Härjedalskan is not a dialect but a language in its own right. At least, that is the claim of Helge Hillbom, a native of Vemdalen with a background as a journalist at Länstidningen and the newspapers Härjedalen in Sveg and Västerbottens Folkblad in Umeå.

His love for the language of his homeland inspired him to start collecting Härjedalen words and expressions, and by the time he finished this dictionary, he had collected around 3,650 of them. Whether this constitutes a language in its own right is left to the reader to decide.