After his death, Emma Mattsdal’s grandfather left behind an extensive work in which he listed dialectal words originating from Storuman and parts of Västerbotten. Today, Emma took part in the lists and found a new interest in dialects and words that originate from different parts of Norrland.
Some words are unknown, others she already knew and many words she didn’t even know were dialectal – but thought they were used all over Sweden.
Emma: “Many people feel at home when I speak in dialect”
On social media, Emma publishes videos where she lets her followers guess what they think different words from Norrland mean, which has been widely spread and appreciated.
– I have followers who may have lived in Västerbotten several decades ago, and when they hear me speak in my Västerbotten dialect, a strong feeling of nostalgia is formed. They tell me it’s been years since they heard certain words, says Emma.
Emma wants to preserve dialects
The importance of distinguishing between counties and regions is great for Emma. She means that you lose part of all culture and history if you talk about all the counties in northern Sweden as a single place – “Norrland”.
Instead, she wants to preserve all the different dialects so that the history of the language can continue for generations.
– The dialects differ a lot between locality, municipality and county, and then you can’t compress them all into one and the same. There is no such thing as Nordic, says Emma.
“Common feature in the language”
According to Susanne Haugen, lecturer in Nordic languages at Umeå University, Norrland is a geographically defined language area, but at the same time says that it cannot be classified as a single dialect.
– There may be common features in the language in Norrland and then you are talking about a large dialect area. But it is also not possible to say that certain words and expressions are used throughout Norrland, because there are big differences depending on where in Norrland you are. There are more differences than similarities, says Susanne.