More than nine million native speakers of the Swedish state language live in the kingdom, in the autonomous Åland Islands and around the world. Swedish is the only official language in the country, and the absolute majority of the kingdom's inhabitants recognize it as their native language.
Some statistics and facts
- Swedish is the most spoken language among all Scandinavian countries.
- The Swedes feel a sense of the safety of their own language due to the homogeneity of the country in ethnic and religious aspects. It has dominated over the last several centuries of the state's history.
- In Finland, the state language of Sweden is the second official language and is spoken by about 6% of the total Finnish population.
- The most famous Finnish writer Tove Jansson created her fairy tales in Swedish.
- The language of Sweden is one of the official languages of the European Union.
- In Ukraine, there is the village of Staroshvedskoe, founded by the Swedes. Immigrants from the Baltic territories at the beginning of the 18th century, they still speak their native language.
History and modernity
The only official language in Sweden originated from Old Norse, which was also used by most of the inhabitants of today's Denmark and Norway. The Vikings spread it throughout northern Europe, and it was only at the beginning of the 11th century that Old Norse began to branch out into Swedish, Norwegian and Danish.
There are many Swedish dialects in use on the territory of the kingdom, and some of them, used in the rural hinterland, may not be understood by most other Swedes. The total number of dialects can amount to several hundred, if we take into account the peculiarities of the speech of each rural community.
Tourist notes
Foreign languages are actively taught in schools in Sweden, and most young people, especially in large cities, are fluent in English, German or Italian. In this sense, foreign tourists in Sweden should not be afraid of the possibility of being misunderstood. Every restaurant or hotel has an English-speaking staff, and on excursions to attractions, guests are always given the opportunity to use the services of a guide, at least in English.
The tourist information centers in Stockholm and other cities have maps showing important points of interest in English. English-language public transport schemes are also offered at hotel reception desks.
