Swedish

Swedish is the mother tongue of about 90% of Sweden’s 9 million inhabitants. In addition, around 300,000 Finns speak so-called finlandsvenska (Finland Swedish). From the 19th century until today, about 1 million Swedes have emigrated, mainly to North America. Therefore, it is estimated that Swedish is still spoken by a few hundred thousand people around the world.

Swedish is a Northern European language that belongs to the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family. It is very similar to Danish and Norwegian but more distant from the Scandinavian languages Icelandic and Faroese.

“Standard Swedish” (rikssvenska) refers to the variety spoken around the capital Stockholm and in the Mälardalen region (north-west of Stockholm). Every region has its own accent, which is especially strong in the south. Even a person from Stockholm is easily identified as a “Stockholmer.”

Some linguistic features

• Swedish has the letter Å, which is closest to the German O.
• The letter Ü does not exist.
• The definite article is attached to the noun (e.g. hus – huset = “house – the house”).
• There are only two grammatical genders (den/det).

Interesting facts about Sweden

• Population: 9.42 million
• Capital: Stockholm (approx. 2 million inhabitants)
• Other major cities: Gothenburg (981,000), Malmö (647,300)
• Languages: Swedish; minorities: Finnish, Sami, others
• Form of government: Constitutional monarchy
• Religion:Svenska Kyrkan (Evangelical Lutheran Church of Sweden)
• National holiday: 6 June
• Area: 450,294 km²
• Highest mountain: Kebnekaise (2,103 m)
• Largest lake: Vänern (5,650 km²)