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167-453: Vaasa ( Finnish: [ˈʋɑːsɑ] ; Swedish : Vasa , Finland Swedish: [ˈvɑːsɑ] , Sweden Swedish: [ˈvɑ̂ːsa] ), in the years 1855–1917 known as Nikolainkaupunki , ( Swedish : Nikolajstad ; lit. ' city of Nicholas ' ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Ostrobothnia . It is located on the west coast of
334-445: 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
501-477: 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
668-448: A Swedish noblewoman. He was crowned as Eric XIV, but was not necessarily the 14th king of Sweden named Eric. He and his brother Charles IX (1604–11) adopted regnal numbers according to Johannes Magnus 's partly fictitious history of Sweden. There had, however, been at least six earlier Swedish kings with the name of Eric, as well as pretenders about whom very little is known. In domestic politics, Eric's ambitions were strongly opposed by
835-537: 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 )
1002-528: 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
1169-620: A diplomatic mission, in an attempt to solve the conflict by negotiations. Charles at first looked ready to negotiate but in fact he was playing for time, trying to confirm his power at another Riksdag (in Arboga), recruiting peasants for his army, and isolating Sigismund's followers. In 1598, the Sejm gave Sigismund the go-ahead to wage a military campaign against his opponents in Sweden; however it refused to give him significant support. Sigismund's army
1336-462: A full-out war against them, despite potential lure of territorial gains in Silesia . He realized that such a move would cause much unrest in a heavily Catholic Commonwealth, that he likely lacked the authority and power to push such a change of policy through the Sejm, and that the resulting conflict would be very difficult. From 1636 onward, for the next few years, Władysław strengthened his ties with
1503-418: A general, Gustavus Adolphus is famous for employing mobile artillery on the battlefield, as well as very aggressive tactics, where attack was stressed over defense, and mobility and cavalry initiative were emphasized. Christina was the only surviving legitimate child of King Gustav II Adolph and his wife Maria Eleonora of Brandenburg . At the age of six she succeeded her father on the throne upon his death at
1670-491: A great-grandchild of Gustav IV Adolf of the house Holstein-Gottorp. John III of Sweden married Catherine Jagellonka , the sister of Sigismund II Augustus of Poland . When Sigismund II of Poland died without issue, the son of John III of Sweden and Catherine Jagellonka was elected King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania as Sigismund III in 1587. On John's death, Sigismund also gained the Swedish throne. However, Sigismund
1837-692: 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
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#17327651467402004-629: 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
2171-716: A leader of the theatrical and musical life and protected many Baroque artists, composers, and musicians. In 1654 Christina, the daughter of Gustavus Adolphus, the Protestant Champion of the Thirty Years' War , abdicated, converted to Catholicism and left the country. The throne passed to her half-cousin Charles X of the House of Palatinate-Zweibrücken , a cadet branch of the Wittelsbachs . The kings of
2338-522: A migrant background living in Vaasa, or 12.4% of the population. The number of residents who were born abroad was 8,564, or 12.4% of the population. The number of persons with foreign citizenship living in Vaasa was 5,886. Most foreign-born citizens came from the Sweden , former Soviet Union , Vietnam and Iraq . The relative share of immigrants in Vaasa's population is above the national average. Moreover,
2505-845: A military alliance with Sweden. In response to this alliance, the Polish king Sigismund III decided to intervene officially and to declare war upon Russia , aiming to weaken Sweden's ally and to gain territorial concessions. Hetman of the Crown Stanisław Żółkiewski held a triumphal entry by the Kraków suburb of the Royal Palace, leading with him the prisoners: the Russian tsar Wasyl IV Szujski, his brothers: Dimitri Szujski with his wife - Grand Duchess Ekaterina Grigoryevna, daughter Grigory Malyuta Skuratov and Ivan Shuysky Mikhail Shein, and Filaret,
2672-425: 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
2839-435: 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
3006-707: A part of the preliminary religious strife before the Thirty Years' War, and reigned as regent before taking the throne as Charles IX of Sweden in 1604. Crown Prince Gustav Adolph had Gagnef-Floda in Dalecarlia as a duchy from 1610. Upon his father's death in October 1611, a sixteen-year-old Gustavus inherited the throne (declared of age and able to reign himself at seventeen as of 16 December), as well as an ongoing succession of occasionally belligerent dynastic disputes with his Polish cousin. Sigismund III wanted to regain
3173-433: A result, the Swedish language maintains a strong position in the city, making it the most significant cultural center for Swedish-Finns . Vaasa is also home to Tropiclandia Water Park, located on Vaskiluoto Island adjacent to a local spa hotel . The now disassembled Wasalandia Amusement Park , which ceased operations in 2015 due to a small number of visitors, was located in the immediate vicinity of Tropiclandia. Over
3340-401: A seasonal delay of spring and summer at the same time that autumn and winter are affected late. The average annual temperature is 4.7 °C (normal from 1991 to 2020). The low Ostrobothnia usually receives little snow but the contact of cold air with warmer and humid air can generate heavy snowfall. Early summer (as well as spring) tends to be drier and the wettest month does not coincide with
3507-636: 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
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#17327651467403674-450: A strong Kalmar Union dominated by Denmark, took advantage of the situation and put pressure on the rebels. The city wanted privileges on future trade as well as guarantees regarding the loans they had granted the rebels. The Privy Council and Gustav Eriksson knew the support from Lübeck was absolutely crucial. As a response, the council decided to appoint Gustav Eriksson king. The ceremonial election of Gustav as king of Sweden took place when
3841-442: 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
4008-409: A victorious White soldier, was erected in the town square. The language conditions in the city shifted in the 1930s, and the majority became Finnish-speaking. Therefore, the primary name also changed from "Vasa" to "Vaasa", according to Finnish spelling. Post-war, Vaasa was industrialized, led by the electronics manufacturer Strömberg , later merged into ABB . In 2013 the municipality of Vähäkyrö
4175-413: 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
4342-624: 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 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
4509-439: Is a university ( University of Vaasa ), faculties of Åbo Akademi and Hanken , and two universities of applied sciences in the town. Many workers commute from Korsholm , Laihia , and other municipalities nearby. The Vaskiluoto power stations complex is situated on the island of Vaskiluoto , supplying electricity to the national grid as well as district heat to the city. The multi-use cargo and passenger Port of Vaasa
4676-482: Is also a relatively short distance from Sweden to Vaasa. The tourist route called Blue Highway also runs from the port of Vaasa and through the city. In 1962–1964, other Finnish cities introduced regional speed limits of 50 km/h, but in Vaasa the limit was 60 km/h for a long time. Vaasa Airport is located about nine kilometers southeast of the city center. Finnair and Scandinavian Airlines operate from Vaasa Airport, but Norwegian Air Shuttle terminated
4843-590: Is also the only Swedish monarch to be styled "the Great". This decision was made by the Swedish Estates of the Realm, when they convened in 1633. Thus, by their decision he is officially, to this day, to be called Gustaf Adolf the Great ( Gustavus Adolphus Magnus ). Gustavus Adolphus was the main figure responsible for the success of Swedish arms during the Thirty Years' War and led his nation to great prestige. As
5010-892: 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 (particularly Danish) on Norwegian during
5177-481: 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
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5344-952: Is located in Vaskiluoto, connecting Vaasa with Umeå , Sweden, and destinations further afield. The film production company Future Film has its head office in Vaasa. Kotipizza has its head office in the Vaskiluodon Satamaterminaali . Main roads, including highway 3 ( E12 ) and highway 8 ( E8 ), connect Vaasa to Helsinki , Tampere , Oulu , Pori , Jyväskylä , Kokkola and Seinäjoki . There are 419 kilometres (260 mi) from Helsinki to Vaasa, 330 kilometres (210 mi) from Turku , 244 kilometres (152 mi) from Tampere, 319 kilometres (198 mi) from Oulu, 121 kilometres (75 mi) from Kokkola, 99 kilometres (62 mi) from Jakobstad , 193 kilometres (120 mi) from Pori, 83 kilometres (52 mi) from Lapua and 78 kilometres (48 mi) from Seinäjoki. It
5511-538: 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
5678-568: 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
5845-638: 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 )
6012-402: Is renowned as a significant university and college city in Finland. Vaasa is a bilingual municipality with Finnish and Swedish as its official languages. The population consists of 65% Finnish speakers, 23% Swedish speakers, and 12% speakers of other languages. The municipalities surrounding Ostrobothnia, such as Korsholm and Malax , have a clear majority of Swedish speakers . As
6179-475: 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
6346-527: 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
6513-455: 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
6680-407: 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
6847-631: 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
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7014-465: 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
7181-818: The Battle of Lützen in 1632. His early death was a great loss to the Lutheran side. This resulted in large parts of Germany and other countries, which had been conquered for Lutheranism, to be reconquered for Catholicism (via the Counter-Reformation). His involvement in the Thirty Years' War gave rise to the saying that he was the incarnation of "the Lion of the North", or as it is put in German "der Löwe von Mitternacht". Gustav II Adolf's success in making Sweden one of
7348-431: The Battle of Lützen , and began ruling when she reached the age of 18. Christina is remembered as one of the most educated women of the 1600s. She was fond of paintings, books, manuscripts, and sculptures. With her interest in religion, philosophy, mathematics and alchemy, she attracted many scientists to Stockholm , wanting the city to become the " Athens of the North". She was intelligent, fickle and moody; she rejected
7515-591: The Battle of Stångebro , (also known as the battle of Linköping ). Sigismund was captured and forced to hand over some of his followers such as the Chancellor of Sweden, Erik Larsson Sparre, (1550–1600). In May 1599, Charles' forces captured the last fortress held by Sigismund, Kalmar. On July 24, 1599, the Riksdag in Stockholm officially dethroned Sigismund. The new King of Sweden was Charles IX of Sweden, and
7682-590: The Falander – Wasastjerna patrician house (built in 1780–1781) which now houses the Old Vaasa Museum. The Court of Appeal (built in 1775, nowadays the Church of Korsholm ), some Russian guard-houses along with a gunpowder storage and the buildings of the Vaasa provincial hospital (nowadays a psychiatric hospital) also survived the blaze. The ruins of the greystone church, the belfry , the town hall and
7849-467: 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
8016-591: The Hanken School of Economics headquartered in Helsinki . Unique to Vaasa is the Finland-Swedish teachers training school Vasa övningsskola , part of Åbo Akademi. The University of Helsinki also has a small unit, specialized in law studies, in the city centre. The city has two universities of applied sciences: Vaasa University of Applied Sciences (former Vaasa Polytechnic) , located right next to
8183-727: The Polish–Swedish union was dissolved after barely seven years of existence. In March 1600, some of Sigismund's supporters were executed, including five senators in an event known as the Linköping Bloodbath . The Polish–Muscovite War or the Polish–Russian War (1605–1618), in Poland known as the Dimitriads , took place in the early 17th century as a sequence of military conflicts and eastward invasions carried out by
8350-506: The Royal House of Vasa . Thanks to the sea connections, ship building and trade, especially tar trade, Vaasa flourished in the 17th century and most of the inhabitants earned their living from it. In 1683, the three-subject or Trivial school moved from Nykarleby to Vaasa, and four years later a new schoolhouse was built in Vaasa. The first library in Finland was founded in Vaasa in 1794. In 1793, Vaasa had 2,178 inhabitants, and in
8517-471: The Russian Empire . The mainly wooden and densely built town was almost utterly destroyed in 1852. A fire started in a barn belonging to district court judge J. F. Aurén on the morning of 3 August. At noon the whole town was ablaze and the fire lasted for many hours. By evening, most of the town had burned to the ground. Out of 379 buildings only 24 privately owned buildings had survived, among them
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#17327651467408684-607: The Scandinavian Seven Years' War , but rejected the resulting Treaties of Roskilde (1568) where his envoys had accepted far-reaching Danish demands. After two more years of fighting, this war was concluded without many Swedish concessions in the Treaty of Stettin (1570) . During the following years he defeated Russia in the Livonian War , and regained Narva by the Treaty of Plussa in 1583. His foreign policy
8851-807: The Smolensk War against Muscovy (1633). In 1648 John Casimir was elected by the Polish Parliament to succeed his half-brother on the Polish throne. The reign of the last of the Vasas in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth would be dominated by the Russo-Polish War (1654–67), followed by the war with Sweden (" The Deluge "), the scene for which had been set by the Commonwealth's two previous Vasa kings. Most of Poland
9018-565: The Swedish nobility , including his half-brother, the later John III of Sweden (1537–92). John was the Duke of Finland and was married to a Polish princess , which made him friendly with Poland. John pursued an expansionist policy in Livonia (now Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) which led to contention between the brothers. In 1563, John was seized and tried for high treason by Eric's order. In
9185-827: The Tsar Nicholas II was overthrown in 1917. During the Finnish Civil War , Vaasa was the capital of Finland from 29 January to 3 May 1918. As a consequence of the occupation of central places and arresting of politicians in Helsinki the Senate decided to move the senators to Vaasa, where the White Guards that supported the Senate had a strong position and the contacts to the West were good. The Senate of Finland began its work in Vaasa on 1 February 1918, and it had four members. The Senate held its sessions in
9352-518: 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
9519-585: The Viking Age . It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish , although the degree of mutual intelligibility is dependent on 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,
9686-419: The great powers of Europe, and perhaps the most important power in the Thirty Years' War after France and Spain, was due not only to his military brilliance, but also to important institutional reforms in Sweden's government. The chief among these reforms was the institution of the first Parish registrations, so that the central government could more efficiently tax and conscript its populace. Gustavus Adolphus
9853-399: The house of Holstein-Gottorp , which produced the kings of Sweden from 1751 to 1818, emphasized their Vasa descent through a female line. The current ruling house of Bernadotte similarly claims a Vasa mantle: Charles XIV was an adopted son of Charles XIII ; his son Oscar I married a Vasa descendant Josephine of Leuchtenberg ; their grandson Gustav V married Victoria of Baden who was
10020-581: 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
10187-410: 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
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#173276514674010354-411: The 1,700 Russian troops who were led by generalmajor Nikolay Demidov. The Battle of Vaasa started with the Swedish force disembarking north of Vaasa in Österhankmo and advancing all the way to the city where they attacked with 1,100 troops, as some had to be left behind to secure the flank. There was heavy fighting in the streets and in the end the Swedish forces were repelled and forced to retreat back
10521-430: The 1370s the building of the fortress at Korsholm , Crysseborgh, was undertaken, and served as an administrative centre of the Vasa County . King Charles IX of Sweden founded the town of Mustasaari/Mussor on 2 October 1606, around the oldest harbour and trade point around the Korsholm church approximately seven kilometres (4.3 miles) to the southeast from the present city. In 1611, the town was chartered and renamed after
10688-491: The 14th most populous municipality in Finland. The Vaasa region has a population of 111,382. In Vaasa, 12.4% of the population has a foreign background, which is above the national average. Population by mother tongue (2023) The city of Vaasa is officially bilingual , with both Finnish and Swedish as official languages. The majority of the population - 44,621 people or 64.7% - speak Finnish as their first language. There are 16,017 Swedish speakers in Vaasa, or 23.2% of
10855-399: 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
11022-422: 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
11189-437: The Commonwealth's next king was reached on 8 November, but as the pacta conventa were not yet ready, the official announcement was delayed until 13 November. In the pacta conventa , Władysław pledged himself to fund a military school and equipment; to find a way to fund a naval fleet; to maintain current alliances; not to raise armies, give offices or military ranks to foreigners, negotiate peace treaties or declare war without
11356-428: The Commonwealth. His first plan was an attempt to secure a hereditary province within the country, which would not be threatened by the possible power shift following a future royal election; this, however, did not gain sufficient support in the Sejm. Władysław used the title of the King of Sweden although he had no control over Sweden and never set foot in that country. John Casimir for most of his life remained in
11523-498: The Danes for as long as the negotiations lasted. However, Christian did not show up for the negotiations, violated the deal with the Swedish side, and took the hostages to Copenhagen . The six hostages were Hemming Gadh , Lars Siggesson (Sparre), Jöran Siggesson (Sparre), Olof Ryning, Bengt Nilsson (Färla) – and Gustav Eriksson. The election of Gustav Eriksson as a regent made many Swedish nobles , who had so far stayed loyal to King Christian, switch sides. Some noblemen, still loyal to
11690-483: The Habsburgs. In the meantime, Władysław still tried to take a leading role in European politics, and negotiate a peaceful settlement to the Thirty Years' War , a settlement which he hoped would ease his way into regaining the Swedish crown . Following the armistice of Stuhmsdorf, Władysław came to increasingly realize that his prospects for regaining the Swedish throne were dim. In the years 1636–1638 he proposed several reforms to strengthen his and his dynasty's power in
11857-408: The Hanseatic city joined the war against Denmark. The winter of 1523 saw their joint forces attack the Danish and Norwegian areas of Scania , Halland, Blekinge, and Bohuslän. During this winter, Christian II was overthrown and replaced by Frederick I. The new king openly claimed the Swedish throne and had hopes Lübeck would abandon the Swedish rebels. The German city, preferring an independent Sweden to
12024-503: The House of Vasa becoming rulers of Poland. Their Catholic son Sigismund III Vasa , then ruler of a short-lived Polish–Swedish union , was usurped in 1599 by John's Protestant brother King Charles IX of Sweden in the War against Sigismund . The dynasty was then split into a Protestant Swedish branch and a Catholic Polish one, which contended for crowns in subsequent wars. The involvement of
12191-576: The Lübeck representatives on the other. After the hymn " Te Deum ", Andreae proclaimed Gustav Eriksson king of Sweden. He was, however, still not crowned. In 1983, in remembrance of the election of Gustav as Swedish king on 6 June, that date was declared the National Day of Sweden . Eric XIV was born at Tre Kronor on 13 December 1533. Before the age of two, he lost his mother. In 1536, his father, Gustav Vasa, married Margaret Leijonhufvud (1516–51),
12358-471: 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
12525-533: The Polish Commonwealth in 1589. King Sigismund also tried to maintain peace with his powerful neighbor by marrying Archduchess Anna of Austria in 1592. It was always his intention to be allied with Catholic Austria against the Protestant forces that were tearing Christendom apart. After the death of John III of Sweden , his son Sigismund succeeded to the throne of Sweden. Sigismund at that time
12692-503: The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was not formally at war with Russia until 1609, and various Russian factions fought amongst themselves, allied with the Commonwealth and other countries or fighting against them. Sweden also participated in the conflict during the course of the Ingrian War (1610–1617), sometimes allying itself with Russia, and other times fighting against it. The aims of the various factions changed frequently as well as
12859-581: The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and returned to France, where he joined the Jesuits and became abbot of Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés in Paris . Following his abdication Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki (Michael I) was elected the new king and was crowned on September 29, 1669. Before his death John Casimir intended to return to Poland, however shortly before the journey in Autumn 1672 he fell dangerously ill to
13026-476: The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, or the private armies and mercenaries led by the magnates (the Commonwealth aristocracy), when the Russian Tsardom was torn by a series of civil wars, the time most commonly referred to in the Russian history as the " Time of Troubles ", sparked by the Russian dynastic crisis and overall internal chaos. The sides and their goals changed several times during this conflict:
13193-738: The Protestants in Sweden and landed in Poland on 7 October. He immediately agreed to give up several royal privileges to the Sejm (parliament) of the Commonwealth in the hope of winning over some of his enemies and settling the disputed election. Lesser Prussian Treasurer Jan Dulski proclaimed him king on behalf of the Crown Marshal Andrzej Opaliński . On 27 December, he was crowned in Wawel Cathedral in Kraków . It seemed that
13360-414: The Russian forces returned and on the next day the decisive Battle of Oravais , which was won by Russia, was fought some 50 kilometres (30 mi) further north. By winter 1808, the Russian forces had overrun all of Finland, and in the Treaty of Fredrikshamn (17 September 1809) Sweden lost the whole eastern part of its realm. Vaasa would now become a part of the newly formed Grand Duchy of Finland within
13527-616: The Sejm's approval; not to take a wife without the Senate's approval; to convince his brothers to take an oath to the Commonwealth; and to transfer the profits from the Royal Mint to the Royal Treasury rather than to a private treasury. When the election result had been announced by the Crown Grand Marshal, Łukasz Opaliński , the nobility ( szlachta ), who had taken part in the election, began festivities in honor of
13694-454: The Swedes, Goths and Wends"; after his father died in 1592, he added "hereditary king of the Swedes, Goths, and Vandals". However, as was often the case with the Polish electoral monarchy, the outcome was strongly contested by the "losers" and a faction of the Polish nobility backed Maximilian III, Archduke of Austria . Upon hearing of his election King Sigismund slipped through the clutches of
13861-695: The Swedish Intervention in the Thirty Years' War. Gustavus intervened on the anti-Imperial side, which at the time was losing to the Holy Roman Empire and its Catholic allies; the Swedish forces would quickly reverse that situation. Gustavus was married to Maria Eleonora of Brandenburg , the daughter of John Sigismund , Elector of Brandenburg, and chose the Prussian city of Elbing as the base for his operations in Germany. He died in
14028-601: 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,
14195-579: The Swedish throne and pursued his own political agenda. The new Riksdag he summoned at Arboga in 1597 – again despite the King's orders – saw few participants, and only one from the Privy Council. Even so, Duke Charles did not achieve support for his military action, but initiated it nonetheless. Parts of southern Sweden were successfully taken. Several of the Privy Council members fled to Poland to convince Sigismund to take counteractions. Sigismund sent
14362-585: The Town Hall. To express its gratitude to the town the Senate gave Vaasa the right to add the Cross of Freedom, independent Finland's oldest mark of honour designed by Akseli Gallen-Kallela , to its coat of arms , to the town's coat of arms. The coat of arms is unusual not only in this respect, but also because of its non-standard shape and a crown are included. Because of its role in the civil war, Vaasa became known as "The White City". A Statue of Freedom, depicting
14529-642: The University of Vaasa, and Novia University of Applied Sciences (former Swedish University of Applied Sciences). City has about 13,000 university students and about 4,000 vocational school students. As of 2006, Vaasa has town twinning treaties or treaties of cooperation signed with the following ten cities: ^1 Godfather Town ^2 Twin Town ^3 Cooperation Treaty ^4 Sister City Swedish language Swedish ( endonym : svenska [ˈsvɛ̂nːska] )
14696-615: The Vaasa–Helsinki route on 10 January 2020. There is scheduled traffic from Vaasa Airport to Helsinki (flight time 45 min) and Stockholm (flight time 1 h 5 min). Vaasa has three universities. The largest one is the University of Vaasa , which is located in the neighbourhood of Palosaari. Palosaari is a peninsula near the center of Vaasa, connected to it by bridges. The other two universities are Åbo Akademi , headquartered in Turku , and
14863-502: 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
15030-581: The boyar's request to send prince Władysław to Moscow and his conversion to Orthodoxy. Instead, Sigismund proposed that he should reign as a regent in Muscovy instead. This unrealistic proposal led to a resumption of hostilities. Briefly, beginning in 1610, Władysław struck Muscovite silver and gold coins (Kopek) in the Russian mints in Moscow and Novgorod with his titulary Tsar and Grand Prince Vladislav Zigimontovych of all Russia . Władysław tried to regain
15197-403: The city of Riga in modern-day Latvia . John Casimir had married his brother's widow, Marie Louise Gonzaga (Polish: Maria Ludwika ), who was a major support to the King. Marie Louise suddenly died in 1667 and this may have caused the monarch's early political decline. On 16 September 1668, grief-stricken after the death of his wife in the previous year, John II Casimir abdicated the throne of
15364-575: The city's new residents are increasingly of foreign origin. This will increase the proportion of foreign residents in the coming years. In 2023, the Evangelical Lutheran Church was the largest religious group with 65.0% of the population of Vaasa. Other religious groups accounted for 2.4% of the population. 32.6% of the population had no religious affiliation. Vaasa is generally speaking an industrial town, with several industrial parks. Industry comprises one-fourth of jobs. There
15531-504: 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
15698-516: The country, on the Gulf of Bothnia . The population of Vaasa is approximately 70,000, while the sub-region has a population of approximately 111,000. It is the 14th most populous municipality in Finland, and the tenth most populous urban area in the country. Vaasa was granted its charter in 1606, during the reign of Charles IX of Sweden , and is named after the Royal House of Vasa . The city
15865-572: The death of King John II Casimir of Poland in 1672. The Vasa dynasty descended from a fourteenth century Swedish noble family, tracing agnatic kinship to Nils Kettilsson (Vasa) (died 1378), fogde of Tre Kronor Castle in Stockholm . Several members held high offices during the 15th century. In 1523, after the Stockholm bloodbath and the abolition of the Kalmar Union , Gustav Eriksson (Vasa) became King Gustav I of Sweden and
16032-403: 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
16199-541: 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
16366-416: The fact that he and his forces had to oppose superior generals (e.g. Jan Karol Chodkiewicz and Christian IV of Denmark) and partly to sheer ill-luck. Compared with his foreign policy, the domestic policy of Charles IX was comparatively unimportant. It aimed at confirming and supplementing what had already been done during his regency. He did not officially become king until 22 March 1604. The first deed in which
16533-413: The fall of 1568, the dukes and the nobles rebelled, and Eric was dethroned. He was then imprisoned by Duke John, who took power. Eric's most trusted counsellor, Jöran Persson (1530–68), took much of the blame for the actions directed against the nobility during Eric XIV's reign and was executed shortly after John III ascended to the throne. John further initiated peace talks with Denmark and Lübeck to end
16700-535: The famous Protestant general and King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden in the Thirty Years' War gave rise to the saying that he was the incarnation of "the Lion of the North" ( German : Der Löwe von Mitternacht ). Yet, notably, his daughter and heiress Queen Christina of Sweden (1632–1654) abdicated in 1654 after converting to Catholicism, and emigrated to Rome , where she was hosted by the Papacy . In Poland, John II Casimir of Poland abdicated in 1668. With his death,
16867-624: The fire of Vilnius, an event which even required the royal family to evacuate their residence in the Vilnius Castle . Later that year, Władysław, aged 15, was elected Tsar by Muscovy's aristocracy council of Seven boyars , who overthrew tsar Vasily Shuysky during the Polish-Muscovite War and Muscovy's Time of Troubles. His election was ruined by his father, Sigismund, who aimed to convert Muscovy's population from Orthodox religion to Catholicism. Sigismund refused to agree to
17034-545: 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
17201-479: The following ceremony, led by the deacon of Strängnäs, Laurentius Andreae , Gustav swore the royal oath. The next day, bishops and priests joined Gustav in Roggeborgen where Andreae raised the holy sacrament above a kneeling Gustav Eriksson. Flanked by the councilors of Lübeck, Gustav Eriksson was brought to Strängnäs Cathedral where the king sat down in the choir with the Swedish privy councilors on one side, and
17368-463: The ground, mostly by the retreating enemy units. Although the reign of John Casimir is remembered to be one of the most disastrous and perhaps most unsuccessful in the history of Poland and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, he is often referred to as the "warrior king" that fought bravely to save his nation and his people. In 1660 John II Casimir was forced to renounce his claim to the Swedish throne and acknowledge Swedish sovereignty over Livonia and
17535-430: 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
17702-551: 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
17869-528: The issue of who would be King of Poland had been settled when Maximilian III invaded at the head of his army to claim his crown. The hostilities did not last long as Hetman Jan Zamoyski at the head of a Polish army loyal to King Sigismund met and successfully defeated the Austrian troops at the Battle of Byczyna and took Maximilian III as prisoner of war. However, at the request of Pope Sixtus V , King Sigismund III released Maximilian who surrendered his claim to
18036-482: The king, chose to leave Sweden, while others were killed. As a result, the Swedish Privy Council lost old members who were replaced by supporters of Gustav Eriksson. Most fortified cities and castles were conquered by Gustav's rebels, but the strongholds with the best defenses, including Stockholm, were still under Danish control. In 1522, after negotiations between Gustav Eriksson's faction and Lübeck ,
18203-484: 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
18370-490: 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
18537-499: The latitude, similar to the south of Alaska , where continentality, proximity to the poles and moderation intersect. The Föhn wind , for example, passes over the Scandinavian Mountains and leaves a milder and drier weather in the lee of the mountains where Vaasa is found, affecting especially in the winter which explains sunny days even in the season of short solar duration. The location of some sea distance gives
18704-536: The leading men of Sweden met in Strängnäs in June 1523. When the councilors of Sweden had chosen Gustav as king, he met with the two visiting councilors of Lübeck. The German representatives supported the appointment without hesitation and declared it an act of God. Gustav stated he had to bow to what was described as the will of God. In a meeting with the Privy Council, Gustav Eriksson announced his decision to accept. In
18871-468: The limits of royal power in Poland, as major factors for the failure included significant autonomy of the military commanders, which did not see Władysław as their superior, and lack of funds for the army, as the Polish parliament (sejm) refused to subsidize the war. The election sejm of 1632 eventually concluded in the election of Władysław; he had no serious other contenders. The decision on who would be
19038-442: The manor house of the father, Erik. The newborn got his name, Gustav, from Erik's grandfather Gustav Anundsson. Since the end of the 14th century, Sweden had been a part of the Kalmar Union with Denmark and Norway . The Danish dominance in this union occasionally led to uprisings in Sweden. During Gustav's childhood, parts of the Swedish nobility has tried to make Sweden independent from the union. Gustav and his father Erik supported
19205-523: 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
19372-421: 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
19539-765: The new king, which lasted three hours. Władysław was crowned in the Wawel Cathedral, in Kraków on 6 February in the following year. Władysław IV owed nominal allegiance to the Imperial Habsburgs as a member of the Order of the Golden Fleece . His relationship with the Habsburgs was relatively strong; although he was not above carrying some negotiations with their enemies, like France, he refused Cardinal Richelieu 's 1635 proposal of an alliance and
19706-602: The news of the fall of Kamieniec Podolski , which was seized by the Ottomans. He then turned to Pope Clement X to ask for assistance for the Commonwealth in a defensive war against the Turks. The French, who were secretly in contact with him during his stay in the abbey, were astonished by such a great affection of the king to remember the loss of his kingdom, and so concerned about the loss of only one city. Nevertheless, distressed and seriously ill John II Casimir died shortly after
19873-553: The non-canonical Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia. After early Commonwealth victories ( Battle of Klushino ), which culminated in Polish forces entering Moscow in 1610, Sigismund's son, Prince Władysław of Poland , was briefly elected tsar. With the intensification of the Polish intervention in Muscovy , in 1609, the royal family moved to their residence in Vilnius , capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. There he witnessed
20040-424: 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
20207-478: The northwest from the old town. The town's coastal location offered good conditions for seafaring. The town plan was planned by Carl Axel Setterberg in the Empire style . In the master plan the disastrous consequences of the fire were considered. Main streets in the new town were five broad avenues which divided the town into sections. Each block was divided by alleys. The town was promptly renamed Vasa (Vaasa) after
20374-474: The official consent of the Polish king Sigismund III Vasa , attempted to exploit Russia's weakness and intervene in its civil war by supporting the impostors for the tsardom, False Dmitriy I and later False Dmitriy II , against the crowned tsars, Boris Godunov and Vasili Shuiski . The first wave of the Polish intervention began in 1605 and ended in 1606 with the death of False Dmitri I . The second wave started in 1607 and lasted until 1609, when Tsar Vasili made
20541-441: 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
20708-402: 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
20875-587: The party of Sten Sture the Younger , regent of Sweden from 1512, and its struggle against the Danish King Christian II . Following the battle of Brännkyrka in 1518, where Sten Sture's troops beat the Danish forces, it was decided that Sten Sture and King Christian would meet in Österhaninge for negotiations. To guarantee the safety of the king, the Swedish side sent six hostages to be kept by
21042-502: The population. 12.1% of the population of Vaasa have a mother tongue other than Finnish or Swedish. As English and Swedish - or Finnish for Swedish speakers - are compulsory school subjects, functional bilingualism or trilingualism acquired through language studies is not uncommon. At least 50 different languages are spoken in Vaasa. The most common foreign languages are Arabic (1.1%), Russian (0.9%), English (0.9%) and Ukrainian (0.7%). As of 2023, there were 8,564 persons with
21209-404: The primary one from around 1930 when Finnish speakers became the majority in the city. The history of Korsholm and also of Vaasa begins in the 14th century, when seafarers from the coastal region in central Sweden disembarked at the present Old Vaasa, and the wasteland owners from Southwest Finland came to guard their land. In the middle of the century, Saint Mary's Church was built, and in
21376-480: 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
21543-549: The royal House of Vasa became extinct in 1672, though the current King of Sweden, Carl XVI Gustaf , is descended from Gustav I through his paternal great-grandmother, Victoria of Baden , a descendant of Gustav I's great-great-grandson Adolphus Frederick II, Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz . Gustav Eriksson , a son of Cecilia Månsdotter Eka and Erik Johansson Vasa , was probably born in 1496. The birth most likely took place in Rydboholm Castle , northeast of Stockholm ,
21710-596: The royal house was founded. His reign is sometimes referred to as the beginning of the modern Swedish state, which included the King's break with the Catholic Church during the Protestant Reformation and the foundation of the Church of Sweden . However, his eldest son and successor Erik XIV of Sweden was overthrown by Gustav's younger son, King John III of Sweden . John III married a Catholic Polish princess, Catherine Jagiellon , leading to
21877-468: 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
22044-558: The scale of the parties' goals, which ranged from minor border adjustments to imposing the Polish Kings or the Polish-backed impostors' claims to the Russian throne and even the creation of a new state by forming a union between the Commonwealth and Russia. The war can be divided into four stages. In the first stage, certain commonwealth szlachta (nobility), encouraged by some Russian boyars (Russian aristocracy), but without
22211-451: The sexual role of a woman. She caused a scandal when she decided not to marry and in 1654 when she abdicated her throne. She changed her name to Kristina Augusta Wasa and converted to Catholicism , adopting the name Christina Alexandra. At the age of 28 the " Minerva of the North" moved to Rome. The Pope described Christina as "a queen without a realm, a Christian without faith, and a woman without shame". Notwithstanding all that, she became
22378-426: The shadow of his older half-brother, Władysław IV Vasa. He had few friends among the Polish nobility. Unfriendly, secretive, dividing his time between lavish partying and religious contemplation, and disliking politics, he did not have a strong power base nor influence at the Polish court, instead supporting unfavorable Habsburg policies. He did, however, display talent as a military commander, showing his abilities in
22545-444: 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
22712-428: 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
22879-585: The situation; Sigismund was crowned in Uppsala Cathedral and became the king of Sweden. The Kingdom of Sweden was now in a personal union with Poland-Lithuania. In July, Sigismund left Sweden in the hands of the regency council and returned to Poland. Sweden was to be ruled jointly by the Privy Council of Sweden and Sigismund's uncle Duke Charles. Sigismund, however, reneged on his earlier promises, opening Catholic schools, and giving Catholics prominent posts. Charles in turn did not give up on acquiring
23046-560: The subject in a clause, a trait that is restricted to North Germanic languages: House of Vasa The House of Vasa or Wasa ( Swedish : Vasaätten , Polish : Wazowie , Lithuanian : Vazos ) was an early modern royal house founded in 1523 in Sweden . Its members ruled the Kingdom of Sweden from 1523 to 1654 and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from 1587 to 1668; its agnatic line became extinct with
23213-525: The surrounding mostly rural municipality, which since 1973 surrounds the city. The city was known as Vasa between 1606 and 1855, Nikolajstad (Swedish) and Nikolainkaupunki (Finnish) between 1855 and 1917, named after the then late Czar Nicholas I of Russia , Vasa (Swedish) and Vaasa (Finnish) after the February Revolution , with the Finnish spelling of the name being
23380-538: The throne of Sweden and tried to force Gustavus Adolphus to renounce the title. In a round of this dynastic dispute, Gustavus invaded Livonia when he was 31, beginning the Polish-Swedish War (1625–1629). He intervened on behalf of the Lutherans in Germany, who opened the gates to their cities to him. His reign became famous from his actions a few years later when in June 1630 he landed in Germany, marking
23547-598: The title appears is dated 20 March 1604; but he was not crowned until 15 March 1607. Gustavus Adolphus was born in Stockholm as the oldest son of Duke Charles of the Vasa dynasty and his second wife, Christina of Holstein-Gottorp . At the time, the King of Sweden was Gustavus Adolphus' cousin Sigismund. The staunch Protestant Duke Charles forced the Catholic Sigismund to let go of the throne of Sweden in 1599,
23714-514: The trivial school can still be found in their original places. Much of the archived material concerning Vaasa and its inhabitants was destroyed in the fire. According to popular belief, the fire got started when a careless visitor from Vörå fell asleep in Aurén's barn and dropped his pipe in the dry hay. The new town of Nikolaistad ( Finnish : Nikolainkaupunki ), named after the late Tsar Nicholas I , rose in 1862 about seven kilometres (4.3 miles) to
23881-538: The tsar's throne himself, organizing a campaign in 1616. Despite some military victories, he was unable to capture Moscow. The Commonwealth gained some disputed territories in the Truce of Deulino , but Władysław was never able to reign in Russia; the throne during this time was instead held by tsar Michael Romanov. He held on to the title, without any real power, until 1634. Likely, the failure of this campaign showed Władysław
24048-534: 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
24215-517: 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
24382-487: The unexpected Turkish invasion of Poland on December 16, 1672, from apoplexy and was buried inside the Wawel Cathedral in Kraków. His heart was interred in the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. The Riksdag at Linköping , 24 February 1604 declared that Sigismund abdicated the Swedish throne, that duke Charles was recognized as the sovereign. He was declared king as Karl IX (anglicized as Charles IX) . Charles's short reign
24549-657: The village of Salmi in Kuortane where they had to endure the physical punishment called running the gauntlet . The massacre in Vaasa was exceptional during the Finnish war as the Russian forces had avoided that kind of cruelty that far. It was probably a result of the frustration the Russians felt because of intensive guerilla activity against them in the region. On 30 June the Russian forces withdrew from Vaasa, and all officials that had pledged allegiance to Russia were discharged, and some were assaulted by locals. On 13 September
24716-439: 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
24883-506: The warmer month. End of April is usually the growing season with 250–300 mm approximately. The maritime breeze explains the difference in temperature, distribution of precipitation and sunshine, different from the Gulf of Finland, the Gulf of Bothnia brings the sea wind in places further distant about 50 km from the coast. The city gets more sun than inland places, although current log are unavailable. The highest ever recorded temperature
25050-413: The way they came. Generalmajor Demidov suspected that the inhabitants of Vaasa had taken to arms and helped the Swedish forces, even though the provincial governor had confiscated all weapons that spring, and he took revenge by letting his men plunder the city for several days. During those days 17 civilians were killed, property was looted and destroyed, many were assaulted and several people were taken to
25217-414: The written language is uniform and standardized . Swedish is the most widely spoken second language in Finland where its status 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
25384-451: The year of the catastrophic town fire of 1852 the number had risen to 3,200. During the Finnish War , fought between Sweden and Russia in 1808–1809, Vaasa suffered more than any other city. In June 1808, Vaasa was occupied by the Russian forces, and some of the local officials pledged allegiance to the occupying force. On 25 June 1808 the Swedish colonel Johan Bergenstråhle was sent with 1,500 troops and four cannons to free Vaasa from
25551-406: The years, Vaasa has changed its name several times, due to alternative spellings, political decisions and language condition changes. At first it was called Mustasaari or Mussor after the village where it was founded in 1606, but just a few years later the name was changed to Vasa to honor the royal Swedish lineage. Mustasaari (Finnish) or Korsholm (Swedish) remains as the name of
25718-425: Was 32.2 °C (89.6 °F), on 18 July 2018, although a record of 33.7 °C (92.7 °F) was recorded in the city center the same day, which in fact was the hottest day of Finland in 2018 by slightly edging a temperature recorded in Turku Artukainen of 33.6 °C (92.5 °F), also on 18 July 2018, making it the highest temperature ever recorded in Vaasa. The city of Vaasa has 70,382 inhabitants, making it
25885-478: Was affected by his connection to Poland; his son Sigismund III Vasa was made king of Poland in 1587. In January 1569, John was recognized as king by the same riksdag that forced Eric XIV off the throne. But this recognition was not without influence from John; Duke Karl received confirmation on his dukedom without the restrictions of his power that the Arboga articles imposed. The nobility's power and rights were extended and their responsibilities lessened. John
26052-570: Was already the elected King of Poland (since 1587). Sigismund certainly valued the Swedish throne and upon learning about the death of his father, and the pretensions to the throne of his uncle, Duke Charles of Södermanland , he asked the Sejm (Polish parliament) for permission to leave the Commonwealth and go to Sweden, where he could secure the Swedish crown. The Sejm gave him permission, and on 3 August 1593, Sigismund, accompanied by his wife, Anna of Habsburg , and other followers, departed for Sweden. The agreement of 19 February seemed to have calmed
26219-453: Was an extremely able military commander. His innovative tactical integration of infantry, cavalry, logistics and particularly his use of artillery, earned him the title of the "Father of Modern Warfare". Future commanders who studied and admired Gustav II Adolf include Napoleon I of France and Carl von Clausewitz. His advancements in military science made Sweden the dominant Baltic power for the next one hundred years ( see Swedish Empire ). He
26386-477: Was composed mostly of mercenaries (Germans and Hungarians), supported by a relatively small Polish force (although with some artillery). Sigismund's campaign was poorly planned. He was unable to coordinate his troop movements with his supporters, particularly Fleming who was supposed to attack Charles from Finland . After initial successes (the taking of Kalmar and defeating Charles' troops at Stegeborg ), Sigismund's forces were defeated on September 25, 1598, at
26553-484: 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
26720-433: 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
26887-416: Was invaded by the Swedish army during the Deluge without much of a fight, due to the conspiratorial complicity of Polish and Lithuanian governors and nobility. In the course of a few years, the Commonwealth rose to force the Swedes out of Poland, ending the short-lived intrusions and campaigns, however, at a high cost. Most of the cities and towns in the Commonwealth were sacked, plundered and some were burnt to
27054-417: Was merged into Vaasa. It is currently an exclave area of the city, since it is surrounded by other municipalities. Near the Polar Circle , Vaasa falls in continental subarctic climate ( Köppen : Dfc ) with severe dry winters and almost warm summers. The prevailing direction of the winds, North Atlantic Current and the proximity of the Gulf of Bothnia give the climate a certainly livability in spite of
27221-470: 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
27388-406: Was one of uninterrupted warfare. The hostility of Poland and the breakup of Russia involved him in overseas contests for the possession of Livonia and Ingria , the Polish–Swedish War (1600–1611) and the Ingrian War , while his pretensions to claim Lappland brought upon him a war with Denmark in the last year of his reign. In all these struggles, he was more or less unsuccessful, owing partly to
27555-511: Was raised Catholic. His Polish connection came through his mother, daughter of Sigismund I the Old , and the Jagiellonian dynasty had ruled Poland and then the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth since 1386. Sigismund was elected King of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth on 19 August 1587. From that time his official name and title became "Sigismund III, by the grace of God, king of Poland, grand duke of Lithuania , Ruthenia , Prussia , Masovia , Samogitia , Livonia and also hereditary king of
27722-431: Was still concerned about his position as king as long as Eric was alive. In 1571 he ordered Erik's guards to kill him if there was any suspicion of an escape attempt. It is possible this is how Eric died in 1577. Sigismund III Vasa was born when his parents, John III and Catherine Jagiellon, were held prisoner by John's brother King Eric XIV, but John replaced Eric in 1568. Sweden had become Protestant, but young Sigismund
27889-423: 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
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