Swedish Language Blog

The Swedish language has a long history of loaning words from other languages in Europe. Usually, the source languages have been of large economic or cultural importance for Sweden. This process of loaning words started around the 10th century AD, just a century after historians consider the Swedish language to have become a language of its own, different from the other Nordic languages.

The deciding factor for the start of this process was the entrance of Christianity into Sweden during the century 900 AD. The growing population of converted Christians created strong cultural ties with the rest of Christian Europe. During this time, many words were borrowed from the Latin and Greek languages, including mässa (mass), kyrka (church), and biskop (bishop).

Soon thereafter, an influx of German tradesmen found Sweden an appealing place to trade goods. For approximately five hundred years (1000-1500, the entire Middle Ages), the Low German language left a strong and very visible mark on the Swedish language. (This was German’s strongest period in Sweden; words continued to be borrowed from German until the early 1900′s.) Words such as arbete (arbeit/work), bliva (bliven/to become, nowadays said and written bli), and möjlig (möglich/possible), among many others, were introduced into the Swedish language. On top of that, many suffixes and prefixes were also loaned - betala (to pay), erbjuda (to offer), följning ([a] following) – and even the Swedish word order was affected.

(Keep in mind that Swedish has always been a Germanic language, even before the arrival of Low German in the country. What today is known as German is considered to be a West Germanic language and Swedish a North Germanic language.)

The next language to make its mark on the Swedish language was French, which began its influence in the 17th century and continued throughout the 1700′s. Examples of loans from French in Swedish are vag (vague/vague), enorm (énorme/enormous), and fåtölj (fauteuil/armchair). During its time of influence in Sweden, as it did in much of Europe, the French language became the language of diplomacy.

And finally, since around the end of World War II, English has been the language of interest in Sweden. Words like eskalera (escalate), tuff (tough), and webb (web, as in Internet) have made their way into the Swedish vocabulary. Even today, English is the largest language of influence in Sweden – schoolchildren start learning English as a mandatory school subject as early as the first grade. Today, if you visit Sweden, almost anyone you talk to will be able to speak to you in English. But don’t let that stop you from learning Swedish – it is a beautiful language that has a lot to offer, and an absolute must if you intend to live in Sweden!

As an honorable mention, I should include that Sweden’s five official minority languages have had their turn as well. Words such as pojke (boy) and pjäxa (ski boot) come directly from Finnish (poika and pieksu, respectively); tjej (girl) and haja (to understand, to ‘get it’) both come from Romani (Gypsy). The other three official minority languages of Sweden are Meänkeli, Sami, and Yiddish.

How does Finland have anything to do with Sweden?

Well, first-off, the two countries neighbor each other, even though most of the “border” between them is actually the Gulf of Bothnia (Bottniska viken in Swedish). Secondly, the Swedish language is one of Finland’s two official languages – the other being, of course, Finnish. There is a large Swedish-speaking minority in Finland – in digits, about 290,000 native Swedish speakers, or 5,3% of Finland’s total population. The type of Swedish they speak is known as Finland Swedish, or finlandssvenska. (Aside from that, Swedish is a required subject in Finnish schools from the 7th grade.)

For this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, the Finns have chosen a song in Swedish to represent Finland. The singer, Pernilla Karlsson, speaks native Finland Swedish. Those of you who are familiar with Sweden Swedish now have a great opportunity to hear real, native Finland Swedish in action. Here is När jag blundar (When I close my eyes) by Pernilla Karlsson. Music and lyrics by her brother, Jonas Karlsson.

Here are the lyrics so you can follow along. I have also translated them into English for you.

(P.S. The song is written for their mother.)

Enjoy the music!

Source for statistics: Finska Statistikcentralen

There are lots of people out there who really want to learn a new language, and Sweden often comes up as a suggestion on many websites as a language being ‘close’ to English. Well, no one’s lying – they belong to the same language family (the Germanic languages) and they have a great deal of common loan words from French, Latin, and even from each other.

Not only do the two have much similar vocabulary; the sentence structure is also very similar, at least if compared with other languages from other or even the same language family. What is very different, though is pronunciation and some grammatical principles.

So, here are three things that make Swedish easy to learn for English speakers:

1. Some amount of similar vocabulary (though with some false friends as well)
2. Similar sentence structure
3. Easy spelling (for the most part)

Three things that might be challenging, though, are these:

1. Noun gender (common gender and neuter gender)
2. Conjugation of nouns and adjectives based on gender and number
3. Pronunciation – Swedish has 9 vowels, and each has a long and short form (see Vowels, Part 1 and Part 2); 18 consonant sounds of which 3 don’t exist in English (r, tj, and sj)

But really, these more ‘difficult’ things are really only technical. Sure, you’ll sound less learned if you get any of them wrong, but you will still be able to communicate and the Swedes will appreciate your effort. So don’t let it stop you – instead, let it start you! After all, no one’s perfect in the beginning anyway. Start with some simple vocabulary – I suggest Byki 4 software by Transparent Language. Byki gives you groups of virtual vocabulary flashcards (called ‘lists’) that even come with sound – a great way to memorize words by both their spelling and pronunciation. Give it a try! Lycka till!