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Standard Swedish
Standard Swedish-the normalized national language developed on the basis of the language spoken in the Lake Manlaren region of Central Sweden and around Stockholm, the capital of Sweden. The national administration was located there, and there was a vigorous ruling class language. Stabilization was greatly promoted by the first complete Bible translation into Swedish (Gustav Vasa's Bible, 1541) and by another consequence of the Reformation, a comparatively high Level of public literacy-from the end of the 17th century onwards, the clergy were obliged to ensure that their parishioners were acquainted with important passages from the Bible and knew the Lutheran catechism.
In the 18th century an educated middle class arose, and with it the beginnings of the fairly straightforward and conversational Swedish used in the press. At the same time Swedish was being developed into a scientific language by such internationally renowned figures as Carl von Linnet and Anders Celsius and their popularizers.
The development of a national language continued apace with urbanization, the growth of the press, universal schooling (the compulsory elementary school system was introduced in 1842 with Swedish as a separate subject), a vigorous national literature for the educated public that boasted such international stars as August Strindberg and Selma Lagerluf, and the mass educational and cultural movements of the folk high schools and the popular grass-roots movements (temperance, trade unions, sport, self-improvement via study circles, etc) and the Labour Movement where generations of politicians Learned to speak in public and write for a broad audience, all followed more recently by radio and television. Norms of spelling were standardized by the Swedish Academy.
There is no longer any attempt to maintain a solemn style of Swedish with archaic words and forms and complicated syntax. The distinctive but archaic biblical style disappeared with the new Bible translation that was published in 2000, allowing the character of the original texts to emerge instead.
In the Nordic countries official language planning is well established. The Swedish Language Council is a public-service institution. High standards in terminology are maintained by the Center for Terminology (TNC). The Swedish Broadcasting Corporation and television and some leading morning papers have their own language advisors, and so do state agencies.
A good deal of effort has been put into taking the gobbledygook out of the language of public administration to make it more accessible for ordinary citizens. The tangled, Byzantine language promoted by the EU is perceived as a threat to the democratic values of modern public Swedish, and the head of language usage guidance for Swedish with the EU Commission in Brussels has a hard struggle to get translations put into good, comprehensible Swedish that is not polluted by the source language (usually French or English). Sweden is one of the most active countries in "fighting the linguistic fog". Letters E,e, p,a and L{,1f- E is pronounced like the vowels in more and hot, a like in care and best, and If like in the French words bleu and blbuf.
The various plural forms of nouns are still very much alive: man-man [man-men], hund-hundar [dog-dogs], gast-gaster [guest-guests], kyrka-kyrkor [church-churches], apple-pie [apple-pie], hus-hus [house-houses].
The Swedish system of word formation favors easy compounding, creating long and sometimes clumsy words that replace whole phrases or even sentences. Words like resursallokering (resource allocation), stendpunktstagande (adopting a standpoint), kvittblivningsproblematiken (the set of problems related to disposal), and kOnsloidentifikation (emotional identification) tend to flourish in official and technical settings. On the other hand, compounds are capable of creating whole new concepts with unique expressive value, such asfullfl (cheap and nasty beer, lit. ugly beer), kramgo (cuddly, lit. hug-good), skepsupa (indulge in secret drinking, lit. to cupboard-booze), strulputte (mess er-upper, lit. confusion-tiddIEr), raknenisse (bean-counter, lit. counting-gnome). A good deal of Swedish poetry relies on the impact of unique compounds. And it is difficult for any translation to adequately capture the tone of such everyday Swedish expressions as solvarma smultron med kylskepskallfil, sun-warmed wild strawberries with chilled fill (a popular kind of thick curdled milk).
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