Nordplus project

“Documenting and popularising the Estonian Swedish dialect Runska” (2024-2026)

The project focuses on a small variety of Estonian Swedish called Runska (runska or runömål in Swedish) that until World War II was spoken on the Estonian island Ruhnu in the Gulf of Riga. As the population of the island fled to Sweden during the war, and the dialect was not passed on to younger generations, it is today critically endangered surviving only as a language of a handful of elderly speakers. The dialect has not been studied in depth, and although there exist various older materials, these are scattered in archives and in private collections.

The project runs for two years (2024−2026) and is funded by the Nordplus Nordic Languages Programme.