Official minority languages of Sweden

In 1999, the Minority Language Committee of Sweden formally declared five official minority languages: Finnish, Sámi languages, Romani, Yiddish, and Meänkieli (Tornedal Finnish).

The Swedish language dominates commercial and cultural life in Sweden but did not officially become the country's main language until 2009, when a new language law entered into effect.[1] The need for this legal status had been the subject of protracted debate and proposed legislation was narrowly defeated in 2005.[2]

The minority languages have been legally recognized to protect the cultural and historical heritage of their respective speech communities.[3] These communities are given certain rights on that basis, such as school education in their language, and its use in dealing with governmental agencies.

  1. ^ Landes, David (2009-07-01). "Swedish becomes official 'main language'". Thelocal.se. Retrieved 2009-07-15.
  2. ^ Svenskan blir inte officiellt språk Archived 2009-10-14 at the Wayback Machine, Sveriges Television, 2005-12-07. Retrieved on July 23, 2006. (in Swedish)
  3. ^ Hult, F.M. (2004). Planning for multilingualism and minority language rights in Sweden. Language Policy, 3(2), 181-201.