to count nouns can take the [æ] article before an adjective. If the noun is, however, meant to be a count noun it uses the standard Danish plural article dem. An example of this would be dem små kartofler versus æ små kartofler 'the small potatoes'. Dem små kartofler refers to the small potatoes in a set, i.e. those 5 small potatoes on the table. Æ små kartofler refers instead to a mass noun, meaning potatoes that are generally small. It is like saying "the yellow potatoes" in English. It can either mean yellow potatoes as a whole, a mass noun or the yellow potatoes sitting on the table, as opposed to the red ones. There is also a tendency to use hans or hendes instead of the Standard Danish sin when referring to the subject of the sentence. This means there is no longer a distinction between whether the possessive pronoun refers to the subject of the sentence or a third person, however, use of a word like egen/t 'own' can paraphrastically accomplish the same thing. Sociolinguistics Today the old dialects, tied as they were to the rural districts, are yielding to new regional standards based on Standard Danish. Several factors have contributed to this process. The dialects, especially in the northernmost, western and southern regions, are often hard to understand for people originating outside Jutland. The dialects also enjoy little prestige both nationally (the population of Zealand like to believe that the Jutlanders are slower not only in speech but also in thought) and regionally (the dialect is associated with rural life). The Danish cultural, media and business life revolves around Copenhagen, and Jutland has only in recent decades seen substantial economic growth. In the 20th century dialects were usually suppressed by media, state institutions, and schools. In recent decades, a more liberal attitude towards dialects has emerged, but since the number of speakers has decreased, and almost all of the remaining dialect speakers master a regional form of Standard Danish as well, dialects are still being ignored. Characteristics The new Jutlandic "regiolects" differ from the Copenhagen variety primarily by a distinct accent: a higher tendency of apocope of unstressed (cf. above). a higher pitch towards the end of a stressed syllable. a slightly different distribution of stød: vej 'way' = Standard Danish ; hammer 'hammer' = Standard Danish . the ending -et (definite article or passive participle)