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Älvdalsmål (English: lit. "Älvdalen speech; Elfdalian", also Älvdalska, Övdalsk) is a form of Scandinavian spoken in in Älvdalen Municipality in northern Dalarna, Sweden. It is considered to be a dialect of Swedish by some Scandinavian linguists, but is nowadays more often considered a separate language based on mutual intelligibility. Other dialects are spoken around the lake Siljan. The dialects are very distinct from Swedish and have retained many archaic grammatical and phonological features, many of which have not changed considerably since Old Swedish, the form of Swedish spoken during the Middle Ages.
Recently there have been attempts to create a written standard for Älvdalsmål through the establishment of the association Ulum Dalska with the help of the group Råðdjärum (lit. 'Let us confer') consisting of prominent Swedish linguists such as Östen Dahl.
Älvdalska has few speakers, usually estimated at only a few thousand, and is risking extinction. However, it is possible that it will receive official status as a minority language in Sweden.
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