META-NORD
Baltic and Nordic Branch of the European Open Linguistic Infrastructure
Project no. 270899
Language Reports
Fact Finding Sheet
Language:
Swedish
Version No. 1.0
24/02/2011
Where to search for the facts/who to contact:
- Universities
- Research institutes
- Language technology consortia
- Language technology documentation centres
- Language councils
- Statistical bureaus
- Standards organizations
- Research councils
- Ministries of science, education, technology, industry, commerce
- National libraries and information centres
- Federations of industries
- Associations of copyright owners
- User groups for LT-related software and tools
- Language policy documents
- ICT policy documents
- Other relevant institutions, companies, individuals … varies between countries
Make sure to give references for all figures and facts and names of contact persons where appropriate.
1. Language community
1.1.Number of speakers of the language in the country
According to my own estimate (Parkvall 2009), the number of native speakers of Swedish alone corresponds to about 85% of Sweden’s population, which would correspond to about 7,7 million people. Of the remaining 15% (corresponding to 1,35 million people), virtually all of those who have grown up in Sweden[hittar inte deras antal på direkten. Bör jag gräva?] must have acquired Swedish as one of their native languages, be it in addition to an immigrant language or an indigenous minority tongue.
As of 2010, 1,35 million Swedes are born abroad, according to Statistics Sweden. The foreign-born population, however, includes adoptive children, some individuals born abroad by Swedish parents, and members of Swedish-speaking ethnic groups in Finland, Estonia and the Ukraine (for which, see below). Together, these total just over 100 000, making Swedish one of the major immigrant language of the country.
Parkvall (2009) estimates about 185000 native speakers of highly divergent Swedish dialects, of whom 5-10000 use varieties excentric enough to merit being considered languages in their own right.
If second-language speakers are included, close to the entire population of the country must be considered. While they do of course exist, it must be exceedingly common to find inhabitants who have lived in Sweden for a couple of years or more who are unable to communicate to some extent in Swedish. No research on this subject have been carried out, so if anything at all can be stated, it would have to rely on anecdotal evidence. In my own experience, the few exceptions would mainly consist of speakers who immigrated at a more or less advanced age and who are confined to social interaction only within the own ethnic group. Some speakers of English could also be included in this group, given the willingness to use English on behalf of the host country population.
1.2.Number of speakers of the language worldwide
Outside Sweden, Swedish also enjoys official standing in Finland, whose statistic authorities claim 290000 native speakers. Their number has been declining since the second world war, and in terms of their proportion of the population in Finland, the Swedish Finns have been shrinking since the 17th century.
All Finns are also required to study Swedish, which of course does not guarantee that they leave school with any proficiency in it. Most in fact do not, but when questioned in a survey administered by the European Union, 38% [chk+ref] did claim capability of conversing in Swedish. For whatever it is worth, my personal experience suggests that Finns are more prone to underestimate than to overestimate their proficiency in Swedish.
Indigenous Swedish-speaking communities (here arbitrarily defined as groups where the language survives more than three generational changes among a sizeable proportion) have also existed in four other (contemporary) countries: Russia (small enclaves in the Petersburg and Karelian areas, which were mainly offshoots of Finland’sSwedish-speaking population), the United States (where the language of the 17th century colony of New Sweden survived until the early 1800s), Estonia and the Ukraine. In Estonia, the vast majority of the Swedish-speaking population (present since at least the 13th century) of about 7000 fled to Sweden in the wake of the second world war, and the remaining individuals are probably to be counted in dozens (at most) rather than hundreds. The Ukrainian group descended from Estonian Swedes deported in the late 18th century. Most emigrated to Sweden and North America in 1929, and only a handful of survivors remain today.
Apart from these groups, Swedish-speakers outside of Sweden and Finland consist of emigrants and temporary expatriates from these two countries. The number is likely to be around 300000 (Parkvall [ref Nationalatlasen]), mainly in the other Nordic countries, in western Europe, the United States, Canada and Australia. In none of these countries, however, do they represent more than a negligeable proportion of the recipient countries’ total population.
Second-language speakers of Swedish can of course be found in many coutries, among former exchange students or emigrants, or simply among individuals who have learnt the language in situ for any of a number of reasons. There are no statistics on how many people this group might consist of, especially as one-time studies do not guarantee competence in a language..
1.3.Number of web pages in the language
1.4.Number of national and local newspapers in the language
The number of daily newspapers in Sweden was 168 in 2008, according to Statistics Sweden, a number which seems reasonably stable despite falling circulation. The definition of a “daily” newspaper used is one which is published at least three times a week.
1.5.Number of radio and TV stations broadcasting in the language
1.6.Number of books published in the language per year
In 2008, 26182 "books and pamphlets" were published in Sweden, a number which increased constantly during the decade. The total includes 86% original works and 14% translations.Interestingly, a fourth of the original works were published in languages other than Swedish. This publications, however, were normally not in any of the indigenous minority languages or any of the major immigrant languages, but overwhelmingly in English. An impressive 22% of all original works published in Sweden in 2008 were in English.
In Finland, about 500 original Swedish-language titles are published yearly (Statistics Finland), in addition to which there are about 100 translations into Swedish.
1.7.Estimated volume of translations as source/target language
Some remarks on translations have already been made above.In addition to this, I have consulted UNESCO’s Index translationum. That database features 31474 into Swedish, and 31358 with Swedish as the source language.
Given that Statistics Sweden counts about 3000 annual translations into Swedish in Sweden alone, it would seem that the two sources differ in scope. However, since 2005, the Index translationumdoes include about 2500 cases yearly of Swedish as a target language of translations.
1.8.Main trading partners (within and outside the EU)
As of 2011, Sweden’s foremost trading partner (according to Statistics Sweden) is Germany, followed by (in order) Norway, Denmark, Britain, the Netherlands, Finland, the United States, France, Belgium, China and Russia.
According to its Finnish counterpart, the ten main trading patners are Germany, Russia, Sweden, China, Britain, the United States, the Netherlands, Frnce, Italy and Estonia.
1.9.Other relevant information
- Role of the language in the country/language community
2.1.Legal framework regarding the use of national language(s)
2.2.Official policy regarding the use of the language
2.3.Existing language policy documents/language reports
2.4.Institutional communication and local administration
2.5.Place and function in the media: TV, cinema, press
2.6.Place and function in the software and digital media (e.g. games) industry e.g. degree of localisation
2.7.Place and function in academia (teaching and research)
2.8.Place and function in the business sector
2.9.Policies and public programmes in support of language, including e.g. language learning, book translation
2.10.Other relevant information
- Research community
3.1.Estimated size of the research community in the areas of NLP and ST, including specialist groups (e.g. MT, IR/extraction)
3.2.Main universities and research centres in NLP and ST
3.3.Teaching curricula and number of graduates in recent years
3.4.National programmes/agencies in support of language technology
3.5.Main gaps e.g. underdeveloped human or technical resources
3.6.Activities at national level, their relevance for addressing the identified gaps (consortia, conferences, workshops, etc.)
3.7.Other relevant information
- Language service industry
4.1.Qualitative and quantitative analysis of the local translation, localization and interpretation industries
4.2.Description and actual/estimated number of businesses and professionals with an indication of leading companies
4.3.Degree of sophistication and ICT use of the service industry
4.4.Other relevant information
- Language technology industry
5.1.Qualitative and quantitative analysis of the local industrial landscape
5.2.Estimated number of vendors and developers (companies as well as individuals)
5.3.Main existing LT products and services (spell checkers, grammar checkers, translation systems, speech synthesizers, etc.)
5.4.Actual or potential users of these products and services (public at large, business/ professional users)
5.5.Other relevant information
- Demand side
6.1.Role of language-technology products and services within the Internet, digital media and telecommunications sectors
6.2.Examples of use of language technology by businesses and administrations
6.3.Other relevant information
- Legal provisions
7.1.National intellectual-property and digital-copyright regulations related to language resources, i.e. databases and software
7.2.Other relevant information