Swedish language facts you should know about
The kingdom of Sweden has about nine million people who speak Swedish as their first languages. NordicTrans can tell you that the official language, Swedish is used in Finland by about a half a million ethnic Swedes. Get to know now Swedish Language facts.
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Or go ahead and read below some interesting facts about the Finnish language.
Some facts about Swedish
Swedish Dialects
There are a number of dialects of the Swedish language. Because of their diversity, some are even considered as separate languages. Here are the most-known dialects along with the most interesting Swedish language facts.
Westrobothnian
The forms of Westrobothnian dialects are derived from the Old Norse, Proto- Norse, Viking era which developed as a different language. Pitea, Skelleftea, Umea, Lulea, and Kalix are villages that have a population that speaks Westroborothnian.
Dalecarlian
This group of dialects is commonly spoken in the Alvdaen municipality that has a population of 1,500 inhabitants in the northern parts of the province of Dalarna.
Modern Gutnish
This dialect is spoken in Gotland and Faro. Today there is a question regarding whether it is a distinct language of its own, or a dialect. It originates from the Old Gutnish as a separate branch of the Nordic language family, and we bet you didn’t know this is one of the Swedish language facts that are highly discussed today.
Jamtlandic
The commonly spoken dialect in the province of Jamtland. It has its own 30,000 native speakers, as a well as speakers from other parts of Sweden. Jamtlanducir Jamska has 95% lexical similarity with Swedish and Norwegian languages.
Swedish province of Scaniac
Nordictrans has seen that they speak Scanian or Swedish Skane. According to some, it is considered to be a dialect of Denmark. They speak this dialect in Bornholm, where it is called East Danish, but today the dialect is more influenced by the Swedish standard.
The five minority languages
One of the most interesting Swedish language facts is that In 1999, Sweden formally declared five minority languages. They are, Finnish, Meankeli, also known as Tornedal (Tornionlaaksonsoumi), Romain, Yiddish and the Sami language.
The Finnish Language
In southern Sweden there are about 470,000 Finnish speakers. The Finnish language is a Uralic language and has long been spoken in Sweden. It is logical because Finland was part of the Swedish kingdom for centuries.
Meankieli
Considered a dialect of Finnish and is actively spoken by the Tornedalian people. It is used as a first language mainly in the municipality located in the valley of Torne and is spoken by between 40,000 and 70,000 people.
Sami
Sami language is spoken by Sami people indigenous to northern Scandinavia. In Sweden today, there lived between 15,000 and 20,000 Sami people. Of these, 9,000 are Sami language speakers.
Romani
Known as the Romani Cjib, Romani language is mainly spoken by Romani people and some smaller ethnic groups originating from northern India. In Sweden, about 90% of Romani people or 9,500 people speak the Romani language.
Yiddish
Immigrants brought the Yiddish language to Sweden after the 18th century. Today it is estimated that about 20,000 Jews still live in Sweden, of which 2,000 to 6,000 people have knowledge of the Yiddish language.
Nordictrans hopes you liked our little adventure into the Swedish language facts. Follow our blog for interesting facts about the other Nordic languages.
