In the past few decades, the Swedish language has had a few intruders, such as English. The trend has resulted in the birth of a few slangs that were non-existent in the language before. Such slangs, as harmless as they can be spread like wildfire and sooner than later are picked up by the majority of the Swedish population. If the trend continues, the Swedish language could suffer a domain loss, which is when a language loses its ability and power to explain certain phenomena without invoking other complementary languages. According to researchers, the intrusion of other languages, particularly English, has led to a decline in the use of Swedish in academic materials such as dissertations (Soler et al., 2018). Additionally, most of the new words start as slangs on the streets but end up being included in the dictionary by the Swedish Council. Swedish schools are also not left behind in adopting English in their teachings the same way the country's leading tech industry also prioritizes the language.
The borrowing of words from other languages can be traced back to the 1200s and World War II, where America's victory led to a dominance of English in the world (Soler et al., 2018). The trend, however, is gearing towards a language of informality, which makes it less preferred in formal settings. For this reason, the Swedish languages' dominance is slowly in the advertisement, and entertainment industries. As such, it is slowly fading and being replaced by English. The result of this is a loss in the status of the language, where the fundamental areas such as business fail to incorporate the Swedish language. Therefore, there stands a significant risk that some Swedish terms will cease to exist, particularly when they fail to be updated as quickly as the other slangs are being included in the dictionaries.
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The Swedish language has majorly been affected by its speakers' need to borrow words. To begin with, the language was hugely impacted by German, particularly during the middle ages, which led to a change in its definition, in that Swedish is often referred to as a Germanic language. The other change that also influenced the language was the Swedish's affiliation to the French citizens during the world war, after which, English developed an influence throughout the world (Soler et al., 2018). While most other languages tend to maintain their originality, Swedish always adopts new worlds resulting in a more dilute and contemporary language form. This is because borrowed words tend to be pronounced differently in other languages, but for Swedish, they remain in that form. For example, the industrial term dynamo retains its English form but is pronounced differently in Swedish (Soler et al., 2018). This shows the extent of influence that other languages like English have on Swedish. Borrowing of word fillers also results in some controversies, particularly when similar words mean different things. For example, the word agenda in English means the list of items set to be discussed in a meeting while the same term in Swedish means a pocketbook (Soler et al., 2018). In the same way, the intern in English means a trainee or student who is working in a firm to gain field-related experience while the same term in Swedish means an inmate or prisoner. Therefore, borrowing of words creates confusion, particularly when the words mean different things in either language.
Reference
Soler, J., Björkman, B., & Kuteeva, M. (2018). University Language Policies in Estonia And Sweden: Exploring the Interplay Between English And National Languages in Higher Education. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development , 39 (1), 29-43.
