Swedish is a North Germanic language with around 9 million speakers mainly in Sweden and Finland, and also in Estonia, Norway, Canada and the USA. It is closely related to Norwegian and Danish and is mutually intelligible with them to a large extent, particularly in its written form.
One of the earliest uses of Swedish as a literary language was "Gustav Vasa's Bible", translated and published in 1540-1 under the patronage of King Gustav Vasa.
Finland was ruled by Sweden from the 12th century until 1809 and during that period, Swedish was the main language of government and education there. Today Finnish and Swedish have equal status as official languages in Finland.
| A a | B b | C c | D d | E e | F f | G g | H h | I i | J j |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| a | be | se | de | e | eff | ge | hå | i | ji |
| K k | L l | M m | N n | O o | P p | Q q | R r | S s | T t |
| kå | ell | em | en | o | pe | ku | ärr | ess | te |
| U u | V v | W w | X x | Y y | Z z | Å å | Ä ä | Ö ö | |
| u | ve | dubbel-ve | eks | y | säta | å | ä | ö |
Z only appears in foreign loanwords.
A detailed guide to Swedish pronunciation (with audio) can be found at:
http://web.hhs.se/isa/swedish/chap9.htm
Alla människor är födda fria och lika i värde och rättigheter. De är utrustade med förnuft och samvete och bör handla gentemot varandra i en anda av broderskap.
A recording of this text by Anders
Alla människor är födda fria och lika i värdighet och rättigheter. De är utrustade med förnuft och samvete och bör handla gentemot varandra i en anda av broderskap.
A recording of this text by Glenn Brude
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They
are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another
in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)
Information about Swedish | Swedish phrases | Swedish kinship terms | Tonguetwisters in Swedish | Tower of Babel of in Swedish | Swedish learning materials
Information about Swedish language and culture
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_language
http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/resources/global-etiquette/sweden.html
Online Swedish lessons
http://www2.hhs.se/isa/swedish/
http://www.onlineswedish.com
http://www.personal.psu.edu/adr10/swedish.html
http://www.ielanguages.com/swedish.html
http://www.sweol.com
SwedishPod101.com - Learn Swedish with Free Audio and Video Lessons
Swedish Flashcards
http://www.swedish-flashcards.com
Swedish phrases
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/other/quickfix/swedish.shtml
http://www.101languages.net/swedish/basics.html
http://linguanaut.com/english_swedish.htm
http://www.transparent.com/languagepages/Swedish/SwPhrases.htm
http://www.speakswedish.co.uk/phrases/basic_phrases
http://www2.hhs.se/isa/swedish/chap2.htm
http://www.learn-swedish-language-software.com/phrases/FSSwedish.htm
Online Swedish dictionaries
http://folkets-lexikon.csc.kth.se/folkets/folkets.en.html
http://www.freedict.com/onldict/swe.html
http://www.ectaco.co.uk/English-Swedish-Dictionary/
http://www.freelang.net/online/swedish.php
http://g3.spraakdata.gu.se/saob/
Swedish Electronic talking dictionaries
http://www.ectaco.com
Online Swedish Radio
http://www.sr.se
http://www.listenlive.eu/sweden.html
Online Swedish news
http://www.dn.se
http://www.gp.se
http://www.svd.se
http://www.sydsvenskan.se
http://www.onlinenewspapers.com/sweden.htm
Project Runeberg - a volunteer effort to create free electronic editions of classic Nordic (Scandinavian) literature: http://runeberg.org
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