Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/396

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SCA — SCA


the study of the Modern Norwegian dialects and their mother language, Old Norwegian, the eminent philologist J. Aasen was led to undertake the bold project of constructing, by the study of these two sources, and on the basis of his native dialect (Søndmøre), a Norwegian-Norwegian ("Norsk-Norsk") language, the so-called "Landsmål." In 1853 he exhibited a specimen of it, and, thanks to such excellent writers as Aasen himself, the poets O. Vinje and K. Janson, and the novelist A. Garborg, as well as a zealous propagandism of the society "Det Norske Samlag" (founded in 1868), there has since arisen a valuable though not very large literature in the "Landsmål." But it is nowhere spoken.[1] Its grammatical structure and vocabulary are exhibited in Aasen's Norsk grammatik, 1864, and Norsk ordbog, 1873.

Dialects.Scandinavian Dialects.—As above remarked, the Scandinavian dialects are not grouped, so far as their relationship is concerned, as might be expected judging from the literary languages. Leaving out of account the Icelandic dialects and those of the Faroes, each of which constitutes a separate group, the remainder may be thus classified:[2]

(1) West-Norwegian Dialects,—spoken on the western coast of Norway between Christiansand and Molde.

(2) North-Scandinavian,—the remaining Norwegian and the Swedish dialects of Vestmanland, Dalarna, Norrland, Finland, and Russia.

(3) The dialects on the island of Gotland.

(4) Middle-Swedish,—spoken in the rest of Sweden, except the southernmost parts (No. 5).

(5) South-Scandinavian,—spoken in the greater part of Småland and Halland, the whole of Skåne, Blekinge, and Denmark, and the Danish-speaking part of Schleswig. This group is distinctly divided into three smaller groups,—the dialects of southern Sweden (with the island of Bornholm), of the Danish islands, and of Jutland (and Schleswig).

The study of the Modern Scandinavian dialects has been very unequally prosecuted. Hardly anything has been done towards the investigation of the Icelandic dialects, while those of the Faroes have been studied chiefly by Hammershaimb. The Norwegian dialects have been thoroughly examined by Aasen, whose works give a general account of them; while in our own days Joh. Storm, above all, displays an unwearying activity, especially in the minute investigation of their phonetic constitution, to which Aasen had paid but scant attention. The substance of these researches in the Norwegian dialects has recently been presented in a magazine, called Norvegia, of which the first volume is in course of publication; it employs an alphabet invented by Storm. For the study of Danish dialects but little has been done, Molbech's Dialect-Lexicon of 1841 being very deficient. The Schleswig dialect, on the contrary, has been admirably treated of by E. Hagerup (1854) and K. J. Lyngby (1858). At present two important works are in preparation,—H. F. Feilberg's great dictionary of the dialect of Jutland, and J. C. Espersen's of the dialect of Bornholm. There is no country in which the dialects have been and are studied with greater zeal and more fruitful results than in Sweden[3] during the last hundred and fifty years. Archbishop E. Benzelius the younger († 1743) made collections of dialect words, and on his work is based the dialectical dictionary of Ihre of 1766. An excellent work considering its age is S. Hof's Dialectus Vestrogothica, 1772. The energy and zeal of C. Säve (essays on the dialects of Gotland and Dalarne) inspired these studies with extraordinary animation at the middle of the 19th century; in 1867 J. E. Rietz published a voluminous dialect dictionary; the number of special essays, too, increased yearly. From 1872 so-called "landsmålsföreningar" (dialect societies) were founded among the students at the universities of Upsala, Lund, and Helsingfors (at Upsala alone 13), for a systematic and thorough investigation of dialects. We find remarkable progress in scientific method especially with regard to phonetics in the constantly increasing literature; special mention may be made of the detailed descriptions of the dialects of Värmland, Gotland, and Dalarna by Ad. Noreen, and A. F. Freudenthal's monographs on the Finnish and Esthonian Swedish dialects. Since 1879 the Swedish dialect societies have published a magazine on a comprehensive plan, De Svenska Landsmålen, edited by J. A. Lundell, who has invented for this purpose an excellent phonetic alphabet (partially based on C. J. Sundevall's work Om phonetiska bokstafver, 1855).(A. NO.)

SCARBOROUGH, a parliamentary borough of England, frequently called "the Queen of Watering Places," situated on the east coast of Yorkshire, in the North Riding, 40 miles from York, and between 54° 15′ 0″ and 54° 17′ 15" N. lat. and 0° 22′ 25″ and 0° 26′ 24″ W. long.

Plan of Scarborough.
1.   Old Town Hall.
2.  Custom House.
3.  Old Post Office. 
4.  Market Hall.
 5.   News Room.
 6.  Theatre Royal.
 7.  Police Station. 
 8.  Museum.
  9.  St Mary's Church. 
 10.  Christ Church.
 11.  St Thomas' Ch.
 12.  Independ't Ch.
 13.  Rom. Cath. Ch. 
 14.  Post Office.
 15.  York City and
 County Bank.
 16.  Savings Bank.
 17.  Sea-Bathing
 Infirmary.
 18.  Theatre.

Its two parts, north and south, each with a fine stretch of sand and bay, are divided by a rocky promontory 300 feet above the sea, on which stand the remains of the castle. The cliff is much exposed to denudation by the sea, which has been proceeding during the present century at the rate of 1 yard in 17 years. The plateau forming the castle yard in 1190, according to William of Newburgh, comprised


  1. See J. Storm, "Det Norske maalstræv" (Nordisk Tidskrift, 1878).
  2. See J. A. Lundell, "Om de Svenska folkmålens frändskaper" (Antropologiska Sektionens Tidskrift, 1880).
  3. See J. A, Lundell, "Öfversikt af de senaste årtiondenas värksamhet för kännedom om folkmål" (Svenska Landsmålen, i., 1880).