Välimurteiden idiolektit

• Marjatta Palander

Abstrakti

Idiolects of transitional dialects variation in the dialects of individuals in the Savonlinna district [html] (englanti)

1/2001 (105)

Marjatta Palander ([e-mail])

IDIOLECTS OF TRANSITIONAL DIALECTS: VARIATION IN THE DIALECTS OF INDIVIDUALS IN THE SAVONLINNA DISTRICT

The article investigates idiolectal variation in transitional dialects. The dialects chosen for the study were those of the Savonlinna district and its immediate vicinity, in eastern Finland. The material consists of recorded dialect samples of 198 speakers (about 195 hours) born at the end of the 19th century or in the early 20th century. The informants had lived most of their lives in the same village.

The writer examines the idiolectal variation in the following phonological and morphological features, chosen as being typical of regional dialect variations: 1) oa, in non-initial syllables; 2) ea, e in non-initial syllables; 3) ia, i in non-initial syllables; 4) ua, y in non-initial syllables; 5) schwa vowel; 6) consonant combination ts; 7) the pronouns min, sin; 8) the pronoun hn; 9) equivalents of the 3rd person possessive suffix -nsa, -ns; and 10) pronouns of the type sellainen, semmoinen.

The material reveals that variation within a single idiolect increases from north to south. This also applies to the occurrence of parallel vari-ants. In the north of the area the greatest variation is found in the vowel combinations ending in a or (with the exception of ua and y); further south, the variation also increases in other features. The variation can be described using an implicational scale indicating the most likely occurence of variation in the different features, which is best illustrated in the idiolects of the Savonranta district dialects, and in the Sminki area, at the western boundary. In the central area, at Kerimki and Punkaharju, variation is well established and the idiolects show greater similarity than else-where. This is because the area was once the heart of a much larger Kerimki parish.

The study shows that idiolectal variation is found not only in the group of transitional dialects of the Savonlinna district but extends beyond the district too. For the ten features examined, variation is absent only in the dialects of two informants from north Savo. The composition of the Savonlinna district dialects nevertheless distinguishes them as a group in their own right, with a dialect system that differs from all the neighbouring dia-lect systems.