Revitalisation of Övdalian and the Choice of Literary Language

Abstrakt

Övdalian (Swe. älvdalska), an East Scandinavian vernacular that is often considered a separate
language, has undergone preservation and revitalisation during the last 30–40 years. An interesting
aspect of the revitalisation process is the choice of the morphological form of Övdalian
used in books, fiction and translations, as the case morphology has changed substantially over
the past century. The vast majority of authors have nevertheless opted for a very traditional
variant that differs substantially from contemporary spoken Övdalian. This raises questions
about whether the revitalisation of Övdalian, of which book production is an important
aspect, is a bottom-up process or a top-down imposition of a partly idealised, archaic language
(cf. Grenoble and Whaley 2006: 20).