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42-487: In Swedish, the terms rikssvenska "Realm Swedish" and högsvenska "High Swedish" are used in Sweden and Finland respectively, particularly by non-linguists, and both terms are ambiguous. The direct translation of standardsvenska "Standard Swedish" is less common and primarily used in scholarly contexts. In certain (mostly Finland-related) contexts, rikssvenska has come to mean all Swedish as spoken in Sweden as opposed to

84-693: A bilingual country with a Swedish-speaking minority (5.2% of mainland Finland 's population in December 2019) living mostly in the coastal areas of southern, south-western, and western Finland. During the 20th century, the urbanization following the Industrial Revolution has led to large majorities of Finnish speakers in all major cities. The capital Helsinki (in Swedish Helsingfors) became predominantly Finnish-speaking as recently as around 1900. A large and important part of

126-509: A phonology that remained largely Danish or Norwegian . During the second half of the 19th century, the use of a standardised written language increased with each new method of communication and transportation. It was, however, only in the 1960s that the major demographic situation of Sweden had changed from a quite rural and agrarian society to today's highly-urbanized society, when the spoken varieties converged towards unified dialects whose vocabulary and grammatical rules adhered to that of

168-539: A general audience, the sales of which are used to fund its operation. The council also works with four of the five official minority languages in Sweden: Finnish , Meänkieli , Yiddish , and Romani ( Sámi excluded) alongside the Swedish Sign Language . Between 1965 and 2007, the council published the quarterly journal Språkvård (lit. "Language care"). The journal published articles about

210-681: Is impossible to verify. In addition bilingualism is very common for immigrants in Sweden, so the term Swedish-speaking may be deceptive in that sense. In the spoken vernacular, especially among young people in Finnish-dominated areas, Finnish loanwords as well as calques from Finnish are frequently incorporated into Finland Swedish. There are also some words in Finland Swedish that would be considered slightly archaic in Sweden. Some government and public service terms that have been created in recent centuries also differ. The same

252-570: Is a compound form that is a cognate of the German Reich .) National Swedish television and radio news broadcasts that are often produced in Stockholm have historically preferred commentators who speak what is seen as rikssvenska , but that has gradually been relaxed. The definition of högsvenska (literally "High Swedish") was formerly the same as for rikssvenska , the most prestigious dialect spoken in (the capital of) Sweden. During

294-595: Is a simple fricative [ɕ]. The tonal word accent , which distinguishes some minimal pairs in most dialects of Swedish and Norwegian, is not present in Finland Swedish (except around the parish of Snappertuna, west of Helsinki). Hence, Central Swedish minimal pairs like /ˈandɛn/ ("the duck") and /ǎndɛn/ ("the spirit") are both pronounced [ˈandɛn] in Finland. Finland Swedish lacks the aspirated stops present in Central Standard Swedish, making

336-473: Is also a separate standard for Swedish in Finland based on Finland Swedish . Several dialects occur in broadcast media in Sweden, but the Central Swedish variant dominates and is often perceived as more "standardized" and more neutral than the others. Swedish became Sweden's main official language on July 1, 2009, when a new language law was implemented. The issue of whether Swedish should be declared

378-407: Is no single standard for spoken Swedish. There are several regional varieties ( acrolects or prestige dialects ) that are used in official contexts. The major regional variants include those of South Sweden (based on South Swedish dialects ), Western Sweden (centered on Gothenburg ), Central Sweden (centered on the capital of Stockholm ) and Northern Sweden (based on Norrland dialects ). There

420-522: Is regulated by the Institute for the Languages of Finland . Official Swedish is not supposed to be very different from Swedish as found in Sweden. There are however e.g. words regarded as archaic in Sweden, but commonly used in Finland, and terms that differ from their counterparts in Sweden, often because of slight differences in the related legislation. Bilingualism of municipalities is regulated by

462-547: Is reviewed once in a decade, and enacted by a government decree issued by the Finnish Council of State . The country's public broadcaster, Yle , provides two Swedish-language radio stations, Yle Vega and Yle X3M . The Swedish-language TV channel Yle Fem was merged with Yle Teema in 2017 to form Yle Teema & Fem . With the exception of the dialects spoken in Ostrobothnia along the west coast, close to

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504-533: Is the primary regulatory body for the advancement and cultivation of the Swedish language. The council is a department of the Swedish government's Institute for Language and Folklore ( Swedish : Institutet för språk och folkminnen ). The council asserts control over the language through the publication of various books with recommendations in spelling and grammar as well as books on linguistics intended for

546-408: Is true of other new words, notably loanwords from English . A common misconception among many Swedes is that Finland Swedish is simply Swedish spoken with a Finnish accent, something that can be a considerable source of frustration to most native Swedish-speakers in Finland. Any language adopts features, especially pronunciation habits, from dominant languages it comes in touch with, but many of

588-624: The Finland Swedish , finlandssvenska , spoken in Finland or Estonian Swedish spoken in Estonia. For speakers in Sweden, the term, however often, perhaps primarily, indicates "non-dialectal" (spoken) Swedish. The term "Sweden Swedish" ( sverigesvenska ) is sometimes used instead, as a parallel to the term Finland Swedish. There is, however, no common agreement on how rikssvenska should sound. What appears as rikssvenska to one Swede may appear dialectal to another. (Etymologically, " riks -"

630-586: The Gulf of Bothnia (example: the dialect spoken in Närpes ), Finland Swedish is not particularly different from Central Swedish. The phoneme /ʉː/ is more centralized and pronounced like [ʉː] , quite similar to how many speakers of English pronounce /uː/ (as in moon ). That should be compared to the Central Swedish [ʉ̟ː] , which is very close to the short vowel [ʏː] and is more rounded . The highly variable sj sound / ɧ / varies between [ʂ] and [ɕ ~ ʃ] on

672-543: The Russian Empire and became an autonomous Grand Duchy , Swedish remained the only official language. In 1863, both Finnish and Swedish became official languages with equal status, and by the time of Finland's independence in 1917, after a Finnicization campaign by the Fennoman movement , Finnish clearly dominated in government and society. See further: Finland's language strife . Finland has since then been

714-615: The Swedish Language Council is similarly funded by the Swedish government and may be said to have a semiofficial status as a regulatory body being a joint effort that includes the Swedish Academy , Swedish Radio , Swedish Broadcasting Corporation and several other organizations representing journalists, teachers, actors, writers and translators. The recommendations of those bodies are not legally binding but are generally respected. Standard Swedish evolved from

756-536: The prestige dialect of Finland Swedish. In the second half of the 20th century, tensions between the centre and the periphery in Finland made the concept of a spoken standard variety less popular, and the spoken Swedish in Ostrobothnia again oriented towards Sweden, particularly when switching to more elevated registers . That resulted in a relation between Standard Swedish as spoken in Western Finland aa opposed to Southern Finland, which mainly echoed

798-514: The 20th century, its meaning changed, and it now denotes the prestige dialect of the Swedish speakers in Helsinki . Until the late 19th or the early 20th century, Swedish was the primary language of status, government and education in Finland although it was spoken as a first language by only a relatively small minority. Since the 1970s, both domestic languages have been mandatory subjects for all Finnish pupils in primary and secondary schools, but

840-560: The Finnish mainland, often close to sh in English shoe . In the Åland Islands, its realization is similar to the velar (and often labialized ) pronunciations of nearby parts of Sweden. The historic k sound before front vowels and the tj sound, in modern Central Swedish a fricative /ɕ/ , is an affricate [t͡ɕ] or [t͡ʃ] in all Finland Swedish dialects, close to ch in English chin , except for some Åland dialects , in which it

882-530: The Language Act of 2003. If the minority has increased into at least 3,000 persons or 8% of inhabitants, then the municipality must become bilingual. If the minority has fallen below 3,000 persons and 6% of inhabitants, then the municipality becomes monolingual, unless it decides to keep its bilingual status. At present, only one such municipality has done so, namely Lohja ( Lojo in Swedish). The status

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924-439: The Swedish as spoken in Sweden and strongly phrased advice against loanwords and calques from Finnish , which are usually incomprehensible to Swedes. It is said that the municipality with the highest proportion of Swedish speakers in the world, Larsmo (93% as of 2017 ), is located in Finland. Korsnäs has also been cited as such. However, as there are no official statistics on the mother tongue of inhabitants of Sweden, this

966-480: The Swedish-speaking population nevertheless lives in the capital. The autonomous island province of Åland is an exception, being monolingually Swedish-speaking according to international treaties. It is a matter of definition whether the Swedish dialects spoken on Åland are to be considered a kind of Finland Swedish or not. Most Swedish-speaking Finns and linguists consider them to be closer to some of

1008-420: The autonomous Russian Grand Duchy of Finland in 1809 drastically decreased communication between Sweden and Finland, but Swedish remained the language of administration and higher education until Finnish was given equal status in the late 19th century. The position of Swedish gradually eroded in the 20th century, as population shifts from industrialisation and war increasingly caused many ethnic Finns to move to

1050-519: The beginning of the Swedish-speaking population of Finland . From the 16th century, Swedish was the main language of jurisdiction, administration and higher education in Finland (which was then a part of Sweden ), but the majority of the population in the Finnish inland spoke Finnish outside of these sectors of society, i.e. in normal, daily life. In 1809, when Finland was conquered by

1092-564: The chairman and the head of the secretariat. The council assumed its current name ( Språkrådet ; "The Language Council") in 2006, as it became a department of the state agency the Institute for Language and Folklore. Ogooglebar (from o- prefix (negative prefix) + googlebar (google + -bar suffix ( -able ))) is a word, in Swedish, that the Language Council of Sweden has been forced to remove from its top 10 list of new words by

1134-599: The contrast between "fortis" and "lenis" stops one of voicing only. The retroflexion that occurs in many dialects when /r/ precedes a coronal consonant does not occur in certain pairs in Finland Swedish (e.g. /rt/ , which is realized as [ʈ] in Standard Swedish but [rt] in Finland Swedish). Finland Swedish mostly has the same vocabulary as Swedish in Sweden, and there is a conscious effort to adopt neologisms from Sweden, to maintain cohesion between

1176-471: The dialects spoken in nearby parts of Sweden. Swedish is one of the two official and national languages of the Republic of Finland, the other being Finnish. These two languages have formally equal status in nearly all legislation, though the status of Swedish in Finland has long been a subject of sociopolitical debate. The other minority languages (such as Sami ) are regulated separately. Finland Swedish

1218-632: The high prestige dialects of the Mälaren Valley region around Stockholm , the capital of Sweden. In Sweden, the concept of a unified standard language, based on a high prestige dialect spoken in the capital region, was primarily understood in terms of the written language, as exemplified with the Swedification of the Danish and Norwegian provinces that were acquired in the 17th century. The people were taught Swedish hymns and prayers but with

1260-478: The most part, these dialects and the dialects spoken in Sweden are mutually intelligible , although some archaic dialects in Ostrobothnia are practically unintelligible to Swedish-speaking people in southern Finland (and in Sweden). Most Swedish-speaking Finns emphasize that Finland Swedish is not a separate language from the Swedish of Sweden. The Swedish dialects in Finland are considered varieties of Swedish, and

1302-408: The name Svenska språknämnden ("The Swedish Language Committee"). The government also assured the future of the council by guaranteeing the financing of four permanent staff members; a figure which later grew and was no longer limited to a certain number of members, but by the actual needs of the council. Since the government assumed the responsibility for the financing, it also has the right to appoint

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1344-569: The norm for written Standard Swedish is completely applicable also for Finland Swedish. Today, Swedish dialects are spoken in four different regions in Finland: Ostrobothnia, Åland , Southwest Finland and Uusimaa . Swedish as spoken in Finland is regulated by the Swedish Department of the Institute for the Languages of Finland . This regulation includes the officially stated aim of keeping Finland Swedish close to

1386-423: The official language has been raised in the past, and the parliament voted on the matter in 2005 but the proposal narrowly failed. The Swedish language also has official status in Finland (including the autonomous region of Åland ), but no officially sanctioned standard actually exists. However, the Institute for the Languages of Finland has the purpose of language planning and dictionary compilation. In Sweden,

1428-518: The relation between Standard Swedish as spoken in Central Sweden, as opposed to Southern Sweden. Finland Swedish Finland Swedish or Fenno-Swedish ( Swedish : finlandssvenska ; Finnish : suomenruotsi ) is a variety of the Swedish language and a closely related group of Swedish dialects spoken in Finland by the Swedish-speaking population , commonly also referred to as Finland Swedes , as their first language . For

1470-568: The requirement to include Swedish in the upper-secondary final examination ("studentexamen") was dropped in 2004. Certified knowledge of Swedish language is still mandatory for government officials, and therefore most University degrees require studies in both oral and written Swedish. Most universities teach Finnish Swedish for this purpose, but some universities, like Tampere University , have opted to teach Standard Swedish ( rikssvenska ), and despite minor differences in vocabulary etc. both are seen as equals for this purpose. Swedish linguists reserve

1512-472: The term "dialect" for rural dialects with roots that can be traced back to Old Swedish. However, among Swedish speakers in general, other regional standards are considered to be "dialects". Although Swedish phonology is theoretically uniform, its phonetic realizations are not. Contrary to the situation in Danish , Finnish or German (with three national standards for Germany, Austria and Switzerland) there

1554-516: The traditional coastal and urban Swedish enclaves. In reaction, Swedish-speaking Finns renewed their cultural and linguistic connections with Sweden and a Högsvenska , based on the current variety spoken by educated mainland Swedes, emerged. However, alienation between the two countries by the lack of tangible support from Sweden during both world wars, the Finnish Civil War , and the Åland crisis gradually led to Högsvenska being seen as

1596-565: The traits of Finland Swedish exist also in monolingual areas and some are in fact preserved features of Old Swedish, as with Scots in comparison with English or Afrikaans in comparison with Dutch . Finland Swedish was a result of Swedish colonisation of Finland during the Northern Crusades in the 12th to 14th centuries. Colonisation focused on the Finnish archipelago and some of its coastal regions. This colonisation led to

1638-422: The two varieties. Nevertheless, there are differences, which generally fall into two categories: words now considered archaic in Sweden, and loanwords and calques from Finnish or independently borrowed from other languages (nowadays mostly English). There are also some terms differing because of differing legislation. Swedish Language Council The Language Council of Sweden ( Swedish : Språkrådet )

1680-540: The use and development of the Swedish language, Q&As about spelling and grammar as well as guidelines for the use of Swedish in various contexts. The Language Council of Sweden has its roots in the attempt to assert control over the official language use among the Nordic countries . The first ideas of a joint Nordic project surfaced in the 1930s and resulted in a Danish organization for Nordic language cultivation being founded in 1941. The idea of an all-Nordic cooperation

1722-510: The written Standard Swedish. The different phonologies, particularly the different realizations of the tonal word accents, have remained more varied. With respect to other aspects of the spoken language, there are developments towards a unification that is not always the effect of standardisation or convergence. For instance, the fricatives in Central Standard Swedish have undergone a change in recent decades toward those of Southern Swedish, than those of Northern Sweden and Finland. The creation of

Standard Swedish - Misplaced Pages Continue

1764-468: Was thwarted by the fact that all Nordic countries with the exception of Sweden were embroiled in the Second World War . On 3 March 1944 a group of 16 organizations held the first constituent assembly for what was then called Nämnden för svensk språkvård ("The Committee for Swedish Language Cultivation"). To counter difficulties in its finances, the council was reorganized in 1973 and assumed

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