Arendalsk

Arendalsk
Region	Arendal
Language family	Indo-European Germanic North Germanic West Scandinavian South Norwegian Arendalsk
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	None

Not to be confused with Amelansk.

Arendalsk, Arendal dialect or Arendal Norwegian (Bokmål and Nynorsk: Arendalsk, Arendalsdialekten; the Arendal dialect: Ændalsk) is a dialect of Norwegian used in Arendal.

Phonology

• Intervocalic /p, t, k/ are realized as voiced [b, d, ɡ]. This feature appeared in this dialect in the 20th century.
• A uvular [ʀ] realization of /r/ was established in Arendal before the 20th century.
• /ʀ/ is frequently dropped, so that e.g. Lars becomes Læs.
• The ending ⟨–er⟩ is pronounced [ɔ], so that the word for 'basement' is kjeller in Bokmål, but kjellå in the Arendal dialect.

According to the linguist Gjert Kristoffersen, a very recent change is that the postvocalic /ʀ/ is vocalized to [æ̯], rather than dropped. The phonetic diphthongs [ʉæ̯] and [uæ̯] may be monophthongized and lowered to, respectively, [œː] and [ɔː], so that the words for 'to do gymnastics' and 'thorn' (which phonemically are, respectively, /²tʉʀne/ and /²tuʀne/) vary in their phonetic realization between, respectively, [ˈtʰʉ̞̂æ̯nə̌ ~ ˈtʰœ̂ːnə̌] and [ˈtʰʊ̂æ̯nə̌ ~ ˈtʰɔ̂ːnə̌]. This process may be extended to mid vowels.

Tonemes

Phonetic realization

Tonemes of the Arendal dialect are the same as those of the Oslo dialect; accent 1 is low-rising, whereas accent 2 is falling-rising.

Notable speakers

• Gjert Kristoffersen
• Rockebandet Ændal, a heavy metal band that sings in the Arendal dialect