1.
Swedish language
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Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken natively by more than 9 million people predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, where it has equal legal standing with Finnish. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish, along with the other North Germanic languages, Swedish is a descendant of Old Norse, the common language of the Germanic peoples living in Scandinavia during the Viking Era. It is currently the largest of the North Germanic languages by number of speakers, Standard Swedish, spoken by most Swedes, is the national language that evolved from the Central Swedish dialects in the 19th century and was well established by the beginning of the 20th century. While distinct regional varieties descended from the rural dialects still exist. The standard word order is, as in most Germanic languages, V2, Swedish morphology is similar to English, that is, words have comparatively few inflections. There are two genders, no cases, and a distinction between plural and singular. Older analyses posit the cases nominative and genitive and there are remains of distinct accusative and dative forms as well. Adjectives are compared as in English, and are inflected according to gender, number. The definiteness of nouns is marked primarily through suffixes, complemented with separate definite and indefinite articles, the prosody features both stress and in most dialects tonal qualities. The language has a large vowel inventory. Swedish is also notable for the voiceless velar fricative, a highly variable consonant phoneme. Swedish is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic branch of the Germanic languages, by many general criteria of mutual intelligibility, the Continental Scandinavian languages could very well be considered dialects of a common Scandinavian language. In the 8th century, the common Germanic language of Scandinavia, Proto-Norse, had some changes. This language began to undergo new changes that did not spread to all of Scandinavia, the dialects of Old East Norse that were spoken in Sweden are called Runic Swedish while the dialects of Denmark are referred to as Runic Danish. The dialects are described as runic because the body of text appears in the runic alphabet. Unlike Proto-Norse, which was written with the Elder Futhark alphabet, Old Norse was written with the Younger Futhark alphabet, from 1200 onwards, the dialects in Denmark began to diverge from those of Sweden. An early change that separated Runic Danish from the dialects of Old East Norse was the change of the diphthong æi to the monophthong é. This is reflected in runic inscriptions where the older read stain, there was also a change of au as in dauðr into a long open ø as in døðr dead
2.
Norrland dialects
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Norrland dialects is one of the six major dialect groupings of the Swedish language. It comprises the dialects in most of Norrland, except those of Gästrikland and southern Hälsingland, the old northern border of the Swedish language in coastal Norrbotten largely followed the eastern and northern borders of Lower and Upper Kalix parishes in modern Kalix Municipality. Norrland dialects arose from the influence of the Old West Norse spoken in Trøndelag to the west. The westerly influences were strong in the centuries leading up to the Viking Era. The shift to East Norse progressed through the Middle Ages, as Norrland gradually came to be more and more under Central Swedish influence in the Modern Era, many of the older West Norse characteristics disappeared. The strong West Norse influences can still be today in the toponymy of Norrland in placenames ending in -ånger. Parish names such Skön and Indal have West Nordic origins, the dialect of Norrbotten displays less West Nordic influence than other more westerly dialects. The greatest West Nordic/Norwegian—or, perhaps, least East Nordic/Swedish—influence is found in Jamtlandic, as with other regiolects, it is difficult to clearly define a unique set of characteristics for the Norrland dialects. The distribution of different features of the dialect have differing boundaries, vowel balance Words that were long-spelled in Old Swedish developed weakened or dropped end-vowels. Examples of words with weakened end-vowels are kastä and backä, in dialects such as those of Jämtland and Västerbotten, where the end-vowels are dropped, these words become kaast and baack. Words that were short-spelled have, however, conserved the original end-vowel length, vowel balance is also an important distinctive feature in the East Norwegian dialects. End-vowel development in words has been dependent on the length since the time of Old Swedish. This characteristic is known as vowel balance, the dialect of Medelpad is the southernmost of the coastal dialects which has vowel balance. In the Hälsing dialect, the endings are as in Standard Swedish, kasta, vowel balance is particularly evident in the definite plural of nouns, Standard Swedish hästarna is in certain northern dialects hästa, while dagarna is dagana. All of the Sami languages, particularly East Sami, have had similar systems of vowel balance since long before any Nordic languages were spoken in north Scandinavia, smoothing Words that were originally short-spelled have often undergone a process of assimilation of the stem-vowel and ending. Examples include färä and vuku, firi and skyri and this phenomenon, known as smoothing, is found predominantly in the dialects from upper Dalarna and Trøndelag northward. A and thick L The Old Swedish a before the consonant cluster rð has been preserved, while rð itself became a retroflex flap and this is sometimes represented as a capital L, to differentiate it from the Standard Swedish rd cluster. Examples of this thick L include svaL and aL and this phenomenon is shared with the Dalecarlian dialects and Norwegian, as well as the Swedish dialects in Ostrobothnia
3.
Dialect
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That happens, for example, across large parts of India or the Maghreb. Historically, it happened in various parts of Europe such as between Portugal, southern Belgium and southern Italy, and between Flanders and Austria. Leonard Bloomfield used the dialect area. It is analogous to a species in evolutionary biology. Dialect continua typically occur in long-settled agrarian populations, as innovations spread from their various points of origin as waves, in this situation, hierarchical classifications of varieties are impractical. Instead, dialectologists map variation of language features across a dialect continuum. The influential Atlas linguistique de la France pioneered the use of a trained fieldworker and these atlases typically consist of display maps, each showing local forms of a particular item at the survey locations. Secondary studies may include maps, showing the areal distribution of various variants. A common tool in these maps is an isogloss, a line separating areas where different variants of a particular feature predominate, in a dialect continuum, isoglosses for different features are typically spread out, reflecting the gradual transition between varieties. A bundle of coinciding isoglosses indicate a stronger dialect boundary, as might occur at geographical obstacles or long-standing political boundaries, in other cases, intersecting isoglosses and more complex patterns are found. Standard varieties may be developed and codified from one or more locations in a continuum, in such cases the local variety is said to be dependent on, or heteronomous with respect to, the standard variety. The Scandinavian languages, Danish, Norwegian and Swedish, are cited as examples. Conversely, a defined in this way may include local varieties that are mutually unintelligible. The choice of standard is determined by a political boundary. As a results, speakers on either side of the boundary may use almost identical varieties, but treat them as dependent on different standards, the choice may be a matter of national, regional or religious identity, and may be controversial. In the Yugoslav republic of Macedonia, a standard was developed from local varieties within a continuum with Serbia to the north, the standard was deliberately based on varieties from the west of the republic that were most different from standard Bulgarian. Now known as Macedonian, it is the standard of the independent Republic of Macedonia. Europe provides several examples of dialect continua, the largest of which involve the Germanic, Romance and Slavic branches of the Indo-European language family
4.
Norrbotten
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Norrbotten, known in English as North Bothnia, is a Swedish province in northernmost Sweden. It borders south to Västerbotten, west to Swedish Lapland, the traditional provinces of Sweden serve no administrative or political purposes, but are historical and cultural entities. In this case, however, the county is older than the province, when the new national border to the Russian Grand Duchy of Finland formed, the province split in two, and formed the municipalities of Kolari, Muonio, Pello, Tornio, and Ylitornio. However, Finnish Norrbotten is not recognized enough as its own province, so its usually merged instead with Ostrobothnia. The northernmost of the counties of Sweden were created in 1810 consisting of the parts of Lappland. After that, northern Västerbotten has gradually evolved as a province of its own, not being one of the old historical provinces of Sweden Norrbotten had not been granted a coat of arms in the same way as the others. As recently as 1995, after decades of controversy, Norrbotten got its arms, during the Middle Ages Norrbotten was basically terra nullius. The area was populated by Sami people, who lived on hunting, fishing. From the Middle Ages and forward, the Swedish kings tried hard to colonise, settlers from Finland, the most important of which were known as Birkarls, controlled the trade and even the taxing on the area long into the 16th century. From the mid-16th century, the area was more firmly tied to Sweden, an important sign of Swedish control was the large Nederluleå stone church from 1492. Still today, Finnish and Sami minorities live in Norrbotten and they have kept their culture, historically, Västerbotten was the denomination for northern Sweden, together with the Lappland areas. The Eastern Botten or Ostrobothnia was in the Finnish side, cultural identification in Sweden is closely related to the historical provinces, and the people in Norrbotten live in this sense in Northern Västerbotten, or Norra Västerbotten. Norrbotten had gradually become synonymous with the area that was referred to as northern Västerbotten. It started to evolve as a separate province, during the 20th century it got all of the symbols which are assigned to the other provinces of Sweden. But there was some resistance to the idea of Norrbotten being a province. As recently as 1995, after decades of debate, Norrbotten was granted a coat of arms, the coat of arms symbolizes the four large rivers in Norrbotten that drain into the Gulf of Bothnia, Torne River, Kalix River, Lule River and Pite River. The summers can bring warm temperatures for such northerly altitudes. As of December 31,2009, the population is 192,542, distributed over 26,671 km2, Norrbotten has around 8,000 ancient remains
5.
Lule River
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Lule River is a major river in Sweden, rising in northern Sweden and flowing southeast for 460 km before reaching the Gulf of Bothnia at Luleå. It is the second longest river by watershed area or length in Norrbotten County and it has a watershed of 25,240.5 km² of which 24,545.6 km² is in Sweden and 694.9 km² in Norway. The river was used extensively for the transportation of timber, with logs floated downstream for processing at Luleå, several major rapids exist along the rivers length, notably the Stora Falls and those at Porjus and Harsprånget. During the 19th and 20th centuries, the river was designated as a line against a dreaded invasion by Imperial Russia. Extensive fortifications exist along the length of the river, culminating in Bodens Fortress in. Most of these fortifications and bunkers are no longer in use today, the Greater Lule River arguably begins somewhere near Sårjåsjaure in the mountains west of Gällivare. The water flows to the Virihaure lake, which collects water from Kerkevare and Alkajaure. The Tukejokk joins the Lule as well in Virihaure, leaving Virihaure to the north, the river reaches the Vastenjaure lake after losing 32m over 2.2 km. It then flows via the Vuojatätno to lake Kutjaure and then Luoktanjarkajaure, collecting a lot of water from lakes in Sarek National Park, like Salohaure. There are numerous waterfalls and rapids in the river, the best known is Stora Sjöfallet at the end of the Akkajaure lake, where the water falls 39.6 m from Kårtjejaure to Langasjaure. In this lake the Vietasajokk joins the Lule, the Stora Lule träsk is the largest of the lakes in the river. Here it reaches the forest, and after the lake is joined by the Muddus River from Muddus National Park, at 75m, near the village of Vuollerim, the river joins with the Lesser Lule River. The Lule passes the Porsiforsen, Edefors and Hedens fors and it flows into the Baltic Sea through the Bälingefjärden and Lulefjärden. Other rivers in the watershed of the Lule with a length of more than 100 km are, Black River, Flarkån, Lesser Lule River, Pärl River, Rissajåkkå, Vietasätno, article Lule älf from Nordisk Familjebok
6.
French language
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French is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages, French has evolved from Gallo-Romance, the spoken Latin in Gaul, and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues doïl—languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to Frances past overseas expansion, there are numerous French-based creole languages, a French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French. French is a language in 29 countries, most of which are members of la francophonie. As of 2015, 40% of the population is in Europe, 35% in sub-Saharan Africa, 15% in North Africa and the Middle East, 8% in the Americas. French is the fourth-most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union, 1/5 of Europeans who do not have French as a mother tongue speak French as a second language. As a result of French and Belgian colonialism from the 17th and 18th century onward, French was introduced to new territories in the Americas, Africa, most second-language speakers reside in Francophone Africa, in particular Gabon, Algeria, Mauritius, Senegal and Ivory Coast. In 2015, French was estimated to have 77 to 110 million native speakers, approximately 274 million people are able to speak the language. The Organisation internationale de la Francophonie estimates 700 million by 2050, in 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked French the third most useful language for business, after English and Standard Mandarin Chinese. Under the Constitution of France, French has been the language of the Republic since 1992. France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public education except in specific cases, French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland and is spoken in the western part of Switzerland called Romandie, of which Geneva is the largest city. French is the language of about 23% of the Swiss population. French is also a language of Luxembourg, Monaco, and Aosta Valley, while French dialects remain spoken by minorities on the Channel Islands. A plurality of the worlds French-speaking population lives in Africa and this number does not include the people living in non-Francophone African countries who have learned French as a foreign language. Due to the rise of French in Africa, the total French-speaking population worldwide is expected to reach 700 million people in 2050, French is the fastest growing language on the continent. French is mostly a language in Africa, but it has become a first language in some urban areas, such as the region of Abidjan, Ivory Coast and in Libreville. There is not a single African French, but multiple forms that diverged through contact with various indigenous African languages, sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, because of the expansion of education and rapid population growth
7.
Diphthong
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A diphthong, also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets, that is, the tongue moves during the pronunciation of the vowel, in many dialects of English, the phrase no highway cowboys /ˌnoʊ ˈhaɪweɪ ˈkaʊbɔɪz/ has five distinct diphthongs, one in every syllable. Diphthongs contrast with monophthongs, where the tongue or other organs do not move. For instance, in English, the word ah is spoken as a monophthong, where two adjacent vowel sounds occur in different syllables—for example, in the English word re-elect—the result is described as hiatus, not as a diphthong. Diphthongs often form when separate vowels are run together in rapid speech during a conversation, however, there are also unitary diphthongs, as in the English examples above, which are heard by listeners as single-vowel sounds. Diphthongs use two vowel sounds in one syllable to make a speech sound, in the International Phonetic Alphabet, monophthongs are transcribed with one symbol, as in English sun, in which ⟨ʌ⟩ represents a monophthong. Diphthongs are transcribed with two symbols, as in English high or cow, in which ⟨aɪ⟩ and ⟨aʊ⟩ represent diphthongs, diphthongs may be transcribed with two vowel symbols or with a vowel symbol and a semivowel symbol. Transcribing the diphthongs as ⟨aɪ̯ aʊ̯⟩ is a precise or narrower transcription. The non-syllabic diacritic, the inverted breve below ⟨◌̯⟩, is placed under the prominent part of a diphthong to show that it is part of a diphthong rather than a vowel in a separate syllable. When there is no contrastive vowel sequence in the language, the diacritic may be omitted, other common indications that the two letters are not separate vowels are a superscript, ⟨aᶦ aᶷ⟩, or a tie bar, ⟨a͡ɪ a͡ʊ⟩ or ⟨a͜ɪ a͜ʊ⟩. The tie bar can be useful when its not clear which letter represents the syllable nucleus, superscripts are especially used when an on- or off-glide is particularly fleeting. The period ⟨. ⟩ is the opposite of the non-syllabic diacritic, if two vowels next to each other belong to two different syllables, meaning that they do not form a diphthong, they can be transcribed with two vowel symbols with a period in between. Thus, lower can be transcribed ⟨ˈloʊ. ər⟩, with a period separating the first syllable, /loʊ/, from the second syllable, the non-syllabic diacritic is only used when necessary. It is typically omitted when there is no ambiguity, as in ⟨haɪ kaʊ⟩, no words in English have the vowel sequences *, so the non-syllabic diacritic is unnecessary. The less prominent component in the diphthong may also be transcribed as an approximant, thus in eye, however, when the diphthong is analysed as a single phoneme, both elements are often transcribed with vowel letters. There are many languages that contrast one or more rising diphthongs with similar sequences of a glide, in closing diphthongs, the second element is more close than the first, in opening diphthongs, the second element is more open. Closing diphthongs tend to be falling, and opening diphthongs are rising, as open vowels are more sonorous. However, exceptions to this rule are not rare in the worlds languages, in Finnish, for instance, the opening diphthongs /ie̯/ and /uo̯/ are true falling diphthongs, since they begin louder and with higher pitch and fall in prominence during the diphthong
8.
Retroflex flap
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The retroflex flap is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɽ⟩, features of the retroflex flap, Its manner of articulation is flap, which means it is produced with a single contraction of the muscles so that one articulator is thrown against another. Its place of articulation is retroflex, which means it is articulated subapical. That is, besides the prototypical sub-apical articulation, the contact can be apical or laminal. Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation and it is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only. It is a consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream along the center of the tongue. The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the lungs and diaphragm, japanese /r/ may be transcribed with ⟨ɽ⟩, in which case it represents the postalveolar flap rather than retroflex. Toda has a trill, which is transcribed with the same IPA symbol. Index of phonetics articles Heide, Eldar,2010, «Tjukk l – Retroflektert tydeleggjering av kort kvantitet, om kvalitetskløyvinga av det gamle kvantitetssystemet. » Maal og minne, s
