Gutlandic

One of the most distinctive Swedish dialects is Gutlandic. It is spoken on the island of Gotland. Characteristics of Gutlandic are the melody and the use of many diphthongs.

Gutlandic uses more diphthongs than in Standard Swedish. For example, mer (more) is meir, lök (onion) is löyk and hus (house) is heos. 

Many words have different vowels than in Standard Swedish. The word dröm (dream) has a front rounded vowel in Standard Swedish, but a mid back vowel in Gutlandic. In the word buss (bus), Standard Swedish uses a mid central vowel, but Gutlandic uses a mid back vowel.

In Gutlandic, many words that have a word-final a in Standard Swedish have a word-final e. This resembles Danish and Norwegian. For example, the words borta (away), resa (trip) and samma (same) are borte, rese and samme in Gutlandic.

Gutlandic is one of the best known Swedish dialects. It is characterized by the use of many diphthongs and different vowels from those of Standard Swedish. It is different from Gutnish, a language of Gotland with few speakers today.