Swedish (Svenska)
Swedish is a North Germanic language with around 9 million speakers in Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Norway, Canada and the USA.
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.
The first known written language of Scandinavia was Old Norse or the Dånsk tunga (Danish tongue), which appeared in Runic inscriptions from about 700 AD onwards. Between 800 and 1050 AD a division began to appear between East Norse, which developed into Swedish and Danish, and West Norse, which developed into Norwegian, Faroese and Icelandic.
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.
Swedish is a North Germanic language with around 9 million speakers in Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Norway, Canada and the USA.
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.
The first known written language of Scandinavia was Old Norse or the Dånsk tunga (Danish tongue), which appeared in Runic inscriptions from about 700 AD onwards. Between 800 and 1050 AD a division began to appear between East Norse, which developed into Swedish and Danish, and West Norse, which developed into Norwegian, Faroese and Icelandic.
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.