Swedish Language Blog

I’m working on a degree in Scandinavian Studies and have recently found myself reading and listening to a lot of things about the Kensington Stone. In fact, I just recently heard a talk by Anders Lundt Hansen, a Danish historian and NGO worker, discussing the stone and was inspired to do a quick write-up. The Kensington Stone, depending on who you ask, it is proof that Scandinavians managed to make their way deep into what is now the United States long before any other European group, or it is simply a hoax. An impressive one, but a hoax nonetheless.

The Kensington Stone is a rune stone that was found in 1898 in rural Minnesota by a farmer named Olof Ohlman. It is a huge stone slab that has runic inscriptions explaining that a group of 30 Scandinavian explorers were in the area in 1362. The stone explains a little bit more about what happened to the explorers (ten died for example), but does not tell us exactly who wrote this stone.

So what’s the big deal? It’s pretty well documented that Scandinavians did make it to North America during the Viking Age. But the Viking Age ended around 1066. This was 1362. Still quite some time before Columbus sailed the ocean blue. This gives some sort of claim to Scandinavian Americans that their ancestors in one form or another were here first. For better or worse.

The big deal though is that the stone, as the vast majority of people and scholars will tell you, is a fake. There are plenty of reasons to think so. A few things are especially interesting. Linguistics is one of them. Once you transcribe the runic letters to Latin letters, you’ll probably be able to read what the text says. That’s problematic because the language that was used in the 1300s was not the same that was used in the 1800s when the stone was discovered. Unfortunately, the language that is used on the stone is quite similar to 19^th century Swedish. Not only that, but the runes themselves do not match up with what you would expect from the 1300s. They do however closely mirror the runes created on a note by Edward Larsson back in 1883 in northern Sweden. There is a host of other evidence suggesting it is a hoax (the style of writing, the words used, etc.), but the evidence is pretty conclusive.

I mentioned above that the stone does not mention who carved it. And that is interesting. Most rune stones that have survived include the name of the person who has carved the stone, however, it does not usually include the date. We see the exact opposite in the Kensington Stone.

So yeah, the stone is a fake. It wouldn’t be the first time something like this happened. Regardless though, it is an interesting artifact because it is a fake. It has become a sort of celebrity (as much as a stone can become a celebrity) in the Midwest and with Scandinavian Americans because it represents something. A Scandinavian-American identity that was being formed, and is still being formed today.

But what do you think? Have you heard of the stone? Does it matter that it is fake?

It’s a super exciting topic. Sentence adverbials. In Swedish, sentence adverbials are those little words or phrases that get thrown into a sentence to They’re those little things that get thrown into a sentence to modify the sentence. They usually describe time, or place, or even the way something is being done.

There are a whole lot of these words to choose from and what and how you choose will of course modify the sentence in a specific way. Below, you’ll find a short list of some of the more common sentence adverbials:

Inte                                                      not
Alltid                                                   always
Aldrig                                                  never
Ofta                                                     often
Ibland                                                  sometimes
Sällan                                                  seldom
Bara                                                     only
Gärna                                                  gladly
Tyvärr                                                  unfortunately
Kanske                                                            maybe, possibly
Fortfarande                                         still
Nog                                                     probably
Snart                                                    soon

The list could go on and on, but next we’re going to discuss exactly how to use these words. In a main clause, or a huvudsats, it’s easy. A huvudsats is just a clause which can stand alone and be a full sentence. For example: Jag äter godis. It’s simple, it’s straightforward, it is a full sentence. But what if we wanted to modify this sentence? I never eat candy for example? Jag äter aldrig godis. Or I do not eat candy? Jag äter inte godis. The sentence adverbial follows the first verb in a huvudsats. Just for good measure: Jag äter alltid godis. Jag äter sällan godis. Jag äter bara godis. Let’s add a second verb just to clear things up. Jag ska kanske äta godis. Jag ska snart äta godis. Jag ska fortfarande äta godis. As you see, the satsadverbial still follows our first verb.

Easy right? Right.

Now let’s move onto a subjunctive clause, or dependent clause, or in Swedish, a bisats. A bisats is marked by what is called a bisatsinledare. Again, there are a lot of these, but essentially, what this word or phrase does is let you know that this part of the sentence cannot stand along as a full sentence. It needs help. Below you will find a list of some of the more common words:

Därför att                                because
När                                          when
Trots att                                   in spite of, despite
För att                                     so as to, in order to, to
Eftersom                                 since
Medan                                     while
Om                                          if
Innan                                       before
Att                                           that

But what do we do with the satsadverbial when we have a bisats? It’s not too bad at all. The satsadverbial will come before your first verb in this case. So if we take my sweet tooth example from above and modify it with a bisats, we might have something like this. Jag äter godis eftersom jag inte är sjuk. In the bisats “eftersom jag inte är sjuk,” the satsadverbial comes before my first verb. And a few more examples: Jag äter godis trots att jag alltid är sjuk. Jag äter inte godis om jag kanske är sjuk. In all the examples, the satsadverbial comes before your first verb in the bisats, and after your first verb in the huvudsats.

So to recap: in a huvudsats, the satsadverbial follows your first verb. In a bisats, the satsadverbial comes before your first verb.  Good luck!

A little over a week ago, a trending hashtag on Twitter was #swedishsayings. It was an entertaining look at some of the different sayings in Swedish and their literal English translations. Since then, there has been a steady stream of different idioms that have been translated to English. And it entertains me to no end. Mostly because I find myself doing this all too often.

Direct translations are funny. They can be especially entertaining when they are idioms that already seem a bit strange. Tibor has written a couple of posts about Swedish idioms like Swedish Idioms and Swedish Idioms I. (animals). Jennie has also added a few like Today’s expression: Att bära hundhuvudet and There is a dog buried here somewhere.

I’ve added a few here that I quite enjoy:
Inte mycket att hänga i julgranen. Literally translates as not much to hang on the Christmas tree, but actually means something isn’t worth much.

Med skägget i brevlådan. Literally means with your beard in the mailbox. Actually means you were caught by surprise.

And in reference to Katja’s great post Swedish swear words:
Nu har du skitit i det blå skåpet. Literally means that now you have s*** in the blue cupboard. Actually means that you’ve made a fool of yourself.

Of course, if you’re trying to learn Swedish, this can be one of the greatest challenges. You might understand each and every word listed here, but if you find yourself translating literally in your head, your head is going to be swimming (which, incidentally, sounds quite entertaining translated directly to Swedish: ditt huvud kommer att simma).

The question then is how to make sure that once you’ve begun to master the vocab and grammar, you start understanding meaning. Real meaning. The kind of meaning that results in you laughing at jokes, or not looking confused when someone tells you that you have defecated in a blue cupboard. We’ve written a post titled Swedish Language Learning Tips that has a few ways to move towards a more advanced fluency. When it comes to idioms, a great way to practice is of course to find yourself a native speaker. That’s not always easy though. Swedish radio and TV is widely available online however and allows you to hear a native usage of the language no matter where in the world you are. You’ll start hearing some idioms that may not make perfect sense but as you start to understand the context in which it is used, you’ll eventually feel comfortable hearing about your beard in the mailbox. And if all else fails, check back here every now and again for more translations of Swedish idioms.

What do you find most helpful in gaining a greater understanding of the various nuances of the Swedish language? And of course, have any other fun idioms to share? Please do so below!