Swedish language

The four major Scandinavian languages - Danish, Swedish, Norwegian and Icelandic are closely related. They are all Germanic languages, just like English, but have slowly drifted apart during the last 1000 years. Before that, the Vikings spoke a language believed to resemble Icelandic, which - along with German - came to influence English prior to the Normand conquest in 1066. Quite a few words are similar, particularly those describing old concepts such as "hus" = "house", "väg" = "way", "träd"="tree", "sköld"="shield", "båt"="boat" etc.

The languages have played an important role in creating and preserving national identity. Finnish, on the other hand, is not a Germanic language, and is completely different from the others. While a Swede, a Norwegian and a Dane often understand each other fairly well in a conversation and decipher written Icelandic, none of them would understand a Finn. In cases like that, English is likely to be used. (It should be kept in mind, though, that a fairly large minority of people in Finland have Swedish as their native tongue and many people in the country understand both Finnish and Swedish).

Sweden has been a homogenous country for a long time in terms of language. It was heavily influenced by German (merchants) during the 13th through 17th centuries, by French in the 18th century (when the aristocracy spoke French with each other as a sign of good breeding) and by English from the 20th and on.

The Swedish word for travel agent, "resebyrå" can serve as an example. It is composed of the German word for journey, "Reise", and the French word for office, "bureau", with a simplified spelling. By contrast, remote and culturally isolated Iceland has ingeniously created its entirely own word, "Ferdaskriftstofa" by combining the old Norse word for trip "ferd" ("färd" in Swedish), with the old Germanic word for a writing "Schrift", ("skrift" in Swedish), and finally the old Norse word for a small house "stofa" ("stuga in Swedish"), to describe the place where writings for the journey are made.

With the exception of Sami and Finnish speaking minorities in the north, Swedish was used everywhere. It is still the predominant language by far but the situation today is somewhat more complex. Because of immigration in the second half of the 20th century, many foreign languages are now represented and they are frequently used within the immigrant groups respectively. This is particularly true, of course, for those immigrants who have arrived in recent years. In addition, immigrant children also have the opportunity to learn their native language at their Swedish school. Despite the manifolds of languages, Swedish keeps its position as unchallenged official and common language.

One of the minority languages, Sami, is spoken by Sweden's oldest ethnic minority, the Sami. The area, historically related to this group of people, can be found in northern Sweden, as well as in northern Finland and Norway. Today, however, many of them have moved to southern Sweden and Stockholm is sometimes said to be "the largest Sami settlement in Sweden". The native tongue of the Sami is not related to Swedish. However, the Sami people have become bilingual in the process of adaption.

English is taught as a compulsory secondary language in Swedish schools. Since Sweden has become a stronghold of American popular culture, English is also learned to a large extent through TV, music, and films, which are always shown with subtitles and never dubbed.

Tourists from Britain or the US may be surprised at the number of Anglicisms in use today. Sometimes this urge to 'sound English' even becomes a bit ridiculous. A foreigner who wants to buy a Sony Walkman, for instance, should ask for a freestyle.

As English is taught in Swedish schools from the fourth grade, almost all Swedes speak and understand English. Moreover, many Swedes will also know German and some will know French and, a few, Italian and Spanish.

Some phrases in Swedish

Literature about the Swedish Language

Do you want to learn Swedish? If so, we suggest you start with reading the book: Swedish, The Comprehensive Grammar by Philip Holmes and Ian Hinchliffe. More books are listed here on Print Google.

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