Swenglish
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Swenglish (or svengelska in Swedish) is a colloquial term meaning either:
- English spoken with a heavy Swedish accent or heavily influenced by Swedish vocabulary, grammar, or syntax.
- Swedish with many English words.
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[edit] English heavily influenced by Swedish
[edit] English influenced by Swedish pronunciation
Swedish has many more monophthong vowels than English. This difference is sometimes disregarded by Swedish speakers, resulting in mispronunciation. Swedish also lacks some common English phonemes, such as [θ] (voiceless interdental fricative), [ð] (voiced interdental fricative) and [z] (voiced alveolar fricative). In general, written Swedish corresponds to the pronunciation more closely than in English. This too can lead to mispronunciation and incorrectly stressed words.
[edit] English influenced by Swedish vocabulary or grammar
Swedish and English has in part different grammar that could cause mistakes when translating. One common thing is to leave out the word "the", whose counterpart "den"/"det" is used only in connection with adjectives in Swedish (like "det stora huset"). Example: "Bilen är röd"→"Car is red"[citation needed]. (In Swedish, definiteness is marked with a suffix.)
Literal translation of Swedish expressions and idioms are sometimes used by mistake or in belief that they are correct English. Also, several Swedish words have false friends in English. When trying to find a suitable English counterpart to a Swedish word, it is tempting to "translate" the word by simply using the Swedish word in hope that the English counterpart is similar. However, the anglicized Swedish word may mean something completely different.
There are several Swedish-English false friends that can, unintentionally, take on an obscene meaning when used in English. Compare the list of Swedish-English false friends on Swedish Wikipedia.
[edit] Swedish with English words
The second meaning of the term Swenglish occurs mostly in sports, computing, and business where Swedish lacks words for many concepts, like the word serve in tennis. It also occurs when a word is to be "modernized", shortened or otherwise updated, like outsource in business (older Swedish expression would be lägga ut (på entreprenad)). English has a high status in the business world in Sweden, and English words might "sound better". Other examples of this practice include mejl/mail instead of e-post (English: e-mail), printa instead of skriva ut (English: to print). Other examples include: briefa (to brief someone), sava/sejva (originating from save) and levla (raising a level in video games), maila/mejla (to e-mail someone) where the ending -a, which is the common ending of a Swedish verb, has been added. Such slips easily happen when working with English software. English words may be imported with or without adjustments.
In several fields, English literature and magazines are used for education, and are the main source of news, since Swedish literature is not widely available. English words thus have a way of being used by Swedes even when there is a Swedish alternative. This should not be confused with the (normal) use of loanwords. The term Swenglish normally refers to the overuse of English loanwords.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- TT-språket - A page with Swenglish words and writing tips (in Swedish)
- Test Your Swenglish
- Avigsidan - A site with funny language mistakes, including Swenglish (in Swedish)
- The Swedish Centre for Terminology - Technical and computer-related words translated to Swedish (Swedish site but has a link to other languages as well)
