Through friends, colleagues, social media and people on the street, many of us are exposed to several dialects on a daily basis. This is called bidialectism. And some even have to juggle several dialects even throughout the day. One of these is Kenneth Lauveng. He grew up on Sommarøy outside Tromsø until he was 12 years old. Then the family moved to Oslo, and quite quickly the dialect changed completely. – Both me and my brother found out that it was a good idea to speak Eastern when we came down. I experienced that there were certain words and expressions that the other children did not understand. That’s why it turned out that way. And Kenneth would probably only have spoken Eastern to this day, had it not been for his father making an innocent joke. – One day he asked if I had become an Easterner. Then it was like a switch was turned on in the head. Since that day, he has spoken Northern Norwegian with his family and others from Northern Norway, and Eastern with everyone else. Are dialects different languages? Now researchers at the University of Tromsø and Volda University College will try to find out whether our brain processes the different dialects as several languages. – We are interested in how the brain handles all the linguistic variation in one and the same language, says Jade Sandstedt, one of the researchers behind the project. Researcher Jade Sandstedt together with Helene Jensberg. Here during pilot testing of the experiment. Photo: Dr. Maki Kubota There has been little research into how several dialects affect us. – Let’s say that a person reads a text written in Bokmål versus a text written in their own dialect. Does it look different in the brain? asks Sandstedt. – Norwegian dialects are similar, but we may treat them a bit like different languages. Many words are different from Bokmål when writing in the North Norwegian dialect. Tests on northerners The trial is a collaboration between the University of Volda and UiT. Researchers are testing both Northerners and Southerners. Sandstedt says the places have been chosen because they have grammatical features that are both similar and different from each other. In Tromsø, people are tested by reading texts written in Bokmål and dialect. – We are trying to find out how the brain responses are different and different in these tests, says the researcher. In Sunnmøre, they are only tested in Bokmål, so the researchers study how the Sunnmøres use their brains compared to the Nordics when they read Bokmål. Here you can test yourself in the North Norwegian dialect: The researchers use EEG when they research dialect. This means that the person being tested cannot move or speak during the test. They can only read the text displayed on a screen, while the researchers observe how the brain works. Photo: Prof. Jason Rothman Switches completely automatically Kenneth says people at work have closed their eyes – and ears – when they hear that he switches to Northern Norwegian for the first time. It has happened several times when the family has called. – You almost get a little embarrassed, but it just happens automatically – Do you feel that your dialects are like two different languages? – Yes actually. Especially when you encounter two different dialects at the same time. He says his brain works extra hard when he meets people with a diluted Northern Norwegian dialect. – Then it stops a bit and I have to concentrate when I have to speak. – I try to stick to Eastern, but suddenly it can crack up and I switch to Northern Norwegian. People probably think I’m a total “nonsense”, he chuckles. Minister changed the rostrum In 2014, then Europe Minister Vidar Helgesen (H) caused a stir during the Storting’s Question Time. There he switched from his usual daily speech to bodøværing when he was asked by SV’s Karin Andersen if he had even been to Northern Norway. That was how most people were used to hearing Europe Minister Vidar Helgesen (H). – President, I have never been to Northern Norway before, I was born in Northern Norway. Æ e bodøværing! Helgesen told NTB that he still speaks the Bodo dialect with his father, despite the fact that the family moved from the city when he was only four years old. – It was very spontaneous, the minister said at the time. And this is what it sounded like when Helgesen answered in a sounding Bodø dialect: Vidar Helgesen (H) drew chuckles in the Storting hall when he suddenly switched to Bodø dialect during a debate on employer’s tax in question time. Calling for greater participation Dialect research started in the autumn, but the results of the research may have to wait. – We need more participants to be able to say something specific about how we use the brain differently. Sandstedt is calling for more people who were born and raised in Northern Norway with Norwegian as their first language who would like to participate during the autumn. – We have two expected results. Either Northerners have separate grammatical systems for Northern Norwegian and Bokmål. Then we expect to see differences in the brain responses between the two test phases. Or they don’t have it. – Which means that Northerners have their local dialect’s grammar and process Bokmål through the North Norwegian grammatical system. PS: The interview with Kenneth was conducted in northern Norwegian-sounding, by the journalist who is himself a northerner. In northern Norway there are many places where short strong verbs are used. You say “drive” or “skriv”, while in Bokmål you say “drive” or “skriven”. This is one of several differences between the written language and the spoken language. Photo: Prof. Jason Rothman
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Trying to find out if the brain perceives different dialects as different languages - news Nordland
