DOCSLIB.ORG

THE SWEDISH LANGUAGE Sharingsweden.Se PHOTO: CECILIA LARSSON LANTZ/IMAGEBANK.SWEDEN.SE

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
THE SWEDISH LANGUAGE Sharingsweden.Se PHOTO: CECILIA LARSSON LANTZ/IMAGEBANK.SWEDEN.SE FACTS ABOUT SWEDEN / THE SWEDISH LANGUAGE sharingsweden.se PHOTO: CECILIA LARSSON LANTZ/IMAGEBANK.SWEDEN.SE PHOTO: THE SWEDISH LANGUAGE Sweden is a multilingual country. However, Swedish is and has always been the majority language and the country’s main language. Here, Catharina Grünbaum paints a picture of the language from Viking times to the present day: its development, its peculiarities and its status. The national language of Sweden is Despite the dominant status of Swedish, Swedish and related languages Swedish. It is the mother tongue of Sweden is not a monolingual country. Swedish is a Nordic language, a Ger- approximately 8 million of the country’s The Sami in the north have always been manic branch of the Indo-European total population of almost 10 million. a domestic minority, and the country language tree. Danish and Norwegian Swedish is also spoken by around has had a Finnish-speaking population are its siblings, while the other Nordic 300,000 Finland Swedes, 25,000 of ever since the Middle Ages. Finnish languages, Icelandic and Faroese, are whom live on the Swedish-speaking and Meänkieli (a Finnish dialect spoken more like half-siblings that have pre- Åland islands. in the Torne river valley in northern served more of their original features. Swedish is one of the two national Sweden), spoken by a total of approxi- Using this approach, English and languages of Finland, along with Finnish, mately 250,000 people in Sweden, German are almost cousins. for historical reasons. Finland was part and Sami all have legal status as The relationship with other Indo- of Sweden until 1809. domestic minority languages. Romany, European languages is particularly clear There has been a Swedish-speaking Yiddish and sign language for the deaf when we encounter so-called native population in Estonia since the Middle also have a form of legal minority- words that we have from our shared Ages. Today, only a fraction of it remains. language status. origin. These are words such as fader Since the mid-19th century and As a result of immigration and the (father), moder (mother), hus (house), up to the present day, more than influx of refugees in recent decades, at mus (mouse), hund (dog), ko (cow), a million people have emigrated from least 150 languages are now spoken in öga (eye), öra (ear), näsa (nose), blod Sweden, primarily to North America. Sweden. Arabic is the most widespread, (blood), dag (day), natt (night), sten It is estimated that Swedish is spoken with at least 150,000 speakers. No (stone), ben (bone), jord (earth), vatten by several hundred thousand people official statistics are kept on language (water), ung (young), ljuv (sweet), äta worldwide. affiliation in Sweden. (eat), dricka (drink), leva (live), dö (die). FACTS ABOUT SWEDEN / THE SWEDISH LANGUAGE sharingsweden.se THE SWEDISH ALPHABET KELSEY MCNEAL/ABC VIA GETTY IMAGES PHOTO: The Swedish alphabet has 29 letters and ends with å, ä and ö. V and w are pronounced in the same way, as are s and z. A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Å Ä Ö a b c d e Its many long vowel sounds and falling and rising pitch mean that Swedish is f g h i j considered a melodic language, as parodied in The Muppet Show. k l m n o How does Swedish sound? the same sound as in the French words p q r s t The characteristic immediately apparent bleu /-ö/, bœuf /-öff/ and chauffeur /-ö:r/. to a foreign ear is that Swedish is a Swedish also contains combinations u v w x y melodious language with falling and of consonants that can be difficult for rising tones and varying pitch accents: many foreigners to pronounce: vrak, z å ä ö /´hunden/, /`ra:dhu:s/, /`å:terställa/, sprängts, östgötsk. /pro´ble:m/, /problem´a:tisk/, fotograf´i:/. The combinations of letters sj, skj A sequence of letters such as buren and stj are pronounced /∫/, for example can be pronounced in two ways. The as in the English word she. For example: INDO-EUROPEAN HERITAGE noun buren (the cage) has accent 1, sjö (sea), sjuk (sick), skjorta (shirt), with the full emphasis on bur-: /´bu:ren/. stjärna (star). The Indo-European heritage is visible However, the participle form buren The same is true of sk before the in the Swedish syster, Danish søster, Icelandic systir, English sister, German (carried), of the verb bära, has accent 2, front vowels e, i, y, ä, ö: skepp (ship), schwester, Dutch zuster, Russian sestra, with partial emphasis on the second skinn (skin), sky (sky), skämmas (be French sœur, Latin soror and Sanskrit syllable: /`bu:ren/. ashamed), sköld (shield). svasr. A particular characteristic of the The standard Swedish r sound is sound of Swedish is the many vowel an apical r, as in Spanish and Italian sounds, a, o, u, å, e, i, y, ä, ö, which can (but not as clearly articulated). In the CLASSIC SWEDISH TONGUE be both long and short. southern parts of the country, a velar r TWISTERS Vowel length often determines mean- is used, as in French. ing in Swedish: mat (food) pronounced with a long a, matt (dull) pronounced Grammatical peculiarities with a short a, ful (ugly) pronounced The hardest feature of Swedish for Sju sjösjuka with a long u, full (full) pronounced with foreigners to learn is the inverse word a short u. order in sentences that start with some- I sjömän M A Foreigners also notice the special thing other than the subject. The verb G på skeppet E : Y Swedish u sound. U is pronounced always comes second in the sentence. U S Shanghai, U For example, ‘Anna kommer i dag’ F not as in the German word Buch (or D O sköljde sju G the English word boot), but as a sound (Anna is coming today) but ‘I dag kom- A N A somewhere between the vowels in mer Anna’ (Today, is coming Anna) skjortor i sjön. Y / S H (not ‘Today, Anna is coming’). U Buch and grün. The u can be short, as (Seven seasick T T E A peculiarity of Nordic languages is seamen on the ship R in hund, and long, as in hus. S T Shanghai washed O the postpositive definite article: man– The letters å, ä och ö are more visually C K . seven shirts C mannen (the man), hus–huset (the O than aurally distinctive. Å represents in the sea). M the same vowel sound as in the English house), hundar–hundarna (the dogs). words more and hot. Ä is equivalent to Swedish can also have a double definite the vowels in care and best. Ö represents form: det lilla huset (the little house). 2 | FACTS ABOUT SWEDEN / THE SWEDISH LANGUAGE sharingsweden.se RUNIC SWEDISH The Nordic languages can form a spe- memory of Holmbjörn, his brother, cial passive form with -s: ‘brevet skrevs’ a good young man. Öpir carved this The runic alphabet is called Futhark after the six letters in the first group. (the letter is written), ‘brevet har skrivits’ inscription’. However, many stones The 16-character Viking era Futhark (the letter was written). talk about deeds at home and journeys in its commonest form is shown here. The old system of three grammatical and voyages to the east and west. These are the so-called Swedish- genders, han, hon, det (he, she, it), has The language of the rune stones is Danish runes or normal runes. been reduced to two in standard Swed- called runic Swedish. ish: den and det. We now have båten The runic Swedish period was fol- (the boat) – den, huset (the house) – det. lowed by the Old Swedish period, which ᚠf ᚢu ᚦth ᚬa ᚱr ᚴk However, where the gender is impor- includes the entire Middle Ages and tant, masculine and feminine pronouns ended with the Reformation in the 16th are used: mannen (the man) – han, century. Runic characters were then kvinnan (the woman) – hon, hingsten replaced by the Latin alphabet. The lan- ᚼh ᚾn ᛁi ᛅa ᛋs (the stallion) – han, stoet (the mare) – hon. guage we find in the very oldest records References to time are a relic: Hur mycket in provincial law-rolls from the early 13th är hon? Hon är halv två (What time is it? century shows that Swedish and Danish It is one thirty). had become separate languages. ᛏt ᛒb ᛘm ᛚl ᛦr In recent years, people have also started to use a new gender-neutral pronoun, Influence from other languages Bokstav (the Swedish word for letter) hen, partly to replace the combination Swedish has always been open to loans means ‘line carved in beechwood’. Wood was the commonest material, han eller hon (he or she) and partly for from elsewhere but has still survived but stone has been better preserved. people who do not want to be catego- as a separate language. The arrival of PHOTO: BENGT A LUNDBERG/RIKSANTIKVARIEÄMBETET BENGT PHOTO: rised as either man or woman. Christianity in the 11th century brought In modern Swedish, the verb has the with it a number of words of Latin and same form in the singular and plural: Greek origin such as kyrka (church), jag är (I am), vi är (we are); jag tar (I take), präst (priest), mässa (mass) and paradis vi tar (we take). The old plural forms are (paradise). now found almost only in hymns and The influence from the rest of Europe in Swedish drinking songs: ‘Vi äro små continued in the Middle Ages.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Strömsholm Skokloster
    Strömsholm Skokloster On an islet in the Kolbäck River, Gustav Vasa Skokloster Castle, one of Europe´s best pre- built a fortress in the early 1550s, which was served baroque castles, lies in a scenic setting on largely dismantled in the late 1660s. At this the shores of Lake Mälaren, close to Arlanda time, Strömsholm was part of a cluster of Airport, and between Stockholm and Uppsala. properties at the disposal of Dowager Queen Skokloster Castle dates from the 17th century, Hedvig Eleonora. It was her idea to tear Sweden’s period as a great power in Europe. down the old fortress and build something The Castle is the largest private residence ever entirely new. Just as with Drottningholm, built in the country. The building was commis- the Dowager Queen consulted the architect sioned by Field Marshal, Count Carl Gustaf Nicodemus Tessin the Elder. Wrangel. The State Apartment is open for Strömsholm consists of a large edifice free flow, but you can also join a more extensive framed by four square towers. Facing the tour with a guide. Stroll through beautiful park, a central tower rises to a large dome. rooms with furniture, paintings and textiles. During the reign of Hedvig Eleonora, Guided tours end up in one of the largest some twenty buildings were erected on the and best preserved 17th century armouries in grounds. A large park, inspired by the French the world. In the Museum Shop you will find baroque, was also landscaped. books, postcards and souvenirs. Enjoy a break Open daily throughout the summer, when in the Castle Café under 17th century vaults, you can enjoy dining in the stone kitchen.
    [Show full text]
  • New Banknote and Coin Series Themes and Motifs
    REPORT FROM the General Council of the Riksbank’s Drafting Committee for the Design of Banknotes and Coins Ref. no. 2008-286-ADM New banknote and coin series Themes and motifs MARCH 2011 1 THEMES AND MOTIFS New banknote and coin series Themes and motifs Report from the General Council of the Riksbank’s Drafting Committee for the Design of Banknotes and Coins MARCH 2011 2 THEMES AND MOTIFS Contents 1. Background 5 3 THEMES AND MOTIFS 2. The banknote series 6 2.1 Starting points 6 2.2 Inventory 6 2.3 Themes 6 2.4 Motifs 7 2.4 Denominations 7 3. Coins series 8 4 THEMES AND MOTIFS Background The Riksbank has decided to renew the Swedish banknote and coin series. At the 5 same time a new denomination, 200 krona, will be introduced, and the 2-krona coin THEMES AND MOTIFS will be reintroduced. The coin series will consist of the denominations 1, 2, 5, 10 and 20 kronor and the banknote series of the denominations 50, 100, 200, 500 and 1,000 kronor. Decisions regarding the design of banknotes and coins are taken by the General Council of the Riksbank. The General Council has appointed a committee to prepare these questions, consisting of four members of the Council and four experts. The members are Peter Egardt, Anders Karlsson, Sonia Karlsson and Ebba Lindsö. The experts are Eva-Lena Bengtsson, curator at the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts, Henrik Klackenberg, State Herald of Sweden, Magnus Olausson, Head of the Conservation Department at the National Museum of Fine Arts and Ian Wiséhn, Director of the Royal Coin Cabinet at the National Museum of Economy.
    [Show full text]
  • Is Spoken Danish Less Intelligible Than Swedish? Charlotte Gooskens, Vincent J
    Is spoken Danish less intelligible than Swedish? Charlotte Gooskens, Vincent J. van Heuven, Renée van Bezooijen, Jos J.A. Pacilly To cite this version: Charlotte Gooskens, Vincent J. van Heuven, Renée van Bezooijen, Jos J.A. Pacilly. Is spoken Danish less intelligible than Swedish?. Speech Communication, Elsevier : North-Holland, 2010, 52 (11-12), pp.1022. 10.1016/j.specom.2010.06.005. hal-00698848 HAL Id: hal-00698848 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00698848 Submitted on 18 May 2012 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Accepted Manuscript Is spoken Danish less intelligible than Swedish? Charlotte Gooskens, Vincent J. van Heuven, Renée van Bezooijen, Jos J.A. Pacilly PII: S0167-6393(10)00109-3 DOI: 10.1016/j.specom.2010.06.005 Reference: SPECOM 1901 To appear in: Speech Communication Received Date: 3 August 2009 Revised Date: 31 May 2010 Accepted Date: 11 June 2010 Please cite this article as: Gooskens, C., van Heuven, V.J., van Bezooijen, R., Pacilly, J.J.A., Is spoken Danish less intelligible than Swedish?, Speech Communication (2010), doi: 10.1016/j.specom.2010.06.005 This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication.
    [Show full text]
  • Struggle for Diversity of Languages in a Harmonising European Context: New Tasks for Teacher Education
    DOCUMENT RESUME ED 442 773 SP 039 301 AUTHOR Buchberger, Irina TITLE Struggle for Diversity of Languages in a Harmonising European Context: New Tasks for Teacher Education. PUB DATE 2000-04-00 NOTE 15p.; Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (New Orleans, LA, April 24-28, 2000) . PUB TYPE Reports Descriptive (141) Speeches/Meeting Papers (150) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC01 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Bilingual Education; Educational Policy; Elementary Secondary Education; Foreign Countries; Higher Education; Immersion Programs; *Multilingualism; Preservice Teacher Education; *Second Language Learning IDENTIFIERS Europe; European Union; Finland; *Language Diversity; Nordic Countries; Sweden ABSTRACT Education policies of the European Commission and the Council of Europe stress the importance of cultural and language diversity. A white book by the European Commission on education and training recommends that every European citizen be able to communicate in at least 3 of the 12 officially recognized languages of the European Union by the end of high school. Simultaneously, there has been a major move toward using English within the 15 member states of the European Union. Against this backdrop, mother tongue teaching and learning as well as foreign language teaching/studying/learning are confronted with many new situations. Teacher education must provide the ability for prospective teachers to acquire the professional competence necessary to deal proactively with this phenomenon. This paper uses Finland and Sweden as examples of developments within the European Union, presenting various solutions in teacher education which have been adopted in these Nordic countries. Solutions include teaching more foreign languages and teaching them earlier; providing immersion programs; providing bilingual education; and teaching old minority languages as new school subjects.
    [Show full text]
  • Open Letter to the Swedish Academy Committee for Nobel Prize in Literature
    Open Letter to The Swedish Academy Committee for Nobel Prize in Literature New York City, October 13, 2019 Dear members of The Swedish Academy, I am a Bosnian born artist living in New York, whose work deals with genocide, collective memory and trauma. I’m writing in regard to your recent decision to grant Peter Handke The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2019, and the impact that has had on me, and other survivors, since the announcement on October 10th. After reading numerous articles about your decision in complete state of shock and disbelief, I was grateful and relieved to see that journalists, writers and public figures worldwide, had not forgotten Handke’s public denial of the Srebrenica genocide, nor his ardent support for Slobodan Milošević, Ratko Mladic, and Radovan Karadžić (the latter two convicted of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the 1990’s by ICTY.) The many published responses underline the very serious emotional, psychological and physical reactions that are the consequences of your astonishing celebration. What is missing from many of these articles is how your decision to grant Handke the Nobel prize actually feels for those of us who have survived genocide and mass persecution he’s denying in our home country. What follows is a brief explanation of just how painful and assaulting your choice is for my communities both in Bosnia, and its diaspora. It is simple to employ the cliche that an artist’s political or moral positions should be separated from their work, but I would argue that in today’s political climate this is an unreasonable and willfully ignorant expectation.
    [Show full text]
  • Language Legislation and Identity in Finland Fennoswedes, the Saami and Signers in Finland’S Society
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Helsingin yliopiston digitaalinen arkisto UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI Language Legislation and Identity in Finland Fennoswedes, the Saami and Signers in Finland’s Society Anna Hirvonen 24.4.2017 University of Helsinki Faculty of Law Public International Law Master’s Thesis Advisor: Sahib Singh April 2017 Tiedekunta/Osasto Fakultet/Sektion – Faculty Laitos/Institution– Department Oikeustieteellinen Helsingin yliopisto Tekijä/Författare – Author Anna Inkeri Hirvonen Työn nimi / Arbetets titel – Title Language Legislation and Identity in Finland: Fennoswedes, the Saami and Signers in Finland’s Society Oppiaine /Läroämne – Subject Public International Law Työn laji/Arbetets art – Level Aika/Datum – Month and year Sivumäärä/ Sidoantal – Number of pages Pro-Gradu Huhtikuu 2017 74 Tiivistelmä/Referat – Abstract Finland is known for its language legislation which deals with the right to use one’s own language in courts and with public officials. In order to examine just how well the right to use one’s own language actually manifests in Finnish society, I examined the developments of language related rights internationally and in Europe and how those developments manifested in Finland. I also went over Finland’s linguistic history, seeing the developments that have lead us to today when Finland has three separate language act to deal with three different language situations. I analyzed the relevant legislations and by examining the latest language barometer studies, I wanted to find out what the real situation of these language and their identities are. I was also interested in the overall linguistic situation in Finland, which is affected by rising xenophobia and the issues surrounding the ILO 169.
    [Show full text]
  • Mustasch Släpper Ny Singel "What Is Wrong" Och Startar Kampanj
    Omslag: "What Is Wrong" 2019-05-03 09:45 CEST Mustasch släpper ny singel "What Is Wrong" och startar kampanj Mustasch ligger inte på latsidan. Bandet fortsätter att förse världen med starka alster när de vill och hur de vill. I mars släppte Mustasch singeln "Blood In Blood Out" som spelats en hel del på radio, och redan i dag kommer de med ny hård tonkonst - "What Is Wrong". Med nya singeln vill Mustasch sätta fokus på det faktum att antalet unga män ökar bland de som begår självmord. - "What Is Wrong" är vår kampsång för unga män som lider av psykisk ohälsa. Män förväntas vara starka och vågar inte söka hjälp. Det vill vi i Mustasch ändra på. I samband med att nya singeln släpps, startar vi även kampanjen #whatiswrong. Jag har själv tre döttrar och uppskattar förstås de kampanjer som belyser unga kvinnors situation. Men det är ett faktum att självmord ökar bland unga män och det måste vi sätta stopp för. Vi vill att alla män ska veta att det är en styrkehandling att våga söka hjälp, säger bandets sångare Ralf Gyllenhammar. "What Is Wrong" är Mustaschs andra singelsläpp på den egna skivetiketten Tritonus Records. Bandet kommer att släppa en singel digitalt varje eller varannan månad fram till dess att fullängdaren levereras senare i höst. - Vi vill att fansen ska vara med hela vägen. När skivan sedan släpps i höst så har de redan hunnit lyssna in sig på låtarna när vi åker på turné. Men vi kommer även att addera några extra låtar på vinylen, berättar Ralf.
    [Show full text]
  • Swedish-Speaking Population As an Ethnic Group in Finland
    SWEDISH-SPEAKING POPULATION AS AN ETHNIC GROUP IN FINLAND Elli Karjalainen" POVZETEK ŠVEDSKO GOVOREČE PREBIVALSTVO KOT ETNIČNA SKUPNOST NA FINSKEM Prispevek obravnava švedsko govoreče prebivalstvo na Finskem, ki izkazuje kot manjši- na, sebi lastne zakonitosti v rasti, populacijski strukturi in geografski razporeditvi. Obra- vnava tudi učinke mešanih zakonov in vključuje tudi vedno aktualne razprave o uporabi finskega jezika na Finskem. Tako v absolutnem kot relativnem smislu upadata število in delež švedskega prebi- valstva na Finskem. Zadnji dostopni podatki govore o 296 840 prebivalcih oziroma 6% deležu Švedov v skupnem številu Finske narodnosti. Švedska poselitev je nadpovprečno zgoščena na jugu in zahodu države. Stalen upad števila članov švedske narodnostne skup- nosti gre pripisati emigraciji, internim migracijskim tokovom, mešanim zakonom in upadu fertilnosti prebivalstva. Tudi starostna struktura švedskega prebivalstva ne govori v prid lastni reprodukciji. Odločilnega pomena je tudi, da so pripadniki švedske narodnosti v povprečju bolj izobraženi kot Finci. Pred kratkim seje zastavilo vprašanje ali je potrebno v finskih šolah ohranjati švedščino kot obvezen učni predmet. Introduction Finland is a bilingual country, with Finnish and Swedish as the official languages of the republic. The Swedish-speaking population is defined as Finnish citizens who live in Finland and speak Swedish as their mother tongue, 'mothertongue' regarded as the language of which the person in question has the best command. Children still too young to speak are registered according to the native tongue of their parents, principally of the mother (Fougstedt 1981: 22). Finland's Swedish-speaking population is here discussed as a minority group: what kind of a population group they form, and how this group differs in population structure from the total population.
    [Show full text]
  • Finnish Society Course
    Finnish society course Finnish society Finland is located in Europe on the northern hemisphere of the globe. Finland is one of the Nordic countries. The others are Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland. Finland shares a border with three neighbouring countries: Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east. Finland’s population is about 5.5 million and the surface area is around 338,500 square km. The population density in Fin- land is one of lowest in Europe. Finland has many forests and lakes: up to 75% of the surface area is forest and 10% water. Suomi Venäjä The official languages of Finland are Finnish, Swedish and Sámi. 4.8 million Finnish people speak Finnish as their mother tongue, 280,000 speak Swedish, and 1,900 speak Sámi. Oth- Norja er large language groups are Russian (79,000) and Estonian Ruotsi speakers (49,000). Everyone in Finland has the right to speak Viro their own language and enjoy their culture. About 69% of Finnish people belong to the Evangelic-Lu- theran church and 1,1% to the Orthodox Church. 1.7% have other religions. About 29% of the population do not belong to any religion. Freedom of religion is respected in Finland, and everyone can follow whichever religion they choose, or none. The right to follow a religion is safeguarded under the Constitution of Finland. Finnish society course - Finnish society - 2/2021 - englanti 2 History The state People have lived in Finland for more than 9,000 years. Dur- Finland is a republic headed by the President.
    [Show full text]
  • Family Language Policy in Bilingual Finnish and Swedish Families in Finland
    FAMILY LANGUAGE POLICY IN BILINGUAL FINNISH AND SWEDISH FAMILIES IN FINLAND Austin Huhta Master’s Thesis Applied Linguistics Department of Language and Communication Studies University of Jyväskylä Fall 2020 UNIVERSITY OF JYVÄSKYLÄ Faculty Department Humanities and Social Sciences Department of Language and Communication Studies Author Austin Huhta Title Family Language Policy in Bilingual Finnish and Swedish Families in Finland Subject Level Applied Language Studies Master’s Thesis Month and year Number of pages December 2020 30 Abstract In Finland families are only allowed to choose one language for their child to be the child’s L1 even if the family is bilingual. With both Finnish and Swedish being national languages of Finland this thesis looked into which language a family chose, why they chose it, and how they helped their child maintain it. Looking at their perspective on this can allow us to get further insight into family language policy in Finland. The research method used here is a case study, with semi-structured interviews for the data collection and interpretive phenomenological analysis for the data analysis. This thesis interviewed a bilingual family with a Finn and a Swedish Swede and their one child. It found that while their initial language choice was Swedish, that their family language policy was dynamic. Over time the child was switched from Swedish medium education to Finnish medium education; however, at home multiple family language policies worked together to help maintain his Swedish language skills. The findings demonstrated that the right combination of family language policies and more formal educational settings can work together to help children grow up to be bilingual even if the minority language is mainly used at home.
    [Show full text]
  • An Awakening in Sweden: Contemporary Discourses of Swedish Cultural and National Identity
    An Awakening in Sweden: Contemporary Discourses of Swedish Cultural and National Identity Kaitlin Elizabeth May Department of Anthropology Undergraduate Honors Thesis University of Colorado Boulder Spring 2018 Thesis Advisor Alison Cool | Department of Anthropology Committee Members Carla Jones | Department of Anthropology Benjamin R. Teitelbaum | Department of Ethnomusicology For my Mothers Grandmothers Mödrar Mormödrar Around the world i Acknowledgements I am very lucky to have so many people who have supported me along this journey. Alison, you are an amazing advisor. You have been so patient and supportive in helping me to figure out this challenge and learn new skills. Thank you for pushing me to think of new ideas and produce more pages. I hope that I can be an Anthropologist like you some day. Carla, thank you for being both my cheerleader and my reality check. For the past year you have given me so much of your time and been supportive, encouraging, and firm. Thank you to Professor Teitelbaum for helping me to prepare my fieldwork and agreeing to be on my committee despite being on paternity leave for the semester. Your support and knowledge has been very influential throughout my research. Tack till min svenska lärare Merete för hennes tålamod och vägledning. Tack till min svenska familj och vänner: Josephine, Ove, Malte, Alice, Cajsa, Tommy, Ann-Britt, Anna, Linnea, Ulla, Niklas, Cajsa, Anders, Marie, Felicia, och Maxe. Jag saknar alla otroligt mycket. Mom and Dad, thank you for supporting me as I switched between academic worlds. You have put so much effort into listening and learning about Anthropology.
    [Show full text]
  • Language Variation and Ethnicity in a Multicultural East London Secondary School
    Language Variation and Ethnicity in a Multicultural East London Secondary School Shivonne Marie Gates Queen Mary, University of London April 2019 Abstract Multicultural London English (MLE) has been described as a new multiethnolect borne out of indirect language contact among ethnically-diverse adolescent friendship groups (Cheshire et al. 2011). Evidence of ethnic stratification was also found: for example, “non-Anglo” boys were more likely to use innovative MLE diphthong variants than other (male and female) participants. However, the data analysed by Cheshire and colleagues has limited ethnographic information and as such the role that ethnicity plays in language change and variation in London remains unclear. This is not dissimilar to other work on multiethnolects, which presents an orientation to a multiethnic identity as more salient than different ethnic identities (e.g. Freywald et al. 2011). This thesis therefore examines language variation in a different MLE-speaking adolescent community to shed light on the dynamics of ethnicity in a multicultural context. Data were gathered through a 12-month ethnography of a Year Ten (14-15 years old) cohort at Riverton, a multi-ethnic secondary school in Newham, East London, and include field notes and interviews with 27 students (19 girls, 8 boys). A full multivariate analysis of the face and price vowels alongside a quantitative description of individual linguistic repertoires sheds light on MLE’s status as the new London vernacular. Building on the findings of Cheshire et al. (2011), the present study suggests that language variation by ethnicity can have social meaning in multi-ethnic communities. There are apparent ethnolinguistic repertoires: ethnic minority boys use more advanced vowel realisations alongside high rates of DH-stopping, and the more innovative was/were levelling system.
    [Show full text]