Dalecarlian (dalmål in Swedish) is a group of East and West Scandinavian languages, and their respective dialects spoken in Dalarna County, Sweden. Some Dalecarlian varieties can be regarded as part of the Swedish dialect group in Gästrikland, Uppland, and northern and eastern Västmanland. Others represent a variety characteristic of a midpoint between West and East Nordic, unlike the Swedish language. They also show some similarities with the dialects of the other counties bordering Dalarna. In the northernmost part of the county (i.e., the originally Norwegian parishes of Särna and Idre), a characteristic dialect reminiscent of eastern Norwegian is spoken. One usually distinguishes between the Dalecarlian Bergslagen dialects, which are spoken in south-eastern Dalarna, and . Dalecarlian dialects are traditionally regarded as part of the Svealand dialect group.
Some Dalecarlian dialects takes up an intermediate position between East Nordic (Swedish–Danish) and West Nordic (Norwegian, Icelandic and Faroese). Kroonen cites a number of features that Elfdalian (a dalecarlian language) in particular shares with West Nordic, and writes: "In many aspects, Elfdalian, takes up a middle position between East and West Nordic. However, it shares some innovations with West Nordic, but none with East Nordic. This invalidates the claim that Elfdalian split off from Old Swedish."
In everyday speech, many with Dalecarlian often also refer to regionally coloured Standard Swedish from Dalarna, that is, a lexically and morphologically "national" Swedish with characteristic Dalarna intonation and prosody. In linguistics, one distinguishes between regionally coloured national languages and genuine dialects, and Dalecarlian is used exclusively for dialects in the latter sense.
Geographical distribution
Varieties of Dalecarlian are generally classified geographically: Ovansiljan, north of the Siljan lake: sockens Ore, Orsa, Våmhus, Älvdalen (Elfdalian), Mora, Venjan, Sollerön. Nedansiljan, south of the Siljan lake: sockens Boda, Rättvik, Bjursås, Ål, Siljansnäs, Leksand, Gagnef. Upper Västerdalarna: sockens Lima, Transtrand. Lower Västerdalarna: sockens Malung, Äppelbo, Järna, Nås, Floda, the parishes of Mockfjärd in Gagnefs socken. Floda and Mockfjärd can be considered a separate group.
Dalecarlian proper (especially in Älvdalen, Mora and Orsa, to some extent also in Ore, Rättvik and Leksand), as well as western Dalecarlian varieties are markedly different from Swedish, and are considered to be distinct language varieties by linguists, despite their lack of recognition as such. Elfdalian is the one of the Dalecarlian languages that best kept their older features. It attracted interest from researchers early on, as it is labeled a dialect by the Swedish authorities despite that it developed independently from Swedish or Old Swedish. In many ways, it is very archaic. In other ways, it has distinguished itself from the ancient language and developed special features that are rare in other languages. A characteristic of the varieties are a pronunciation split in a number of easily distinguishable local dialects, which often only cover a single village or even part of a village.
For strangers, Dalecarlian varieties are virtually incomprehensible without special studies. However, this does not apply to the same extent with the Rättvik and Leksand dialects. They are more easily understood and can be considered to form a transitional stage between the Dalecarlian languages, and a dialect of Swedish with Dalecarlian remnants. Such transition tongues are also the tongues of Ål, Bjursås and Gagnef. The Gagnef dialect approaches the western Dalecarlian varieties, which to some extent can also be regarded as transitional dialects, but which in many respects take on a more independent position, especially in the upper parishes. They may show similarities with neighbouring Norwegian dialects.
There is a quite large difference between Gagnef and the Stora Tuna dialect, which belongs to the Dalecarlian Bergslagen dialects, a relatively uniform and fairly normal Swedish dialect complex that covers the entire southern Dalarna (Stora Kopparberg, Hedemora and Västerbergslagen). The most unique within this complex are the dialects of Svärdsjö and western Bergslagen, which are approaching Hälsingemål and Western Dalecarlian proper, respectively (via Grangärde and Floda). Dalecarlian Bergslagen dialects are also spoken in the northern part of Västmanland. The Dalecarlian Bergslagen dialects are quite closely connected with the neighbouring Svealand Swedish, perhaps most with the dialects of eastern Västmanland.