ScanDiaSyn – Scandinavian Dialect Syntax

ScanDiaSyn - Scandinavian Dialect Syntax is a project umbrella where nine Scandinavian research groups collaborate to systematically map and study the syntactic variation across the Scandinavian dialect continuum. The nine groups are spread across all of the five Nordic countries and one self-governed area (the Faroe Islands). Three non-Nordic groups are liased with the project through a NordForsk network.

Together with CASTL ScanDiaSyn furthermore constitutes the backbone of the Nordic Center of Excellence in Microcomparative Syntax (NORMS) appointed by NOS-HS for the period august 2005 until July 2010. As of 1 April 2007 the ScanDiaSyn efforts have received direct support from (in the order of magnitude) NOS-HS, the Icelandic Centre for Research, the Swedish Research Council, the University of Oslo, the University of Tromsø, Academy of Finland, NordForsk/NorFA, the Danish Research Councils for the Humanities, the Nordic Language Council (Nordens Språkråd), and Nordplus språk. The network coordinator and project manager for ScanDiaSyn is Dr. Øystein Alexander Vangsnes at the University of Tromsø.

Read more about:

– The objectives
– The network
– The sub-projects
– Activities
– The history
– Methodology
– The database
– Status of the project
– Bibliography

You can also follow the blog or participate in the discussion forum.

Of current interest!

• Scandinavian Dialect Syntax 2005 has come out as volume 34 of Nordlyd. The volume is a collection of articles from the 1st Grand Meeting for the network in Leikanger in August 2005.
• NORMS Dialect meeting on the Western Jutlandic dialect, Western Jutland, 7-11 January (organized by Karen Hagedorn and Henrik Jørgensen).
• Workshop on Argument Structure, Lund University, 5-6 February 2008 (organized by Christer Platzack and Mai Tungseth); invited speakers Artemis Alexiadou, Heidi Harley, and Gillian Ramchand. A Call for Papers is now available on the NORMS pages.

ScanDiaSyn and NORMS in the media:

See this page for older public relation material. (Or click ‘media’ in the left menu.)

• Interview with Kristine Bentzen on Norwegian national radio about her doctoral dissertation, Språkteigen NRK, 5 November 2007.
• Tilbrigði um norrænar setningar (‘Variation on Scandinavian clauses’), article in RANNÍS-blaðið, the magazine of the Icelandic Research Center, 17 October 2007.
• Svenska språket – ett hot mot älvdalskan (‘The Swedish language – a threat to Övdalian’), editorial in Mora Tidning, 2 October, 2007.
• Slottet på haugen (‘The Castle on the Hill’), portrait interview with Kristine Bentzen in Utropia (Tromsø student newspaper), 1 October 2007.
• Interview with Kristine Bentzen in Språkteigen (NRK) about the ScanDiaSyn fieldwork in Norway, 10 September 2007.
  
• Erfðalyklar tungumálsins, interview with David J. Lightfoot, published in Morgunblaðið on 9 September 2007.
  
• Intervju med Piotr Garbacz i Sveriges Radio om resultaten från NORMS-feltarbetet i Älvdalen, 4. september (© Sveriges Radio)
• Live phone interview with Øystein A. Vangsnes (from Iceland), Språkteigen (NRK) 20 August, 2007.
• Fjölþjóðleg ráðstefna um setningagerð í norrænum málum í Mývatnssveit (‘International conference on the syntax of Scandinavian languages at Mývatn, Mbl.is, 17. august 2007.
• Heimsviðburður í Mývatnssveit (‘World happening at Mývatn’), Skarpi.is, 14 August 2007.
  
• De talade med de lärda – på älvdalska (‘They were talking to the learned – in Övdalian’, Mora Tidning, 4. juni, 2007.
• Reportage i Sveriges Radio från NORMS-feltarbetet i Älvdalen, 30. mai 2007. (© Sveriges Radio)
• Direktintervju med Piotr Garbacz i Sveriges Radio om NORMS-feltarbetet i Älvdalen, 28. mai 2007. (© Sveriges Radio)