Name	Swedish
Nativename	Svenska
Pronunciation
States	Sweden, Finland
Region	Northern Europe, parts of USA and other countries.
Speakers	~ 10 million
Rank	78
Script	Latin (Swedish variant)
Familycolor	Indo-European
Fam2	Germanic
Fam3	North Germanic
Fam4	East Scandinavian
Nation	Nordic Council
Agency	Swedish Language Council (in Sweden) Research Institute for the Languages of Finland (in Finland)
Iso1	sv|iso2=swe|iso3=swe
Map	}}

Swedish () is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is, to a considerable extent, mutually intelligible with Norwegian and to a lesser extent with Danish (see especially "Classification"). Along with the other North Germanic languages, Swedish is a descendant of Old Norse, the common language of the Germanic peoples living in Scandinavia during the Viking Era. It is currently the largest of the North Germanic languages by numbers of speakers.

Standard Swedish, used by most Swedish people, is the national language that evolved from the Central Swedish dialects in the 19th century and was well established by the beginning of the 20th century. While distinct regional varieties descended from the older rural dialects still exist, the spoken and written language is uniform and standardized. Some dialects differ considerably from the standard language in grammar and vocabulary and are not always mutually intelligible with Standard Swedish. These dialects are confined to rural areas and are spoken primarily by small numbers of people with low social mobility. Though not facing imminent extinction, such dialects have been in decline during the past century, despite the fact that they are well researched and their use is often encouraged by local authorities.

The standard word order is Subject Verb Object, though this can often be changed to stress certain words or phrases. Swedish morphology is similar to English; that is, words have comparatively few inflections. There are two genders, no grammatical cases, and a distinction between plural and singular. Older analyses posit the cases nominative and genitive and there are some remains of distinct accusative and dative forms as well. Adjectives are compared as in English, and are also inflected according to gender, number and definiteness. The definiteness of nouns is marked primarily through suffixes (endings), complemented with separate definite and indefinite articles. The prosody features both stress and in most dialects tonal qualities. The language has a comparatively large vowel inventory. Swedish is also notable for the voiceless dorso-palatal velar fricative, a highly variable consonant phoneme.

Classification

Swedish is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic branch of the Germanic languages. In the established classification, it belongs to the East Scandinavian languages together with Danish, separating it from the West Scandinavian languages, consisting of Faroese, Icelandic and Norwegian. However, more recent analyses divide the North Germanic languages into two groups: Insular Scandinavian, Faroese and Icelandic, and Continental Scandinavian, Danish, Norwegian and Swedish, based on mutual intelligibility due to heavy influence of East Scandinavian (particular Danish) on Norwegian during the last millennium and divergence from both Faroese and Icelandic.

History

In the 9th century, Old Norse began to diverge into Old West Norse (Norway and Iceland) and Old East Norse (Sweden and Denmark). In the 12th century, the dialects of Denmark and Sweden began to diverge, becoming Old Danish and Old Swedish in the 13th century. All were heavily influenced by Middle Low German during the Middle Ages. Though stages of language development are never as sharply delimited as implied here, and should not be taken too literally, the system of subdivisions used in this article is the most commonly used by Swedish linguists and is used for the sake of practicality.

Old Norse

In the 8th century, the common Germanic language of Scandinavia, Proto-Norse, had undergone some changes and evolved into Old Norse. This language began to undergo new changes that did not spread to all of Scandinavia, which resulted in the appearance of two similar dialects, Old West Norse (Norway and Iceland) and Old East Norse (Denmark and Sweden).

The subdialect of Old East Norse spoken in Sweden is called Runic Swedish and the one in Denmark Runic Danish (there was also a subdialect spoken in Gotland, Old Gutnish) but until the 12th century, the dialect was the same in the two countries with the main exception of a Runic Danish monophthongization (see below). The dialects are called runic because the main body of text appears in the runic alphabet. Unlike Proto-Norse, which was written with the Elder Futhark alphabet, Old Norse was written with the Younger Futhark alphabet, which only had 16 letters. Because the number of runes was limited, some runes were used for a range of phonemes, such as the rune for the vowel u which was also used for the vowels o, ø and y, and the rune for i which was also used for e.

From 1100 onwards, the dialect of Denmark began to diverge from that of Sweden. The innovations spread unevenly from Denmark which created a series of minor dialectal boundaries, isoglosses, ranging from Zealand in the south to Norrland, Österbotten and northwestern Finland in the north.

An early change that separated Runic Danish from the other dialects of Old East Norse was the change of the diphthong æi to the monophthong é, as in stæinn to sténn "stone". This is reflected in runic inscriptions where the older read stain and the later stin. There was also a change of au as in dauðr into a long open ø as in døðr "dead". This change is shown in runic inscriptions as a change from tauþr into tuþr. Moreover, the øy diphthong changed into a long close ø, as in the Old Norse word for "island". These innovations had affected most of the Runic Swedish speaking area as well in the end of the period, with the exception of the dialects spoken north and east of Mälardalen where the diphthongs still exist in remote areas.

Old Swedish

—a law code of Västergötland from the 1280s, one of the earliest texts in Swedish written in the Latin alphabet.]] Old Swedish is the term used for the medieval Swedish language, starting in 1225. Among the most important documents of the period written in Latin script is the oldest of the provincial law codes, the Västgöta code or Västgötalagen, of which fragments dated to 1250 have been found. The main influences during this time came with the firm establishment of the Roman Catholic Church and various monastic orders, introducing many Greek and Latin loanwords. With the rise of Hanseatic power in the late 13th and early 14th century, the influence of Middle Low German became ever more present. The Hanseatic league provided Swedish commerce and administration with a large number of German- and Dutch-speaking immigrants. Many became quite influential members of Swedish medieval society, and brought terms from their mother tongue into the vocabulary. Besides a great number of loanwords for such areas as warfare, trade and administration; general grammatical suffixes and even conjunctions were imported. Almost all of the naval terms were also borrowed from Dutch.

Early medieval Swedish was markedly different from the modern language in that it had a more complex case structure and had not yet experienced a reduction of the gender system. Nouns, adjectives, pronouns and certain numerals were inflected in four cases; besides the modern nominative, there were also the genitive, dative and accusative. The gender system resembled that of modern German, having the genders masculine, feminine and neuter. Most of the masculine and feminine nouns were later grouped together into a common gender. The verb system was also more complex: it included subjunctive and imperative moods and verbs were conjugated according to person as well as number. By the 16th century, the case and gender systems of the colloquial spoken language and the profane literature had been largely reduced to the two cases and two genders of modern Swedish. The old inflections remained common in high prose style until the 18th century, and in some dialects into the early 20th century.

A transitional change of the Latin script in the Nordic countries was to spell the letter combination "ae" as æ – and sometimes as a' – though it varied between persons and regions. The combination "ao" was similarly rendered a^o, and "oe" became o^e. These three were later to evolve into the separate letters ä, å and ö.

Modern Swedish

's Bible from 1541, using Fraktur. The title translated to English reads: "The Bible / That is / The Holy Scripture / in Swedish. Printed in Uppsala. 1541".]] Modern Swedish (Swedish: nysvenska) begins with the advent of the printing press and the European Reformation. After assuming power, the new monarch Gustav Vasa ordered a Swedish translation of the Bible. The New Testament was published in 1526, followed by a full Bible translation in 1541, usually referred to as the Gustav Vasa Bible, a translation deemed so successful and influential that, with revisions incorporated in successive editions, it remained the most common Bible translation until 1917. The main translators were Laurentius Andreæ and the brothers Laurentius and Olaus Petri.

The Vasa Bible is often considered to be a reasonable compromise between old and new; while not adhering to the colloquial spoken language of its day it was not overly conservative in its use of archaic forms. It was a major step towards a more consistent Swedish orthography. It established the use of the vowels "å", "ä", and "ö", and the spelling "ck" in place of "kk", distinguishing it clearly from the Danish Bible, perhaps intentionally, given the ongoing rivalry between the countries. All three translators came from central Sweden which is generally seen as adding specific Central Swedish features to the new Bible.

Though it might seem as if the Bible translation set a very powerful precedent for orthographic standards, spelling actually became more inconsistent during the remainder of the century. It was not until the 17th century that spelling began to be discussed, around the time when the first grammars were written. The spelling debate raged on until the early 19th century, and it was not until the latter half of the 19th century that the orthography reached generally acknowledged standards.

Capitalization during this time was not standardized. It depended on the authors and their background. Those influenced by German capitalized all nouns, while others capitalized more sparsely. It is also not always apparent which letters are capitalized owing to the Gothic or blackletter typeface which was used to print the Bible. This typeface was in use until the mid-18th century, when it was gradually replaced with a Latin typeface (often antiqua).

Some important changes in sound during the Modern Swedish period were the gradual assimilation of several different consonant clusters into the fricative and later into . There was also the gradual softening of and into and the fricative before front vowels. The velar fricative was also transformed into the corresponding plosive .

, one of the most influential writers in modern Swedish literature.]]

Contemporary Swedish

The period that includes Swedish as it is spoken today is termed nusvenska (lit. "Now-Swedish") in linguistic terminology and started in the last decades of the 19th century. The period saw a democratization of the language with a less formal written language that came closer to spoken language. The growth of a public schooling system also lead to the evolution of so-called boksvenska (literally "book Swedish"), especially among the working classes, where spelling to some extent influenced pronunciation, particularly in official contexts. With the industrialization and urbanization of Sweden well under way by the last decades of the 19th century, a new breed of authors made their mark on Swedish literature. Many scholars, politicians and other public figures had a great influence on the new national language that was emerging, and among them were prolific authors like the poet Gustaf Fröding, Nobel laureate Selma Lagerlöf, and radical writer and playwright August Strindberg.

It was during the 20th century that a common, standardized national language became available to all Swedes. The orthography was finally stabilized, and was almost completely uniform, with the exception of some minor deviations, by the time of the spelling reform of 1906. With the exception of plural forms of verbs and a slightly different syntax, particularly in the written language, the language was the same as the Swedish spoken today. The plural verb forms remained, in ever decreasing use, in formal (and particularly written) language until the 1950s, when they were finally officially abolished even from all official recommendations.

A very significant change in Swedish occurred in the late 1960s, with the so-called du-reformen, "the you-reform". Previously, the proper way to address people of the same or higher social status had been by title and surname. The use of herr ("Mr" or "Sir"), fru ("Mrs" or "Ma'am") or fröken ("Miss") was considered the only acceptable mode of initiating conversation with strangers of unknown occupation, academic title or military rank. The fact that the listener should preferably be referred to in the third person tended to further complicate spoken communication between members of society. In the early 20th century, an unsuccessful attempt was made to replace the insistence on titles with ni (the standard second person plural pronoun), analogous to the French Vous. (Cf. T-V distinction.) Ni (plural second person pronoun) wound up being used as a slightly less familiar form of du (singular second person pronoun) used to address people of lower social status. With the liberalization and radicalization of Swedish society in the 1950s and 1960s, these previously significant distinctions of class became less important and du became the standard, even in formal and official contexts. Though the reform was not an act of any centralized political decrees, but rather a sweeping change in social attitudes, it was completed in just a few years from the late 1960s to early 1970s.

Former language minorities

which formerly housed "Coastal Swede" populations]] From the 13th to 20th century, there were Swedish-speaking communities in Estonia, particularly on the islands (e.g., Hiiumaa, Vormsi, Ruhnu; in Swedish, known as Dagö, Ormsö, Runö, respectively) along the coast of the Baltic, communities which today have all but disappeared. The Swedish-speaking minority was represented in parliament, and entitled to use their native language in parliamentary debates. After the loss of Estonia to the Russian Empire in the early 18th century, around 1,000 Estonian Swedish speakers were forced to march to southern Ukraine, where they founded a village, Gammalsvenskby ("Old Swedish Village"). A few elderly people in the village still speak Swedish and observe the holidays of the Swedish calendar, although the dialect is most likely facing extinction.

From 1918–1940, when Estonia was independent, the small Swedish community was well treated. Municipalities with a Swedish majority, mainly found along the coast, used Swedish as the administrative language and Swedish-Estonian culture saw an upswing. However, most Swedish-speaking people fled to Sweden before the end of World War II, that is, before the invasion of Estonia by the Soviet army in 1944. Only a handful of older speakers remain today.

Geographic distribution

Swedish is the national language of Sweden and the first language for the overwhelming majority of roughly eight million Swedish-born inhabitants and acquired by one million immigrants. As of 2007 around 5.5% of the population of Finland was Swedish speaking, though the percentage has declined steadily over the last 400 years. The Finland Swedish minority is concentrated in the coastal areas and archipelagos of southern and western Finland. In some of these areas, Swedish is the predominant language. Swedish is Finland's second official language. The language has the same status in Finland as the Finnish language. In 19 municipalities, 16 of which are located in Åland, Swedish is the only official language. In several more, it is the majority language and it is an official minority language in even more. There is considerable migration between the Nordic countries, but owing to the similarity between the cultures and languages (with the exception of Finnish), expatriates generally assimilate quickly and do not stand out as a group. According to the 2000 United States Census, some 67,000 people over the age of five were reported as Swedish speakers, though without any information on actual language proficiency. Similarly, there are 16,915 reported Swedish speakers in Canada from the 2001 census. Outside Sweden and Finland, there are about 40,000 active learners enrolled in Swedish language courses.

Official status

/Swedish street sign in Finland]] Swedish is officially the main language of Sweden. It has long been used in local and state government and most of the educational system, but remained only a de facto primary language, with no official status in law. A bill was proposed in 2005 that would have made Swedish an official language, but failed to pass by the narrowest possible margin (145–147) due to a pairing-off failure. A proposal for a broader language law, designating Swedish as the main language of the country and bolstering the status of the minority languages, was submitted by an expert committee to the Swedish Ministry of Culture in March 2008. It was subsequently enacted by the Riksdag and entered into effect on 1 July 2009.

Swedish is the only official language of Åland (an autonomous province under the sovereignty of Finland) where the vast majority of the 26,000 inhabitants speak Swedish as a first language. In Finland, Swedish is the second national language alongside Finnish on the state level, and an official language in some coastal municipalities. Three municipalities (Korsnäs, Närpes, Larsmo) in mainland Finland have Swedish as their sole official language. Swedish is also one of the official languages of the European Union and one of the working languages of the Nordic Council. Under the Nordic Language Convention, citizens of the Nordic countries speaking Swedish have the opportunity to use their native language when interacting with official bodies in other Nordic countries without being liable to any interpretation or translation costs.

Regulatory bodies

The Swedish Language Council (Språkrådet) is the official regulator of Swedish, but does not attempt to enforce control of the language, as for instance the Académie française does for French. However, many organizations and agencies require the use of the council's publication Svenska skrivregler in official contexts, with it otherwise being regarded as a de facto orthographic standard. Among the many organizations that make up the Swedish Language Council, the Swedish Academy (established 1786) is arguably the most influential. Its primary instruments are the dictionaries Svenska Akademiens Ordlista (SAOL, currently in its 13th edition) and Svenska Akademiens Ordbok, in addition to various books on grammar, spelling and manuals of style. Even though the dictionaries are sometimes used as official decrees of the language, their main purpose is to describe current usage.

In Finland a special branch of the Research Institute for the Languages of Finland has official status as the regulatory body for Swedish in Finland. Among its highest priorities is to maintain intelligibility with the language spoken in Sweden. It has published Finlandssvensk ordbok, a dictionary about the differences between Swedish in Finland and in Sweden.

Dialects

According to a traditional division of Swedish dialects, there are six main groups of dialects:

North Swedish

Finland Swedish

Svealand Swedish

Gotland Swedish

Götaland Swedish

South Swedish

The traditional definition of a Swedish dialect has been a local variant that has not been heavily influenced by the standard language and that can trace a separate development all the way back to Old Norse. Many of the genuine rural dialects, such as those of Orsa in Dalarna or Närpes in Österbotten, have very distinct phonetic and grammatical features, such as plural forms of verbs or archaic case inflections. These dialects can be near-incomprehensible to a majority of Swedes, and most of their speakers are also fluent in Standard Swedish. The different dialects are often so localized that they are limited to individual parishes and are referred to by Swedish linguists as sockenmål (lit. "parish speech"). They are generally separated into six major groups, with common characteristics of prosody, grammar and vocabulary. One or several examples from each group are given here. Though each example is intended to be also representative of the nearby dialects, the actual number of dialects is several hundred if each individual community is considered separately.

This type of classification, however, is based on a somewhat romanticized nationalist view of ethnicity and language. The idea that only rural variants of Swedish should be considered "genuine" is not generally accepted by modern scholars. No dialects, no matter how remote or obscure, remained unchanged or undisturbed by a minimum of influences from surrounding dialects or the standard language, especially not from the late 19th century onwards with the advent of mass media and advanced forms of transport. The differences are today more accurately described by a scale that runs from "standard language" to "rural dialect" where the speech even of the same person may vary from one extreme to the other depending on the situation. All Swedish dialects with the exception of the highly diverging forms of speech in Dalarna, Norrbotten and, to some extent, Gotland can be considered to be part of a common, mutually intelligible dialect continuum. This continuum may also include Norwegian and some Danish dialects.

The samples linked below have been taken from SweDia, a research project on Swedish modern dialects available for download (though with information in Swedish only), with many more samples from 100 different dialects with recordings from four different speakers: older female, older male, younger female and younger male. The dialect groups are those traditionally used by dialectologists.

:1. Överkalix, Norrbotten; younger female :2. Burträsk, Västerbotten; older female :3. Aspås, Jämtland; younger female :4. Färila, Hälsingland; older male :5. Älvdalen, Dalarna; older female :6. Gräsö, Uppland; older male :7. Sorunda, Södermanland; younger male :8. Köla, Värmland younger female :9. Viby, Närke; older male :10. Sproge, Gotland; younger female :11. Närpes, Ostrobothnia; younger female :12. Dragsfjärd, Finland Proper; older male :13. Borgå, Eastern Uusimaa; younger male :14. Orust, Bohuslän; older male :15. Floby, Västergötland; older female :16. Rimforsa, Östergötland; older female :17. Årstad-Heberg, Halland; younger male :18. Stenberga, Småland; younger female :19. Jämshög, Blekinge; older female :20. Bara, Scania; older male

Standard Swedish

Standard Swedish, which is derived mainly from the dialects spoken in the capital region around Stockholm, is the language used by virtually all Swedes and most Swedish-speaking Finns. The Swedish term most often used for the standard language is rikssvenska ("National Swedish") and to a much lesser extent högsvenska ("High Swedish"); the latter term is limited to Swedish spoken in Finland and is seldom used in Sweden. There are many regional varieties of the standard language that are specific to geographical areas of varying size (regions, historical provinces, cities, towns, etc.). While these varieties are often influenced by the genuine dialects, their grammatical and phonological structure adheres closely to those of the Central Swedish dialects. In mass media it is no longer uncommon for journalists to speak with a distinct regional accent, but the most common pronunciation and the one perceived as the most formal is still Central Standard Swedish.

Though this terminology and its definitions have long been established among linguists, most Swedes are unaware of the distinction and its historical background, and often refer to the regional varieties as "dialects". In a poll that was conducted in 2005 by the Swedish Retail Institute (Handelns Utredningsinstitut), the attitudes of Swedes to the use of certain dialects by salesmen revealed that 54% believed that rikssvenska was the variety they would prefer to hear when speaking with salesmen over the phone, even though several dialects such as gotländska or skånska were provided as alternatives in the poll.

Finland Swedish

Finland was a part of Sweden from the 13th century until the loss of the Finnish territories to Russia in 1809. Swedish was the sole administrative language until 1902 as well as the dominant language of culture and education until Finnish independence in 1917. The percentage of Swedish speakers in Finland has steadily decreased since then. The Swedish-speaking population is mainly concentrated in the coastal areas of Ostrobothnia, Finland Proper, Nyland and Åland where the percentage of Finland Swedes partly is fairly high. Swedish is still an official language in Finland, sharing the same rights as the Finnish language. Swedish media broadcasting is available from radio stations, YLE Vega and YLE X3M, as well a TV channel, FST 5.

Immigrant variants

Rinkeby Swedish (after Rinkeby, a suburb of northern Stockholm with a large population of immigrants) is a common name among linguists for varieties of Swedish spoken by young people of foreign heritage in the suburbs of Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö. These varieties could alternatively be classified as sociolects, because the immigrant dialects share common traits independent of their geographical spread or the native country of the speakers. However, some studies have found distinctive features and led to terms such as Rosengård Swedish (after Rosengård in Malmö), an immigrant version of the Scanian dialect. A survey made by the Swedish linguist Ulla-Britt Kotsinas showed that foreign learners had difficulties in guessing the origins of Rinkeby Swedish speakers in Stockholm. The greatest difficulty proved to be identifying the speech of a boy speaking Rinkeby Swedish whose parents were both Swedish; only 1.8% guessed his native language correctly.

Sounds

Swedish has 9 vowels that make up 17 phonemes in most varieties and dialects (short and coincide). There are 18 consonant phonemes out of which the voiceless palatal-velar fricative, , and show considerable variation depending on social and dialectal context. A distinct feature of Swedish is its varied prosody (intonation, stress, tone, etc.) which is often one of the most noticeable differences between the various dialects.

Vocabulary

The vocabulary of Swedish is mainly Germanic, either through common Germanic heritage or through loans from German, Middle Low German, and to some extent, English. Examples of Germanic words in Swedish are mus ("mouse"), kung ("king"), and gås ("goose"). A significant part of the religious and scientific vocabulary is of Latin or Greek origin, often borrowed from French and, lately, English.

A large number of French words were imported into Sweden around the 18th century. These words have been transcribed to the Swedish spelling system and are therefore pronounced quite recognizably to a French-speaker. Most of them are distinguished by a "French accent", characterized by emphasis on the last syllable. For example, nivå (fr. niveau, "level"), fåtölj (fr. fauteuil, "arm chair") and affär ("shop; affair"), etc. Cross-borrowing from other Germanic languages has also been common, at first from Middle Low German, the lingua franca of the Hanseatic league and later from standard German. Some compounds are translations of the elements (calques) of German original compounds into Swedish, like bomull from German Baumwolle ("cotton", literally tree-wool).

As with many Germanic languages, new words can be formed by compounding, e.g. nouns like nagellackborttagningsmedel ("nail polish remover") or verbs like smygfilma ("to film in secret"). Similar to German or Dutch, very long, and quite impractical, examples like produktionsstyrningssystemsprogramvaruuppdatering ("production controller system software update") are possible but seldom this ungainly, at least in spoken Swedish and outside of technical writing. Compound nouns take their gender from the head, which in Swedish is always the last morpheme. New words can also be coined by derivation from other established words, such as the verbification of nouns by the adding of the suffix -a, as in bil ("car") and bila ("travel by car").

Writing system

The Swedish alphabet is a 29-letter alphabet, using the basic 26-letter Latin alphabet plus the three additional letters Å / å, Ä / ä, and Ö / ö constructed in the 16th century by writing "o" and "e" on top of an "a", and an "e" on top of an "o". Though these combinations are historically modified versions of A and O according to the English range of usage for the term diacritic, these three characters are not considered to be diacritics within the Swedish application, but rather separate letters, and are as independent letters following z. Before the release of the 13th edition of Svenska Akademiens Ordlista in April 2006, w was treated as merely a variant of v used only in names (such as "Wallenberg") and foreign words ("bowling"), and so was both sorted and pronounced as a v. Other diacritics (to use the broader English term usage referenced here) are unusual in Swedish; é is sometimes used to indicate that the stress falls on a terminal syllable containing e, especially when the stress changes the meaning (ide vs. idé, "winter lair" vs. "idea"); occasionally other acute accents and, less often, grave accents can be seen in names and some foreign words. The letter à is used to refer to unit cost (a loan from the French), equivalent to the at sign (@) in English.

The German ü is treated as a variant of y and sometimes retained in foreign names and words, e.g. müsli ("muesli/granola"). A proper diaeresis may very exceptionally be seen in elaborated style (for instance: "Aïda"). The German convention of writing ä and ö as ae and oe if the characters are unavailable is an unusual convention for speakers of modern Swedish. Despite the availability of all these characters in the Swedish national top-level Internet domain and other such domains, Swedish sites are frequently labelled using a and o, based on visual similarity (mainly to avoid lingering technical problems with the use of characters which are outside of the limited 7-bit ASCII set).

In Swedish orthography, the colon is used in a similar manner as in English, with some exceptions: the colon is used for some abbreviations, such as 3:e for tredje ("third") and S:t for Sankt ("Saint"), and for all types of suffixes that can be added to numbers, letters and abbreviations, such as a:et ("the a") and CD:n ("the CD").

Grammar

Swedish nouns and adjectives are declined in genders as well as number. Nouns belong to one of two genders—common for the en form or neuter for the ett form—which also determine the declension of adjectives. For example, the word fisk ("fish") is noun of common gender (en fisk) and can have the following forms:

The definite singular form of a noun is created by adding a suffix (-en, -n, -et or -t), depending on its gender and if the noun ends in a vowel or not. The definite articles den, det, and de are used for variations to the definitiveness of a noun. They can double as demonstrative pronouns or demonstrative determiners when used with adverbs such as här ("here") or där ("there") to form den/det här (can also be "denna/detta") ("this"), de här (can also be "dessa") ("these"), den/det där ("that"), and de där ("those"). For example, den där fisken means "that fish" and refers to a specific fish; den fisken is less definite and means "that fish" in a more abstract sense, such as that set of fish; while fisken means "the fish". In certain cases, the definite form indicates possession, e.g., jag måste tvätta håret ("I must wash my hair").

Adjectives are inflected in two declensions — indefinite and definite — and they must match the noun they modify in gender and number. The indefinite neuter and plural forms of an adjective are usually created by adding a suffix (-t or -a) to the common form of the adjective, e.g., en grön stol (a green chair), ett grönt hus (a green house), and gröna stolar ("green chairs). The definite form of an adjective is identical to the indefinite plural form, e.g., den gröna stolen ("the green chair"), det gröna huset ("the green house"), and de gröna stolarna ("the green chairs").

Swedish pronouns are similar to those of English. Besides the two natural genders han/hon ("he/she"), there are also the two grammatical genders den/det, usually termed common and neuter. Unlike the nouns, pronouns have an additional object form, derived from the old dative form. Hon, for example, has the following nominative, possessive, and object forms:

:hon - hennes - henne

Possession is expressed with the enclitic -s, which attaches to the end of a (possibly complex) noun phrase. In formal writing, however, usage guides generally do not recommend the enclitic to attach to anything but the head noun of the phrase; but this is nevertheless common in speech.

:mannen; "the man" :mannens hatt; "the man's hat" :mannen i grå kostym; "the man in a grey suit" :mannen i grå kostyms hatt; "the man in a grey suit's hat" :mannens i grå kostym hatt; "the man's in a grey suit hat" (formal, archaic)

Verbs are conjugated according to tense. One group of verbs (the ones ending in -er in present tense) have a special imperative form (generally the verb stem), but with most verbs the imperative is identical to the infinitive form. Perfect and present participles as adjectival verbs are very common:

:Perfect participle: en stekt fisk; "a fried fish" (steka = to fry) :Present participle: en stinkande fisk; "a stinking fish" (stinka = to stink)

In contrast to English and many other languages, Swedish does not use the perfect participle to form the present perfect and past perfect. Rather, the auxiliary verb har ("have"), hade ("had") is followed by a special form, called supine, used solely for this purpose (although often identical to the neuter form of the perfect participle):

:Perfect participle: målad, "painted" - supine målat, present perfect har målat; "have painted" :Perfect participle: stekt, "fried" - supine stekt, present perfect har stekt; "have fried" :Perfect participle: skriven, "written" - supine skrivit, present perfect har skrivit; "have written"

When building the compound passive voice using the verb att bli, the past participle is used: :den blir målad; "it's being painted" :den blev målad; "it was painted"

There exists also an inflected passive voice formed by adding -s, replacing the final r in the present tense: :den målas; "it's being painted" :den målades; "it was painted"

In a subordinate clause, the auxiliary har is optional and often omitted, particularly in written Swedish. :Jag ser att han (har) stekt fisken; "I see that he has fried the fish"

Subjunctive mood is occasionally used for some verbs, but its use is in sharp decline and few speakers perceive the handful of commonly used verbs (as for instance: vore, månne) as separate conjugations, most of them remaining only as set of idiomatic expressions.

The lack of cases in Swedish is compensated by a wide variety of prepositions, similar to those found in English. As in modern German, prepositions used to determine case in Swedish, but this feature remains only in idiomatic expressions like till sjöss (genitive) or man ur huse (dative singular), though some of these are still quite common.

Swedish being a Germanic language, the syntax shows similarities to both English and German. Like English, Swedish has a Subject Verb Object basic word order, but like German, it utilizes verb-second word order in main clauses, for instance after adverbs, adverbial phrases and dependent clauses. (Adverbial phrases denoting time are usually placed at the beginning of a main clause that is at the head of a sentence.) Prepositional phrases are placed in a Place Manner Time order, as in English (but not German). Adjectives precede the noun they modify.

Sample

Excerpt from Barfotabarn (1933), by Nils Ferlin (1898–1961): {| border="0" width="100%" style="text-align: left;" |- !|Original !|Free translation |- |Du har tappat ditt ord och din papperslapp, |"You have lost your word and your written note, |- |du barfotabarn i livet. |you barefooted child in life. |- |Så sitter du åter på handlar'ns trapp |You sit on the porch of the grocer anew |- |och gråter så övergivet. |and cry so abandoned. |- |Vad var det för ord – var det långt eller kort, |What word was it - was it long or short, |- |var det väl eller illa skrivet? |was it well or poorly written? |- |Tänk efter nu – förr'n vi föser dig bort, |Think twice now - before we shove you away, |- |du barfotabarn i livet. |you barefooted child in life." |}

See also

Languages of Finland

Languages of Sweden

Svenska Akademiens Ordbok

Swedish as a foreign language

Swenglish

Notes

References

Print sources

Ferlin, Nils Barfotabarn (1976) Stockholm: Bonnier ISBN 91-0-024187-3 Josephson, Olle (2005) Ju: ifrågasatta självklarheter om svenskan, engelskan och alla andra språk i Sverige 2nd edition, Stockholm: Nordstedts ordbok, ISBN 91-7227-446-8

Web sources

Nationalencyklopedin (online edition) Föreningen Svenskbyborna (Svenskbyborna Society)

Recommended reading

Language courses

Colloquial Swedish–The complete course for beginners Second Edition. Holmes, Philip; Serin, Gunilla (1999). London; New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-13718-7

Teach Yourself Swedish–A complete course for beginners. Croghan, Vera (1995). London: Hodder & Stoughton. Chicago: NTC/Contemporary Publishing. ISBN 0-340-61860-4

Svenska utifrån–Lärobok i svenska. Nyborg, Roger; et al. (2001) ISBN 91-520-0673-5

På svenska! 1 Svenska som främmande språk–Lärobok. Göransson, Ulla; et al. (1997) ISBN 91-7434-392-2

På svenska! 2 Svenska som främmande språk–Lärobok. Göransson, Ulla; et al. (2002) ISBN 91-7434-462-5

[Swedish Basic Course http://fsi-language-courses.org/Content.php?page=Swedish Fsi-language.org]. Foreign Service Institute

Rivstart : A1+A2. Scherrer, Paula Levy; Lindemalm, Karl (2008). Natur och Kultur. ISBN 9789127666856

Rivstart : B1+B2. Scherrer, Paula Levy; Lindemalm, Karl (2009). Natur och Kultur. ISBN10: 9127666875

Grammars

Swedish Essentials of Grammar Viberg, Åke; et al. (1991) Chicago: Passport Books. ISBN 0-8442-8539-

Swedish: An Essential Grammar. Holmes, Philip; Hinchliffe, Ian; (2000). London; New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-16048-0.

Swedish: A Comprehensive Grammar Second Edition. Holmes, Philip; Hinchliffe, Ian; (2003). London; New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-27884-8.

Svenska utifrån Schematic grammar–Swedish structures and everyday phrases Byrman, Gunilla; Holm, Britta; (1998) ISBN 91-520-0519-4.

Dictionaries

Prisma's Swedish-English Dictionary Third Edition (1997) ISBN 0-8166-3163-8

Prisma's English-Swedish Dictionary Third Edition (1997) ISBN 0-8166-3162-X

Norstedts lilla engelska ordbok Petti, Vincent; Petti, Kerstin; (1999) ISBN 91-7227-009-8.

Norstedts första svenska ordbok Ernby, Birgitta; et al. (2001) ISBN 91-7227-186-8.

External links

Grammars

A concise Swedish Grammar, prepared by Leif Stensson.

Swedish basic course (student text + audio files), developed by the American Foreign Service Institute.

Increase vocabulary

Swedish Flashcard Site

Swadesh list of Swedish basic vocabulary words (from Wiktionary's Swadesh list appendix)

Dictionaries

Swedish-English/Swedish-Arabic/Swedish-Russian/Swedish-Spanish Dictionaries from Språkrådet - Institute for Language and Folklore

tyda.se

sv.wiktionary

People's dictionary

Swedish Dictionary from Webster's Dictionary

Project Runeberg's digital facsimile edition of Nordisk familjebok, the definitive Swedish-language encyclopaedia of the late 19th and early-to-mid-20th centuries.

Norstedts Swedish-English online dictionary

lexikon.se

* Category:Finland Swedish Category:Languages of Finland Category:Languages of Sweden Category:North Germanic languages Category:Scandinavia Category:SVO languages

Team	Washington Capitals
Jersey number	19
Former teams	Brynäs IF (SEL)
League	NHL
Position	Centre (Right wing)
Shoots	Left
Height ft	6
Height in	1
Weight lb	210
Ntl team	SWE
Birth date	November 23, 1987
Birth place	Gävle, Sweden
Draft	4th overall
Draft year	2006
Draft team	Washington Capitals
Career start	2004
Website	Backstrom19.com

Lars Nicklas Bäckström (born 23 November 1987) is a Swedish professional ice hockey centre and an alternate captain for the Washington Capitals of the National Hockey League (NHL).

Early life

Bäckström's father Anders is a known Swedish hockey player who played his whole hockey career for Brynäs IF, totaling 10 seasons for the club. Nicklas' older brother Kristoffer is also a hockey player, but in the second tier of the Swedish league system with Hammarby IF.

Playing career

Bäckström was a top prospect in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft and was selected fourth overall by the Washington Capitals. With that, he became the fourth-highest drafted Swede, after Mats Sundin (first), Daniel Sedin (second) and Henrik Sedin (third). Victor Hedman was later picked second in 2009.

On 10 July 2006, it was announced that he had turned down an offer from the Capitals and had decided to play in Brynäs IF for at least one more season.

On 21 May 2007, Bäckström signed a three-year, entry-level contract with the Capitals, to begin playing during the 2007–08 NHL season.

On 5 October 2007, he scored his first NHL point, an assist on a goal by fellow Swede Michael Nylander, against the Atlanta Thrashers.

Upon his arrival to the NHL, Bäckström was solid but not spectacular as he made the transition to the smaller ice rinks of North America. After an injury to Nylander, however, Bäckström was promoted to the first line, where he flourished. Playing alongside Alexander Ovechkin, Bäckström set NHL and team records while helping Ovechkin win the Art Ross Trophy and the Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy.

Bäckström was the runner up to Chicago's Patrick Kane for the Calder Trophy. Kane had 1,087 votes while Bäckström had 872 votes. The Blackhawks' Jonathan Toews was third with 647. However, Bäckström was named to the All-Rookie Team along with Kane and Toews.

In his second NHL season, Bäckström would go on to lead both the Capitals and Swedish NHL players with 66 assists, and added 22 goals for 88 points, placing him within the top ten NHL scorers in the 2008–09 regular season. Bäckström would again prove to be a force in the playoffs, tallying 15 points in 14 games.

Following the 2008–09 NHL playoffs, Bäckström was awarded the Viking Award for being the best Swedish-born player in the 2008–09 NHL season; he is only the second Capital to win this award, following behind Calle Johansson.

At the conclusion of the 2009–10 NHL season, Backstrom finished 4th in League scoring with 101 points, behind Henrik Sedin (112), Sidney Crosby (109) and Alexander Ovechkin (109).

Bäckström scored his first career playoff hat trick, including the overtime game winner against the Montreal Canadiens in the first round of the 2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs, a round that they lost in seven games.

On 17 May 2010, Bäckström signed a ten-year, $67 million contract extension with the Washington Capitals.

International play

}}

He played his first game with the Swedish national team on 6 April 2006, in a game against Norway. He won the World Championship when he represented Sweden in the 2006 World Championship. As of that tournament he is the youngest Swedish player ever in an Ice Hockey World Championship tournament. Bäckström played the last four games in the WC (roster spot held open for Daniel Alfredsson) and was directly appointed to the first line together with idols Henrik Zetterberg and Johan Franzén.

On 27 December 2009, it was announced that Bäckström would play for Team Sweden in the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Bäckström led Team Sweden in the 2010 Olympics with six points in four games before they were eliminated by Slovakia in the quarter-finals.

Bäckström played for Sweden in:

2006 World Junior Championships

2006 World Championships (gold medal)

2007 World Junior Championships

2007 World Championships

2008 World Championships

2010 Winter Olympics

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

{| BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="0" style="text-align:center; width:50em" |- bgcolor="#e0e0e0" ! colspan="3" bgcolor="#ffffff" |   ! rowspan="99" bgcolor="#ffffff" |   ! colspan="6" | Regular season ! rowspan="99" bgcolor="#ffffff" |   ! colspan="6" | Playoffs |- bgcolor="#e0e0e0" ! Season ! Team ! League ! GP ! G ! A ! Pts ! +/– ! PIM ! GP ! G ! A ! Pts ! +/- ! PIM |- | 2003–04 | Brynäs IF | J20 | 21||2||6||8||—||2 | 5||0||0||0||—||4 |- bgcolor="#f0f0f0" | 2004–05 | Brynäs IF | J20 | 29||17||17||34||—||24 | —||—||—||—||—||— |- | 2004–05 | Brynäs IF | SEL | 19||0||0||0||—||2 | —||—||—||—||—||— |- bgcolor="#f0f0f0" | 2005–06 | Brynäs IF | SEL | 46||10||16||26||—||30 | 4||1||0||1||—||2 |- | 2005–06 | Brynäs IF | J20 | —||—||—||—||—||— | 1||0||0||0||—||2 |- bgcolor="#f0f0f0" | 2006–07 | Brynäs IF | SEL | 45||12||28||40||—||46 | 7||3||3||6||—||6 |- | 2007–08 | Washington Capitals | NHL | 82||14||55||69||+13||24 | 7||4||2||6||+3||2 |- bgcolor="#f0f0f0" | 2008–09 | Washington Capitals | NHL | 82||22||66||88||+16||46 | 14||3||12||15||+3||8 |- | 2009–10 | Washington Capitals | NHL | 82||33||68||101||+37||50 | 7||5||4||9||+7||4 |- bgcolor="#e0e0e0" ! colspan="3" | SEL totals ! 110!!22!!44!!66!!—!!78 ! 11!!4!!3!!7!!8||— |- bgcolor="#e0e0e0" ! colspan="3" | NHL totals ! 246!!69!!189!!258!!+66!!120 ! 28!!12!!18!!30!!+13!!14 |}

International

{| border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" ID="Table3" style="text-align:center; width:25em" |- ALIGN="center" bgcolor="#e0e0e0" ! Year ! Team ! Event ! GP ! G ! A ! Pts ! PIM |- | 2005 | Sweden Jr. | WJC U18 | 7||2||3||5||4 |- bgcolor="#f0f0f0" | 2006 | Sweden Jr. | WJC | 6||4||3||7||2 |- | 2006 | Sweden | WC | 4||0||0||0||0 |- bgcolor="#f0f0f0" | 2007 | Sweden Jr. | WJC | 7||0||7||7||20 |- | 2007 | Sweden | WC | 9||1||5||6||4 |- bgcolor="#f0f0f0" | 2008 | Sweden | WC | 9||3||4||7||4 |- bgcolor="#ffffff" | 2010 | Sweden | Oly | 4||1||5||6||0 |- bgcolor="#e0e0e0" | align="center" colspan=3| Junior int'l totals ! 38!!10!!19!!29!!44 |- bgcolor="#e0e0e0" | align="center" colspan=3| Senior int'l totals ! 41!!8!!17!!25!!12 |}

Awards

Junior Hockey Player of the Year (2006)

Elitserien Rookie of the Year (2006)

NHL Rookie of the Month: December 2007

NHL No. 1 Star of the Week: weeks ending 16 November 2008; and 7 December 2009.

NHL All-Rookie Team (2007–08)

Finalist, 2007–08 Calder Memorial Trophy

Viking Award (2009)

Records

Youngest Swedish player ever in World Championship (18 years and 6 months). First NHL rookie to record four assists in two consecutive games.

Most assists in a season by a rookie, Washington Capitals team record (55 assists), 2007–08 NHL season.

References

External links

Official website

Category:1987 births Category:Brynäs IF players Category:Living people Category:National Hockey League first round draft picks Category:People from Gävle Category:Swedish ice hockey players Category:Swedish expatriate sportspeople in the United States Category:Washington Capitals draft picks Category:Washington Capitals players Category:Olympic ice hockey players of Sweden Category:Ice hockey players at the 2010 Winter Olympics

Name	Basshunter
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Jonas Erik Altberg
Born	December 22, 1984Halmstad, Sweden
Instrument	Singing, sequencer (FL Studio (aka Fruity Loops))
Genre	Eurodance, Club, Dance, Rave, Techno
Occupation	Singer, producer
Years active	2002–present
Label	Warner Music Group, Hard2Beat, Ultra
Url	basshunter.se

Jonas Erik Altberg (born 22 December 1984), better known by the pseudonym Basshunter, is a Swedish producer and singer-songwriter, best known for his number one hits "Boten Anna" and "Now You're Gone". Basshunter has so far released a total of five albums, two of which have been released in the United Kingdom, and a total of 14 singles. Recently, his latest U.K. single, "Saturday," was released in July 2010, and he also competed in hit reality TV show Celebrity Big Brother in January 2010. His song "Sverige" was also used as Sjölunden's International Day song in 2008. He is working on a sixth studio album to be released in 2011.

Biography

Jonas Altberg was born in Halmstad, Sweden, and lived with his parents and younger brother near Tylösand. He began producing music under the stage name "Basshunter" in 2002, using Fruity Loops, and released his first albums, The Old Shit (2002) and The Bassmachine (2004), through his own web site. He reached the final of the show and ended up finishing in fourth place.

His third studio album, Bass Generation, was released on 28 September 2009. Its lead single is "Every Morning."

Basshunter has been diagnosed with Tourette's syndrome.

Career

2006–2008: LOL <(^^,)>

Basshunter's debut album, LOL <(^^,)>, was released on 1 September 2006 through Warner Music. A Christmas/International edition was released on 22 December 2006, with the same Swedish songs from the original album, but with English translated names, in a slightly different track order, and with bonus tracks, including the never-before-released "Jingle Bells." The song "Sverige" has been omitted from the international edition.

2008–2009: Now You're Gone: The Album

Basshunter's second studio album, , was released on 14 July 2008. The album features English remakes of older Basshunter hits, and entered the UK Albums Chart at number one. As well, the album has sold an excess 300,000 copies in the U.K., making it certified Platinum. In New Zealand, the album peaked at number one in its fifth week, and was certified Gold after six weeks, selling over 7,500 copies. The album was then certified Platinum after 10 weeks, selling over 15,000 copies. The album spent a total of two weeks at number one.

The album produced several hit singles, including "Now You're Gone," "All I Ever Wanted," and "Angel in the Night."

2009: Bass Generation

His third studio album, Bass Generation, was released on 28 September 2009. In early September 2009, before the album was released, the song "Numbers" was released to the public as a free download via Basshunter's official Bebo profile. The album release date was eventually moved up a week for unknown reasons to 28 September 2009, along with the single "Every Morning," which was released on 21 September 2009. To promote the album, the Basshunter Album Artwork Competition was set up on 10 August 2009 in which fans designed and uploaded their own cover art for the "Bass Generation" album to Basshunter's Bebo profile, with the winner being awarded their signed, framed artwork presented by Basshunter at the Bass Generation Tour. The winning entry was revealed on 11 September. Basshunter also set out on the Bass Generation Tour in October 2009 in support of the album. The ten-date U.K. tour was announced on 1 July 2009, with Fugative supporting Basshunter. Tickets went on sale 3 July 2009.

Celebrity Big Brother (2010)

On 3 January 2010, Basshunter entered the U.K. TV series Celebrity Big Brother as a housemate; he finished in fourth place in the Finalé on 29 January 2010.

2010-present: Forthcoming fourth studio album

On 14 May 2010, it was announced that the first single from Basshunter's forthcoming fourth studio album, titled "Saturday," would have a worldwide premier live on BBC Radio 1 with Scott Mills that same night. The track was co-written by Thomas Troelsen, Engelina, and Cutfather, and produced by Troelsen and Cutfather. The melody of the song is based on Reel 2 Real's "I Like to Move It." Basshunter performed the single on 4 July 2010 as part of T4 On The Beach, as well as performing it on Big Brother's Little Brother on 3 July 2010.

Basshunter's forthcoming fourth studio album should be released in 2011.

Music videos

Several music videos were made for Basshunter's singles, the first being Boten Anna (2006), followed by 'Dota' in the same year. A new music video of the latter was also made. The music videos for the singles of the 'Now you're gone' and 'Bass Generation' albums differ in that they are all linked in a soap-opera style love story. The girl in the videos, nicknamed 'Basshunter girl', is played by Iranian-Norwegian model Aylar Lie. Basshunter's latest single, 'Saturday', is the first UK single to discontinue the story theme, and features Basshunter in a club dancing with girls.

31 December 2007: "Now You're Gone" — A young couple, Aylar and Lucas, split up only to get back together on the dance floor of a club where Basshunter is performing.

29 June 2008: "All I Ever Wanted" — Aylar & Lucas go on holiday with friends, however Aylar has suspicions that Lucas is cheating on her. At the end of the video she storms out of the club.

29 September 2008: "Angel in the Night" — Whilst working in a cafe, Aylar texts Lucas telling him she knows he's been cheating on her and that their relationship is over. After which she meets Basshunter, who invites her to a street race he's taking part in. Basshunter wins the race and performs 'Angel in the Night' on stage. Falling for Basshunter, Aylar takes his hand and the pair kiss on stage.

15 December 2008: "I Miss You" — Basshunter, Aylar and friends enjoy the perfect Christmas, with hot tubs, presents, and snow, in a luxury cabin. This music video was also used for Basshunter's cover of Jingle Bells.

21 September 2009: "Every Morning" — On a vacation with friends, Basshunter plans to ask Aylar to marry him, however his friends sabotage his attempts. Basshunter then tries again to ask Aylar by taking out a ring at a beach party, however the couple are playfully dragged away from each other by their friends. Aylar then goes swimming in the sea and goes missing.

30 November 2009: "I Promised Myself" — Basshunter receives the news Aylar has been found, and that she is in hospital. On the way there, Basshunter reminisces about the time himself and Aylar have spent together, (this includes flashbacks to previous music videos). Basshunter tries to get to the hospital as fast as possible but when he arrives, he sees that Lucas, Aylar's previous boyfriend, is with her.

Arrest

On 15 December 2010, Basshunter was charged by police over an alleged sexual assault on two female fans at a gig at a nightclub in Fife, Scotland. He was released on bail and returned to Sweden. He is due to appear at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court in January 2011. His manager has insisted that the allegations are, "totally untrue."

Discography

LOL <(^^,)> (2006)

Now You're Gone - The Album (2008)

Bass Generation (2009)

References

External links

Artist Site at Ultra Records

Category:1984 births Category:Living people Category:2000s singers Category:2010s singers Category:Big Brother UK contestants Category:Eurodance musicians Category:People from Halmstad Category:People with Tourette syndrome Category:Swedish dance musicians Category:Swedish electronic musicians Category:Ultra Records artists Category:Warner Music Group artists Category:World Music Awards winners