Dalecarlian runes

Älvdalen is unique in its late use of the Runic alphabet – specifically the Dalecarlian runes which developed from the Younger Futhark in the 16th century. Before 1575, only around 30 Dalecarlian inscriptions are known. Dalecarlian runes were used throughout Mora parish (besides Älvdalen, also Mora, Våmhus, Venjan and Sollerön), but are found only in Älvdalen after 1650. By then, Dalecarlian runes were used to write poetry as well as prose. From the 1700s on the runes were gradually replaced by Latin letters. Towards the end of the 1800s, only the runes for “e”, “g”, “n” and “ä” were still in use.Jans et al., 2015, p. 43.

When the Swedish linguist Lars Levander visited the area in 1905, he encountered elderly people who were still able to read the Dalecarlian runes.Boëthius, Levander, & Noreen, 1906. It is around this time the last authentic Dalecarlian inscriptions originate.Ca. 1900–09 (Jans et al., 2015, pp. 43–47). The candidates that could prove a match for the signatures (possibly even as late as 1929) and location (Åsen, Älvdalen) all passed away in the 1980s.Jans et al., 2015, pp. 43–47.

Attempt to standardize written Elfdalian

Building on a long tradition of written Elfdalian, the work on standardizing the language started in the 1980s. In 1982, the Älvdalen newspaper Skansvakten for the first time presented a proposal for a practical Elfdalian spelling, developed by the Swedish linguist Lars Steensland.Steensland, 1982. Steensland published the first Eldalian dictionary in 1986Steensland, 1986. and a translation of the Gospel of John in 1989.Steensland, 1989. The same year also saw the publishing of the first Elfdalian novel, Hjalmar Larsson’s Kunundsin kumb, although written with Larsson’s own makeshift spelling.

Responding to Steensland’s spelling, Bengt Åkerberg developed a more detailed orthography starting in 1999 which set out to capture all the unusual sounds of Elfdalian language suitable for scholarly work, grammars and teaching. It was presented in 2004 at the first conference for the Elfdalian language.Åkerberg, 2005. Despite its use in language courses, and appearing in a few literary publications, Åkerberg’s spelling proved hard to use for Elfdalian speakers.

In 2004, Ulum dalska charged Råðdjärum, their newly formed language council, with the task of developing a new Elfdalian spelling that reconciled Steensland and Åkerberg’s orthographies. After seven months, a proposal was presented and accepted by Ulum dalska.Råðdjärum, 2005.

A second edition of Lars Steensland’s Liten älvdalsk-svensk och svensk-älvdalsk ordbok followed in 2006, with a few exceptions, conforming to Råðdjärum’s orthography. A coordinated effort to bring the diverging spellings closer resulted in a new and expanded dictionary by Lars Steensland in 2010,Steensland, 2010. and a grammar by Bengt Åkerberg in 2012.Åkerberg & Nyström, 2012. A third edition of Lars Steensland’s dictionary followed in 2021.Steensland, 2021.

Ulum dalska’s hopes of replacing Steensland and Åkerberg’s orthographies were not realized. Rather, Elfdalian speakers were now left with three competing norms existing side by side.Steensland, 2015.