Swedish is a
North GermanicThe North Germanic languages or Scandinavian languages make up one of the three branches of the Germanic languages, a sub-family of the Indo-European languages, along with the West Germanic languages and the extinct East Germanic languages...
languageA language is a system for encoding and decoding information. In its most common use, the term refers to so-called "natural languages" — the forms of communication considered peculiar to humankind. In linguistics the term is extended to refer to the human cognitive facility of creating and using...
, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in
SwedenSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe...
and parts of
FinlandFinland , officially the Republic of Finland
, is a Nordic country and democracy situated in the Fennoscandian region of northern Europe. It borders Sweden on the west, Russia on the east, and Norway on the north, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland...
, especially along the coast and on the Åland islands. It is to a considerable extent mutually intelligible with
NorwegianNorwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is an official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants ...
and to a lesser extent with
DanishDanish is one of the North Germanic languages , a sub-group of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. It is spoken by around 6 million people, mainly in Denmark; the language is also used by the 50,000 Danes in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein in Germany where it holds the...
(see especially "Classification"). Along with the other North Germanic languages, Swedish is a descendant of
Old NorseOld Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....
, the common language of the
Germanic peoplesThe Germanic peoples are a historical ethno-linguistic group, originating in Northern Europe and identified by their use of the Indo-European Germanic languages which diversified out of Common Germanic in the course of the Pre-Roman Iron Age...
living in Scandinavia during the
Viking EraViking Age is the term for the period in European history, especially Northern European and Scandinavian history, spanning the eighth to eleventh centuries. Scandinavian Vikings explored Europe by its oceans and rivers through trade and warfare. The Vikings also reached Iceland, Greenland,...
.
Standard SwedishStandard Swedish denotes Swedish as a spoken and written standard language. While Swedish as a written language is uniform and standardized, the spoken standard may vary considerably from region to region...
, used by most
Swedish peopleSwedes are a Scandinavian people, mostly inhabiting Sweden and the other Nordic countries, with descendants living in a number of countries....
, is the national language that evolved from the Central Swedish dialects in the 19th century and was well established by the beginning of the 20th century. While distinct regional
varietiesIn sociolinguistics a variety, also called a lect, is a form of a language used by speakers of that language. This may include dialects, accents, registers, styles or other sociolinguistic variation, as well as the standard language variety itself...
descended from the older rural
dialectThe term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by scholars of language. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other...
s still exist, the spoken and
written languageA written language is the representation of a language by means of a writing system. Written language is an invention in that it must be taught to children, who will instinctively learn or create spoken or gestural languages....
is uniform and standardized. Some dialects differ considerably from the standard language in
grammarIn linguistics, grammar is the set of logical and structural rules that govern the composition of sentences, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology and syntax, often complemented by phonetics, phonology,...
and
vocabularyA person's vocabulary is the set of words they are familiar with in a language. A vocabulary usually grows and evolves with age, and serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge.- Knowing and using a word :...
and are not always mutually intelligible with Standard Swedish. These dialects are confined to
ruralRural areas are large and isolated areas of a country, often with low population density.About 91 percent of the rural population now earn salaried incomes, often in urban areas...
areas and are spoken primarily by small numbers of people with low
social mobilitySocial mobility is the degree to which an individual's family or group's social status can change throughout the course of their life through a system of social hierarchy or stratification. Subsequently, it is also the degree to which an individual's or group's descendants move up and down the...
. Though not facing imminent
extinctionAn extinct language is a language which no longer has any speakers. Extinct languages may be contrasted with dead languages: no longer spoken as a main language.-Language loss:...
, such dialects have been in decline during the past century, despite the fact that they are well researched and their use is often encouraged by local authorities.
The standard word order is Subject Verb Object, though this can often be changed to stress certain words or phrases. Swedish
morphologyMorphology is the identification, analysis and description of the structure of words . While words are generally accepted as being the smallest units of syntax, it is clear that in most languages, words can be related to other words by rules...
is similar to English, i.e. words have comparatively few
inflectionIn grammar, inflection or inflexion is the way language modifies word forms to handle grammatical relations and relational categories such as tense, mood, voice, aspect , person, number , gender, case . Beside conjugation and declension there is comparison with its maximum category number of two In...
s; there are two
genderIn linguistics, grammatical genders, sometimes also called noun classes, are classes of nouns reflected in the behavior of associated words; every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be very few which belong to several classes at once....
s, no grammatical
casesIn grammar, the case of a noun or pronoun indicates its grammatical function in a greater phrase or clause; such as the role of subject, of direct object, or of possessor. Usually a language is said to "have cases" only if nouns change their form to reflect their case. Others indicate cases in...
(though older analyses posit two cases,
nominativeThe nominative case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb, as opposed to its object or other verb arguments....
and
genitiveIn grammar, the genitive case is the case that marks a noun as modifying another noun...
), and a distinction between
pluralPlural, commonly abbreviated pl., is a grammatical number, typically referring to more than one of the referent in the real world. In the English language, singular and plural are the only grammatical numbers.-English:...
and
singularSingular may refer to:* A grammatical number denoting a unit quantity * SINGULAR, a computer algebra system* gravitational singularity* technological singularity...
.
AdjectiveIn grammar, an adjective is a word whose main syntactic role is to modify a noun or pronoun, giving more information about the noun or pronoun's referent...
s are compared as in English, and are also inflected according to gender, number and definiteness. The
definitenessIn grammatical theory, definiteness is a feature of noun phrases, distinguishing between entities which are specific and identifiable in a given context and entities which are not ....
of nouns is marked primarily through
suffixIn grammar, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns or adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs...
es (endings), complemented with separate definite and indefinite
articlesAn article is a word that combines with a noun to indicate the type of reference being made by the noun, and may also specify the volume or numerical scope of that reference. there are only three articles, a, an and and. The articles in the English language are the and a...
. The
prosodyIn linguistics, prosody is the rhythm, stress, and intonation of connected speech...
features both
stressIn linguistics, stress is the relative emphasis that may be given to certain syllables in a word. The term is also used for similar patterns of phonetic prominence inside syllables. The word accent is sometimes also used with this sense....
and in most dialects
tonalTone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning—that is, to distinguish or inflect words. All languages use pitch to express emotional and other paralinguistic information, and to convey emphasis, contrast, and other such features in what is called intonation, but...
qualities. The language has a comparatively large
vowelIn phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! , where there is a constriction or closure at some...
inventory. Swedish is also notable for the voiceless dorso-palatal velar fricative, a highly variable consonant
phonemeIn a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances....
.
Classification
Swedish is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic branch of the Germanic languages. In the established classification, it belongs to the East Scandinavian languages together with
DanishDanish is one of the North Germanic languages , a sub-group of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. It is spoken by around 6 million people, mainly in Denmark; the language is also used by the 50,000 Danes in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein in Germany where it holds the...
, separating it from the West Scandinavian languages, consisting of
FaroeseFaroese , often also spelled Faeroese , is a West Nordic or West Scandinavian language spoken by 48,000 people in the Faroe Islands and about 25,000 Faroese in Denmark and elsewhere...
,
IcelandicIcelandic is a North Germanic language, the language of Iceland. Its closest relatives are Faroese and certain Norwegian dialects such as Telemark dialect and Sognamål....
and
NorwegianNorwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is an official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants ...
. However, more recent analyses divide the North Germanic languages into two groups:
Insular Scandinavian, Faroese and Icelandic, and
Continental Scandinavian, Danish, Norwegian and Swedish, based on mutual intelligibility due to heavy influence of East Scandinavian (particular Danish) on Norwegian during the last millennium and divergence from both Faroese and Icelandic. (The earlier grouping into East and West would be more useful for the period before the period of Danish rule in Norway.)
By many general criteria of mutual intelligibility, the Continental Scandinavian languages could very well be considered dialects of a common Scandinavian language. However, because of several hundred years of sometimes quite intense rivalry between
DenmarkDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe and the senior member of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries; southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and it is bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark borders both the Baltic and the North Sea...
and Sweden, including a long series of wars in the 16th and 17th centuries, and the nationalist ideas that emerged during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the languages have separate
orthographiesThe orthography of a language specifies the correct way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example for Kurdish, there can be more than one orthography. Orthography is derived from Greek ὀρθός orthós and γράφειν...
, dictionaries, grammars, and regulatory bodies. Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish are thus from a linguistic perspective more accurately described as a
dialect continuumA dialect continuum is a range of dialects spoken across a large geographical area, differing only slightly between areas that are geographically close, and gradually decreasing in mutual intelligibility as the distances become greater. Dialects separated by great geographical distances may not be...
of Scandinavian (North Germanic), and some of the dialects, such as those on the border between Norway and Sweden, especially parts of
Bohuslän' is one of the 25 traditional non-administrative provinces of Sweden , situated on the west coast of the country. It borders Dalsland and Västergötland as well as the Skagerrak arm of the North Sea and Østfold in Norway....
,
DalslandDalsland is one of the traditional Swedish provinces , in the south west of Sweden. It borders Bohuslän to the south-west, Norway to the west, Värmland to the north and north-east, lake Vänern to the east, and Västergötland to the east and south....
, western
Värmland' is a historical province or landskap in the west of middle Sweden. It borders Västergötland, Dalsland, Dalarna, Västmanland and Närke. It is also bounded by Norway in the west. Its Latin name is Wermelandia; its English derivative is Wermland or similar variation. The origin of the name is...
, western
Dalarna' is a historical province or landskap in central Sweden. English name forms established in literature are Dalecarlia and the Dales. Places involving the element Dalecarlia still exist in the United States....
,
Härjedalen', is a historical province or landskap in the centre of Sweden. It borders the country of Norway as well as the provinces of Dalarna, Hälsingland, Medelpad, and Jämtland....
and
JämtlandJämtland or Jamtland is a historical province or landskap in the center of Sweden in northern Europe. It borders to Härjedalen and Medelpad in the south, Ångermanland in the east, Lapland in the north and Trøndelag and Norway in the west...
, could be described as intermediate dialects of the national standard languages.
History
In the 9th century,
Old NorseOld Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....
began to diverge into Old West Norse (Norway and Iceland) and Old East Norse (Sweden and Denmark). In the 12th century, the dialects of Denmark and Sweden began to diverge, becoming Old Danish and Old Swedish in the 13th century. All were heavily influenced by
Middle Low GermanMiddle Low German is a language that is the descendant of Old Saxon and is the ancestor of modern Low German. It served as the international lingua franca of the Hanseatic League...
during the
Middle AgesThe Middle Ages of European history is a period of European history covering roughly a millennium in the 5th century through 16th centuries. More specific starting and ending points are sometimes adopted by scholars to suit their respective specializations or current focus...
. Though stages of language development are never as sharply delimited as implied here, and should not be taken too literally, the system of subdivisions used in this article is the most commonly used by Swedish linguists and is used for the sake of practicality.
Old Norse
In the 8th century, the common Germanic language of
ScandinaviaScandinavia is a geographical region in northern Europe that includes, and is named after, the Scanian Province. It consists of the kingdoms of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark...
,
Proto-NorseProto-Norse was an Indo-European language spoken in Scandinavia that is thought to have evolved from Proto-Germanic over the first centuries AD...
, had undergone some changes and evolved into Old Norse. This language began to undergo new changes that did not spread to all of Scandinavia, which resulted in the appearance of two similar dialects,
Old West Norse (
NorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a country in Northern Europe occupying the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, as well as Jan Mayen and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard under the Spitsbergen Treaty...
and
IcelandThe Republic of Iceland is a European island country located in the North Atlantic Ocean. It has a population of about 320,000 and a total area of 103,000 km². Its capital and largest city is Reykjavík, whose surrounding area is home to approximately two thirds of the national population...
) and
Old East Norse (
DenmarkDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe and the senior member of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries; southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and it is bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark borders both the Baltic and the North Sea...
and
SwedenSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe...
).
The subdialect of Old East Norse spoken in Sweden is called
Runic Swedish and the one in Denmark
Runic Danish (there was also a subdialect spoken in
Gotland' is a county, province, municipality and diocese of Sweden and the largest island in the Baltic Sea. At 3,140 square kilometers in area, it makes up less than one percent of Sweden's total land area. The region also includes the small islands of Fårö and Gotska Sandön to the north, and the tiny...
,
Old GutnishOld Gutnish was the dialect of Old Norse that was spoken on the island of Gotland. It shows sufficient differences from the Old East Norse dialect that it is considered to be a separate branch...
) but until the 12th century, the dialect was the same in the two countries with the main exception of a Runic Danish monophthongization (see below). The dialects are called
runic because the main body of text appears in the
runic alphabetThe runic alphabets are a set of related alphabets using letters known as runes to write various Germanic languages prior to the adoption of the Latin alphabet and for specialized purposes thereafter...
. Unlike
Proto-NorseProto-Norse was an Indo-European language spoken in Scandinavia that is thought to have evolved from Proto-Germanic over the first centuries AD...
, which was written with the
Elder FutharkThe Elder Futhark is the oldest form of the runic alphabet, used by Germanic tribes for Northwest Germanic and Migration period Germanic dialects of the 2nd to 8th centuries for inscriptions on artifacts such as jewellery, amulets, tools, weapons and runestones...
alphabet, Old Norse was written with the
Younger FutharkThe Younger Futhark, also called Scandinavian runes, is a runic alphabet, a reduced form of the Elder Futhark, consisting of only 16 characters, in use from ca. 800 CE...
alphabet, which only had 16 letters. Because the number of runes was limited, some runes were used for a range of
phonemeIn a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances....
s, such as the rune for the
vowelIn phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! , where there is a constriction or closure at some...
u which was also used for the vowels
o,
ø and
y, and the rune for
i which was also used for
e.
From 1100 onwards, the dialect of Denmark began to diverge from that of Sweden. The innovations spread unevenly from Denmark which created a series of minor dialectal boundaries,
isoglossAn isogloss refers to a specific type of language border. It is the geographical boundary or delineation of a certain linguistic feature , the meaning of a word, or use of some syntactic feature. Major dialects are typically demarcated by whole bundles of isoglosses, e.g...
es, ranging from Zealand in the south to
NorrlandNorrland is one of the three lands of Sweden , the northern part, consisting of nine provinces. The term Norrland is not used for any administrative purpose, but it is common in everyday language, e.g...
,
ÖsterbottenOstrobothnia, and , is a historical province of Finland to the west and north in Finland. It borders on Karelia, Savonia, Tavastia and Satakunda in the south, and on Västerbotten in Sweden, and Laponia in the north...
and northwestern
FinlandFinland , officially the Republic of Finland
, is a Nordic country and democracy situated in the Fennoscandian region of northern Europe. It borders Sweden on the west, Russia on the east, and Norway on the north, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland...
in the north.
An early change that separated Runic Danish from the other dialects of Old East Norse was the change of the
diphthongIn phonetics, a diphthong, or , is a contour vowel—that is, a unitary vowel that changes quality during its pronunciation, or "glides", with a smooth movement of the tongue from one articulation to another, as in the English words eye, boy, and cow...
æi to the
monophthongA monophthong is a "pure" vowel sound, one whose articulation at both beginning and end is relatively fixed, and which does not glide up or down towards a new position of articulation; compare diphthong....
é, as in
stæinn to
sténn "stone". This is reflected in runic inscriptions where the older read
stain and the later
stin. There was also a change of
au as in
dauðr into a long open
ø as in
døðr "dead". This change is shown in runic inscriptions as a change from
tauþr into
tuþr. Moreover, the
øy diphthong changed into a long close
ø, as in the Old Norse word for "island". These innovations had affected most of the Runic Swedish speaking area as well in the end of the period, with the exception of the dialects spoken north and east of Mälardalen where the diphthongs still exist in remote areas.
Old Swedish
Old Swedish is the term used for the medieval Swedish language, starting in 1225. Among the most important documents of the period written in Latin script is the oldest of the provincial law codes, the Västgöta code or
VästgötalagenVästgötalagen or the Westrogothic law is the oldest Swedish text written in Latin script and the oldest of all Swedish provincial laws. It was compiled sometime during the early 13th century and is known to have been the code of law used in the province of Västergötland during the latter half of...
, of which fragments dated to 1250 have been found. The main influences during this time came with the firm establishment of the
Roman Catholic ChurchThe Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church. With more than a billion members, over half of all Christians and more than one-sixth of the world's population, the Catholic Church is a communion of the Western, or Latin Rite Church, and...
and various
monasticMonasticism is the religious practice in which one renounces worldly pursuits in order to fully devote one's life to spiritual work...
orders, introducing many
GreekGreek , an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, is the language of the Greeks. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. In its ancient form, it is the language of classical...
and
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe...
loanwords. With the rise of
HanseaticThe Hanseatic League was an alliance of trading cities and their guilds that established and maintained a trade monopoly along the coast of Northern Europe, from the Baltic to the North Sea and inland, during the Late Middle Ages and early modern period...
power in the late 13th and early 14th century, the influence of
Middle Low GermanMiddle Low German is a language that is the descendant of Old Saxon and is the ancestor of modern Low German. It served as the international lingua franca of the Hanseatic League...
became ever more present. The Hanseatic league provided Swedish commerce and administration with a large number of German- and Dutch-speaking immigrants. Many became quite influential members of Swedish medieval society, and brought terms from their mother tongue into the vocabulary. Besides a great number of loanwords for such areas as warfare, trade and administration; general grammatical suffixes and even conjunctions were imported. Almost all of the naval terms were also borrowed from
DutchDutch is a West Germanic language spoken by over 22 million people as a native language, and over 5 million people as a second language.
"1% of the EU population claims to speak Dutch well enough in order to have a conversation." Outside the European Union the number of second language...
.
Early medieval Swedish was markedly different from the modern language in that it had a more complex case structure and had not yet experienced a reduction of the gender system.
NounIn linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition....
s,
adjectiveIn grammar, an adjective is a word whose main syntactic role is to modify a noun or pronoun, giving more information about the noun or pronoun's referent...
s,
pronounIn linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a pro-form that substitutes for a noun with or without a determiner, such as you and they in English...
s and certain
numeralsIn linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
were inflected in four cases; besides the modern
nominativeThe nominative case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb, as opposed to its object or other verb arguments....
, there were also the
genitiveIn grammar, the genitive case is the case that marks a noun as modifying another noun...
,
dativeThe dative case is a grammatical case generally used to indicate the noun to whom something is given. For example, in "John gave Mary a book"....
and
accusativeThe accusative case of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb. The same case is used in many languages for the objects of prepositions...
. The gender system resembled that of modern
GermanGerman is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken first language in the European Union. Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 105 million native speakers and also by...
, having the genders masculine, feminine and neuter. Most of the masculine and feminine nouns were later grouped together into a common gender. The verb system was also more complex: it included subjunctive and imperative moods and verbs were conjugated according to person as well as number. By the 16th century, the case and gender systems of the colloquial spoken language and the profane literature had been largely reduced to the two cases and two genders of modern Swedish. The old inflections remained common in high prose style until the 18th century, and in some dialects into the early 20th century.
A transitional change of the Latin script in the Nordic countries was to spell the letter combination "ae" as æ – and sometimes as a' – though it varied between persons and regions. The combination "ao" was similarly rendered a
o, and "oe" became o
e. These three were later to evolve into the separate letters
ä"Ä" and "ä" are both characters which represent either a letter from several extended Latin alphabets, or the letter A with an umlaut mark or diaeresis.- As an independent letter :...
,
åThe letter Å represents various sounds in the alphabets used for Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish , North Frisian, Walloon, Chamorro, Istro-Romanian, Lule Sami, Skolt Sami, Southern Sami and the Alemannic and Bavarian-Austrian dialects of German.Å is often perceived as an A with a ring,...
and
ö"Ö", or "ö", is a character used in several extended Latin alphabets, or the letter O with umlaut or diaeresis.- O-Umlaut :The letter O with Umlaut appears in the German alphabet. It represents the umlauted form of o, resulting in or . The letter is collated together with O...
.
Modern Swedish
Modern Swedish (Swedish:
nysvenska) begins with the advent of the
printing pressA printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a medium , thereby transferring an image. The mechanical systems involved were first assembled in Germany by the goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg around 1440, based on existing screw-presses used to press...
and the European
ReformationThe Protestant Reformation was a Christian reform movement in Europe which is generally deemed to have begun with Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses in 1517 although a number of precursors such as Jan Hus predate that event...
. After assuming power, the new monarch Gustav Vasa ordered a Swedish translation of the
BibleThe Bible contains the central religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. Modern Judaism generally recognizes a single set of canonical books known as the Tanakh, or Hebrew Bible, as it is written almost entirely in the Hebrew language, with some small portions in Aramaic...
. The
New TestamentThe New Testament is the name given to the second major division of the Christian Bible, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament, both terms being associated with Supersessionism...
was published in 1526, followed by a full Bible translation in 1541, usually referred to as the
Gustav Vasa BibleThe Gustav Vasa Bible is the common name of the Swedish Bible translation published in 1540-41. The full title is as appears on the right: Biblia / Thet är / All then Helgha Scrifft / på Swensko...
, a translation deemed so successful and influential that, with revisions incorporated in successive editions, it remained the most common Bible translation until 1917. The main translators were Laurentius Andreæ and the brothers
LaurentiusLaurentius Petri Nericius was a Swedish clergyman and the first Evangelical Lutheran Archbishop of Sweden. He and his brother Olaus Petri are, together with the King Gustav Vasa, regarded as the main Protestant reformers of Sweden...
and
Olaus PetriOlof Persson , better known under the Latin form of his name, Olaus Petri , was a clergyman, writer, and a major contibutor to the Protestant Reformation in Sweden. His brother, Laurentius Petri, became the first Evangelical Lutheran Archbishop of Sweden...
.
The Vasa Bible is often considered to be a reasonable compromise between old and new; while not adhering to the colloquial spoken language of its day it was not overly conservative in its use of archaic forms. It was a major step towards a more consistent Swedish
orthographyThe orthography of a language specifies the correct way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example for Kurdish, there can be more than one orthography. Orthography is derived from Greek ὀρθός orthós and γράφειν...
. It established the use of the vowels "å", "ä", and "ö", and the spelling "ck" in place of "kk", distinguishing it clearly from the Danish Bible, perhaps intentionally, given the ongoing rivalry between the countries. All three translators came from central Sweden which is generally seen as adding specific Central Swedish features to the new Bible.
Though it might seem as if the Bible translation set a very powerful precedent for orthographic standards, spelling actually became more inconsistent during the remainder of the century. It was not until the 17th century that spelling began to be discussed, around the time when the first grammars were written. The spelling debate raged on until the early 19th century, and it was not until the latter half of the 19th century that the orthography reached generally acknowledged standards.
CapitalizationCapitalization is writing a word with its first letter as a majuscule and the remaining letters in minuscules , in those writing systems which have a case distinction...
during this time was not standardized. It depended on the authors and their background. Those influenced by
GermanGerman is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken first language in the European Union. Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 105 million native speakers and also by...
capitalized all nouns, while others capitalized more sparsely. It is also not always apparent which letters are capitalized owing to the Gothic or
blackletterBlackletter, also known as Gothic script or Gothic minuscule, was a script used throughout Western Europe from approximately 1150 to 1500. It continued to be used for the German language until the 20th century. Fraktur is a notable script of this type, and sometimes the entire group of faces is...
typeface which was used to print the Bible. This typeface was in use until the mid-18th century, when it was gradually replaced with a Latin typeface (often
antiquaAntiqua typefaces are those designed between about 1470 and 1600, specifically those by Nicolas Jenson and the Aldine roman commissioned by Aldus Manutius and cut by Francesco Griffo. Antiqua letterforms were modelled on a synthesis of Roman inscriptional capitals and Carolingian writing...
).
Some important changes in sound during the Modern Swedish period were the gradual assimilation of several different consonant clusters into the
fricativeThe voiceless alveolar fricatives are consonantal sounds. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents these sounds depends on whether a sibilant or non-sibilant fricative is being described....
and later into . There was also the gradual softening of and into and the fricative before
front vowelA front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far forward as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Front vowels are sometimes also called...
s. The
velar fricativeThe voiced velar fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in various spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , also graphically similar to , the IPA symbol for a close-mid back unrounded vowel), and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is...
was also transformed into the corresponding
plosiveThe voiced velar plosive is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is
g. Strictly, the IPA symbol is the so-called "opentail G" , though the "looptail...
.
Contemporary Swedish
The period that includes Swedish as it is spoken today is termed
nusvenska (lit. "Now-Swedish") in linguistic terminology and started in the last decades of the 19th century. The period saw a democratization of the language with a less formal written language that came closer to spoken language. The growth of a public schooling system also lead to the evolution of so-called
boksvenska (literally "book Swedish"), especially among the working classes, where spelling to some extent influenced pronunciation, particularly in official contexts. With the industrialization and
urbanizationUrbanization is the physical growth of urban areas from rural areas as a result of population immigration to an existing urban area. Effects include change in density and administration services. While the exact definition and population size of urbanized areas varies amongdifferent countries,...
of Sweden well under way by the last decades of the 19th century, a new breed of authors made their mark on
Swedish literatureSwedish literature refers to literature written in the Swedish language or by writers from Sweden.The first literary text from Sweden is the Rök Runestone, carved during the Viking Age circa 800 AD. With the conversion of the land to Christianity around 1100 AD, Sweden entered the Middle Ages,...
. Many scholars, politicians and other public figures had a great influence on the new national language that was emerging, and among them were prolific authors like the poet
Gustaf FrödingGustaf Fröding was a Swedish poet and writer, born in Alster outside Karlstad in Värmland. The family moved to Kristinehamn in the year 1867. He later studied at Uppsala University and worked as a journalist in Karlstad....
, Nobel laureate
Selma LagerlöfSelma Ottilia Lovisa Lagerlöf was a Swedish author. She was the first female writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, and most widely known for her children's book Nils Holgerssons underbara resa genom Sverige .- Biography :Born at Mårbacka an estate in Värmland in western...
, and radical writer and playwright
August StrindbergJohan August Strindberg Johan August Strindberg Johan August Strindberg ( (22 January 1849 – 14 May 1912) was a Swedish playwright and writer. He is arguably the most influential of all Swedish authors, and one of the most influential Scandinavian authors, along with Knut Hamsun, with whom he...
.
It was during the 20th century that a common, standardized national language became available to all Swedes. The orthography was finally stabilized, and was almost completely uniform, with the exception of some minor deviations, by the time of the spelling reform of 1906. With the exception of plural forms of verbs and a slightly different syntax, particularly in the written language, the language was the same as the Swedish spoken today. The plural verb forms remained, in ever decreasing use, in formal (and particularly written) language until the 1950s, when they were finally officially abolished even from all official recommendations.
A very significant change in Swedish occurred in the late 1960s, with the so-called
du-reformen, "the you-reform". Previously, the proper way to address people of the same or higher
social statusIn sociology or anthropology, social status is the honor or prestige attached to one's position in society .A society's stratification system, which is the system of distributing rewards to the members of society, determines social status. Social status, the position or rank of a person or group...
had been by
titleA title is a prefix or suffix added to a person's name to signify either veneration, an official position or a professional or academic qualification. In some languages, titles may even be inserted between a first and last name...
and
surnameA surname is a name added to a given name and is part of a personal name. In many cases a surname is a family name; the family-name meaning first appeared in 1375. Many dictionaries define "surname" as a synonym of "family name". It is also known as a "last name". In some cultures, the surname may...
. The use of
herr ("Mr" or "Sir"),
fru ("Mrs" or "Ma'am") or
fröken ("Miss") was only considered acceptable in initial conversation with strangers of unknown occupation, academic title or military rank. The fact that the listener should preferably be referred to in the third person tended to further complicate spoken communication between members of society. In the early 20th century, an unsuccessful attempt was made to replace the insistence on titles with
ni (the standard
second person pluralGrammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns...
pronounIn linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a pro-form that substitutes for a noun with or without a determiner, such as you and they in English...
), analogous to the
FrenchFrench is a Romance language globally spoken by about 65 million people as a first language , by 50 million as a second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language, with significant speakers in 57 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France,...
Vous. (Cf.
T-V distinctionIn sociolinguistics, a T-V distinction describes the situation wherein a language has second-person pronouns that distinguish varying levels of politeness, social distance, courtesy, familiarity, or insult toward the addressee.-History and usage:...
.)
Ni (plural second person pronoun) wound up being used as a slightly less familiar form of
du (singular second person pronoun) used to address people of lower social status. With the liberalization and radicalization of Swedish society in the 1950s and 1960s, these previously significant distinctions of
classSocial classes are the hierarchical arrangements of people in society as economic or cultural groups. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political economists and social historians...
became less important and
du became the standard, even in formal and official contexts. Though the reform was not an act of any centralized political decrees, but rather a sweeping change in social attitudes, it was completed in just a few years from the late 1960s to early 1970s.
Former language minorities
From the 13th to 20th century, there were
Swedish-speaking communities in EstoniaThe Estonian Swedes, Estonia-Swedes, or Coastal Swedes are a Swedish-speaking linguistic minority traditionally residing in the coastal areas and islands of what is now western and northern Estonia...
, particularly on the islands (e.g.,
HiiumaaHiiumaa is the second largest island belonging to Estonia. It is located in the Baltic Sea, north of the island of Saaremaa, a part of the west Estonian archipelago . Its largest town is Kärdla....
,
VormsiEstonia's fourth largest island, Vormsi , is located between Hiiumaa and the mainland with a total area of 92 square kilometers. It is part of a rural municipality with the same name in Lääne County.-History:...
,
RuhnuRuhnu is an island situated in the Gulf of Riga in the Baltic Sea. It belongs to Estonia and is an administrative part of Saare County. At 11.9 km² it has currently less than 100, mostly ethnic Estonian permanent inhabitants...
in Swedish:
Dagö,
Ormsö,
Runö, respectively) along the coast of the
BalticThe Baltic Sea is a brackish inland sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and the...
, which today have all but disappeared. The Swedish-speaking minority was represented in
parliamentA parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modeled after that of the United Kingdom. The name is derived from the French parlement, the action of parler : a parlement is a discussion. The term came to mean a meeting at...
, and entitled to use their native language in parliamentary debates. After the loss of Estonia to the
Russian EmpireThe Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia, and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
in the early 18th century, around 1,000 Estonian Swedish speakers were forced to march to southern
UkraineUkraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east; Belarus to the north; Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west; Romania and Moldova to the southwest; and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south. The city of Kiev is both the capital and the largest city of...
, where they founded a village,
GammalsvenskbyVerbivka is a part of the village Zmiyivka in Kherson Oblast, Ukraine which has a Swedish cultural heritage.-The founding of Gammalsvenskby:The population of Gammalsvenskby traces its...
("Old Swedish Village"). A few elderly people in the village still speak Swedish and observe the holidays of the Swedish calendar, although the dialect is most likely facing extinction.
From 1918–1940, when Estonia was independent, the small Swedish community was well treated. Municipalities with a Swedish majority, mainly found along the coast, used Swedish as the administrative language and Swedish-Estonian culture saw an upswing. However, most Swedish-speaking people fled to Sweden before the end of
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, that is, before the invasion of Estonia by the Soviet army in 1944. Only a handful of older speakers remain today.
Geographic distribution
Swedish is the national language of
SwedenSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe...
and the first language for the overwhelming majority of roughly eight million Swedish-born inhabitants and acquired by one million immigrants. As of 2007 around 5.5% of the population of
FinlandFinland , officially the Republic of Finland
, is a Nordic country and democracy situated in the Fennoscandian region of northern Europe. It borders Sweden on the west, Russia on the east, and Norway on the north, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland...
was Swedish speaking, though the percentage has declined steadily over the last 400 years. The Finland Swedish minority is concentrated in the coastal areas and
archipelagoAn archipelago is a chain or cluster of islands that are formed tectonically. The word archipelago is directly derived from the Greek arkhon and pelagos...
s of southern and western Finland. In some of these areas, Swedish is the predominant language. In 19
municipalitiesA municipality is an administrative entity composed of a clearly defined territory and its population and commonly denotes a city, town, or village, or a small grouping of them. A municipality is typically governed by a mayor and a city council or municipal council.The notion of municipality...
, 16 of which are located in Åland, Swedish is the only official language. In several more, it is the majority language and it is an official minority language in even more. There is considerable migration between the
Nordic countriesThe Nordic countries make up a region in Northern Europe and the North Atlantic which consists of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden and their associated territories which include the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland...
, but owing to the similarity between the cultures and languages (with the exception of
FinnishFinnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland and by ethnic Finns outside of Finland. It is one of the official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a Finnish dialect, are spoken...
), expatriates generally assimilate quickly and do not stand out as a group. According to the 2000
United States CensusThe United States Census is a decennial census mandated by the United States Constitution. The population is enumerated every 10 years and the results are used to allocate Congressional seats , electoral votes, and government program funding...
, some 67,000 people over the age of five were reported as Swedish speakers, though without any information on actual language proficiency. Similarly, there are 16,915 reported Swedish speakers in Canada from the 2001 census. Outside Sweden and Finland, there are about 40,000 active learners enrolled in Swedish language courses.
Official status
Swedish is officially the main language of Sweden. It has long been used in local and state government and most of the educational system, but remained only a
de facto primary language, with no official status in law. A bill was proposed in 2005 that would have made Swedish an official language, but failed to pass by the narrowest possible margin (145–147) due to a
pairing-offPairing is a system whereby two members of parliament from opposing political parties may agree to abstain where one member is unable to vote, due to other commitments, illness, travel problems, etc...
failure. A proposal for a broader language law, designating Swedish as the main language of the country and bolstering the status of the minority languages, was submitted by an expert committee to the Swedish Ministry of Culture in March 2008. It was subsequently enacted by the
RiksdagThe Riksdag is the national legislative assembly of Sweden. The riksdag is a unicameral assembly with 349 members , who are elected on a proportional basis to serve fixed terms of four years...
and entered into effect on 1 July 2009.
Swedish is the only official language of Åland (an autonomous province under the
sovereigntySovereignty is the quality of having supreme, independent authority over a territory. It can be found in a power to rule and make law that rests on a political fact for which no purely legal explanation can be provided...
of
FinlandFinland , officially the Republic of Finland
, is a Nordic country and democracy situated in the Fennoscandian region of northern Europe. It borders Sweden on the west, Russia on the east, and Norway on the north, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland...
) where the vast majority of the 26,000 inhabitants speak Swedish as a first language. In Finland, Swedish is the second national language alongside
FinnishFinnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland and by ethnic Finns outside of Finland. It is one of the official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a Finnish dialect, are spoken...
on the state level, and an official language in some coastal municipalities. Three municipalities (
KorsnäsKorsnäs is a municipality of Finland.It is located in the province of Western Finland and is part of the Ostrobothnia region. The municipality has a population of and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is ....
,
NärpesNärpes is a town and municipality of Finland.The municipality is located in the province of Western Finland and is part of the Ostrobothnia region. The town has a population of and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is ....
,
LarsmoLarsmo is a municipality of Finland, located in the Ostrobothnia region of the province of Western Finland."Larsmo" is also the name of one of the villages in the municipality of Larsmo. The municipality is unilingually Swedish and is consisting of an archipelago of about 360 islands and numerous...
) in mainland Finland have Swedish as their sole official language. Swedish is also one of the official languages of the
European UnionThe European Union is an economic and political union of 27 Member States, located primarily in Europe. Committed to regional integration, the EU was established by the Treaty of Maastricht on 1 November 1993 upon the foundations of the pre-existing European Economic Community...
and one of the working languages of the
Nordic CouncilThe Nordic Council and the Nordic Council of Ministers are an intergovernmental forum for co-operation between the Nordic countries. It was established following World War II and its first concrete result was the introduction in 1952 of a common labour market and free movement across borders...
. Under the
Nordic Language ConventionThe Nordic Language Convention is a convention of linguistic rights which came into force in March 1, 1987, under the auspices of the Nordic Council. Under the Convention, citizens of the Nordic countries have the opportunity to use their native language when interacting with official bodies in...
, citizens of the
Nordic countriesThe Nordic countries make up a region in Northern Europe and the North Atlantic which consists of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden and their associated territories which include the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland...
speaking Swedish have the opportunity to use their native language when interacting with official bodies in other Nordic countries without being liable to any
interpretationLanguage interpretation is the practice of facilitating oral and sign-language communication, either simultaneously or consecutively, between two or more users of different languages...
or
translationTranslation is the interpreting of the meaning of a text and the subsequent production of an equivalent text, likewise called a "translation," that communicates the same message in another language...
costs.
Regulatory bodies
The
Swedish Language CouncilThe Swedish Language Council is the primary regulatory body for the advancement and cultivation of the Swedish language. The council is partially funded by the Swedish government and has semi-official status...
(
Språkrådet) is the official regulator of Swedish, but does not attempt to enforce control of the language, as for instance the
Académie françaiseL'Académie française, or the French Academy, is the pre-eminent French learned body on matters pertaining to the French language. The Académie was officially established in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu, the chief minister to King Louis XIII. Suppressed in 1793 during the French Revolution, it was...
does for
FrenchFrench is a Romance language globally spoken by about 65 million people as a first language , by 50 million as a second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language, with significant speakers in 57 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France,...
. However, many organizations and agencies require the use of the council's publication
Svenska skrivregler in official contexts, with it otherwise being regarded as a de facto orthographic standard. Among the many organizations that make up the Swedish Language Council, the
Swedish AcademyThe Swedish Academy , founded in 1786 by King Gustav III, is one of the Royal Academies of Sweden. Modelled after the Académie française, it has 18 members. The motto of the Academy is "Talent and Taste"...
(established 1786) is arguably the most influential. Its primary instruments are the
dictionariesA dictionary is a collection of words in a specific language, often listed alphabetically, with definitions, etymologies, phonetics, pronunciations, and other information; or a book of words in one language with their equivalents in another, also known as a lexicon...
Svenska Akademiens OrdlistaSvenska Akademiens Ordlista, or SAOL for short, is a dictionary published every few years by the Swedish Academy. It is a single volume that is considered the final arbiter of Swedish spelling...
(
SAOL, currently in its 13th edition) and
Svenska Akademiens OrdbokSvenska Akademiens ordbok is a dictionary published by the Swedish Academy, with the official title Ordbok över svenska språket utgiven av Svenska Akademien...
, in addition to various books on grammar,
spellingSpelling is the writing of a word or words with the necessary letters and diacritics present in an accepted standard order. It is one of the elements of orthography and a prescriptive element of alphabetic languages...
and manuals of style. Even though the dictionaries are sometimes used as official decrees of the language, their main purpose is to describe current usage.
In Finland a special branch of the
Research Institute for the Languages of FinlandThe Research Institute for the Languages of Finland is a governmental linguistic research institute of Finland geared at studies of Finnish, Swedish , the Sami languages, Romani language, and the Finnish Sign Language....
has official status as the regulatory body for Swedish in Finland. Among its highest priorities is to maintain intelligibility with the language spoken in Sweden. It has published
Finlandssvensk ordbok, a dictionary about the differences between Swedish in Finland and in Sweden.
Dialects
The traditional definition of a Swedish
dialectThe term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by scholars of language. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other...
has been a local variant that has not been heavily influenced by the standard language and that can trace a separate development all the way back to
Old NorseOld Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....
. Many of the genuine rural dialects, such as those of
OrsaOrsa is a locality and the seat of Orsa Municipality, Dalarna County, Sweden, with 5,278 inhabitants in 2005.- References :...
in
Dalarna' is a historical province or landskap in central Sweden. English name forms established in literature are Dalecarlia and the Dales. Places involving the element Dalecarlia still exist in the United States....
or
NärpesNärpes is a town and municipality of Finland.The municipality is located in the province of Western Finland and is part of the Ostrobothnia region. The town has a population of and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is ....
in
ÖsterbottenOstrobothnia is a region of Finland. It is located in Western Finland. It borders to the regions Central Ostrobothnia, Southern Ostrobothnia, and Satakunta and is one of the four regions making up the historical province of Ostrobothnia....
, have very distinct phonetic and grammatical features, such as plural forms of verbs or archaic case inflections. These dialects can be near-incomprehensible to a majority of Swedes, and most of their speakers are also fluent in Standard Swedish. The different dialects are often so localized that they are limited to individual
parishA parish is a territorial unit that was usually historically served by a local church. This administrative unit is typically found in Roman Catholic, Anglican Communion, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Church of Sweden, United Methodist, and Presbyterian churches...
es and are referred to by Swedish linguists as
sockenmål (lit. "parish speech"). They are generally separated into six major groups, with common characteristics of prosody, grammar and vocabulary. One or several examples from each group are given here. Though each example is intended to be also representative of the nearby dialects, the actual number of dialects is several hundred if each individual community is considered separately.
This type of classification, however, is based on a somewhat romanticized
nationalistNationalism is an ideology, a sentiment, a form of culture, or a social movement that focuses on the nation. It is a type of collectivism emphasizing the collective of a specific nation...
view of ethnicity and language. The idea that only rural variants of Swedish should be considered "genuine" is not generally accepted by modern scholars. No dialects, no matter how remote or obscure, remained unchanged or undisturbed by a minimum of influences from surrounding dialects or the standard language, especially not from the late 1800s onwards with the advent of
mass mediaMass media denotes a section of the media specifically designed to reach a very large audience such as the population of a nation state. The term was coined in the 1920s with the advent of nationwide radio networks, mass-circulation newspapers and magazines. However, some forms of mass media such...
and advanced forms of transport. The differences are today more accurately described by a scale that runs from "standard language" to "rural dialect" where the speech even of the same person may vary from one extreme to the other depending on the situation. All Swedish dialects with the exception of the highly diverging forms of speech in
Dalarna' is a historical province or landskap in central Sweden. English name forms established in literature are Dalecarlia and the Dales. Places involving the element Dalecarlia still exist in the United States....
,
NorrbottenNorrbotten is a Swedish province in northernmost Sweden. It borders south to Västerbotten, west to Swedish Lapland, and east to Finland.- Administration :...
and, to some extent,
Gotland' is a county, province, municipality and diocese of Sweden and the largest island in the Baltic Sea. At 3,140 square kilometers in area, it makes up less than one percent of Sweden's total land area. The region also includes the small islands of Fårö and Gotska Sandön to the north, and the tiny...
can be considered to be part of a common, mutually intelligible
dialect continuumA dialect continuum is a range of dialects spoken across a large geographical area, differing only slightly between areas that are geographically close, and gradually decreasing in mutual intelligibility as the distances become greater. Dialects separated by great geographical distances may not be...
. This continuum may also include
NorwegianThe Norwegian dialects are commonly divided into 5 main groups, North Norwegian , Trøndelag Norwegian , Midland Norwegian , West Norwegian , and East Norwegian . The dialects are generally mutually intelligible, but differ significantly with regards to accent, grammar, syntax, and vocabulary...
and some Danish dialects.
The samples linked below have been taken from SweDia, a research project on Swedish modern dialects available for download (though with information in Swedish only), with many more samples from 100 different dialects with recordings from four different speakers; older female, older male, younger female and younger male. The dialect groups are those traditionally used by dialectologists.
- 1. Överkalix
Överkalix is a locality and the seat of Överkalix Municipality in Norrbotten County, Sweden with 946 inhabitants in 2005.- Buildings and Structures :* 330 metres tall guyed mast for FM-/TV-broadcasting at 66°18'5" N, 22°51'13" E...
, NorrbottenNorrbotten is a Swedish province in northernmost Sweden. It borders south to Västerbotten, west to Swedish Lapland, and east to Finland.- Administration :...
; younger female
- 2. Burträsk
Burträsk is a locality situated in Skellefteå Municipality, Västerbotten County, Sweden with 1,632 inhabitants in 2005.Burträsk Court District, or Burträsks tingslag, was a district of Västerbotten in Sweden. The provinces in Norrland were never divided into hundreds and instead the court district ...
, Västerbotten', is a province or landskap in the north of Sweden. It borders Ångermanland, Lapland, Norrbotten and the Gulf of Bothnia. It is famous for the cheese with the same name as the province.- Administration :...
; older female
- 3. Aspås
Aspås is a locality situated in Krokom Municipality, Jämtland County, Sweden with 352 inhabitants in 2005....
, JämtlandJämtland or Jamtland is a historical province or landskap in the center of Sweden in northern Europe. It borders to Härjedalen and Medelpad in the south, Ångermanland in the east, Lapland in the north and Trøndelag and Norway in the west...
; younger female
- 4. Färila
Färila is a locality situated in Ljusdal Municipality, Gävleborg County, Sweden with 1,351 inhabitants in 2005. Färila is situated in a valley near the river Ljusnan. People to commute to and from Ljusdal. The town is an industrial centre in Ljusdal Municipality....
, Hälsingland', is a historical province or landskap in central Sweden. It borders to Gästrikland, Dalarna, Härjedalen, Medelpad and to the Gulf of Bothnia...
; older male
- 5. Älvdalen
Älvdalen is a locality and the seat of Älvdalen Municipality in Dalarna County, Sweden, with 1,812 inhabitants in 2005.The town is widely known for being the place of manufacturing, in 1839, the 4-meter granite vase , installed in the Summer Garden in Saint Petersburg .- References :...
, Dalarna' is a historical province or landskap in central Sweden. English name forms established in literature are Dalecarlia and the Dales. Places involving the element Dalecarlia still exist in the United States....
; older female
- 6. Gräsö
Gräsö is an island in Östhammar Municipality, off the coast of Uppland province. It has an area of 93 km2 and a population of 800.Official site:...
, UpplandUppland is a historical province or landskap on the eastern coast of Sweden, just north of Stockholm, the capital. It borders Södermanland, Västmanland and Gästrikland. It is also bounded by lake Mälaren and the Baltic sea...
; older male
- 7. Sorunda
Sorunda is a locality situated in Nynäshamn Municipality, Stockholm County, Sweden with 1,352 inhabitants in 2005....
, Södermanland', sometimes referred to under its Latin form Sudermannia or Sudermania, is a historical province or landskap on the south eastern coast of Sweden. It borders Östergötland, Närke, Västmanland and Uppland. It is also bounded by lake Mälaren and the Baltic sea.In Swedish, the province name is...
; younger male
- 8. Köla
Kola can refer to:*Kola nut, a genus of about 125 species of trees**Inca Kola, a very successful cola soft drink made in Peru**Kola Real, a Peruvian soft drink**Kola Inglesa , a Peruvian soft drink...
, Värmland' is a historical province or landskap in the west of middle Sweden. It borders Västergötland, Dalsland, Dalarna, Västmanland and Närke. It is also bounded by Norway in the west. Its Latin name is Wermelandia; its English derivative is Wermland or similar variation. The origin of the name is...
younger female
- 9. Viby
Viby may refer to:*Viby, Kristianstad, a village in Kristianstad Municipality, Sweden*Viby, Sollentuna, part of Sollentuna Municipality, Sweden*Viby, Östergötland, a village in Östergötland and parish of the diocese of Linköping, Sweden...
, Närke' is a traditional Swedish province or landskap in middle Sweden. It borders Västergötland, Värmland, Västmanland, Södermanland and Östergötland...
; older male
- 10. Sproge, Gotland
' is a county, province, municipality and diocese of Sweden and the largest island in the Baltic Sea. At 3,140 square kilometers in area, it makes up less than one percent of Sweden's total land area. The region also includes the small islands of Fårö and Gotska Sandön to the north, and the tiny...
; younger female
- 11. Närpes
Närpes is a town and municipality of Finland.The municipality is located in the province of Western Finland and is part of the Ostrobothnia region. The town has a population of and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is ....
, OstrobothniaOstrobothnia is a region of Finland. It is located in Western Finland. It borders to the regions Central Ostrobothnia, Southern Ostrobothnia, and Satakunta and is one of the four regions making up the historical province of Ostrobothnia....
; younger female
- 12. Dragsfjärd
Dragsfjärd is a former municipality of Finland. On January 1, 2009, it was consolidated with Kimito and Västanfjärd to form the new municipality of Kimitoön....
, Finland ProperFinland Proper or Southwest Finland , is a region in south-western Finland now designated the Province of Western Finland. It borders the regions of Satakunta, Tavastia Proper and Uusimaa.- Historical Provinces :...
; older male
- 13. Borgå, Eastern Uusimaa
Eastern Uusimaa is a region in Southern Finland province. It borders to the regions Uusimaa, Päijänne Tavastia, and Kymenlaakso.- Historical provinces :For history, geography and culture see: Uusimaa - Municipalities :...
; younger male
- 14. Orust, Bohuslän
' is one of the 25 traditional non-administrative provinces of Sweden , situated on the west coast of the country. It borders Dalsland and Västergötland as well as the Skagerrak arm of the North Sea and Østfold in Norway....
; older male
- 15. Floby
Floby is a locality situated in Falköping Municipality, Västra Götaland County, Sweden with 1,544 inhabitants in 2005.In 1858 the first portion of the railway line connecting Stockholm and Gothenburg was opened, and a railway station was opened in the parish of Floby, near the border of the...
, Västergötland' is one of the 25 traditional non-administrative provinces of Sweden , situated in the southwest of Sweden. In older English literature one may also encounter the Latinized version Westrogothia....
; older female
- 16. Rimforsa
Rimforsa is a locality situated in Kinda Municipality, Östergötland County, Sweden with 2,181 inhabitants in 2005.It is surrounded by a lot forest and flat farming area / "culture landscape" by the grand size water canal system better known as "Göta Kanal", just around 20 km from the city of...
, ÖstergötlandÖstergötland is a one of the traditional provinces of Sweden in the south of Sweden. It borders Småland, Västergötland, Närke, Södermanland, and the Baltic Sea. In older English literature one may also encounter the Latinized version Ostrogothia.-Administration: The provinces of Sweden serve no...
; older female
- 17. Årstad-Heberg, Halland
' is one of the traditional provinces of Sweden , on the western coast of Sweden. It borders Västergötland, Småland, Scania and the sea of Kattegat.-Administration:...
; younger male
- 18. Stenberga, Småland
' is a historical province in southern Sweden.Småland borders Blekinge, Scania or Skåne, Halland, Västergötland, Östergötland and the island Öland in the Baltic Sea. The name Småland literally means Small lands...
; younger female
- 19. Jämshög
Jämshög is a locality situated in Olofström Municipality, Blekinge County, Sweden with 1,543 inhabitants in 2005....
, Blekinge' is one of the provinces of Sweden , situated in the south of the country. It borders Småland, Skåne and the Baltic Sea.Blekinge consists of 5 municipalities; Karlskrona, Ronneby, Karlshamn, Sölvesborg and Olofström....
; older female
- 20. Bara, Scania
Scania is a geographical region on the southernmost tip of the Scandinavian peninsula, an occupied province in the Kingdom of Sweden, before 1658 a province in the Kingdom of Denmark and part of the historical lands of Denmark.To the north, it borders the provinces Halland, Småland and Blekinge,...
; older male
Standard Swedish
Standard SwedishStandard Swedish denotes Swedish as a spoken and written standard language. While Swedish as a written language is uniform and standardized, the spoken standard may vary considerably from region to region...
, which is derived mainly from the dialects spoken in the capital region around
Stockholm' is the capital and largest city of Sweden. It is the site of the national Swedish government, the Riksdag , and the official residence of the Swedish Monarch as well as the prime minister. The Monarch resides at Drottningholm Palace outside of Stockholm since 1980 and uses the Royal Palace of...
, is the language used by virtually all Swedes and most Swedish-speaking Finns. The Swedish term most often used for the standard language is
rikssvenska ("National Swedish") and to a much lesser extent
högsvenska ("High Swedish"); the latter term is limited to Swedish spoken in Finland and is seldom used in Sweden. There are many regional varieties of the standard language that are specific to geographical areas of varying size (regions,
historical provincesThe provinces of Sweden, landskap, are historical, geographical and cultural regions. Sweden has 25 provinces and they have no administrative function, but remain historical legacies and the means of cultural identification....
, cities, towns, etc.). While these varieties are often influenced by the genuine dialects, their grammatical and phonological structure adheres closely to those of the Central Swedish dialects. In
mass mediaMass media denotes a section of the media specifically designed to reach a very large audience such as the population of a nation state. The term was coined in the 1920s with the advent of nationwide radio networks, mass-circulation newspapers and magazines. However, some forms of mass media such...
it is no longer uncommon for journalists to speak with a distinct regional accent, but the most common pronunciation and the one perceived as the most formal is still Central Standard Swedish.
Though this terminology and its definitions are long since established among linguists, most Swedes are unaware of the distinction and its historical background, and often refer to the regional varieties as "dialects". In a poll that was conducted in 2005 by the Swedish Retail Institute (
Handelns Utredningsinstitut), the attitudes of Swedes to the use of certain dialects by salesmen revealed that 54% believed that
rikssvenska was the variety they would prefer to hear when speaking with salesmen over the phone, even though several dialects such as
gotländska or
skånskaSkanska, is a multinational construction and development company based in Sweden, where it is also the largest construction company.-History:...
were provided as alternatives in the poll.
Finland Swedish
Finland was a part of Sweden from the 13th century until the loss of the Finnish territories to
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
in 1809. Swedish was the sole administrative language until 1902 as well as the dominant language of culture and education until Finnish independence in 1917. The percentage of Swedish speakers in Finland has steadily decreased since then. The Swedish-speaking population is mainly concentrated to the coastal areas of
OstrobothniaOstrobothnia is a region of Finland. It is located in Western Finland. It borders to the regions Central Ostrobothnia, Southern Ostrobothnia, and Satakunta and is one of the four regions making up the historical province of Ostrobothnia....
,
Finland ProperFinland Proper or Southwest Finland , is a region in south-western Finland now designated the Province of Western Finland. It borders the regions of Satakunta, Tavastia Proper and Uusimaa.- Historical Provinces :...
, Nyland and Åland where the percentage of Finland Swedes partly is fairly high.
Immigrant variants
Rinkeby SwedishRinkeby Swedish is a common term for varieties of Swedish spoken mainly in suburbs with a high proportion of immigrants and immigrant descendants. Rinkeby in Stockholm is one such suburb, but the term Rinkeby Swedish may sometimes be used for similar varieties in other Swedish cities as well...
(after
RinkebyRinkeby is a district in Rinkeby-Kista borough, Stockholm, Sweden. Rinkeby has 15,051 inhabitants as of December 31, 2007.Rinkeby is noted for its high concentration of immigrants and people with immigrant ancestry...
, a suburb of northern Stockholm with a large population of immigrants) is a common name among linguists for varieties of Swedish spoken by young people of foreign heritage in the suburbs of Stockholm,
GothenburgGothenburg is the second-largest city in Sweden and the fifth-largest amongst the Nordic countries. Situated on the south-west coast of Sweden, the city proper has a population of 502,833 with 622,287 in the urban area and total of 911,406 inhabitants in the metropolitan area.The City of...
and
MalmöMalmö is the third most populous city in Sweden, situated in its southernmost province of Scania.Malmö is the seat of Malmö Municipality and the capital of Skåne County. The administrative entity for most of the city is Malmö Municipality which has 290 007 inhabitants in eight different...
. These varieties could alternatively be classified as
sociolectIn linguistics, a sociolect is a social dialect spoken by a particular group, such as working-class or upper-class speech in the UK...
s, because the immigrant dialects share common traits independent of their geographical spread or the native country of the speakers. Some studies have however found distinctive features and led to terms such as Rosengård Swedish (after
RosengårdRosengård, literally "Rose garden", is a city district in Malmö, Sweden. As of 1 January 2007, the population was 21,955, of which 60 percent were born outside of Sweden...
in Malmö). A survey made by the Swedish linguist Ulla-Britt Kotsinas showed that foreign learners had difficulties in guessing the origins of Rinkeby Swedish speakers in Stockholm. The greatest difficulty proved to be identifying the speech of a boy whose parents were both Swedish; only 1.8% guessed his native language correctly.
Sounds
Swedish has 9 vowels that make up 17
phonemeIn a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances....
s in most varieties and dialects (short and coincide). There are 18
consonantIn articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the upper vocal tract, the upper vocal tract being defined as that part of the vocal tract that lies above the larynx...
phonemes out of which the
voiceless palatal-velar fricativeThe so-called voiceless palatal-velar fricative covers a range of similar sounds used in most dialects of Swedish and transcribed as...
, , and show considerable variation depending on social and dialectal context. A distinct feature of Swedish is its varied
prosodyIn linguistics, prosody is the rhythm, stress, and intonation of connected speech...
(intonation, stress, tone, etc.) which is often one of the most noticeable differences between the various dialects. Native speakers who adapt their speech when moving to areas with other regional varieties or dialects will often adhere to the sounds of the new variety, but nevertheless maintain the prosody of their native dialect.
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Bilabial |
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DentalIn linguistics, a dental consonant or dental is a consonant that is articulated with the tongue against the upper teeth, such as , , , and in some languages...
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AlveolarAlveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth...
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Palatal |
VelarVelars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum)....
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GlottalGlottal consonants, also called laryngeal consonants, are consonants articulated with the glottis. Many phoneticians consider them, or at least the so-called fricatives, to be transitional states of the glottis without a point of articulation as other consonants have; in fact, some do not consider...
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| Plosive A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the vocal tract. The terms plosive and stop are usually used interchangeably, but they are not perfect synonyms. Plosives are oral stops with a pulmonic egressive airstream mechanism. The term is also used to...
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| Fricatives Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate, in the case of German , the final consonant of Bach; or...
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Vocabulary
The
vocabularyA person's vocabulary is the set of words they are familiar with in a language. A vocabulary usually grows and evolves with age, and serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge.- Knowing and using a word :...
of Swedish is mainly Germanic, either through common Germanic heritage or through loans from German, Middle Low German, and to some extent, English. Examples of Germanic words in Swedish are
mus ("mouse"),
kung ("king"), and
gås ("goose"). A significant part of the religious and scientific vocabulary is of
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe...
or
GreekGreek , an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, is the language of the Greeks. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. In its ancient form, it is the language of classical...
origin, often borrowed from
FrenchFrench is a Romance language globally spoken by about 65 million people as a first language , by 50 million as a second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language, with significant speakers in 57 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France,...
and, as of lately, English.
A large number of
FrenchFrench is a Romance language globally spoken by about 65 million people as a first language , by 50 million as a second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language, with significant speakers in 57 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France,...
words were imported into Sweden around the 18th century. These words have been
transcribedTranscription is the conversion into written, typewritten or printed form, of a spoken-language source, as in the proceedings of a court hearing. It can also mean the conversion of a written source into another medium, as by scanning books and making digital versions...
to the Swedish spelling system and are therefore pronounced quite recognizably to a French-speaker. Most of them are distinguished by a "French accent", characterized by emphasis on the last syllable. For example,
nivå (fr.
niveau, "level"),
fåtölj (fr.
fauteuil, "arm chair") and
affär ("shop; affair"), etc. Cross-borrowing from other Germanic languages has also been common, at first from Middle Low German, the
lingua francaA lingua franca is a language systematically used to communicate between persons not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both persons' mother tongues.Lingua franca is a functionally defined term, independent of the linguistic history or...
of the
Hanseatic leagueThe Hanseatic League was an alliance of trading cities and their guilds that established and maintained a trade monopoly along the coast of Northern Europe, from the Baltic to the North Sea and inland, during the Late Middle Ages and early modern period...
and later from
standard GermanStandard German is the standard variety of the German language used as a written language, in formal contexts, and for communication between different dialect areas...
. Some compounds are translations of the elements (
calqueIn linguistics, a calque or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal, word-for-word or root-for-root translation....
s) of German original compounds into Swedish, like
bomull from German
Baumwolle ("cotton", literally
tree-wool).
As with many Germanic languages, new words can be formed by compounding, e.g. nouns like
nagellackborttagningsmedel ("nail polish remover") or verbs like
smygfilma ("to film in secret"). Similar to
GermanGerman is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken first language in the European Union. Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 105 million native speakers and also by...
or
DutchDutch is a West Germanic language spoken by over 22 million people as a native language, and over 5 million people as a second language.
"1% of the EU population claims to speak Dutch well enough in order to have a conversation." Outside the European Union the number of second language...
, very long, and quite impractical, examples like
produktionsstyrningssystemsprogramvaruuppdatering ("production controller system software update") are possible but seldom this ungainly, at least in spoken Swedish and outside of technical writing. Compound nouns take their
genderIn linguistics, grammatical genders, sometimes also called noun classes, are classes of nouns reflected in the behavior of associated words; every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be very few which belong to several classes at once....
from the
headIn linguistics, the head is the word that determines the syntactic type of the phrase of which it is a member, or analogously the stem that determines the semantic category of a compound of which it is a component. The other elements modify the head....
, which in Swedish is always the last morpheme. New words can also be coined by
derivationIn linguistics, derivation is "Used to form new words, as with happi-ness and un-happy from happy, or determination from determine...
from other established words, such as the verbification of
nounIn linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition....
s by the adding of the suffix
-a, as in
bil ("car") and
bila ("travel by car").
Writing system
The
Swedish alphabetThe modern Swedish alphabet is a Latin-based alphabet consisting of 29 letters – the same letters that are found in the Basic modern Latin alphabet, plus three using diacritics:
...
is a 29-letter
alphabetAn alphabet is a standardized set of letters basic written symbols or graphemes each of which roughly represents a phoneme in a spoken language, either as it exists now or as it was in the past. There are other systems, such as logographies, in which each character represents a word, morpheme, or...
, using the basic 26-letter
Latin alphabetThe Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. It evolved from the western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, and was initially developed by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language.During the...
plus the three additional letters
Å /
åThe letter Å represents various sounds in the alphabets used for Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish , North Frisian, Walloon, Chamorro, Istro-Romanian, Lule Sami, Skolt Sami, Southern Sami and the Alemannic and Bavarian-Austrian dialects of German.Å is often perceived as an A with a ring,...
,
Ä /
ä"Ä" and "ä" are both characters which represent either a letter from several extended Latin alphabets, or the letter A with an umlaut mark or diaeresis.- As an independent letter :...
, and
Ö /
ö"Ö", or "ö", is a character used in several extended Latin alphabets, or the letter O with umlaut or diaeresis.- O-Umlaut :The letter O with Umlaut appears in the German alphabet. It represents the umlauted form of o, resulting in or . The letter is collated together with O...
constructed in the 16th century by writing "o" and "e" on top of an "a". Though these combinations are historically modified versions of
AThe letter A is the first letter in the Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled a; the plural is aes, though this is rare.- History :...
and
OO is the fifteenth letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled o; the plural is oes, though this is rare.- History :...
according to the English range of usage for the term
diacriticA diacritic is an ancillary glyph added to a letter, or basic glyph. The term derives from the Greek διακριτικός . Diacritic is both an adjective and a noun, whereas diacritical is only an adjective...
, these three characters are not considered to be diacritics within the Swedish application, but rather separate letters, and are as independent letters following
z. Before the release of the 13th edition of
Svenska Akademiens OrdlistaSvenska Akademiens Ordlista, or SAOL for short, is a dictionary published every few years by the Swedish Academy. It is a single volume that is considered the final arbiter of Swedish spelling...
in April 2006,
w was treated as merely a variant of
v used only in names (such as "Wallenberg") and foreign words ("bowling"), and so was both sorted and pronounced as a
v. Other
diacriticA diacritic is an ancillary glyph added to a letter, or basic glyph. The term derives from the Greek διακριτικός . Diacritic is both an adjective and a noun, whereas diacritical is only an adjective...
s (to use the broader English term usage referenced here) are unusual in Swedish;
éis a letter of the Hungarian, Icelandic, Kashubian, Czech, Slovak, and Uyghur languages. This letter also appears in Catalan, Danish, English, French, Irish, Italian, Occitan, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, and Vietnamese language as a variant of the letter “e”.-Icelandic:É is the 7th...
is sometimes used to indicate that the stress falls on a terminal syllable containing
e, especially when the stress changes the meaning (
ide vs.
idé, "winter lair" vs. "idea"); occasionally other
acute accentThe acute accent is a diacritic mark used in many modern written languages with alphabets based on the Latin, Cyrillic, and Greek scripts.-History:An early precursor of the acute accent was the apex, used in Latin inscriptions to mark long vowels....
s and, less often,
grave accentThe grave accent is a diacritical mark used in written Breton, Catalan, Dutch, French, Greek , Italian, Norwegian, Occitan, Portuguese, Scottish Gaelic, Vietnamese, Welsh, and other languages....
s can be seen in names and some foreign words. The letter
àThe letter A is the first letter in the Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled a; the plural is aes, though this is rare.- History :...
is used to refer to unit cost (a loan from the French), equivalent to the
at signThe typographic character @, called the at sign, amphora, asperand, or at symbol, is an abbreviation of the word at or the phrase at the rate of in accounting and commercial invoices, e.g. "7 widgets @ $2 = $14". Today, this character is ubiquitous because of its use denoting at in e-mail...
(@) in English.
The German
ü"Ü", or "ü", is a character which represents either a letter from several extended Latin alphabets, or the letter U with an umlaut or a diaeresis.- Letter Ü :...
is treated as a variant of
yThe letter Y is the twenty-fifth and penultimate letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled wye or occasionally wy, plural wyes.-History:...
and sometimes retained in foreign names and words, e.g.
müsli ("muesli/granola"). A proper
diaeresisIn linguistics, diæresis, diaeresis, or dieresis, is the pronunciation of two adjacent vowels in two separate syllables rather than as a diphthong, and it is also the name of the diacritic mark used to prompt the reader to pronounce adjacent vowels in this manner.The word diæresis comes from the...
may very exceptionally be seen in elaborated style (for instance: "Aïda"). The letters
ä and
ö can be the result of a phonetic transformation called
omljud, equivalent to the German
Umlaut, where
a or
å is softened to
ä during conjugation (
natt –
nätter, "night" - "nights";
tång –
tänger, "tong/pincer" - "tongs/pincers"), and
o is softened to
ö (
bok –
böcker, "book" - "books"). This is far from the only use of these characters, however. Additionally, for adjectives subject to
omljud,
u gets softened to
y (
ung –
yngre, "young" - "younger"); this is never written
ü. The German convention of writing
ä and
ö as
ae and
oe if the characters are unavailable is an unusual convention for speakers of modern Swedish. Despite the availability of all these characters in the Swedish national top-level
Internet domainThe Domain Name System is a hierarchical naming system for computers, services, or any resource connected to the Internet or a private network. It associates various information with domain names assigned to each of the participants...
and other such domains, Swedish sites are frequently labelled using
a and
o, based on visual similarity (mainly to avoid lingering technical problems with the use of characters outside of the limited 7-bit ASCII set).
In Swedish
orthographyThe orthography of a language specifies the correct way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example for Kurdish, there can be more than one orthography. Orthography is derived from Greek ὀρθός orthós and γράφειν...
, the
colonThe colon is a punctuation mark, consisting of two equally sized dots centered on the same vertical line.-Usage:As with many other punctuation marks, the usage of colon varies among languages and, for a given language, among historical periods...
is used in a similar manner as in English with some exceptions. The colon is used with numbers, such as
10:50 kronor ("10.50
SEKThe krona has been the currency of Sweden since 1873. It is locally abbreviated kr. The plural form is kronor and one krona is subdivided into 100 öre . The currency is sometimes informally referred to as the "Swedish crown" in English...
"); for abbreviations such as
3:e for
tredje ("third") and
S:t for
Sankt ("Saint"); and all types of suffixes that can be added to numbers, letters and abbreviations, such as
första a:t ("the first a") and
CD:n ("the CD").
Grammar
Swedish
nounIn linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition....
s and
adjectiveIn grammar, an adjective is a word whose main syntactic role is to modify a noun or pronoun, giving more information about the noun or pronoun's referent...
s are declined in
gendersIn linguistics, grammatical genders, sometimes also called noun classes, are classes of nouns reflected in the behavior of associated words; every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be very few which belong to several classes at once....
as well as
numberIn linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
. Nouns belong to one of two genders—common for the
en form or neuter for the
ett form—which also determine the declension of
adjectiveIn grammar, an adjective is a word whose main syntactic role is to modify a noun or pronoun, giving more information about the noun or pronoun's referent...
s. For example, the word
fisk ("fish") is a common noun (
en fisk) and can have the following forms:
|
Singular |
Plural |
| Indefinite form |
fisk |
fiskar |
| Definite form |
fisken |
fiskarna |
An odd thing is that some nouns can be both common and neuter so you can use either en or ett.
The definite singular form of a noun is created by adding a suffix (
-en,
-n,
-et or
-t), depending on its gender and if the noun ends in a vowel or not. The definite articles
den,
det, and
de are used for variations to the definitiveness of a noun. They can double as
demonstrativeDemonstratives are deictic words that indicate which entities a speaker refers to, and distinguishes those entities from others...
pronounIn linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a pro-form that substitutes for a noun with or without a determiner, such as you and they in English...
s or
demonstrative determinersA determiner is a noun modifier that expresses the reference of a noun or noun phrase in the context, including quantity, rather than attributes expressed by adjectives...
when used with
adverbAn adverb is a part of speech. It is any word that modifies any other part of language, except for nouns: verbs, adjectives , clauses, sentences and other adverbs. Modifiers of nouns are primarily determiners and adjectives....
s such as
här ("here") or
där ("there") to form
den/det här (can also be "denna/detta") ("this"),
de här ("these"),
den/det där ("that"), and
de där ("those"). For example,
den där fisken means "that fish" and refers to a specific fish;
den fisken is less definite and means "that fish" in a more abstract sense, such as that set of fish; while
fisken means "the fish". In certain cases, the definite form indicates possession, e.g.,
jag måste tvätta håret ("I must wash my
hair").
AdjectiveIn grammar, an adjective is a word whose main syntactic role is to modify a noun or pronoun, giving more information about the noun or pronoun's referent...
s are inflected in two declensions — indefinite and definite — and they must match the noun they modify in gender and number. The indefinite neuter and plural forms of an adjective are created by adding a suffix (-t
or -a
) to the common form of the adjective, e.g., en grön stol
(a green chair), ett grönt hus
(a green house), and gröna stolar
("green chairs). The definite form of an adjective is identical to the indefinite plural form, e.g., den gröna stolen
("the green chair"), det gröna huset
("the green house"), and de gröna stolarna
("the green chairs"). The irregular adjective liten
("small") is declined differently.
| |
Common
singular |
Neuter
singular |
Plural |
| Indefinite form |
liten |
litet |
små |
| Definite form |
lilla |
lilla |
små |
Swedish pronounIn linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a pro-form that substitutes for a noun with or without a determiner, such as you and they in English...
s are basically the same as those of English but distinguish two genders and have an additional object form, derived from the old dative form, as well as a distinct genitive caseIn grammar, the genitive case is the case that marks a noun as modifying another noun...
. Hon
("she") has the following forms in nominative, genitive, and object form:
hon
- hennes
- henne
Possession is expressed with the enclitic -s
, which attaches to the end of a (possibly complex) noun phrase. In formal writing, however, usage guides generally do not recommend the enclitic to attach to anything but the head noun of the phrase; but this is nevertheless common in speech.
mannen
; "the man"
mannens hatt
; "the man's hat"
mannen i grå kavaj
; "the man in a grey suit"
mannen i grå kavajs hatt
; "the man in a grey suit's hat"
Verbs are conjugatedIn linguistics, conjugation is the creation of derived forms of a verb, noun or adjective from its principal parts by inflection . Conjugation may be affected by person, number, gender, tense, aspect, mood, voice, or other grammatical categories...
according to tenseGrammatical tense is a temporal linguistic quality expressing the time at, during, or over which a state or action denoted by a verb occurs.Tense is one of at least five qualities, along with mood, voice, aspect, and person, which verb forms may express....
. One group of verbs (the ones ending in -er
in present tense) have a special imperativeImperative can mean:*Imperative mood, a grammatical mood expressing commands, direct requests, and prohibitions * A morphological item expressing commands, direct requests, and prohibitions...
form (generally the verb stemIn linguistics, a stem is a part of a word. The term is used with slightly different meanings.In one usage, a stem is a form to which affixes can be attached...
), but with most verbs the imperative is identical to the infinitiveIn grammar, infinitive is the name for certain verb forms that exist in many languages. In the usual description of English, the infinitive of a verb is its basic form with or without the particle to: therefore, do and to do, be and to be, and so on are infinitives...
form. PerfectIn linguistics, the perfect tense is the past tense used to describe completed actions in the past.The perfect can be contrasted to the imperfect tense, which describes incomplete actions in the past...
and presentThe present tense is the tense that may be used to express:* action at the present* a state of being;* an occurrence in the near future; or* an action that occurred in the past and continues up to the present....
participleIn linguistics, a participle is a derivative of a non-finite verb, which can be used in compound tenses or voices, or as a modifier...
s as adjectival verbs are very common:
- Perfect participle:
en stekt fisk
; "a fried fish"
Present participle: en stinkande fisk
; "a stinking fish"
In contrast to English and many other languages, Swedish does not use the perfect participle to form the present perfect and past perfect tenses. Rather, the auxiliary verbIn linguistics, an auxiliary is a verb functioning to give further semantic or syntactic information about the main or full verb following it...
har
("have"), hade
("had") is followed by a special form, called supineIn grammar a supine is a form of verbal noun used in some languages.- In Latin :In Latin there are two supines, I and II . They are originally the accusative and dative or ablative forms of verbal noun in the fourth declension, respectively. The first supine is often used as the fourth principal...
, used solely for this purpose (although sometimes identical to the perfect participle):
- Perfect participle:
målad
; "painted" - supine målat
, present perfect har målat
; "have painted"
Perfect participle: stekt
, "fried" - supine stekt
, present perfect har stekt
; "have fried"
The Past participle is used to build the compound passive voice, instead.
In a subordinate clauseIn grammar, a clause is a pair or group of words that consist of a subject and a predicate, although in some languages and some types of clauses, the subject may not appear explicitly as a noun phrase. It may instead be marked on the verb...
, the auxiliary har
is optional and often omitted, particularly in written Swedish.
Jag ser att han (har) stekt fisken
; "I see that he has fried the fish"
Subjunctive moodIn grammar, the subjunctive mood is a verb mood typically used in dependent clauses to express wishes, commands, emotion, possibility, judgment, opinion, necessity, or statements that are contrary to fact at present. It is sometimes referred to as the conjunctive mood, as it often follows a...
is occasionally used for some verbs, but its use is in sharp decline and few speakers perceive the handful of commonly used verbs (as for instance: vore, månne
) as separate conjugations, most of them remaining only as set of idiomatic expressionsAn idiom is an expression, word, or phrase that has figurative meaning — its implication comprehended only through common use; whereas the literal definition of the idiom, itself, does not communicate its meaning as a figurative usage.In linguistics, idioms are usually presumed to be figures of...
.
The lack of cases in Swedish is compensated by a wide variety of prepositions, similar to those found in EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
. As in modern GermanGerman is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken first language in the European Union. Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 105 million native speakers and also by...
, prepositions used to determine case in Swedish, but this feature remains only in idiomatic expressions like till sjöss
(genitive) or man ur huse (dative singular), though some of these are still quite common.
Swedish being a Germanic language, the
syntaxIn linguistics, syntax is the study of the principles and rules for constructing sentences in natural languages...
shows similarities to both English and German. Like English, Swedish has a Subject Verb Object basic word order, but like German, it utilizes
verb-second word orderVerb-second word order, in syntax, is the rule in some languages that the second constituent of declarative main clauses is always a verb, while this is not necessarily the case in other types of clauses.- V2 effect :...
in main clauses, for instance after adverbs, adverbial phrases and dependent clauses. (Adverbial phrases denoting time are usually placed at the beginning of a main clause that is at the head of a sentence.) Prepositional phrases are placed in a
Place Manner TimePlace Manner Time is a term used in linguistic typology to state the general order of adpositional phrases in a language's sentences: "to the store by car yesterday".It would seem that it is common among SVO languages....
order, as in English (but not German). Adjectives precede the noun they modify.
Sample
Excerpt from Barfotabarn
(1933), by Nils Ferlinwas a Swedish poet.Nils Ferlin was born in Karlstad, Värmland, where his father worked at the Nya Wermlands-Tidningen newspaper. 1908 the family moved to Filipstad and the father started his own paper...
(1898–1961):
| Original |
Poetic translation |
Word-for-word translation |
| (The Swedish text) |
(True to meaning, metre and rhyme-scheme) |
(True to word order) |
| Du har tappat ditt ord och din papperslapp, |
You have lost your word and your memo note too, |
You have lost your word and your piece of paper, |
| du barfotabarn i livet. |
you child who through life unshod gad. |
you barefooted child in life. |
| Så sitter du åter på handlar'ns trapp |
You sit on the porch of the grocer anew |
So sit you again on the grocer's staircase |
| och gråter så övergivet. |
in tears so forlornly and sad. |
and cry so abandonedly. |
| Vad var det för ord – var det långt eller kort, |
What word was it now – many letters or few, |
What was it for word (kind of word) - was it long or short, |
| var det väl eller illa skrivet? |
was it well-written or was it bad? |
was it well- or poorly written? |
| Tänk efter nu – förr'n vi föser dig bort, |
Ruminate now – lest it's away with you, |
Think after(Think twice) now - before we shove you away, |
| du barfotabarn i livet. |
you child who through life unshod gad. |
you barefooted child in life. |
See also
- Languages of Finland
The two “national” languages of Finland are Finnish and Swedish. The official minority languages are three Sami languages, Romani and the Finnish Sign Language.-Finnish:...
- Languages of Sweden
Swedish is the official language of Sweden and is spoken by the vast majority of the nine million inhabitants of the country. It is a North Germanic language and quite similar to its sister North Germanic Languages, Danish and Norwegian.-Swedish:...
- Svenska Akademiens Ordbok
Svenska Akademiens ordbok is a dictionary published by the Swedish Academy, with the official title Ordbok över svenska språket utgiven av Svenska Akademien...
- Swedish as a foreign language
Swedish as a foreign language is learnt by about 40,000 people worldwide at the university level. This is done at over two hundred universities and colleges in 41 countries. Swedish is the Scandinavian language which is most studied abroad....
- Swenglish
Swenglish is a colloquial term meaning either:*English spoken with a heavy Swedish accent or heavily influenced by Swedish vocabulary, grammar, or syntax.*Swedish with many English words.- English influenced by Swedish pronunciation :...
Print sources
Ferlin, Nils Barfotabarn (1976) Stockholm: Bonnier ISBN 91-0-024187-3 Josephson, Olle (2005) Ju: ifrågasatta självklarheter om svenskan, engelskan och alla andra språk i Sverige 2nd edition, Stockholm: Nordstedts ordbok, ISBN 91-7227-446-8
Web sources
NationalencyklopedinThe Nationalencyklopedin is the most comprehensive contemporary Swedish language encyclopedia, initiated by a favourable governmental loan of 17 million Swedish krona in 1980, which was repayed by December 1990...
(online edition) Föreningen Svenskbyborna (Svenskbyborna Society)
Language courses
- Colloquial Swedish–The complete course for beginners Second Edition. Holmes, Philip; Serin, Gunilla (1999). London; New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-13718-7
Teach Yourself Swedish–A complete course for beginners
. Croghan, Vera (1995). London: Hodder & Stoughton. Chicago: NTC/Contemporary Publishing. ISBN 0-340-61860-4
Svenska utifrån–Lärobok i svenska
. Nyborg, Roger; et al. (2001) ISBN 91-520-0673-5
På svenska! 1 Svenska som främmande språk–Lärobok
. Göransson, Ulla; et al. (1997) ISBN 91-7434-392-2
På svenska! 2 Svenska som främmande språk–Lärobok
. Göransson, Ulla; et al. (2002) ISBN 91-7434-462-5
Swedish Basic Course
. Foreign Service Institute http://fsi-language-courses.org/Content.php?page=Swedish
Grammars
Swedish Essentials of Grammar
Viberg, Åke; et al. (1991) Chicago: Passport Books. ISBN 0-8442-8539-
Swedish: An Essential Grammar
. Holmes, Philip; Hinchliffe, Ian; (2000). London; New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-16048-0.
Swedish: A Comprehensive Grammar Second Edition
. Holmes, Philip; Hinchliffe, Ian; (2003). London; New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-27884-8.
Svenska utifrån Schematic grammar–Swedish structures and everyday phrases
Byrman, Gunilla; Holm, Britta; (1998) ISBN 91-520-0519-4.
Dictionaries
Prisma's Swedish-English Dictionary Third Edition
(1997) ISBN 0-8166-3163-8
Prisma's English-Swedish Dictionary Third Edition
(1997) ISBN 0-8166-3162-X
Norstedts lilla engelska ordbok
Petti, Vincent; Petti, Kerstin; (1999) ISBN 91-7227-009-8.
Norstedts första svenska ordbok Ernby, Birgitta; et al. (2001) ISBN 91-7227-186-8.
Grammars
Increase vocabulary
Dictionaries