| Swedish | |
|---|---|
| Svenska | |
| Pronunciation | [ˈsvɛ̂nːska] |
| Native to | Sweden, Finland, formerly Estonia |
| Ethnicity | Swedes |
| Speakers | Native: 10 million (2012–2021)[1] L2 speakers: 3 million[1] |
Early forms | |
| Latin (Swedish alphabet) Swedish Braille | |
| Tecknad svenska (obsolete) | |
| Official status | |
Official language in | Finland Sweden Åland European Union Nordic Council |
| Regulated by | Swedish Language Council (in Sweden) Swedish Academy (in Sweden) Institute for the Languages of Finland (in Finland) |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | sv |
| ISO 639-2 | swe |
| ISO 639-3 | swe |
| Glottolog | swed1254 |
| Linguasphere | to -cw 52-AAA-ck to -cw |
 Regions where Swedish is an official language spoken by the majority of the population (Sweden, Åland, Western Finland) Regions where Swedish is an official language spoken by a minority of the population (Finland) | |
| Part of a series on the |
| Swedish language |
|---|
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Higher category: Language |
Swedish (endonym: svenska [ˈsvɛ̂nːska] ) is a North Germanic language from the Indo-European language family, spoken predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland.[2] 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.[3]
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 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 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.[4]
- ^ a b Swedish at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ "Svenska talas också i Finland". Svenska språket (in Swedish). 7 December 2018. Archived from the original on 16 August 2021. Retrieved 16 August 2021.
- ^ "Nordic Languages: What's The Difference?". Wordminds. 25 March 2019. Archived from the original on 3 February 2023. Retrieved 3 February 2023.
- ^ "Var tionde Oslobo är nu svensk" (in Swedish). Sverige-Norge Personalförmedling. Archived from the original on 11 October 2018. Retrieved 11 October 2018.
