Jutlandic

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Jutlandic or Jutish (Danish: jysk or, in old spelling, jydsk) is a term for the western dialects of Danish, spoken on the peninsula of Jutland. The different subdialects of Jutlandic differ somewhat from each other, and are generally grouped in four main dialects: northern (Vendelbomål), southern (Sønderjysk), western (Vestjysk) and eastern (Østjysk). Generally, the eastern dialects are the closest to Standard Danish, while the southern dialect (Sønderjysk) is the one that differs mostly from the others, wherefore it is sometimes described as a distinct dialect, thus Jutlandic is by that definition actually two different dialects: general Jutlandic (jysk; further divided into northern, western and eastern) and Southern Jutlandic (sønderjysk).

Jutlandic — especially in the northernmost, western and southern regions — is often hard to understand for people originating outside Jutland. Jutlandic also has a tendency to apocope, skipping the weak -e often found at the end of Standard Danish words, which is a weakening of an original North Germanic -i, -a or -u.

Western, southern and some eastern Jutlandic dialects place the definite article in front of the noun, similar to most European languages, but unlike all other Scandinavian languages which place the definite article after the noun as a suffix: Jutlandic æ hus, æ mand, Standard Danish huset, manden ('the house', 'the man').

Moreover, whereas Standard Danish has two genders (Common and Neuter), some Jutlandic dialects (especially western ones) have only one gender – like English.

Historically, Jutlandic has always been an important factor in the rivalry between Zealand (Denmark's largest island, except for Greenland) and Jutland (the Danish mainland); the islanders often believe Jutlandic to be somewhat of a "farmer-language." Though most Jutlanders today speak in a way closer to standard Danish than the generations before them, differences from Zealandic Danish in accent, vocabulary and idiom still remain obvious.