This is an accepted version of this page
119-546: The Swedish Academy ( Swedish : Svenska Akademien ), founded in 1786 by King Gustav III , is one of the Royal Academies of Sweden . Its 18 members, who are elected for life, comprise the highest Swedish language authority. Outside Scandinavia, it is best known as the body that chooses the laureates for the annual Nobel Prize in Literature , awarded in memory of the donor Alfred Nobel . The Swedish Academy
238-445: A common gender with the definite suffix -en and the definite article den , in contrast with the neuter gender equivalents -et and det . 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
357-477: A guttural or "French R" pronunciation in the South Swedish dialects ; consequently, these dialects lack retroflex consonants . Swedish is a stress-timed language, where the time intervals between stressed syllables are equal. However, when casually spoken, it tends to be syllable-timed . Any stressed syllable carries one of two tones , which gives Swedish much of its characteristic sound. Prosody
476-430: A 20-kronor note was introduced. All remaining one krona banknotes became invalid after 31 December 1987. All remaining five krona and ten krona banknotes became invalid after 31 December 1998. An exhaustive list of every banknote design since 1874 is not included, but the following five designs were or will be retired in 2016–2017. The oldest design began to be printed in 1985. A 20-kronor banknote (a new denomination)
595-537: A change from tauþr into tuþr . Moreover, the øy diphthong changed into a long, close ø , as in the Old Norse word for "island". By the end of the period, these innovations had affected most of the Runic Swedish-speaking area as well, with the exception of the dialects spoken north and east of Mälardalen where the diphthongs still exist in remote areas. Old Swedish (Swedish: fornsvenska )
714-528: A conversation. Due to the close relation between the Scandinavian languages, a considerable proportion of speakers of Danish and especially Norwegian are able to understand Swedish. 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
833-747: 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 the degree of language proficiency. Similarly, there were 16,915 reported Swedish speakers in Canada from the 2001 census. Although there are no certain numbers, some 40,000 Swedes are estimated to live in the London area in the United Kingdom. Outside Sweden and Finland, there are about 40,000 active learners enrolled in Swedish language courses. In
952-629: A large proportion of the remaining 100,000 in the Scandinavian countries, France, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Canada and Australia. Over three million people speak Swedish as a second language, with about 2,410,000 of those in Finland. According to a survey by the European Commission , 44% of respondents from Finland who did not have Swedish as a native language considered themselves to be proficient enough in Swedish to hold
1071-425: 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 hår et ("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
1190-447: A new portrait of the king in their design. One of the reasons for a new series of coins was to end the use of nickel (for allergy reasons). Vending machines and parking meters have to a fairly high degree stopped accepting coins and accept only bank cards or mobile phone payments . Between 1873 and 1876, coins in denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10, 25, and 50 öre and 1, 2, 10, and 20 kronor were introduced. The 1, 2 and 5 öre were in bronze,
1309-435: 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
SECTION 10
#17327661545801428-401: A portrait of the singer Jenny Lind and on the reverse was a picture of a silver harp and its tonal range. The banknote became invalid after 31 December 2013. A more secure version with the same portrait was printed from 2006 to 2011 and became invalid after 30 June 2016. A 100-kronor banknote (3rd design since 1898) was printed 1986–2000 with a portrait of the botanist Carl Linnaeus and on
1547-417: A reasonable smallest denomination coin was 1 öre. A 10 kr gold coin weighed 4.4803 grams with 900 fineness so that the fine weight was 4.03327 grams or exactly 1/248th of a kilogram. In 1902, production of gold coins ceased, and was briefly restarted in 1920 and 1925 before ceasing entirely. Due to metal shortages during World War I , iron replaced bronze between 1917 and 1919. Nickel-bronze replaced silver in
1666-621: A significant percentage. According to Bank for International Settlements the last year Sweden was surpassed in cash on a per capita basis converted to United States dollars by the US in 1993, the Euro Area in 2003, Australia in 2007, Canada in 2009, United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia in 2013, South Korea in 2014, Russia in 2016, and Mexico in 2019. As of 2019 Sweden was still circulating more cash per person (converted to USD) than Argentina, Brazil, Turkey, India, Indonesia, and South Africa. The tables show
1785-689: 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 Sweden. From the 13th to 20th century, there were Swedish-speaking communities in Estonia , particularly on
1904-442: 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
2023-556: A summer residence by Hammarskjöld, then Secretary-General of the United Nations (1953–1961). The south wing of the farm is reserved as a summer retreat for the 18 members of the Swedish Academy, of which Hammarskjöld was a member. On 11 April 2019, the academy published its financial statements for the first time in its history. According to it, the academy owned financial assets worth 1.58 billion Swedish kronor at
2142-413: A village, Gammalsvenskby ("Old Swedish Village"). A few elderly people in the village still speak a Swedish dialect and observe the holidays of the Swedish calendar, although their dialect is most likely facing extinction. From 1918 to 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
2261-486: Is a legally-enforced method of rounding off change, up or down, to the nearest unit of physical currency, while retaining the öre as pricing and accounting unit. It was required in conjunction with the phaseout of smaller coins, as follows: In 1971 the 2-kronor coin ceased production. In 1972 the sizes of the 5-öre and 5-kronor coins were reduced. In 1991, aluminium-brass (" Nordic gold ") 10-kronor coins were introduced; previous 10-kronor coins are not legal tender. In
2380-495: Is always used after a cardinal number, hence "50 öre", but otherwise the latter is often preferred in contemporary speech). Coins as small as 1 öre were formerly in use, but the last coin smaller than 1 krona was discontinued in 2010. Goods can still be priced in öre , but all sums are rounded to the nearest krona when paying with cash. The word öre is ultimately derived from the Latin word for gold ( aurum ). The introduction of
2499-722: Is co- official language . Swedish was long spoken in parts of Estonia , although the current status of the Estonian Swedish speakers is almost extinct. It is also used in the Swedish diaspora , most notably in Oslo , Norway, with more than 50,000 Swedish residents. Swedish is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic branch of the Germanic languages . In the established classification, it belongs to
SECTION 20
#17327661545802618-605: Is gained from the people and all the major parties. Therefore, the timing is now at the discretion of the Social Democrats . He added, the request of Mona Sahlin , former leader of the Social Democratic Party, for deferral of a new referendum until after the 2010 mandate period should be respected. As of 2014 , support for Swedish membership of the euro among the general population is low. In September 2013, support fell as low as 9%. The only party in
2737-481: 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. Capitalization during this time
2856-538: 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 . Swedish nouns and adjectives are declined in genders as well as number . Nouns are of common gender ( en form) or neuter gender ( ett form). The gender determines
2975-568: Is often one of the most noticeable differences between dialects. The standard word order is, as in most Germanic languages , V2 , which means that the finite verb (V) appears in the second position (2) of a declarative main clause . Swedish morphology is similar to English; that is, words have comparatively few inflections . Swedish has two genders and is generally seen to have two grammatical cases – nominative and genitive (except for pronouns that, as in English, also are inflected in
3094-638: Is 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 for interpretation or translation costs. The Swedish Language Council ( Språkrådet )
3213-407: Is required to join the eurozone and therefore must convert to the euro once the convergence criteria are met. Notwithstanding this, on 14 September 2003, a consultative Swedish referendum was held on the euro, in which 56% of voters were opposed to the adoption of the currency, out of an overall turnout of 82.6%. The Swedish government has argued such a course of action is possible since one of
3332-475: Is termed nusvenska (lit., "Now-Swedish") in linguistics, and started in the last decades of the 19th century. It saw a democratization of the language with a less formal written form that approached the spoken one. The growth of a public school system also led 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
3451-527: Is the predominant language; in 19 municipalities , 16 of which are located in Åland , Swedish is the sole official language. Åland county is an autonomous region of Finland. According to a rough estimation, as of 2010 there were up to 300,000 Swedish-speakers living outside Sweden and Finland. The largest populations were in the United States (up to 100,000), the UK, Spain and Germany (c. 30,000 each) and
3570-455: Is the regulator of Swedish in Sweden 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
3689-407: Is the sole 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 as a whole, Swedish is one of the two "national" languages, with the same official status as Finnish (spoken by the majority) at the state level and an official language in some municipalities . Swedish
Swedish Academy - Misplaced Pages Continue
3808-580: Is the term used for the medieval Swedish language. The start date is usually set to 1225 since this is the year that Västgötalagen ("the Västgöta Law") is believed to have been compiled for the first time. It is among the most important documents of the period written in Latin script and the oldest Swedish law codes . Old Swedish is divided into äldre fornsvenska (1225–1375) and yngre fornsvenska (1375–1526), "older" and "younger" Old Swedish. Important outside influences during this time came with
3927-491: Is to further the "purity, strength, and sublimity of the Swedish language " ( "Svenska Språkets renhet, styrka och höghet ") (Walshe, 1965). The building now known as the Stockholm Stock Exchange Building was built for the bourgeoisie. The bottom floor was used as a trading exchange (this later became the stock exchange), and the upper floor was used for balls, New Year's Eve parties, etc. When
4046-465: 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
4165-679: 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 (particularly Danish) on Norwegian during
4284-467: The French vous (see T-V distinction ). Ni wound up being used as a slightly less familiar form of du , the 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 class distinctions became less important, and du became the standard, even in formal and official contexts. Though
4403-502: The Nobel Prize in Literature , awarded in memory of the donor Alfred Nobel . The Swedish Academy annually awards nearly 50 different prizes and scholarships, most of them for domestic Swedish authors. Common to all is that they are awarded without competition and without application. The Dobloug Prize , the largest of these at $ 40,000, is a literature prize awarded for Swedish and Norwegian fiction. Swedish: Stora Priset, literally
4522-469: The Riksbank in denominations of 1 krona and 5, 10, 50, 100 and 1,000 kronor. The 1 krona was only initially issued for two years, although it reappeared between 1914 and 1920. In 1939 and 1958, 10,000-kronor notes were issued. Production of the 5-kronor note ceased in 1981, although a coin had been issued since 1972. With the introduction of a 10-krona coin in 1991, production of 10-kronor notes ceased and
4641-703: The Riksdag formally decided to enact the law to abolish 50-öre coins as legal tender. Under that law, the final date payments could be made with 50-öre coins was 30 September 2010. Remaining 50-öre coins could be exchanged at banks until the end of March 2011. After the launch of the current coin series in 2016, all the old kronor coins have been invalid since 2017. They cannot be used for payments, nor can they be exchanged for legal tender at any bank, and are instead instructed to be recycled as metal. Jubilee and commemorative coins have been minted, and those since 1897 are also legal tender. In 1874, notes were introduced by
4760-496: The Riksdag that supports Swedish entry in the euro (as of 2015) is the Liberal Party . Sweden is a wealthy country and in the 1970s and 1980s the value of banknotes and coins per capita was one of the highest in the world. In 1991, the largest banknote worth 10,000kr that was in circulation since 1958 was declared invalid and no longer was legal tender. For a discussion of the financial and banking crisis that hit Sweden in
4879-608: The Swedish Economic Crime Authority opened a preliminary investigation regarding financial crime linked to an association run by Arnault and Frostenson, which had received funding from the academy. On 2 May 2018, the Swedish King amended the rules of the academy and made it possible for members to resign. The new rules also state that a member who has been inactive in the work of the academy for more than two years can be asked to resign. Following
Swedish Academy - Misplaced Pages Continue
4998-518: The United States , particularly during the 19th and early 20th centuries, there was a significant Swedish-speaking immigrant population. This was notably true in states like Minnesota , where many Swedish immigrants settled. By 1940, approximately 6% of Minnesota's population spoke Swedish. Although the use of Swedish has significantly declined, it is not uncommon to find older generations and communities that still retain some use and knowledge of
5117-529: The fourth most spoken Germanic language , and the first among its type in the Nordic countries overall. Swedish, like the other Nordic languages , is a descendant of Old Norse , the common language of the Germanic peoples living in Scandinavia during the Viking Age . It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish , although the degree of mutual intelligibility is dependent on
5236-581: The nationalist ideas that emerged during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the languages have separate orthographies , dictionaries, grammars, and regulatory bodies. Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish are thus from a linguistic perspective more accurately described as a dialect continuum of Scandinavian (North Germanic), and some of the dialects, such as those on the border between Norway and Sweden, especially parts of Bohuslän , Dalsland , western Värmland , western Dalarna , Härjedalen , Jämtland , and Scania , could be described as intermediate dialects of
5355-410: The object form) – although it is debated if the genitive in Swedish should be seen as a genitive case or just the nominative plus the so-called genitive s , then seen as a clitic . Swedish has two grammatical numbers – plural and singular . Adjectives have discrete comparative and superlative forms and are also inflected according to gender, number and definiteness . The definiteness of nouns
5474-486: The 1-krona and 5-kronor coins; the new coins arrived in October 2016. The design of the coins follows the theme of singer-songwriter Ted Gärdestad 's song, " Sol, vind och vatten " (English: "Sun, wind and water"), with the designs depicting the elements on the reverse side of the coins. This also included the reintroduction of the 2-kronor coin, while the current 10-kronor coin remained the same. The new coins also have
5593-421: The 10, 25 and 50 öre in 1920, with silver returning in 1927. Metal shortages due to World War II again led to changes in the Swedish coinage. Between 1940 and 1947, the nickel-bronze 10, 25 and 50 öre were again issued. In 1942, iron again replaced bronze (until 1952) and the silver content of the other coins was reduced. In 1962, cupronickel replaced silver in the 10-öre, 25-öre and 50-öre coins. In 1968,
5712-530: The 10, 25, 50 öre and 1 krona and 2 kronor were in silver, and the 10 and 20 kronor were in gold. Gold 5-kronor coins were added in 1881. In 1873 the Scandinavian Monetary Union currency was fixed so that 2,480 kronor purchased 1 kg of gold. In 2017 the price of gold is 365,289 kronor per kg. So one öre in 1873 bought as much gold as 1.47 kronor in 2017. So if it is reasonable to have the smallest denomination coin 1 krona today, in 1873
5831-529: The 10,000-kronor banknotes a new 1,000-kronor banknotes (of the 4th design / without foil strips) was printed from 1989 to 1991 with a portrait of Gustav Vasa and on the reverse a harvest picture from Olaus Magnus 's Description of the Northern Peoples from 1555. Circulation peaked at over 48 million in 2001. On 15 March 2006, the Riksbank introduced a new, more secure 1,000-kronor banknote with
5950-399: The 1950s, when their use was removed from all official recommendations. A very significant change in Swedish occurred in the late 1960s, with the so-called du-reformen . 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
6069-563: The 2-kronor switched to cupronickel and the 1-krona switched to cupronickel-clad copper (it was replaced entirely by cupronickel in 1982). Nonetheless, all previous mintages of the 1-krona (since 1875) and 2-kronor (since 1876) were still legal tender until 2017, though 2-kronor coins were extremely rarely seen in circulation as they have not been issued since 1971. The 2-kronor coins contained 40% silver until 1966, which meant they had been for several years worth much more than face value, so most have been bought and melted down by arbitrageurs , and
SECTION 50
#17327661545806188-485: The 8th century, the common Germanic language of Scandinavia, Proto-Norse , evolved into Old Norse. This language underwent more changes that did not spread to all of Scandinavia, which resulted in the appearance of two similar dialects: Old West Norse (Norway, the Faroe Islands and Iceland) and Old East Norse (Denmark and Sweden). The dialects of Old East Norse spoken in Sweden are called Runic Swedish , while
6307-507: The Great Prize, was instituted by King Gustav III . The prize, which consists of a single gold medal, is the most prestigious award that can be awarded by the Swedish Academy. It has been awarded to, among others, Selma Lagerlöf (1904 and 1909), Herbert Tingsten (1966), Astrid Lindgren (1971), Evert Taube (1972) and Tove Jansson (1994). The academy awards around 50 prizes each year. A person does not have to apply nor compete for
6426-471: The Modern Swedish period were the gradual assimilation of several different consonant clusters into the fricative [ʃ] and later into [ɧ] . There was also the gradual softening of [ɡ] and [k] into [j] and the fricative [ɕ] before front vowels . The velar fricative [ɣ] was also transformed into the corresponding plosive [ɡ] . The period that includes Swedish as it is spoken today
6545-643: The Nazi era, and the association is that Hitler liked his music. The Riksbank replied saying that it is "unfortunate that the choice of design is seen as negative", and stated that it is not going to be changed. Dagens Nyheter journalist Björn Wiman went further in his criticism, condemning the Riksbank for selecting Nilsson at all for the 500-kronor banknote. He brings up an example from Nilsson's 1995 autobiography, where she described Mauritz Rosengarten from Decca using antisemitic jokes about greed. To see where Swedish krona ranks in "most traded currencies", read
6664-453: The Riksbank announced the names of the persons whose portraits would decorate the new series of banknotes that would be introduced in 2015. This would also include a new 200-kronor banknote. These are: On 24 April 2012, the Riksbank announced the base for the new designs of the banknotes, based on Göran Österlund's entry titled Cultural Journey . The first banknotes, the 20, 50, 200, and 1,000 krona, were issued on 1 October 2015 with
6783-417: The Swedish Academy," Arnault was accused by at least 18 women of sexual assault and harassment; he denied all accusations. The three members resigned in protest over the lack of appropriate action against Arnault. Two former permanent secretaries, Sture Allén and Horace Engdahl , called the current leader, Sara Danius , a weak leader. On 10 April, Danius resigned from her position with the academy, bringing
6902-601: The Swedish Language Council, the Swedish Academy (established 1786) is arguably the most influential. Its primary instruments are the spelling dictionary Svenska Akademiens ordlista ( SAOL , currently in its 14th edition) and the dictionary Svenska Akademiens Ordbok , in addition to various books on grammar, spelling and manuals of style. Although the dictionaries have a prescriptive element, they mainly describe current usage. In Finland,
7021-536: The Swedish language, the Academy publishes three dictionaries . The first is a one-volume spelling dictionary called Svenska Akademiens ordlista ( SAOL ), which is in its 14th edition. The second is a multi-volume dictionary (38 volumes so far), edited on principles similar to those of the Oxford English Dictionary , entitled Svenska Akademiens Ordbok ( SAOB ), the first volume of which
7140-568: The academy to resign; membership was for life, although the academy could decide to exclude members. This happened twice to Gustaf Mauritz Armfelt , who was excluded in 1794, re-elected in 1805 and excluded again in 1811. In 1989, Werner Aspenström , Kerstin Ekman and Lars Gyllensten chose to stop participating in the meetings of the academy, over its refusal to express support for Salman Rushdie when Ayatollah Khomeini condemned him to death for The Satanic Verses , and in 2005, Knut Ahnlund made
7259-559: The academy was founded, the ballroom was the biggest room in Stockholm that could be heated and thus used in the winter, so the King asked if he could borrow it. The academy has had its annual meeting there every year since, attended by members of the Swedish royal family. However, it was not until 1914 that the academy gained permanent use of the upper floor as their own. It is here that the academy meets and, amongst other business, announces
SECTION 60
#17327661545807378-502: 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 speakers remain. Swedish dialects have either 17 or 18 vowel phonemes , 9 long and 9 short. As in the other Germanic languages, including English, most long vowels are phonetically paired with one of
7497-454: The article on the Foreign exchange market . The exchange rate of the Swedish krona against other currencies has historically been dependent on the monetary policy pursued by Sweden at the time. Since the Swedish banking rescue , a managed float regimen has been upheld. The weakest the krona has been relative to the euro was 6 March 2009 when one euro bought 11.6465 SEK. The strongest
7616-504: 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
7735-403: The declension of the adjectives . For example, the word fisk ("fish") is a 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
7854-508: The dialect and accent of the speaker. Standard Swedish , spoken by most Swedes , 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 and rural dialects still exist, the written language is uniform and standardized . Swedish is the most widely spoken second language in Finland where its status
7973-541: The dialects of Denmark are referred to as Runic Danish . The dialects are described as "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 had only 16 letters. Because the number of runes was limited, some runes were used for a range of phonemes , such as
8092-412: The dictionaries the Academy has also published a four-volume grammar of the Swedish language ( Svenska Akademiens grammatik , SAG) aimed at researchers, linguists and university students among others, as well as a single-volume counterpart for those requiring something less comprehensive ( Svenska Akademiens språklära , SAS). Since 1901, the Swedish Academy has annually decided who will be the laureate for
8211-408: The early 1990s see the article History of Sweden (1991–present) and Swedish banking rescue . Unlike the United States, which by policy never declares issued money invalid, Sweden and most other European countries have a date when older series of banknotes or older coin designs are invalid and are no longer legal tender. Invalid old banknotes of any age can, however, be deposited in the Riksbank, and
8330-625: The end of 2018 (equal to $ 170M, €150M, or £130M). The Swedish King is the only person who, apart from the members, has the right to attend the meetings of the academy. On 3 March 2022 the Swedish King attended a weekly academy meeting, the first time a Swedish king has done so in over 200 years. In April 2018, three members of the academy board resigned in response to a sexual-misconduct investigation involving photographer and cultural figure Jean-Claude Arnault , husband of board member Katarina Frostenson . The self-proclaimed "nineteenth member of
8449-545: The firm establishment of the Christian 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, Middle Low German became very influential. The Hanseatic league provided Swedish commerce and administration with a large number of Low German -speaking immigrants. Many became quite influential members of Swedish medieval society, and brought terms from their native languages into
8568-430: 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 emerging national language, among them prolific authors like the poet Gustaf Fröding , Nobel laureate Selma Lagerlöf and radical writer and playwright August Strindberg . It
8687-614: The islands (e. g., Hiiumaa , Vormsi , Ruhnu ; in Swedish, known as Dagö , Ormsö , Runö , respectively) along the coast of the Baltic , communities that today have all 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
8806-544: The krona has been relative to the euro was on 13 August 2012 when one euro bought 8.2065 SEK. The weakness in the euro was due to the crisis in Greece which began in July 2012 and fear of further spreading to Italy and Spain. The average exchange rate since the beginning of 2002 when the euro banknote and coins were issued and 1 March 2017 was 9.2884 SEK/EUR. According to the 1994 accession treaty (effective 1 January 1995), Sweden
8925-547: The krona, which replaced the riksdaler at par , was a result of the Scandinavian Monetary Union , which came into effect in 1876 and lasted until the beginning of World War I . The parties to the union were the Scandinavian countries, where the name was krona in Sweden and krone in Denmark and Norway , which in English literally means "crown". The three currencies were on the gold standard , with
9044-488: The krona/krone defined as 1 ⁄ 2480 of a kilogram of pure gold. The mutual equivalence of all three currencies ended in World War I when their convertibility to gold was suspended. While their gold parities remained during most of the interwar period, these currencies were generally quoted at varying market rates. On 11 September 2012, the Riksbank announced a new series of coins with new sizes to replace
9163-484: The language, particularly in rural communities like Lindström and Scandia . Swedish is the official main language of Sweden. Swedish is also one of two official languages of Finland. In 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 until 2009. A bill was proposed in 2005 that would have made Swedish an official language, but failed to pass by
9282-490: The last millennium and divergence from both Faroese and Icelandic. By many general criteria of mutual intelligibility, the Continental Scandinavian languages could very well be considered dialects of a common Scandinavian language. However, because of several hundred years of sometimes quite intense rivalry between Denmark and Sweden, including a long series of wars from the 16th to 18th centuries, and
9401-412: The minority in the Academy, but during the twentieth century the number of writers grew to represent more than half of The Eighteen. The Swedish Academy have a long history of being a heavily male dominated institution, but the Academy has recently moved towards better equality. Since 20 December 2019 one third of the chairs belong to female Academy members. Prior to 2018 it was not possible for members of
9520-467: The monarch is also inscribed on many of the coins. A new 5-kronor coin was designed in 1974, at a time when there were political efforts to abandon the monarchy and the young inexperienced king. The monarchy remained, but the 5-kronor was not given a portrait. Coins minted before 1974 have the same size, but contain the portrait of King Gustav VI Adolf and his royal motto. Cash rounding (Swedish: öresavrundning ), commonly called Swedish rounding ,
9639-450: The most valuable banknotes in the world. The first design featuring the Head of Mercury was printed in 1939 and became invalid after 31 December 1987. The second design was printed 1958 and featured a portrait of Gustav VI Adolf , and became invalid after 31 December 1991. Invalid banknotes can be redeemed via the Riksbank, with an administration fee of 200 kronor. On 6 April 2011,
9758-487: The names of Nobel Prize laureates. This task arguably makes the academy one of the world's most influential literary bodies. Members are elected by a secret ballot in the Academy and before the result is made public it must be submitted to the Academy's Patron, the King of Sweden , for his approval. Members of the Academy include writers, linguists, literary scholars, historians and a prominent jurist. Initially writers were in
9877-523: 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
9996-421: The national standard languages. Swedish pronunciations also vary greatly from one region to another, a legacy of the vast geographic distances and historical isolation. Even so, the vocabulary is standardized to a level that make dialects within Sweden virtually fully mutually intelligible. East Germanic languages West Germanic languages Icelandic Faroese Norwegian Danish Swedish In
10115-518: The new rules, the first members to formally be granted permission to leave the academy and vacate their chairs were Kerstin Ekman , Klas Östergren , Sara Stridsberg and Lotta Lotass . On 4 May 2018, the Swedish Academy announced that following the preceding internal struggles the Nobel laureate for literature selected in 2018 would be postponed until 2019, when two laureates would be selected. In pursuance of its goals of maintaining and strengthening
10234-424: 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
10353-649: The number of empty seats to four. Frostenson voluntarily agreed to withdraw from participating in the academy, bringing the total of withdrawals to five. Because two other seats were still vacant after the Rushdie affair, this left only 11 active members. The scandal was widely seen as damaging to the credibility of the Nobel prize in Literature and the authority of the academy. "With this scandal you cannot possibly say that this group of people has any kind of solid judgment," noted Swedish journalist Björn Wiman. On 27 April 2018,
10472-441: The only acceptable way to begin 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
10591-402: The original Germanic three- gender system. Nouns , adjectives , pronouns and certain numerals were inflected in four cases; besides the extant nominative , there were also the genitive (later possessive ), dative and accusative . The gender system resembled that of modern German , having masculine, feminine and neuter genders. The masculine and feminine genders were later merged into
10710-461: The other two notes, the 100 and 500 krona, to follow on 3 October 2016. Opera singer Malena Ernman has criticized the Riksbank for choosing a design where Birgit Nilsson was depicted performing Die Walküre by Richard Wagner . She pointed out that it was very inappropriate to include something by Wagner, whose works were associated with Nazi Germany , in a time of increasing problems with antisemitism in Sweden . Wagner died long before
10829-693: The prizes. Full list of awards (in Swedish) The current members of the Swedish Academy listed by seat number: 59°19′31″N 18°4′14″E / 59.32528°N 18.07056°E / 59.32528; 18.07056 Swedish language Swedish ( endonym : svenska [ˈsvɛ̂nːska] ) is a North Germanic language from the Indo-European language family , spoken predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland . It has at least 10 million native speakers, making it
10948-428: The referendum, and none have shown any interest in raising the issue again. There was an agreement among the parties not to discuss the issue before the 2010 general election . In a poll from May 2007, 33.3% were in favour, while 53.8% were against and 13.0% were uncertain. In February 2009, Fredrik Reinfeldt , the prime minister of Sweden , stated that a new referendum on the euro issue will not be held until support
11067-480: The reform was not an act of any centralized political decree, but rather the result of sweeping change in social attitudes, it was completed in just a few years, from the late 1960s to early 1970s. The use of ni as a polite form of address is sometimes encountered today in both the written and spoken language, particularly among older speakers. Swedish is the sole official national language of Sweden , and one of two in Finland (alongside Finnish ). As of 2006, it
11186-460: The requirements for eurozone membership is a prior two-year membership of the ERM II . By simply not joining the exchange rate mechanism, the Swedish government is provided a formal loophole avoiding the theoretical requirement of adopting the euro. Some of Sweden's major parties continue to believe it would be in the national interest to join, but all parties have pledged to abide by the results of
11305-433: The rest are kept by collectors . In 1954, 1955 and 1971, 5-kronor silver coins were produced, with designs similar to contemporary 1-krona and 2-kronor coins. In 1972, a new, smaller 5-kronor coin was introduced, struck in cupronickel-clad nickel. The current design has been produced since 1976. 5-kronor coins minted since 1954 are legal tender but tend to be kept by collectors for their silver content. The royal motto of
11424-545: The reverse was a drawing of a bee pollinating a flower. The banknote became invalid after 31 December 2005. A more secure version with the same portrait was introduced in 2001 and became invalid after 30 June 2017. A 500-kronor banknote (a new denomination) in a blue shade was introduced in 1985 with a portrait of King Charles XI and on the reverse an engraving depicts Christopher Polhem , the "father of Swedish engineering". These banknotes became invalid on 31 December 1998. A 500-kronor banknote (red, but without foil strips) with
11543-468: The rune for the vowel u , which was also used for the vowels o , ø and y , and the rune for i , also used for e . From 1200 onwards, the dialects in Denmark began to diverge from those of Sweden. The innovations spread unevenly from Denmark, creating a series of minor dialectal boundaries, or isoglosses , ranging from Zealand in the south to Norrland , Österbotten and northwestern Finland in
11662-399: The same decision, as a protest against the choice of Elfriede Jelinek as Nobel laureate for 2004. On 25 November 2017, Lotta Lotass said in an interview that she had not participated in the meetings of the academy for more than two years and did not consider herself a member any more. Dag Hammarskjöld 's former farm at Backåkra , close to Ystad in southern Sweden, was bought in 1957 as
11781-425: The same portrait and the Riksbank became the first central bank in the world to use the security feature of MOTION (a moving image in the striped band) on the new 1,000-kronor banknote. When the banknote is tilted, the picture in the striped band appears to move. The Vasa banknote without security thread became invalid after 31 December 2013 at which time there was only 10 million in circulation. The Vasa banknotes with
11900-643: The same portrait was printed 1989–2000. This banknote became invalid after 31 December 2005. A more secure version with the same portrait was introduced in 2001 and became invalid after 30 June 2017. The banknote had some controversy in 1985 because of the executions of " Snapphane " guerrilla warriors that King Charles XI ordered. The first two designs of 1,000-kronor banknotes (printed from 1894 to 1950 and 1952–1973) became invalid on 31 December 1987. The third design with portrait of King Charles XIV John and Jöns Jacob Berzelius (printed 1976–1988) and declared invalid on 31 December 1998. In preparation for retirement of
12019-451: The same year bronze-coloured 50-öre coins were introduced. On 18 December 2008, the Riksbank announced a proposal to phase out the 50-öre, the final öre coin, by 2010. The öre would still remain a subdivision unit for electronic payments. The reasons may have included low purchasing power, higher production and distribution cost than the value and the coins cannot be used in most parking machines and vending machines. On 25 March 2009,
12138-408: The security thread became invalid after 30 June 2016 at which time there was under 4 million in circulation. Replacement banknotes featuring Dag Hammarskjöld became valid on 1 October 2015, but were circulated in considerably fewer quantities (less than 3.5 million), thus reducing the supply of cash in Sweden. The 10,000 krona banknote was always printed in small quantities as it was one of
12257-444: The short /e/ (transcribed ⟨ ɛ ⟩ in the chart below). There are 18 consonant phonemes, two of which, / ɧ / and /r/ , vary considerably in pronunciation depending on the dialect and social status of the speaker. In many dialects, sequences of /r/ (pronounced alveolarly) with a dental consonant result in retroflex consonants ; alveolarity of the pronunciation of /r/ is a precondition for this retroflexion. /r/ has
12376-428: The short vowels, and the pairs are such that the two vowels are of similar quality , but with the short vowel being slightly lower and slightly centralized. In contrast to e.g. Danish, which has only tense vowels, the short vowels are slightly more lax, but the tense vs. lax contrast is not nearly as pronounced as in English, German or Dutch. In many dialects, the short vowel sound pronounced [ɛ] or [æ] has merged with
12495-590: The subject in a clause, a trait that is restricted to North Germanic languages: Swedish krona The krona ( Swedish: [ˈkrûːna] ; plural: kronor ; sign : kr ; code : SEK ) is the currency of the Kingdom of Sweden . It is one of the currencies of the European Union . Both the ISO code "SEK" and currency sign "kr" are in common use for the krona; the former precedes or follows
12614-534: The two cases and two genders of modern Swedish. 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 , and "oe" became o . These three were later to evolve into the separate letters ä , å and ö . The first time the new letters were used in print
12733-517: The two natural genders han and hon ("he" and "she"), there are also the two grammatical genders den and det , usually termed common and neuter . In recent years, a gender-neutral pronoun hen has been introduced, particularly in literary Swedish. 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: Swedish also uses third-person possessive reflexive pronouns that refer to
12852-428: The value be sent to a bank account. From the years 2001 to 2008 banknotes and coins were circulated at a near constant level of around 12,000 krona per capita, but in 2006 a modified 1,000-krona banknote with a motion security strip was produced. Within seven years the banknotes without the strip were declared invalid, leaving only a radically reduced number of banknotes with foil valid. The Swish mobile payment system
12971-725: The value of the banknotes and coins per capita for participating countries on Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI). Local currency is converted to US dollars using end of the year rates. The circulation levels in the table above were reported to the Bank for International Settlements . Possible discrepancies with these statistics and other sources may be because some sources exclude "commemorative banknotes and coins" (3.20% of total for Sweden in 2015) and other sources exclude "banknotes and coin held by banks" (2.68% of total for Sweden in 2015) as opposed "banknotes and coin in circulation outside banks". Circulation levels of cash on
13090-457: The value, the latter usually follows it but, especially in the past, it sometimes preceded the value. In English, the currency is sometimes referred to as the Swedish crown , as krona means " crown " in Swedish. The Swedish krona was the ninth-most traded currency in the world by value in April 2016. One krona is subdivided into 100 öre (singular; plural öre or ören , where the former
13209-439: The vocabulary. Besides a great number of loanwords for such areas as warfare, trade and administration, general grammatical suffixes and even conjunctions were imported. The League also brought a certain measure of influence from Danish (at the time Swedish and Danish were much more similar than today). Early Old Swedish was markedly different from the modern language in that it had a more complex case structure and also retained
13328-484: Was during the 20th century that a common, standardized national language became available to all Swedes. The orthography finally stabilized and became almost completely uniform, with 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 of today. The plural verb forms appeared decreasingly in formal writing into
13447-417: Was established in Sweden in 2012 and become a popular alternative to cash payments. The Vasa 1,000-krona banknote without the foil strip became invalid after 31 December 2013, and the pieces with the foil strip are invalid after 30 June 2016. Although many countries are performing larger and larger share of transactions by electronic means, Sweden is unique in that it is also reducing its cash in circulation by
13566-631: Was founded in 1786 by King Gustav III . Modelled after the Académie française , it has 18 members. It is said that Gustaf III originally intended there to be twenty members, half the number of those in the French Academy, but eventually decided on eighteen because the Swedish expression De Aderton – 'The Eighteen' – had such a fine solemn ring. The academy's motto is "Talent and Taste" ( "Snille och Smak" in Swedish). The academy's primary purpose
13685-656: Was in Aff dyäffwlsens frästilse ("By the Devil's temptation") published by Johan Gerson in 1495. 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
13804-523: 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 that 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
13923-423: Was printed 1991–1995 with a portrait of the writer Selma Lagerlöf and on the reverse was an engraved interpretation of a passage from the book The Wonderful Adventures of Nils . The banknote became invalid after 31 December 2005. A more secure version with the same portrait was printed from 1997 to 2008 and became invalid after 30 June 2016. A 50-kronor banknote (3rd design since 1896) was printed 1996–2003 with
14042-488: Was published in 1893 and the last one in 2023. The third is a two-volume dictionary edited at Gothenburg University and titled Svensk ordbok utgiven av Svenska Akademien ('Swedish dictionary published by the Swedish Academy'); it covers modern Swedish and includes pronunciations, etymologies etc, as well as definitions and some examples. In addition to printed publications, all three dictionaries are also available to access free of charge online at svenska.se . In addition to
14161-537: Was the sole native language of 83% of Swedish residents. In 2007, around 5.5% (c. 290,000) of the population of Finland were native speakers of Swedish, partially due to a decline following the Russian annexation of Finland after the Finnish War 1808–1809. The Fenno-Swedish - speaking minority is concentrated in the coastal areas and archipelagos of southern and western Finland. In some of these areas, Swedish
#579420