Maine History Volume 40 Number 3 Challenge and Change in Maine's Article 4 Communities 9-1-2001 “You Speak Very Good English for a Swede”: Language, Culture, and Persistence in Maine’s Swedish Colony Katherine Hoving Adirondack Museum Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mainehistoryjournal Part of the Cultural History Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Hoving, Katherine. "“You Speak Very Good English for a Swede”: Language, Culture, and Persistence in Maine’s Swedish Colony." Maine History 40, 3 (2001): 219-244. https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mainehistoryjournal/vol40/iss3/4 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@UMaine. It has been accepted for inclusion in Maine History by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@UMaine. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. “YOU SPEAK VERY GOOD ENGLISH FOR A SWEDE”: LANGUAGE, CULTURE, AND PERSISTENCE IN MAINE’S SWEDISH COLONY By Katherine Hoving In the summer of 1870, a small group of Swedish immigrants ar rived in northern Maine with the intention of establishing a farming colony in a place they called New Sweden. Despite many difficulties, the community has persisted and maintained a strong sense of its Swedish heritage. A demographic study of those who lived in the Swedish colony during its first sixty years suggests that language re tention played an important role in keeping both the community and its identity alive. Katherine Hoving completed her Masters of Arts in History at the University of Maine, Orono, in December 2001.