Language
Swedish belongs to the North Germanic branch of the Germanic Languages, along with
Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic and Faroese, and is the largest of the Nordic languages.
Swedish is spoken by most of the 8.8 million people living in Sweden today and by
some 300,000 Swedish-speaking Finns in Finland (where Swedish is the official second
language). In addition, som 300,000 immigrants in the USA and Canada can speak
Swedish. It is also understood by Norwegians, Danes and a number of second
generation Swedes in North America. The "standard" language spoken today
as encountered in the mass media is based largely on dialects of the area around
Stockholm. However, in Sweden, with its considerable longitude, there are many
regional variations.
The Swedish alphabet uses the
26 letters from the english alphabet and adds 3 additional letters: å, ä, and ö.
Culture
It is undoubtedly through the export of its culture that Sweden has had its greatest
impact upon the world. From the strong, clean design sensibility of its Functionalist
movement to the immaculate cinematic masterpieces of Ingmar Bergman, the unique cultural
outlook of Sweden has gained an international currency that far exceeds what one might
expect from this modestly-sized nation. One source of this unusual cultural strength,
paradoxically enough, has been Sweden's historic position at the margins of Europe.
Relatively isolated from the main currents of continental European cultural change, many
of Sweden's artistic traditions developed their own rich and distinctive
character. Drawing inspiration from folk culture, as well as from the stunning beauty of
the land itself, these traditions have maintained a vitality and a bold simplicity that
are now appreciated all over the world.
Swedish design and architecture are best known through their contribution to the
functionalist movement, which in the 1930s introduced the world to the clean,
sophisticated designs that we now associate as much with modernism itself as with
Scandinavia and Sweden in particular. Among the notable figures in this movement was the
architect Erik Gunnar Asplund.
In literature, Sweden is best known for the groundbreaking works of August Strindberg, one
of the original badboys of modernism. Among Sweden's many other internationally-known
writers are Selma Lagerlöf, Vilhelm Moberg, Pär Lagerkvist and Astrid Lindgren, the last
of whom is better known through the name of her most famous character, Pippi Longstocking.
Without question, the most universally venerated aspect of Swedish culture is film. Ingmar
Bergman, Greta Garbo, Max von Sydow, Liv Ullman, Anita Ekberg, and Ingrid Bergman, all
Swedes, are all among the greatest names in cinema history. Bergman's visually
sensuous and psychologically intimate films created a worldwide sensation in the 1950s and
1960s, and he ranks today among the best loved and most influential filmmakers of all
time. Among Bergman's masterworks are
Wild Strawberries, Smiles of a Summer Night, The Seventh Seal, Cries and Whispers, Autumn
Sonata, Scenes from a Marriage, and Fanny and Alexander.
And, of course, Sweden is home to the world's most revered award, the Nobel Prize.
Established by Alfred Nobel (1833-1896), the Swedish inventor of dynamite, the prize is
awarded each year in five different categories: Chemistry, Physics, Medicine or
Physiology, Literature, and Peace. In 1968, the Swedish National Treasury established a
prize for economic science, dedicated to the memory of Alfred Nobel and awarded each year
with the other prizes.
Links
Swedish phrases
Swedish Language
Information
Swedish cultural Information
