Introduction: Swedish and the languages of Sweden
Abstract This chapter discusses the spread of Swedish in the world and the various languages that are spoken within the borders of Sweden. Swedish is mainly spoken within Sweden, but is also one of the official languages of Finland, and is spoken in a few other places. There are five minority langua...
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| Format: | Book Part |
| Language: | English |
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Oxford University PressOxford
2013
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| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199543571.003.0001 https://academic.oup.com/book/35369/chapter/301093520 |
| Summary: | Abstract This chapter discusses the spread of Swedish in the world and the various languages that are spoken within the borders of Sweden. Swedish is mainly spoken within Sweden, but is also one of the official languages of Finland, and is spoken in a few other places. There are five minority languages in Sweden: Finnish, Meänkieli, Romani, Yiddish and Saami. The Swedish sign language is not officially a minority language, but enjoys special status. There are large groups of speakers of e.g. Arabic, Bosnian/Serbian/Croatian, Kurdish, Greek and Somali. The chapter contains also some notes on the language policy of Sweden, dialect areas and Inter-Scandinavian understanding of spoken and written language. At the end of the chapter a brief overview of the rest of the book is given. |
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