Övdalian

Övdalian belongs to the Northern branch/Upper Siljan branch of the Dalecarlian dialects or vernaculars, which in their turn evolved from Old Norse, from which Dalecarlian vernaculars might have split as early as in the eighth or ninth century,Levander, Lars, Dalmålet, vol. 1, 1925, pp. 37–38. i.e., approximately when the North Germanic languages split into Western and Eastern branches.

Övdalian (and other Dalecarlian language varieties) is traditionally placed among the East Scandinavian languages, together with Swedish and Danish, based on a number of featuresGarbacz, Piotr (2008). [https://www.hf.uio.no/iln/om/organisasjon/tekstlab/aktuelt/arrangementer/arkiv/alvdalska.pdf Älvdalska – ett mindre känt nordiskt språk] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161124025018/https://www.hf.uio.no/iln/om/organisasjon/tekstlab/aktuelt/arrangementer/arkiv/alvdalska.pdf |date=24 November 2016 }}. s. 1. Oslo universitet that Övdalian has in common with them. According to Lars Levander,Levander, Lars (1925), Dalmålet. Beskrivning och historia., "1", Uppsala some of the West Scandinavian features that simultaneously do occur in Övdalian are archaic traits that once were common in many Scandinavian dialects and have been preserved in the most conservative tongues east and west of Kölen. However, this is rebutted by Kroonen.

• Lack of syllable lengthening.
• Retention of voiced fricatives {{IPAslink|ð}}, {{IPAslink|ɣ}} and {{IPAslink|β}}.
• Retention of nominative, accusative and dative cases.
• Retention of Proto-Germanic, Proto-Norse and Old Norse nasal vowels.
• Retention of Proto-Germanic voiced labio-velar approximant {{IPAslink|w}}: {{lang|ovd|wattn}} ('water'), {{lang|ovd|will}} ('wants'), {{lang|ovd|wet}} ('knows'): compare English water, will, and wit and Standard Swedish {{lang|sv|vatten}}, {{lang|sv|vill}} and {{lang|sv|vet}}.
• Retention of consonant clusters ld, nd, mb, rg, gd and ng (with audible {{IPAblink|ɡ}}), as in ungg ('young'), kweld ('evening'), warg ('wolf') and lamb ('lamb') from Old Norse ungʀ, kveld, vargʀ (both with {{IPAslink|w}} represented by 'v') and lamb.

• More frequent assimilation of pre-Norse mp, nt, and nk to pp, tt, and kk, as in West Scandinavian dialects.
• Shift of a to o before Pre-Norse nk (but not kk).
• Shift of Old Norse ei, ey, and au to ie, ä, and o.
• Diphthongization of Old Norse long high vowels í, ý, ú to closing diphthongs ai, åy, au, and of long rounded mid vowels ó, œ to opening diphthongs uo, yö.
• Vowel harmony (present also in other dialects of Central Scandinavia).
• Loss of h: compare Övdalian {{lang|ovd|aus}} with Swedish {{lang|sv|hus}} (or English house) and Övdalian {{lang|ovd|imil}} with Swedish {{lang|sv|himmel}}.

File:Tvåspråkiga vägskyltar i Älvdalen.png and Övdalian]]

As of 2009, Övdalian had around 2,000 speakers and is in danger of language death. However, it is possible that it will receive an official status as a minority language in Sweden, which would entail numerous protections and encourage its use in schools and by writers and artists. The Swedish Parliament was due to address the issue in 2007, but has not yet done so.[http://www.multietn.uu.se/information/elfdalian_english.html Uppsala University, Second Conference on Elfdalian, Älvdalen 12–14 June 2008] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090302044736/http://www.multietn.uu.se/information/elfdalian_english.html|date=2 March 2009}}{{Cite web |title=Särdrag och status {{!}} Älvdalska |url=https://www.alvdalen.se/uppleva-och-gora/alvdalska.html |access-date=5 November 2023 |website=www.alvdalen.se |language=sv}} The Council of Europe has urged the Swedish government to reconsider the status of Övdalian on a total of five occasions. The Committee of Experts now encourages the Swedish authorities to investigate the status of Övdalian through an independent scientific study.{{cite web |date=October 2011 |title=Report of the Committee of Experts on Sweden |url=http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/education/minlang/report/EvaluationReports/SwedenECRML4_en.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120420162435/http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/education/minlang/Report/EvaluationReports/SwedenECRML4_en.pdf |archive-date=20 April 2012 |access-date=16 May 2013 |publisher=Council of Europe |page=9}} In 2020, the Committee of Experts concluded that Övdalian fulfils the criteria of a Part II language, and asked the Swedish authorities to include reporting on Övdalian in its next periodical report as the language covered by Part II of the Charter, which the Swedish Ministry of Culture has not done in its 8th periodical report to the Council of Europe.{{cite web |last=Committee of Experts of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages |year=2020 |title=Seventh evaluation report on Sweden |url=https://rm.coe.int/swedenecrml7-en3c-pdf/16809fbaab |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210817014806/https://rm.coe.int/swedenecrml7-en3c-pdf/16809fbaab |archive-date=17 August 2021 |access-date=6 January 2021 |publisher=Council of Europe |page=8}}[https://rm.coe.int/swedenpr8-en/1680a2bc07 Eighth periodical report presented to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe in accordance with Article 15 of the Charter.] Council of Europe. Accessed 5 November 2023.

{{lang|ovd|Ulum Dalska}}, The Organization for the Preservation of Övdalian, was established in 1984 with the aim of preserving and documenting the Övdalian language. In 2005, {{lang|ovd|Ulum Dalska}} launched a process aimed at bringing about an official recognition of Övdalian as a language by the Swedish authorities.

{{lang|ovd|Råðdjärum}}, The Övdalian Language Committee was established in August 2004 within {{lang|ovd|Ulum Dalska}}, its first task being to create a new standard orthography for Övdalian. In March 2005, the new orthography created by {{lang|ovd|Råðdjärum}} was accepted by the {{lang|ovd|Ulum Dalska}} at their annual meeting. {{lang|ovd|Råðdjärum}} consists of five permanent members: linguist Östen Dahl, dialectologist Gunnar Nyström, teacher Inga-Britt Petersson, linguist and coordinator of the committee Dr. Yair Sapir, and linguist Lars Steensland.

As an initiative from {{lang|ovd|Ulum Dalska}} to encourage children to speak Övdalian, all school children in Älvdalen who finish the ninth grade and can prove that they can speak Övdalian receive a 6,000 Swedish krona stipend.{{cite news |last=Rehnström |first=Björn |date=25 April 2013 |title=Får 6000 för att prata älvdalska |url=http://www.dt.se/nyheter/alvdalen/1.3461598-far-6000-for-att-prata-alvdalska |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230723231221/https://www.dt.se/nyheter/alvdalen/1.3461598-far-6000-for-att-prata-alvdalska |archive-date=23 July 2023 |access-date=26 February 2013 |newspaper=Dalarnas Tidningar |language=sv}}

An online version of Lars Steensland's 2010 Övdalian dictionary was published in September 2015.[http://älvdalsk.ordbok.gratis Elfdalian–Swedish dictionary.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170505183958/http://xn--lvdalsk-4wa.ordbok.gratis/|date=5 May 2017}} Retrieved 1 October 2015.

In March 2016, Swedish Radio reported that the Älvdalen City Council had decided that, starting in autumn 2016, the local kindergarten would operate solely through the medium of Övdalian.{{cite news |date=16 March 2016 |title=Barn i förskolan ska språkbada i älvdalska |trans-title=Children in preschool will be immersed in Elfdalian |url=http://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=161&artikel=6391217 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170124193449/http://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=161&artikel=6391217 |archive-date=24 January 2017 |access-date=9 October 2016 |publisher=Sveriges Radio}}{{citation |title=Swedish nursery to teach rare Viking-era language |date=17 March 2016 |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-35831359 |access-date=5 October 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181005081921/https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-35831359 |archive-date=5 October 2018 |url-status=live |publisher=British Broadcasting Corp.}}

Övdalian is comparable to Swedish and Norwegian in the number and the quality of vowels but also has nasal vowels. It has retained the Old Norse dental, velar and labial voiced fricatives. Alveolo-palatal affricate consonants occur in all {{lang|ovd|Uvǫ Silan}} (Swedish {{lang|sv|Ovansiljan}}, north of Siljan) dialects. The realization of {{angbr|r}} is {{IPAblink|r}}, an apical alveolar trill. Unlike many variants of Norwegian and Swedish, Övdalian does not assimilate {{IPA|/rt, rd, rs, rn, rl/}} into retroflex consonants. The stress is generally on the first syllable of a word.

• The voiceless plosives {{IPA|/p/}}, {{IPA|/t/}}, and {{IPA|/k/}} are aspirated word-initially unless following {{IPA|/s/}}.Sapir and Lundgren (2024), p. 43.
• {{IPA|[d]}} and {{IPAblink|ð}}, and {{IPA|[ɡ]}} and {{IPAblink|ɣ}} are allophones of {{IPA|/d/}} and {{IPA|/ɡ/}} respectively in complementary distribution; the fricative allophones surface after vowels when short, and the plosive allophones surface elsewhere.Sapir and Lundgren (2024), p. 44. {{IPAblink|ð}} can surface word-initially in some pronouns and adverbs by sandhi.
• {{IPA|[l]}} and {{IPAblink|ɽ}} are allophones of {{IPA|/l/}} in complementary distribution; the former surfaces when long, when adjacent to {{IPA|/t/}} or {{IPA|/d/}} and, for many speakers, before {{IPA|/n/}}, and the latter allophone surfaces elsewhere.Sapir and Lundgren (2024), p. 45.
• {{IPA|[v]}} and {{IPA|[w]}} are allophones of {{IPA|/v/}} in complementary distribution; the former surfaces after a tautomorphemic vowel, and the latter surfaces before a tautomorphemic vowel.Sapir and Lundgren (2024), p. 44. It is also sometimes realised as {{IPA|[b]}} before {{IPA|/d/}}. The fricative allophone was historically realised as {{IPAblink|β}}.
• Sounds {{IPA|/t͡s̺ d͡z̺ s̺/}} are released as apico-alveolar.

• Sounds {{IPA|/o oː/}} are heard as {{IPA|/u uː/}} in some parts of Övdaln.

• Sounds {{IPA|/ɛ̃ ɛ̃ː/}} are heard primarily in Övdaln, whereas {{IPA|/æ̃ æ̃ː/}} are heard in other parts nearby.
• Sounds {{IPA|/ɔ̃ ɔ̃ː/}} are heard as {{IPA|/õ õː/}} or {{IPA|/ũ ũː/}} in some parts of Övdaln.

The close vowel sounds {{IPA|/i iː/}} or {{IPA|/ĩ ĩː/}} are not present in Övdalian.{{Cite book|last=Sapir|first=Yair|title=Elfdalian, the Vernacular of Övdaln|year=2006}}

• Sounds {{IPA|/uo uoː/}} can be realized in some village dialects as {{IPA|[ʏæ ʏæː]}}.
• {{IPA|/ɔy/}} is realized in some village dialects {{IPA|[ɔj]}}.
• {{IPA|/juo/}} is realized in some dialects as {{IPA|[jʏæ]}}.

• Sounds {{IPA|/ũo ũoː/}} can be realized in some village dialects as {{IPA|[ʏæ̃ ʏæ̃ː]}}.
• {{IPA|/jũo/}} is realized in some dialects as {{IPA|[jʏæ̃]}}.

Övdalian has nasal versions of most vowels. They have several origins, belonging to different layers of history, but most involve the loss of a nasal consonant, with lengthening and nasalisation of a preceding vowel.

• Late Proto-Germanic loss of *n before *h, which was lost in early Norse, but the nasalisation remained: {{lang|ovd|gą̊tt}} "doorway" (Proto-Germanic {{lang|gem-x-proto|ganhtiz}}).
• Old Norse loss of nasal consonants before *s: {{lang|ovd|gą̊ss}} "goose" (Proto-Germanic {{lang|gem-x-proto|gans}}), {{lang|ovd|įster}} "lard" ({{langx|gml|inster}}).
• Old Norse loss of *n before *l and *r: {{lang|ovd|ųor}} "our" (Proto-Norse {{lang|non|unzraz}}).
• Old Norse loss of word-final *n but only monosyllables: {{lang|ovd|ą̊}} "on" (Proto-Germanic {{lang|gem-x-proto|*an}}), {{lang|ovd|sją̊}} "to see" (Proto-Germanic {{lang|gem-x-proto|sehwaną}}), {{lang|ovd|tųo}} "two (accusative)" (Proto-Germanic {{lang|gem-x-proto|twanz}}) and the prefix {{lang|ovd|ųo-}} "un-" (Proto-Germanic {{lang|gem-x-proto|un-}}).
• Central Scandinavian loss of word-final -n if it had been preserved in Old Norse generally; The change affected neither Standard Swedish, nor final geminate -nn. The shift occurred in primarily the definite noun suffix of feminine nouns but also {{lang|ovd|ą̊}} "she" and a few other words.
• Secondary post-Norse loss of n before s: {{lang|ovd|rįesa}} "to wash" ({{langx|non|hreinsa}}), {{lang|ovd|wįster}} "left" (Old Norse {{lang|non|vinstri}} with /w/-sound)
• Spontaneous (non-etymological) nasality: {{lang|ovd|rįesa}} "to travel" (from {{langx|nds|rēsen}}), {{lang|ovd|kęse}} "cheese" ({{langx|non|kæsir}}, from {{langx|la|caseus}}).
• Before nasal consonants. This case of nasalisation is allophonic and is not indicated in the orthography.

Nasal vowels are quite rare in Nordic languages, and Övdalian and a few other neighbouring Dalecarlian dialects{{Cite book|last=Boëthius|first=Johannes|title=Orsamålet. 1, Ljudlära|year=1918|location=Uppsala|language=Swedish}} are the only ones that preserve nasal vowels from Proto-Norse; all other Nordic dialects with nasal vowels have developed them later as a result of the loss of a nasal consonant: compare Kalix dialect hąt and gås with Övdalian hand and gą̊s.

In Älvdalen, Germanic runes survived in use longer than anywhere else. The last record of the Övdalian Runes is from the early 20th century;{{Cite web |date=25 March 2021 |title=Älvdalskan som nationellt minoritetsspråk (Interpellation 2020/21:575 av Robert Stenkvist (SD)) |url=https://www.riksdagen.se/sv/dokument-och-lagar/dokument/interpellation/alvdalskan-som-nationellt-minoritetssprak_h810575/ |access-date=5 November 2023 |website=www.riksdagen.se |language=sv}} they are a variant of the Dalecarlian runes. Älvdalen can be said to have had its own alphabet during the 17th and 18th century.

Due to the great phonetic differences between Swedish and Övdalian, the use of Swedish orthography for Övdalian has been unpredictable and varied, such as the one applied in the Prytz's play from 1622, which contains long passages in Övdalian, or in the Övdalian material published in the periodical Skansvakten.{{Cite web |title=Skriva på älvdalska – Ulum Dalska |url=https://www.ulumdalska.se/alvdalskan/skriva-pa-alvdalska/ |access-date=5 November 2023 |language=sv-SE}}

A first attempt to create a separate Övdalian orthography was made in 1982 by Lars Steensland. Bengt Åkerberg elaborated it, and it was applied in some books and used in language courses and is based on Loka dialect and is highly phonetic. It has many diacritics (Sapir 2006).

In March 2005, a uniform standard orthography for Övdalian was presented by {{lang|ovd|Råðdjärum}} (lit. "Let us confer"), The Övdalian Language Council, and accepted by {{lang|ovd|Ulum Dalska}} (lit. "Let us speak Dalecarlian"), The Organization for the Preservation of Övdalian. The new orthography has already been applied by Björn Rehnström in his book {{lang|ovd|Trair byönner frą̊ Övdalim}} 'Three Bears from Älvdalen' published in 2007. Råðdjärum's orthography was also used in Bo Westling's translation of {{lang|fr|Saint-Exupéry}}'s The Little Prince, {{lang|ovd|Lisslprinsn}}.

{{main|Elfdalian alphabet}}

The Elfdalian alphabet consists of the following letters{{Cite web |date=16 March 2005 |title=Älvdalska språkrådets förslag till älvdalsk stavning |url=https://www.ulumdalska.se/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/alvdalsk_ortografi.pdf |access-date=5 November 2023 |website=www.ulumdalska.se |publisher=Råðdjärum}}

:

Other than the letters occurring in the Swedish alphabet, Elfdalian has letters with ogonek, denoting nasal vowels: Ąą, Ęę, Įį, Ųų, Y̨y̨ and Ą̊ą̊. Additionally, it uses the letter eth ({{ipa|Ð}}, {{IPA|ð}}) for the voiced dental fricative.

Övdalian has a morphological structure inherited from its Old Norse ancestor. Verbs are conjugated according to person and number and nouns have four cases, like Modern Icelandic and German. The Old Norse three-gender system has been retained. Like the other North Germanic languages, nouns have definite and indefinite forms, rather than a separate definite article (as in English). The length of the root syllable plays a major role in the Övdalian declensional and conjugational system. The declension of {{lang|ovd|warg}}, "wolf" (long-syllabic, strong masculine noun) was as follows in what is sometimes called "Classic Elfdalian" (as described by Levander 1909):

Many speakers retain the distinct dative case, which is used especially after prepositions and also certain verbs (such as {{lang|ovd|jåpa}}, "help").{{cite book |last1=Dahl |first1=Östen |editor=Geoffrey Sampson |first2=Gil |last2=David |first3=Peter |last3=Trudgill |title=Language Complexity as an Evolving Variable |chapter-url={{GBurl|id=KopbpgAJ87UC|p=55}} |access-date=6 March 2013 |year=2009 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-156766-7| pages=50–63 |chapter=Testing the Assumption of Complexity Invariance: The Case of Elfdalian and Swedish }} The distinction between nominative and accusative has been lost in indefinite nouns,{{clarify|reason=Is the spelling difference not reflective of pronunciation?|date=January 2016}} and the inherited genitive been replaced by new forms created by attaching {{lang|ovd|-es}} to the dative (see Dahl & Koptjevskaja-Tamm 2005), a trend that was well underway even in Classic Elfdalian.

Unlike other Swedish vernaculars, the syntax of Övdalian was investigated in the early 20th century (Levander 1909). Although Övdalian syntax has attracted increased attention, a majority of its syntactic elements are still unresearched. In May–June 2007, a group of linguists from the pan-Scandinavian NORMS network[http://norms.uit.no/ Nordic Center of Excellence in Microcomparative Syntax] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071103224430/http://norms.uit.no/ |date=3 November 2007 }} conducted fieldwork in Älvdalen especially aimed at investigating the syntactic properties of the language.

Presented with the help of generative syntax, the following features have been identified:

• Only first- and second-person plural pronouns (Rosenkvist 2006, 2010) can be dropped grammatically.
• First-person plural pronouns may be dropped only if they appear directly in front of the finite verb. Verb raising occurs, but there is variation between generations (Garbacz 2006, 2010).
• Multiple subjects seem to occur in clauses with the adverbial {{lang|ovd|sakta}}, "actually", or the verb {{lang|ovd|lär}} "is possible" (Levander 1909:109).

: {{lang|ovd|Du ir sakt du uvendes duktin dalsk.}}

: literally: "You are {{sc|advl}}{{clarify|date=May 2021}} you very good speak-Övdalian"

: "You are actually very good at speaking Övdalian"

That has recently been studied more closely from a generative perspective by Rosenkvist (2007).

Other syntactic properties are negative concord, stylistic inversion, long distance reflexives, verb controlled datives, agent-verb word order in coordinated clauses with deleted subjects, etc. Some of the properties are archaic features that existed in Old Swedish, but others are innovations, but none of them has been studied in any detail.

In 2015, a new genus Övdalian of deep-sea nudibranch molluscs was named after the Övdalian language in reference to evolutionary basal characters of the new genus never before reported for the family, just as Övdalian preserves ancestral features of Old Norse.{{cite journal |last1=Martynov |first1=Alexander |last2=Korshunova |first2=Tatiana |title=A new deep-sea genus of the family Polyceridae (Nudibranchia) possesses a gill cavity, with implications for the cryptobranch condition and a 'Periodic Table' approach to taxonomy |journal=Journal of Molluscan Studies |date=March 2015 |volume=81 |issue=3 |pages=365–379 |doi=10.1093/mollus/eyv003 |doi-access=free }}

{{reflist}}

{{Incubator|code= ovd}}

• Dahl, Östen and Maria Koptjevskaja-Tamm. 2005. The resilient dative and other remarkable cases in Scandinavian vernaculars. Ms. University of Stockholm.
• Garbacz, Piotr (2008). [https://www.hf.uio.no/iln/om/organisasjon/tekstlab/aktuelt/arrangementer/arkiv/alvdalska.pdf Älvdalska – ett mindre känt nordiskt språk]. s. 1. Oslo universitet
• Nationalencyklopedin, entry älvdalsmål, subentry Dalarna
• {{cite book |last1=Sapir |first1=Yair |first2=Olof |last2=Lundgren |title=A Grammar of Elfdalian |location=London |publisher=UCL Press |date=2024 |doi=10.2307/jj.8816154 |url=https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10196780/1/A-Grammar-of-Elfdalian.pdf}}
• Sapir, Yair. 2006. [http://hkr.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:773379/FULLTEXT02.pdf Elfdalian, the Vernacular of Övdaln] In: Rapport från första konferensen om älvdalska (Report from the First Conference about Elfdalian), Gunnar Nyström (ed.).
• Garbacz, Piotr. 2006.[http://www.lu.se/o.o.i.s?id=12588&postid=748366 Verb movement and negation in Övdalian. Working Papers in Scandinavian Syntax 78: 173–190.] (PDF)
• Levander, Lars. 1925. Dalmålet. Beskrivning och historia.
• Levander, Lars. 1909. Älvdalsmålet i Dalarna (Doctoral thesis published in Svenska landsmål, 1909, (105).
• Rosenkvist, Henrik. 2006. Null Subjects in Övdalian. Working Papers in Scandinavian Syntax 78:141–171.
• Rosenkvist, Henrik. 2007. Subject Doubling in Oevdalian. Working Papers in Scandinavian Syntax 80:77–102.
• Rosenkvist, Henrik. 2010. Null referential subjects in Övdalian. Nordic Journal of Linguistics 33.3:231–267.
• Garbacz, Piotr. 2010. 2008a. Bisatsledföljden i älvdalska. In Jóhannesson, K. et al. (eds.) Nog ordat? Festskrift till Sven-Göran Malmgren den 25 April 2008. 105–112. Meijebergs institut för svensk etymologisk forskning.
• Garbacz, P. 2008b. Negationens syntax i älvdalskan. In Bukowski, P. et al. (eds.) Perspektiv på svenska språket och litteraturen 193–202. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego.
• Garbacz, Piotr. 2010. [http://www.lu.se/o.o.i.s?id=12588&postid=1567392 Word Order in Övdalian. A Study in Variation and Change. Lundastudier i nordisk språkvetenskap 70. Lund University.] (PDF)
• Melerska, Dorota. 2010. [https://repozytorium.amu.edu.pl/jspui/handle/10593/825 Vem är ”en riktig älvdaling”? Identitetsmarkörer i dagens Älvdalen. Folia Scandinavica Posnaniensia, vol. 11, 2010, pp. 123–133] (PDF)
• Melerska, Dorota. 2011. [https://repozytorium.amu.edu.pl/jspui/handle/10593/1054 Älvdalskan – mellan språkdöd och revitalisering. PhD-thesis. Adam Mickiewicz University] (PDF)

• {{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/may/01/maja-daniels-photographer-alvdalen-sweden-witch-hunts-elf-dalia-weirdest-norse |title=Witch hunts, mystics and race cars: inside the weirdest village in Sweden |work=The Guardian }}
• {{cite news |url=http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/72068044-a23c-11e2-8971-00144feabdc0.html#slide0 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221211151229/https://www.ft.com/content/72068044-a23c-11e2-8971-00144feabdc0#slide0 |archive-date=11 December 2022 |url-access=subscription |title=In the mists of Älvdalen |work=Financial Times |access-date=20 April 2013 |url-status=live }}
• [http://www.omniglot.com/writing/elfdalian.htm Omniglot: Elfdalian alphabet]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20110606053832/http://www.nordiska.uu.se/arkiv/konferenser/alvdalska/Sapir.pdf Yair Sapir: Elfdalian, the Vernacular of Övdaln – an article with an outline of Elfdalian (history, background, linguistic features, present]
• [http://theconversation.com/fight-on-to-preserve-elfdalian-swedens-lost-forest-language-41642 Guus Kroonen: Fight on to preserve Elfdalian]
• [https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0000tcr The Last Elfdalians, BBC Sounds]

• [http://dalsk.ordbok.gratis Elfdalian-swedish dictionary]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20100823193935/http://www.alvdalen.se/upload/Dokument/kultur_fritid/%c3%84lvdalskan/alvdalsk_ortografi.pdf Förslag till en enhetlig stavning för älvdalska] ("Project for a unified orthography for Elfdalian").
• [http://uu.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?searchId=1&pid=diva2:431173 Volume of The First Conference on Elfdalian / {{lang|ovd|Fuost konferensn um övdalskų|nocat=y}}, with English summaries]
• [http://uu.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?searchId=1&pid=diva2:431171 Volume of The Second Conference on Elfdalian / {{lang|ovd|Oðer råðstemną um övdalskų|nocat=y}}, with English summaries]
• [http://www.sprakochfolkminnen.se/sprak/dialekter/lyssna-pa-dialekter/dalarna/alvdalen.html SOFI] the Institute for Language and Folklore – Älvdalen
• Mikael Parkvall, Sveriges språk. Vem talar vad och var?. RAPPLING 1. Rapporter från Institutionen för lingvistik vid Stockholms universitet. 2009 [https://web.archive.org/web/20140920233246/http://www.xn--sprkfrsvaret-vcb4v.se/sf/fileadmin/PDF/Parkvall_spraakstatistik.pdf], pp. 29–72

{{Languages of Sweden}}

{{Germanic languages}}

Category:Dalarna

Category:North Germanic languages

Category:Swedish dialects

Category:Languages of Sweden