they are not found in the resources I have on Pitemål nor used by the native speakers I know.

To my knowledge, in the Skellefteå (and Gummark) and Burträsk Bondska varieties, the former generally known as Skelleftemål in Swedish, the latter as Bursträskmål, there is to my knowledge no general use of capital letters in the orthography of this dialect. The Gummark dialect is similar in this regard, and is close especially to other Skellefteå Dialects, as discussed in the introduction with surrounding points.

.In the spelling used in this article for Gummark Bondska, the thick L is not written, but to some extent it is possible for me to predict where it occurs, for example the l in glöömd - forgot, is a thick L, as is the l in blååst - blew, and the l in välkommen - welcome, for example, compare Pitemål Bondska: väLkömmen - welcome, and Lulemål Bondska veLkumin - welcome, where the thick L is written as L in these dialects.

.The retroflex n sound is written as rn in this dialect, in Pitemål it is written as a capital n, N. In this article this sound can be found in the word starn - stone for example, Swedish: sten, Pitemål: stäjn, stèjn, Lulemål: stein.

 

Example sentences in Swedish, Gummark Bondska, and English (18 sentences):

Below are 18 sentences given in standard Swedish at the top, below the sentence title e.g. "Example sentence 1:", followed by the sentence in Gummark Bondska and followed by the sentence in English. These sentences help to demonstrate the differences and similarities, for example that Bondska often has separate singular and plural forms of verbs, unlike in standard Swedish, Rikssvenska. Some other discussions of features are given in the section of the article after the example sentences, titled "A brief discussion of dialect features (three points):"

 

Example sentence 1:

jag glömde om den här stenen, vad heter den här stenen? Jag har inte sett den sedan jag var ung - Swedish

i glöömd om starn jernna, wo hait n'här starn? I har int sett'n sen i var ong - Gummark Bondska

I forgot about this stone, what is this stone called? I have not seen it since I was young - English

 

Example sentence 2:
om vintren såg jag Oskar i Skellefteå - Swedish

om vintern såg i n'Oskar inni stan - Gummark Bondska

In winter I saw Oskar in Skellefteå - English

 

Example sentence 3:
i går såg vi två blåa båtar på vattnet - Swedish
i går wort we åtseijen tjwå blå båta oppa vattnern - Gummark Bondska
yesterday we saw two blue boats upon the water - English

Example sentence 4:
ni är välkommen till Skellefteå! - Swedish
je wara välkommen deill stan - Gummark Bondska
You are welcome to Skellefteå - English

Example sentence 5:

det blåste mycket på den här stigen då vi kom hem - Swedish

he blååst möytje oppa stigom jernna då we komme ham - Gummark Bondska

it blew (the wind) a lot on this path when we came home - English

Example sentence 6:
han ska stika en bok till dig - Swedish

han kom att scheick n'bok åt deg - Gummark Bondska
he will send a book to you - English

Example sentence 7:
det finns et brant fjäll där, och en brant stig - Swedish
he feinns e brant fjäll darnna, å n'brant stig - Gummark Bondska
there is a steep mountain there, and a steep path - English

Example sentence 8:
varifrån är du? - Swedish
wåa jer du? - Gummark Bondska
where art thou from? - English

Example sentence 9:
jag är från... - Swedish
i jer borta... - Gummark Bondska
I am from... - English

Example sentence 10:
huset ditt är stort - Swedish
börninga dine jer stor - Gummark Bondska
thy house is big - English

Example sentence 11:
vem är hon/han? - Swedish
vem jer hondernna/handernna? - Gummark Bondska
who is she/he? - English

Example sentence 12:
vem är ni/de? - Swedish
vem vara je/demdernna? - Gummark Bondska
who are you plural/they? - English

Example sentence 13:

jag vill bo i ett hus vid vattnet - Swedish
i will bo i en börning nära vattnern - Gummark Bondska
I want to live in a house by the water - English

Example sentence 14:
det är länge sen vi var i Piteå - Swedish
he jer laang sen we woor åt Pite - Gummark Bondska
it is long since we were in Piteå - English

Example sentence 15:
boken min är i skåpet - Swedish
boka mine jer inni skåpe - Gummark Bondska
my book is in the cupboard - English (sorry for the such incredibly creative sample sentences, I say with sarcasm).

Example sentence 16:
jag har inte tänkt på de stora husen - Swedish

i ha int tainkt oppa storbörningern - Gummark Bondska
I have not thought about the big houses - English

 

Example sentence 17:
vi har inte tänkt på ett nytt hus - Swedish
we ha int tainkt oppa en nöij börning - Gummark Bondska
we have not thought about a new house - English

 

Example sentence 18:
jag ska fylla glaset med vatten - Swedish
i ska föill glase we vattn - Gummark Bondska
I shall fill the glass with water - English

 

A brief discussion of dialect features (three points):

Below are three paragraphs/points discussing some aspects to Gummark Bondska.

.Swedish jag - I, differs from Gummark Bondska i. Generally speaking forms of the first person singular pronoun with an initial [j] tend to be common in eastern Scandinavia, Baltic dialects, dialects in Sweden, parts of Denmark and Eastern Norway. However, Bondska forms for the first person singular pronoun often reflect what are typically "West Norse" features, for example, Gummark Bondska i, Pitemål i, which lack the initial [j], similar to those forms of this pronoun found in many Norwegian dialects, which include i, ej, eg, eig, ek, e, æ, æg, æig for example. Some of the other dialects of Bondska however have more "East Norse" forms, such as Lulemål jö, jög - I, and Nederkalixmål je, but also in Burträsk close to Gummark the forms jäg and jig are found. Note also that the definitions "East Norse" and "West Norse" are only partially consistent, and are not thoroughly descriptive of how the many ancient Norse dialects work and share differing similarities and differences.

.As visible near the top of this article with the example of i hait - I am called, we can see how in the Gummark Bondska language, this ai (similar to the pronunciation of the English word "aye") is common. It sometimes occurs as the equivalent to Old West Norse ei, but sometimes it occurs in more unusual positions, for example tainkt - thought, Swedish tänkt. In terms of how the Old West Norse ei and Old East Norse æi equivalents appear in Gummark Bondska: these often become an a, for example ham - home, Old West Norse heim, Old East Norse hæim, Norwegian: hjem, heim, hem, hæm, heim, haim, hæim, Swedish: hem, Pitemål: häjm, hèjm, Lulemål: heim, Danish: hjem, German: heim, Old English: hám, Scots: hame, Cumbrian English: yam, Westmorland English: heeam. The same sound is visible in the Gummark Bondska word starn - stone, compare for example Swedish: sten, Old West Norse: stein, Old East Norse: stæin, Cumbrian English and Westmorland English: steean.

.The word stan meaning essentially "the town" is the word applied to the town of Skellefteå. Using the word "stan" in this way can be found in other Bondska dialects, but certainly in Skelleftemål and surrounding dialects it seems to be the norm. Most of the core vocabulary seen in the Gummark Bondska forms is similar to that in other Nordic languages, but there are large differences in meaning, for example börning is the general word for "house", the word hus not really being used in this sense in Gummark Bondska.

 

A note on further information by the author on Bondska dialects:

I have written several other articles which are visible in my ebooks published by thebookofdunbarra and other websites, and printbooks I have published via various means and through various websites in the UK, I have primarily written about Pite Bondska and Lule Bondska, but have included comments and sections on various other Bondska dialects in these books. Some of the original articles were published under psuedonyms on Scribd before being later published in book format.