Swedish language

Swedish, or svenska, is a North Germanic language. It belongs to the Indo-European language family. People mainly speak it in Sweden and parts of Finland. At least 10 million people speak Swedish as their first language. It is the fourth most spoken Germanic language and the most spoken language in the Nordic countries.

Swedish comes from Old Norse. Old Norse was the common language of Germanic peoples in Scandinavia during the Viking Age. Swedish is very similar to Norwegian and Danish. People who speak these languages can usually understand each other. This depends on their dialect and accent.

Standard Swedish is the national language of Sweden. It developed from Central Swedish dialects in the 19th century and became well established by the early 20th century. There are still distinct regional varieties and rural dialects. But the written language is uniform and standardized. In Finland, Swedish is the most widely spoken second language and has official status. There are also Swedish-speaking communities in places like Oslo, Norway.

Classification

Swedish is an Indo-European language in the North Germanic group of Germanic languages. It is part of the East Scandinavian languages with Danish. This is different from the West Scandinavian languages which include Faroese, Icelandic and Norwegian.

Some experts now split the North Germanic languages into two groups: Insular Scandinavian (Faroese and Icelandic) and Continental Scandinavian (Danish, Norwegian and Swedish). This is because people can often understand each other’s languages even though they speak and write differently.

History

Main article: History of Swedish

Old Norse

Main article: Old Norse

In the 8th century, the language spoken in Scandinavia, Proto-Norse, changed into Old Norse. There were two types of Old Norse. One type was spoken in Norway, the Faroe Islands, and Iceland. The other type was spoken in Denmark and Sweden and was called Runic Swedish. Old Norse was written with a special alphabet called runes. This alphabet had only 16 letters, so some letters were used for many sounds.

Old Swedish

Main article: Old Swedish

Old Swedish is the name for the Swedish language used in the Middle Ages. It started around the year 1225, when an important book called Västgötalagen (the Västgöta Law) was written. During this time, many new words came into Swedish from the Christian church and from traders who spoke Middle Low German. Old Swedish was very different from today’s Swedish.

Modern Swedish

Main article: Modern Swedish

Modern Swedish began when the printing press was invented and during a big change in religion called the Reformation. A new Swedish Bible was translated and published in 1541, called the Gustav Vasa Bible. This Bible helped make Swedish writing more consistent. During this time, Swedish spelling changed and new letters like “å”, “ä”, and “ö” were added.

Contemporary Swedish

Today’s Swedish, called nusvenska, began in the late 1800s. With more schools and books, Swedish became easier to use. Famous writers like Gustaf Fröding, Selma Lagerlöf, and August Strindberg helped shape the language. In the 1960s, Swedish changed how people address each other. Instead of using formal titles, everyone started using the word du, making communication simpler and more friendly.

Geographic distribution

Swedish is the official language of Sweden and one of two official languages in Finland, along with Finnish. In Sweden, most people speak Swedish. In Finland, fewer people speak Swedish, mostly near the coast and on islands.

There are also Swedish speakers living outside of Sweden and Finland. Some live in the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain, and Germany, with smaller groups in other places. Many people who speak Danish or Norwegian can understand Swedish because the languages are similar.

Official status

Swedish is the official language of Sweden. It became the official language of the country in 2009.

Swedish is also one of the two official languages of Finland. On the islands of Åland, which belong to Finland, Swedish is the only official language.

Swedish is also an official language in the European Union and can be used in meetings of the Nordic Council. People from Nordic countries can use Swedish when dealing with official matters in other Nordic countries without needing to pay for translation.

Regulatory bodies

The Swedish Language Council helps guide how Swedish is used in Sweden. They publish guides and dictionaries. In Finland, a special group works to keep Finnish Swedish clear and easy to understand.

Language minorities in Estonia and Ukraine

For many centuries, there were Swedish-speaking communities in Estonia. In the early 1700s, some Swedish speakers were moved to a village in Ukraine called Gammalsvenskby. A few elderly people there still speak a Swedish dialect.

Phonology

Main article: Swedish phonology

Swedish has many different sounds in its words. Most of these sounds come in pairs — one longer sound and one shorter sound that sound similar. This is like how English has pairs of sounds too.

Swedish also has special stress in its words, where some parts of a word are spoken more strongly than others. This gives Swedish its unique sound.

Grammar

Main article: Swedish grammar

Swedish words follow a specific order, like many other languages. The verb usually comes second in a sentence. Words in Swedish don’t change much, unlike some other languages. There are two types of nouns: common gender (like “en” for “a”) and neuter gender (like “ett” for “one”).

Adjectives change to match the noun they describe in gender and number. For example, “green chair” changes form depending on whether the chair is singular or plural, and whether it’s common or neuter gender. Swedish also has special words to show if something is definite (like “the”) or indefinite (like “a”).

Pronouns in Swedish are similar to English, with words for “he” and “she,” plus forms for common and neuter gender. Verbs change to show tense, and there are special forms for commands and descriptions.

Vocabulary

Swedish words come from many languages, like German, Latin, Greek, French, and English. Some everyday words, like mus ("mouse"), kung ("king"), and gås ("goose"), are from German. Words about religion and science often come from Latin or Greek. A few words, like tjej ("girl"), are from Romani.

In the 1700s, many French words came into Swedish. These words were written with Swedish spelling, so they sound a little French. Examples are nivå ("level"), fåtölj ("armchair"), and affär ("shop" or "affair"). Swedish also took words from Middle Low German and Standard German. Sometimes, Swedish makes new words by joining two words together, like nagellackborttagningsmedel ("nail polish remover"). Words can also change, like turning the noun bil ("car") into the verb bila ("to travel by car").

Writing system

Main article: Swedish orthography

The Swedish alphabet has 29 letters. It uses 26 common letters plus three special ones: ⟨å⟩, ⟨ä⟩, and ⟨ö⟩. These three letters were added in the 1500s by putting small marks on other letters. Before 2006, the letter ⟨w⟩ was used mostly in names and foreign words.

In Swedish, the colon (:) can be used in some special ways, like in abbreviations.

Dialects

Main article: Swedish dialects

Swedish has several main groups of dialects, including Norrland dialects, Finland Swedish, Svealand dialects, Gotland dialects, Götaland dialects, and South Swedish dialects. These dialects are local ways of speaking Swedish that have changed over time.

Many rural dialects have special sounds and rules, which can be hard for most Swedes to understand.

People in Sweden mostly use Standard Swedish, also called rikssvenska. In Finland, Swedish speakers use a version called högsvenska. Swedish was an important language in Finland for many years, and it is still an official language there. Some cities in Sweden have their own ways of speaking Swedish.

Sample

Here is the first article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Swedish:

Alla människor är födda fria och lika i värdighet och rättigheter. De har utrustats med förnuft och samvete och bör handla gentemot varandra i en anda av gemenskap.

And here it is in English:

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

There is also an excerpt from a book called Barfotabarn from 1933 by Nils Ferlin.