The Swedish language, casually spoken | Johanna speaking Swedish | Wikitongues
Vložit
- čas přidán 3. 03. 2021
- The Swedish language is spoken by 10 million people, primarily in Sweden and parts of Finland. A close cousin of Norwegian and Danish, Swedish is descended from Old Norse, the common ancestral language of Scandinavian peoples today.
Explore more: wikitongues.org/languages
Contribute: wikitongues.org/submit-a-video
More from Wikipedia: "Swedish (Swedish: [ˈsvɛ̂nːska] (listen)) is a North Germanic language spoken natively by 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden (as the sole official language) and in parts of Finland, where it has equal legal standing with Finnish. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish, although the degree of mutual intelligibility is largely dependent on the dialect and accent of the speaker. Written Norwegian and Danish are usually more easily understood by Swedish speakers than the spoken languages, due to the differences in tone, accent and intonation. Swedish is a descendant of Old Norse, the common language of the Germanic peoples living in Scandinavia during the Viking Era. It has the most speakers of the North Germanic languages. Standard Swedish, spoken by most Swedes, is the national language that evolved from the Central Swedish dialects in the 19th century and was well established by the beginning of the 20th century. While distinct regional varieties and rural dialects still exist, the written language is uniform and standardized. The standard word order is, as in most Germanic languages, V2, which means that the finite verb (V) appears in the second position (2) of a declarative main clause. Swedish morphology is similar to English; that is, words have comparatively few inflections. Swedish has two genders and is generally seen to have two grammatical cases - nominative and genitive (except for pronouns that, as in English, also are inflected in the object form) - although it is debated if the genitive in Swedish should be seen as a genitive case or just the nominative plus the so-called genitive s, then seen as a clitic. Swedish has two grammatical numbers - plural and singular. Adjectives have discrete comparative and superlative forms and are also inflected according to gender, number and definiteness. The definiteness of nouns is marked primarily through suffixes (endings), complemented with separate definite and indefinite articles. The prosody features both stress and in most dialects tonal qualities. The language has a comparatively large vowel inventory. Swedish is also notable for the voiceless dorso-palatal velar fricative, a highly variable consonant phoneme. Swedish has also had historic use in Estonia, although the current status of the Estonian Swedish speakers is almost extinct. Instead, it is used in the Swedish diaspora, most notably in Oslo, Norway, with more than 50,000 resident Swedes.
This video was recorded by Johanna Sjöberg Olson in Stockholm, Sweden, and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. To download a copy, please contact hello@wikitongues.org.
Help us record another language by supporting on Patreon: patreon.com/wikitongues
Submit your own video here: wikitongues.org/submit-a-video
Sign up for our monthly newsletter: eepurl.com/gr-ZQH
Caption and translate this video: amara.org/en/videos/EpkTpETKfywP
As a Swede this warms my heart. I've also had a lot of people say during my travels that it sounds like singing when I've spoken to other Swedes. To me it's fascinating, I don't really hear it myself but I can sort of understand why. Also, this is a great channel.
I love this channel too ... the human capacity of language is fascinating. So many languages ... or dialects of those languages.
Thank you both! Tack så mycket. We appreciate you
Yes, it sounds very sing-song to me.
Hej Fisklina! Hur har du det? Jag är amerikansk och kan tala svenska, jag tycker personligen att svenska är ett vackert språk och jag älskar Skandinavien och Skandinaver!
@@mrmatt1165 Hejsan! Det är bra tack. Hur är det själv? Vad roligt att höra. Din svenska är väldigt bra för övrigt. Hoppas du får möjlighet att komma hit någon gång. Eller en gång till om du har varit här förut :)
I was today years old when I learned Swedish uses tones in the language. It just sounds so bright and happy sounding!
Yes especially spoken by nice Swedish woman
The importance is often overstated, especially here. The main way of telling the difference between "anden" (meaning the duck) and "anden" (meaning the spirit) is taken from context. Swedish is not a tonal language but native speakers do use variations in pitch accent. They have absolutely no trouble whatsoever understanding non-native speakers who aren't adept at that aspect, however, because context overrides the need for it.
@@nex69696 Depends on the dialect. In some places, the pitch is very important, and in others less so. A single incorrect pitch typically won't cause problems, but if you allow multiple errors to stack up you will find that people quickly lose track of what you are saying. Context can't really be leaned on fully to interpret the meaning, place names are one such thing where it is often impossible to understand what the other person is saying without a correct pitch.
@@nex69696 True. But it is nevertheless an interesting feature that doesn't exist in almost any other european language and so I find it worth mentioning
It has *pitch accent*, not tones. Other languages that have pitch accent are Japanese and (probably) Punjabi.
Swedish is such a bouncy, up-beat sounding language. Everyone sounds like they're in a brilliantly good mood. Love it x💖
It’s fun considering that the stereotype of swedes are that they are depressed and introverted
Haha, the opposite in German xD
That is because Swedish has a pitched accent
Swedish is such an elegant sounding language!
True
Worked with a Swede at Amazon and when she spoke it was amazing not gonna lie but understood nothing lol
Elegant?? Swedish????? Wtf 😂😂
Said no one ever
jaaaaa
That tongue twister sounded as if one of the audio channels switched polarity.
This one was lovely! So fun and playful. I wish we could hear tongue twisters in every language. A bunch of tongue twisters in different languages all edited together would make for a fun video.
This is a great idea at a very good time! We've been working on ideas for original content in addition to our crowdsourced language videos, so stay tuned :)
I took Swedish courses in university (had my B1 exam a few weeks ago) and could understand everything. Such a gorgeous language and easy to learn for a native German speaker (or I guess for anyone who speaks a Germanic language). Tack för den här videon! :)
As a native speaker of english
Learning german is a lot easier than spanish
@@ace1durago04 because english is germanic
@succatag67 I agree in some ways, although it should be said that german grammar can be a real pain in the ass for a learner!
Wie hast du Schwedisch gelernt?
1:36
Now that's a tongue twister!!!
it's easy for me since i live in northern sweden and have a dialect/accent where we dont have that "sj" sound so we say something like "sch" instead... hard to explain.
I studied Norwegian for a couple of years and I kind of understand some things
@Wikitongues here is a translation. I couldn’t find where to submit it so feel free to use it!
“Hi, my name is Johanna and today I’m going to speak my native language, which is Swedish.
Swedish is a North Germanic language, closely related to Danish, Norwegian and to a certain extent, Icelandic.
This is because they all stem from the ancient Norse language which was a language that was spoken in the Nordic countries over 1000 years ago.
Swedish has a lot of influences from English, German, French and Latin and due to the immigration of the last century, Swedish has many loan words from Arabic, Turkish, Serbian, Finnish etc.
I find that speaking Swedish is lovely.
We have nice pitches. I’m often told by non Swedish speakers that it sounds like I’m singing when I talk.
Swedish has a lot of nice sounds, a favourite word is “sjö” (means lake),
listen to it, “sjö”.
Nice. It’s a nice sound.
There is a nice tongue twister, which is almost impossible to learn if you’re not a native speaker, which has to do with “sjöar” (lakes) and nice things;
”Sjuttiosju sjösjuka sjömän sköttes av sju sköna sjuksköterskor på ett sjunkande skepp i Shanghai”
Translation;
Seventy-seven seasick sailors were looked after by seven lovely nurses on a sinking ship in Shanghai.
Beat that if you can!
Pitch is important in Swedish because it can alter the meaning of a word.
Here is an example;
“Ser du anden?” or “ser du anden”?
Maybe you heard the difference?
These are two different words.
The first is “ande” as in the spirit,
second;
“anden” is the singular definitive form of duck, a bird.
Varm greetings to you from a cold Stockholm!”
Tack Anna! We usually leave a link in a pinned comment to add subtitles directly, but translations in the comments work, too! Thanks for being a part of this channel-we appreciate you
when she says, "listen to it" at 1:16 and "there is a nice tongue-" at 1:25 (at least what it sounded like) was that still Swedish or did she shift to English?
@@historicalaccuracy15 I hear "lyssna på det" at 1:16, with a very soft d. That "nice" at 1:23 seems to be an English loanword.
@@historicalaccuracy15 "lyssna på det" and "nice(eng) tungvrickare"
@@Wikitongues Why not get the person sending the vid to translate it when possible?
I love the soft accent of Swedish
hi😍
I am learning swedish and you speaking the language so beautifully is giving me motivation! Thank you
That's the best presentation of Swedish I've heard! Short, rich in information and to the point!
Lovely! I particularly like the tongue-twister, that's fun!
I loved her energy and talk a lot!
i'm on unit 26 in duolingo, i can understand maybe 40-50% as you speak, and while i will never reach this level of fluency i can take some inspiration
and yes swedish sounds very melodic and pleasant to our foreign ears
That is excellent to understand close to 50%. I am very happy for you. Keep up the fantastic work. Peace.
I like Swedish and the other Nordic languages. They sound so beautiful ☺️
what about Danish? I love Danish the most and it's sad to see a lot of people hate it :D
@@pelinyarba I like Danish too of course! I love it for its interesting phonology! I have heard other people remark of it as if Danes are speaking with a potato in their throat though lol😅
@@nicolausteslaus Very funny and original
@@nicolausteslaus More like Arabic, you dick-head! Not exactly the biggest fan of Muslims, but I don't hate any race/culture/religion either. Välkommen in Swedish and velkommen in Norwegian and Danish, and willkommen in German.
@@pelinyarba Danish sounds strange, but I love all Scandinavians, especially Swedes. Are you a Dane? The name Pelin sounds Finnish or Estonian.
I'm American with Swedish ancestry and I really wish my grandparents passed down the language to my Dad.
@Robert Johnson I'm an Olson
you can learn it yourself
What's up bloodbrother. Never to late to learn. Of course, it's hard to learn a new language if you don't see the point of using it hehe :D Ha det bra broder.
You're right about the tonalities. I love it!
it's so freaking elegant, absolutely love it. can't wait to learn this amazing language.
It's fascinating to see people have an opinion (good or bad) on how their native language sounds. The way I see my native language (English) is that "it is what it is" - I can't really gauge how nice it is, except accents/dialects other than my own. For the record though, Swedish is super cute, not just for its almost musical cadence but the soft, slight vocal fry they seem to do at the end of some phrases/sentences, especially the girls.
Italian girl trying to learn Swedish here. I really don't hear any difference between the two "anden" (ok, maybe I hear something, but that's just a almost invisible difference).
Anyway I found videos like this one (Swedish speaking not too fast + Swedish subtitles) to be extremely helpful for learning, so, really, thank you for making this!
Thank you! It is not that strange that you don't hear the different phonems, it is something the brain has to learn to sort out at a young age. I would describe it as anden (the spirit) has two upgoing tones while anden (the mallard) has one up, one down :)
@@johannasjobergolson645 thank you so much again Johanna!
One of the most beautiful languages in my opinion :)
Trevligt att träffas! Det var fint!
Legit the most beautiful language in the world from the most beautiful country in the world ❤️ wish I could speak it fluently some day!
Greetings from a cold Chicago!
After playing generation zero, a completely Swedish spoken and written game, im obsessed with Swedish😂
Such an amazing world design in Gen0. I don’t play it much anymore, but I was addicted to it for a while lol
@@cl86241 Might wanna come back, since russian machines arrived in the marshland update. They attack the swedish ones aswell, so in some places its a total warzone :P
Sounds so nice! Love from another chilly country 🇨🇦
Ok I am convinced, I couldn’t choose danish swedish or Norwegian but I love how you sound ❤
So the use of tones? That's so interesting! I wonder how similar tones used are to the tones of Cantonese..as tones are everything in speaking Cantonese dialect properly. My grandmother spoke many different languages and I think I acquired my interest in different languages from her.
Swedish is such a beautiful language!! I don't hear it spoken much, was really lovely ♥️
To my understanding, the tones in Cantonese are much more intricate and complicated than the ones in Swedish. However, tone is much more important than most Swedes realize as it not only can determine a word's meaning but also set the mood for an entire sentence :) Thank you!
Swedish does not have tones in the way Chinese languages do. We have what's called pitch accents and there's only two of them. It's similar to tones but not quite the same thing. The pitch accents differ depending on the speaker's local dialect and some dialects don't have pitch accents at all, like the Swedish spoken in Finland for example. There is a brilliant and comprehensive video here on youtube about the Swedish accent system by Academia Cervena called "Understanding the Swedish Pitch Accent" if you'd like to know more :)
I'd be very happy if you accepted my friendship😍
i love swedish very much. love from croatia
it took me half way into the video to realise there were translated subtitles
Swedish is so nice and bouncy ☺️ it feels round
Swedish is sooooooo beautiful!
You guys should hear someone like me speak Swedish. Im from the southern part of Sweden. It's literally not even the same language. People with her accent sometimes don't even understand me haha..
you can send in videos i think (please i would love to hear some swedish dialects they’re great)
My friend from Malmö says the same! I can hear the difference between Stockholmers speaking Swedish and Southeners doing it :)
Not being a spoiler but Swedes and Norwegians don't understand SPOKEN Danish, i have come across a couple of Danish videos here on CZcams: Two videos with a interview with King Diamond, a Danish heavy metal singer and lots of Swedes were complaining that they found spoken Danish absolutely unintelligible, luckily there are English subtitles on both videos.
On another occasion, the situation was surreal, it was a Danish language course basic level and a native Swede guy told that he had to listen to it several times to understand it!
Depends a lot on where you're from in Sweden. Southerners, especially from Skåne and Blekinge will have an easier time understanding Danes.
You have such great energy!! Swedish also looks beautiful in writing. I know it's the same Latin alphabet I'm used to, but the order of letters and the diacritics somehow make it particularly nice 😅
I recently became infatuated with the Swedish language and I think it's because it sounds so nice, it's still the Latin-based alphabet, I can understand quite a number of the words as there seems to be a high number of English loan words (an other languages, like she said) in Swedish, and, the diacritics are so beautiful! Going from English as my mother tongue to Nordic languages that seem to use diacritics religiously is such a fun experience. I just wish I had the ability and time to learn languages past my interests in them.
@@user-dg3ug7ny5d Many similar words are not actually loan words that Swedish has taken from English but words that English took from old norse for 1000 years ago.
I'm usually pretty good at placing unfamiliar languages but if I heard this on the street I'd draw a blank. It sounds to me like russian, german, french, and arabic rolled into one.
Such a beautiful language
Since I'm requesting people to provide subtitles, or even just transcription in comments, I have done my due diligence by providing Swedish subtitles for this video.
I think that IKEA and Volvo among others valid that video
I listen to this every few months to see how well I’m doing. I think I will be fluent in 13 months total (i started in Nov ‘22) I can understand so much now 😊
i love your language!!!
I love the midsommar vibes 😻
I have so much to learn. I thought my Swedish was semi-decent at least. This video made me realize I am not even a novice.
I love the way Swedish sounds
Swedish was actually my first language, although when my family moved to the west no one here really spoke Swedish so I forgot it entirely 🥲 Although I find even just listening to it is sort of, idk, comforting?
Anywho, I hope to re-learn it one day!
Swedish is HOT. As being a native american english speaker and coming from a spanish family english and spanish sound barbaric compared to other languages. Swedish and russian sound awesome but obviously as a male I like to hear females speak foreign languages.
Wow very beautiful language 😍
I have tried to learn some Svenska but I wish I could speak it as well as you🙂!
I am at B1 in Norwegian and I could understand most of what you were saying, which really surprised me haha!
Hey, could you share resources for learning Norwegian? (Bokmål huh?)
Hej do och tack för möjligheten att träna
Riktigt pärla, vackr, flytande, inflöde, tack för hjälp. 🥀💐😍
Bra innehåll, jag prenumererar på din kanal.
❤❤ thanks my teacher
I could do the tongue twister back in the 80s. But it's been a long time since I've even been exposed to Swedish. I wish I had kept it up. What was odd was if I relaxed my mind a bit, I could follow a little bit here and there.
As an Asian(JP), it sounded like combination of german and dutch.
Besides the show being great, this is also why I watch Ragnarök
As a Norwegian it's actually really interesting to see how easy it is for me to understand Swedish, despite it being a completely different language
Hej Jenny! Jag heter Matt. Jag är amerikansk och kan tala svenska, och jag förstår norska och danska fint. Hur står det till?
@@mrmatt1165
Oi, det er ikkje ofte eg "møter" ein amerikaner som snakker svensk! Kjekt å sjå :)
Eg har ein dialekt som eg også skriver med, men eg håper du forstår litt likevel
@@jennyengh5957 Haha! xD Ja, jag tycker om det svenska språket.
Perhaps they're actually dialects of the same language?
@@timbuktu777 it actually has to do with Scandinavian history, so technically, kinda, yeah
Since both denmark owned norway at one point, danish was the default language, sweden and norway was also in a union and by the time norway got their own independence in 1814, the old language norway had (Norwegian Norse), had pretty much vanished, and a bunch of arguing happened (still honestly is) whether everyone would stick to danish, or create a new language. In the end two were made, two different kinds of written norwegians which is Nynorsk and Bokmål.
Bokmål was the "brand new and different language", and nynorsk was one that was created by a guy called Ivar Aasen who traveled the country to learn about all the different dialects to create a new written language which would be a combination of them all.
But basically, in conclusion, Scandinavia has a connection with eachother in history and due to the union with sweden and the ownership denmark had over norway before it, the language turned out a lot more similar.
I honestly have trouble understanding Norwegian Norse, it's that different-
Swedish metal music brought me here. Sabaton is the best band
There’s some guys sitting in front of me on the train and I’m trying to work out what language they’re speaking🤣🤣
ALLA TILL MIG!
Bra jobbat
0:55 what is that sound :O *!?
cool video. Jag är amerikansk och kan prata svenska. Du är en vacker tjej, tycker jag!
Tack! Vad roligt att du kan prata svenska :)
@@johannasjobergolson645 Varsågod! Ja, jag gillar det svenska språket mycket!
Wow, Swedish will definitely be one of the more challenging languages to learn, but I’m up for the challenge! 😤 It sounds so fun!
it really isn't! The pronunciation is a bit tricky but the grammar is extremely basic if you already speak a Germanic language like English or German. Work hard and you will achieve it :-)
Hardest part will be to keep speaking Swedish while everyone answer to you in English
well english people have a hard time learning other languages but it might be a relief to know that it is easier than chinese :)
It's actually an incredibly easy language if you speak English. I started learning a few months ago, but it's coming to me so easily, it feels like cheating sometimes. 😂
@@Ellary_Rosewood in swedish we call that språkbegåvad 😀
Hejsan från USA. Jag skulle vilja höra mer lika som den här videon, för att utveckla min svenska. Jag bodde i Sverige i 3 år, men nu har jag flyttat tillbaka til USA, där jag inte ju får höra mycket Svenska alls.
As a Dane, I can understand most of what she's saying if I REALLY concentrate.
Now I know how my family talked!
❤️❤️❤️ LOVELY LANGUAGE ❤️❤️❤️
Just started taking Swedish lessons. Very beautiful language, but God that pronunciation is hard!
1:36 to 1:42 I like that
Swedish to me sounds so pretty and unique and it sounds sing song like
Someday, I’ll learn Swedish, but for now, if I can at least become fluent in IKEA, I’ll be happy. 😏
Without a doubt, I'm related to Johanna.
Swedish is one of my favorite languages. I haven't ever known a Swedish person, but I can vaguely understand a lot of Swedish such as in this video. It's not a particularly "useful" language, but it...speaks to me, haha
Åh vad kul!
In my Finnish ears this Riksvenska ("Realm Swedish", the Swedish spoken in Sweden) sounds energetic, cheerful, tonal, elegant, maybe a little posh.
The Finland-Swedish (a.k.a. Moomin Swedish) spoken here in Finland sounds rather different. No tones here, nor that rare /ɧ/ "sje" sound.
Finland-Swedish is what 0.3M people speak as their mother tongue and what every Finn has to study at school.
I tought German was hard to learn, but I enjoyed the video
I LOVE IT!!!!
Hej Johanna (: snyggt jobbat du e duktig eller var det den 68 omtagningen som vi fick höra 👍🇸🇪👍
As an English speaker, I'm having quite a hard time pronouncing the I sound in the word Kanin (rabbit) for instance.
As a Swede, i think it's pretty much the same as the I in "Machine" or the double E in "Seen", if that helps.
I wish there were subtitles ):
We'll see if Johanna is interested in making them! In the meantime, any Swedish speakers can add them here: amara.org/en/videos/EpkTpETKfywP :)
She is just talking abt the origin of Swedish language and the influences from other languages and the sj sound that’s hard to pronounce
Now you've got them! :)
@@johannasjobergolson645 thank you so much angel 💞
I do too! I'd love to here what these people are actually saying ... recently, there was a dude speaking an Africa tongue (lives in the US) who included English subtitles. I could actually respond to what he was saying ( he wished me peace so I did with him)!
1:36 challenge accepted B) I'm going to learn this till I get it right.
HELL YEAH! Proof or it didn't happen ;)
You sound nice.
Also, are you related to Vikings? 😅
As an American that is trying to learn both Swedish and Norwegian (since i have friends from there), the pitch accent thing is similar in Norwegian. Please understand i’m learning so I might not have it exactly correct:
BØNner: are beans
bønNER: are farmers.
True!
I had a seizure trying to understand
Hang on, what was that with Anden/ Anden?? Is Swedish a tonal language, similar to Mandarin?! I wouldn’t have guessed.
It’s definitely a fun language to listen to, but because it doesn’t have the roots of English, it’s completely impossible to guess what is being said, except when you spoke foreign or borrowed words.
I like copying accents, but Swedish really is a tough one without resorting to “bouncing” the words, in that cliche style of mimicry. I see now, that is because of the tones.
I will listen to this over and over, and see if I can start to grasp it…
It has a pitch accent like Japanese.
To my understanding, the tones in Mandarin are much more intricate and complicated than the ones in Swedish. However, tone is much more important than most Swedes realize as it not only can determine a word's meaning but also set the mood for an entire sentence :) Swedish does not have its roots in English, but uses a lot of loan-words from it. In fact, English is more derived from Swedish than the other way around, since Swedish is an older language and had an impact on the pre-English during the Viking era.
I have been told my northern English sounds like northern Germanic to other countries is this correct?
I mainly spoken Spanish and English in my father's household, and in my mother's house mainly English and I could never understand what my mom would speak to her side of the family they spoken Swedish and Norwegian
Sounds like you're from southern Sweden. Little bit of danish inflection in the accent. Skanska?
great.
I'm a native Swedish speaker and live in Malmö - where around half of the population are first or second generation immigrants. One of the most difficult things in Swedish for many foreigners (Arabs, Persians and many other groups) is the word order.
Ex 1: NÄR jag kommer hem SKA JAG äta (WHEN I come home WILL I eat).
Ex 2: OM du vill KAN JAG hjälpa dig (IF you want CAN I help you).
This "reversed" word order is necessary with adverbials of manner, place, time, or condition. Otherwise "sounds it" weird and wrong in our native ears :)
In Finnish our school's CD pronounces everything slower and wayyy stronger. Like jjjättte bbraa for example.
Eu normalmente não sou fã de línguas nórdicas ou germânicas, mas ela falou com tanta empolgação e simpatia que fiquei maravilhado.
Eu to estudando sueco e consegui entender algumas frases olhando pra legenda 🥳
Gorgeous
That was overwhelming. 😅
Wow, I’m here after watch Young Royals series on Netflix 💙🤘🏻
Viking sailors language, great!
Can anyone explain why she makes the sound at 0:39 when she says Latin, the "i" is a sound I've never really heard anywhere other than Swedish. No criticism, just genuine curiosity.
Hahaha, it's my Stockholmian dialect, which has a lot of sharp i's
I'd say Danish and certain varieties of French (Parisian, for instance) also feature that sound
Danish isn't something I hear very often, mostly Norwegian and Swedish as I know people from there, but I know Danish is quite 'throaty so I can see that. I studied French at university and didn't really hear it, maybe a regional thing in France
@@cassius092 No, I meant standard French, even though it's true that not all speakers pronounce it like that. Take a word like "petit", I'm sure you've heard it with that special «i» sound before
Yeah, i hear that, it's just more obvious to me in Swedish