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A journey through language evolution: What are the surprising changes from Old Swedish to Modern Swedish?
Swedish (Swedish: svenska) is a North Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, spoken primarily in Sweden and parts of Finland. With over ten million native speakers, Swedish is the fourth most commonly spoken Germanic language and the most commonly spoken language in the Nordic countries. A descendant of other Nordic languages, Swedish is derived from Old Norse, the common language of the Germanic peoples living in Scandinavia during the Viking Age. Swedish is relatively intelligible with Norwegian and Danish, but the degree of intelligibility depends on the dialect and accent of the speakers.
Standard Swedish evolved from the Central Swedish dialect in the 19th century and became established in the early 20th century. Although different local variants and rural dialects still exist, the written language remains unified and standardized.
Language Classification
Swedish is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic branch of the Germanic languages. In the established classification, Swedish is classified with Danish as an East Scandinavian language, and separates it from the West Scandinavian languages, which include Faroese, Icelandic, and Norwegian. However, recent analyses have divided the North Germanic languages into two groups: the Island Scandinavian languages (Faroese and Icelandic) and the Continental Scandinavian languages (Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish). This is for interoperability reasons.
Historical evolution
Old Norse
In the 8th century, the common Germanic language of Scandinavia underwent an evolution to form Old Norse. The language subsequently split into two similar dialects: Old West Norse (Norway, the Faroe Islands and Iceland) and Old East Norse (Denmark and Sweden). The dialect of Old East Norse spoken in Sweden is called Rune Swedish, and in Denmark it is called Rune Danish.
Old Swedish
Old Swedish is the term for the Swedish language of the Middle Ages. The beginning is usually set at 1225, when the Västgötalagen, the Swedish local legal code, was compiled. Foreign influences during this time came primarily from the founding of the Christian Church, and many Greek and Latin loanwords were introduced. With the rise of the Hanseatic League, the influence of Middle and Low German gradually spread.
Modern Swedish
Modern Swedish emerged with the advent of printing and the European Reformation. When the new king Gustav Valverde came to the throne, he ordered a translation of the Bible into Sweden. The first New Testament was published in 1526, followed by a complete translation of the Bible in 1541, known as the Gustav Valverde Bible. .
Contemporary Swedish
Most current usage of Swedish is referred to as "Contemporary Swedish". This period, which began at the end of the 19th century, saw the democratization of the language, with the informalization of written forms beginning to approach spoken language. Swedish was largely standardized with the spelling reform of 1906.
Geographical distribution and official status
Swedish is the official language of Sweden and one of the two official languages of Finland. In Sweden, Swedish is widely used in local and national government. In 2009, the Swedish language finally gained legal official status.
Regulatory agencies
The Swedish Language Board, the regulatory body for the Swedish language in Sweden, does not attempt to impose control over the language like the Académie française does for French. However, its publications are officially regarded as the de facto orthographic standard.
Linguistic Minorities
Swedish-speaking communities once existed in Estonia and Ukraine, but are now almost extinct.
There are still some communities that retain characteristics of the Swedish language, especially in some rural areas, but as times change, the survival of these languages faces challenges.
The story of the Swedish language is undoubtedly a rich one, with its development from Old Swedish times to modern Swedish reflecting the influence of cultural, political and social factors. As languages evolve, how do you think Swedish will develop in the future?
