Жәмтланд диалектілері

Swedish dialects spoken in Jämtland, Sweden

Jämtland dialects (jamska ; jämtska, jämtmål) constitute a group of closely related Norrland dialects spoken in the Swedish province of Jämtland, with the exception of Frostviken in the northernmost part of the province, where the traditional dialect is Norwegian. In the eastern part of Jämtland the dialects are transitional to those of Ångermanland. The dialect group is commonly regarded and treated as a single entity. Some people consider it a language separate from Swedish. The Jämtland dialects share many characteristics with Trøndersk — the dialect spoken to the west in Norwegian Trøndelag, and has historically sometimes been considered to be Norwegian in origin. The current view in Scandinavian dialectology, however, is that the Jämtland dialects belong to the Swedish Norrland dialects.

The local name for the dialects is jamska. There is, however, no common term for the dialects in English, and academic sources call them by various names, such as jamska, jämtska, Jämtish dialect, Jämtlandic dialect, Jämtland dialects or dialects of Jämtland. The endonym jamska is technically a definite form; the indefinite form jaamsk/jamske is rarely used.

Like all other central Scandinavian dialects (Trønder dialects, east Norwegian dialects, Norrland dialects, some Finland Swedish dialects), the most characteristic feature of the Jämtland dialects is vowel balance, an event that caused the vowel endings after heavy syllables to weaken and later even drop entirely in some dialects moving the tone over from ending to the root syllable, example Old Norse kasta > (> "to throw"), while the endings after light syllables instead where reinforced, and even caused a type of umlaut or vowel harmony on the root vowel (example Old Norse lifa > > > "to live"). According to one theory, this phenomenon has its roots in influence from the neighbouring Saami languages in medieval times.

The Old Norse phonemic contrast of light and heavy syllables is partly preserved in eastern Jämtland dialects, and to some degree in Western Jämtland dialects and in the Oviken parish in southwestern Jämtland. In eastern Jämtland and in Oviken parish, short stressed syllables are preserved from Old Norse words like hǫku 'chin', lifa 'to live', which have evolved to in Fors parish, in Ragunda and Stugun parishes, in Hällesjö parish, and in Oviken parish, while lifa has become [læ̂ʋa᷈] or similar in all of the parishes. In western Jämtland, the short syllables are less stable, and are often lengthened to long or half long in accent 2 words, but is preserved in accent 1 words: Old Norse svið 'burned' has become [sʋɛ̂] in Åre parish, while accent 2 words like Old Norse lofa 'to promise', duna 'to make noise', which have evolved to or , and in Undersåker, Kall and Åre parishes. In the Offerdal parish in western Jämtland, ai and ey have monophthongized to and , while au is preserved as [æɵ̯]. Southwestern Jämtland dialects have not only preserved the original diphthongs, but also, similar to Icelandic and some dialects in Norway, diphthongized Old Norse á to in Myssjö parish, in Hackås and Oviken parishes, and in Berg and Rätan parishes. or similar, Old Norse slíta 'to struggle, to pull' has become , or similar, and Old Norse allt 'all' has become or similar.