Loan words in Swedish Posted by Tibor on Dec 13, 2010 in Swedish Language, Vocabulary
How Swedish is Swedish? How English is English?
Well, it depends on what we consider as a loan word in one language. Can ancient Latin and Greek heritage called loan? Loan words have always been there all through the centuries. Some of the loans stayed some of them did not in our language. And some of them has been outranked by words from a third language. The reasons can be very different 1. geographical reason for example; neighboring cultures influence each other, 2. conquest or colonization or 3. lack of expressions within a certain domain etc.
Latin: sektor because it is a part of a whole. eng. sector. Other words like: tur, procent, dividera, internationell, unik, uniform.
Franska: finans which originally means to end, close, terminate. Other words like: balkong, assiett, cigarr/cigarett/cigarill, parti, diskutera, chef, journalist, precis, paraply, trottoar
Tyska: motsats, genomsnitt eng. opposite, avarage which are direct translations from German. Other words like: egentligen, offentlig and words with er- and be- prefixes like: ersätta, besöka etc.
Turkiska: kalabalik which means crowd eng. uproar, kiosk, kåldolma, guzz
Ungerska: husar which originally means a type of cavalary/horseback rider. eng. hussar. Other words like: rubikkub, paprika, hejduk, dolman, gulasch, tschakå
Finska: pojke which is a direct loan of Finnish poika. eng. boy Other words: kängor, hyvens, kola (dö) for example in the expression kola vippen, rappakalja, memma, sisu, Molotovcocktail, pulka.
Romani: tjej is a synonym for flicka in romani. eng girl. Other words like: jycke(hund), lattjo(roligt), haja (förstå), pröjsa (betala), vischan (landsbyggden), macka (smörgås),
Engelska: telefon, television, backlash, internet, pop, ärke, ängel, djävul, präst, tunnel, match, träna, export-import, mixer, hjärntvätt, email, fax,
*note that some of the words are from Greek or Latin but English was the one that internationalized them.
Swedish words in English:
In English: lingonberry (lingonbär), window (vindöga), smorgasbord (smörgåsbord), crisp bread (knäckebröd), orienteering (orientering), tungsten (tungsten), ombudsman/representative (ombudsman)
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Comments:
Christian:
I thought Swedish “pojke” and the Finnish “poika” were related, but I just didn’t know which influenced the other!
Minty:
It was really difficult to read this post Tibor…I imagine that people who havn’t learnt any swedish would have struggled a lot more than me too. Sorry to be critical….
I think your English (especially in the first paragraph) needs to be checked by someone…Im afraid I didn’t understand what you meant at all in the first paragraph (and I am a native English speaker).
Tibor:
It is okay. You are not being rude. It is noted.
Jeff:
OK, I give up – the English word corresponding to hjärntvätt is?
Tibor:
Brainwash!
Daniël:
@ Minty and Tibor:
I don’t know whether you’ve already changed your first paragraph, Tibor, but I have no trouble understanding your blogs.
Many times, there’s a big difference between British English and what I would like to call “Continental English”. The latter makes perfect sense for people from northern Europe, while it looks like crap to real Brits. I think it has something to do with word order and choosing words similar to our own native language, but which are out-of-context in Standard English.
Minty:
@Daniel
Perhaps you’re right…the main reason I didn’t understand the paragraph was because of word order and choice. What do you mean by continental english though? Im sure the word order is similar to that in scandinavian languages, but I would think of it more as the choice of words when english is a second language, rather than a different style of english.
ipek uyuklu:
tack so mycket !det ar fint!
Daniël:
@Minty: Sorry for this extreme late reply, but by “Continental English” I mean the kind of English spoken by West-Europeans, (except the ones from Great Britain). Since Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, German and Dutch are similar languages, people with one of these languages as their native tongue, make the same “mistakes” in English. Thus, Continental English is English spoken in continental Europe
Minty:
@ OK! Makes more sense now 🙂
Minty:
Edit: @ Daniel for the one above 😛