Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by about six million people, principally in and around Denmark. Communities of Danish speakers are also found in Greenland, the Faroe Islands, and the northern German region of Southern Schleswig, where it has minority language status. Minor Danish-speaking communities are also found in Norway, Sweden, the United States, Canada, Brazil, and Argentina.
Swedish is a North Germanic language spoken predominantly in Sweden and in parts of Finland. It has at least 10 million native speakers, the fourth most spoken Germanic language and the first among any other of its type in the Nordic countries overall.
Svenska Akademiens ordlista, abbreviated SAOL, is a spelling dictionary published every few years by the Swedish Academy. It is a single volume that is considered the final arbiter of Swedish spelling. Traditionally it carries the motto of the Swedish Academy, Snille och Smak, on its blue cloth cover.
The North Germanic languages make up one of the three branches of the Germanic languages—a sub-family of the Indo-European languages—along with the West Germanic languages and the extinct East Germanic languages. The language group is also referred to as the Nordic languages, a direct translation of the most common term used among Danish, Faroese, Icelandic, Norwegian, and Swedish scholars and people.
A pitch-accent language is a type of language that, when spoken, has certain syllables in words or morphemes that are prominent, as indicated by a distinct contrasting pitch rather than by loudness or length, as in some other languages like English. Pitch-accent also contrasts with fully tonal languages like Vietnamese, Thai and Standard Chinese, in which practically every syllable can have an independent tone. Some scholars have claimed that the term "pitch accent" is not coherently defined and that pitch-accent languages are just a sub-category of tonal languages in general.
Scanian is a dialect of Swedish spoken in the province of Scania in southern Sweden.
Peter Mikael Englund is a Swedish author and historian born on April 4, 1957. He focuses on writing non-fiction books and essays, mostly about the Swedish Empire and other historical events. Englund is known for his accessible writing style, which includes narrative details that are often left out in traditional history books. His works have been translated into multiple languages, including German and Czech. From 2009 to 2015, Englund served as the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, before being succeeded by Sara Danius. In January 2019, he and fellow academy member Kjell Espmark announced their return as active members of the Swedish academy, where they had been inactive since April 2018.
Swedish has a large vowel inventory, with nine vowels distinguished in quality and to some degree in quantity, making 18 vowel phonemes in most dialects. Another notable feature is the pitch accent, a development which it shares with Norwegian. Swedish pronunciation of most consonants is similar to that of other Germanic languages.
Klas Östergren is a Swedish novelist, short story writer, screenwriter, and translator.
Bo Rune Ingemar Ralph is a Swedish linguist, member of the Swedish Academy, and professor of Nordic Languages at the Department of Swedish Language at Gothenburg University. He was elected to the Swedish Academy on 15 April 1999 and admitted on 20 December 1999. Bo Ralph succeeded the philosopher and sociologist Torgny T:son Segerstedt to Seat No.2.
Kjell Erik Espmark was a Swedish writer, literary historian, member of the Swedish Academy, and Professor of the History of Literature at Stockholm University. He was elected to the Swedish Academy on 5 March 1981 and admitted on 20 December 1981. Kjell Espmark succeeded the linguist Elias Wessén to Seat No.16. He was chair of the Swedish Academy's Nobel committee between 1987 and 2004.
Sara Brita Stridsberg is a Swedish author and playwright. Her first novel, Happy Sally was about Sally Bauer, who in 1939 had become the first Scandinavian woman to swim the English Channel.
Anders Olsson is a Swedish writer, professor of literature at Stockholm University, literary critic and member of the Swedish Academy.
Tua Birgitta Forsström is a Finland-Swedish writer who writes in Swedish. She was awarded the Nordic Council Literature Prize in 1998 for the poetry collection Efter att ha tillbringat en natt bland hästar. Forsström's work is known for its engagement with the Finnish landscape, travel and conflicts within relationships. She often uses quotations in her work, sometimes placing them directly into her poems and at other times using them as introductions or interludes in her sequences. She has used quotations from Egon Friedell, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Hermann Hesse and Friedrich Nietszche. In the collection After Spending a Night Among Horses (1997) Forsström uses quotations from the Andrei Tarkovsky film Stalker, they are placed as interludes in a sequence of pieces and sit alone on the page, without direct reference to their source on the page, leaving this to a Notes & Quotations section at the end of the book.
Britt Inger Liselott "Lotta" Lotass Hagström is a Swedish writer. She holds a PhD of Comparative literature from the University of Gothenburg, and lives in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Carlos Gussenhoven is a professor of linguistics at Radboud University Nijmegen. He specializes in phonetics and phonology.
Sara Maria Danius was a Swedish literary critic and philosopher, and a scholar of literature and aesthetics. Danius was professor of aesthetics at Södertörn University, docent of literature at Uppsala University and professor in literary science at Stockholm University.
Esaias Tegnér Jr. was a Swedish linguist. He was professor of eastern languages at Lund University 1879-1908, lead editor of Svenska Akademiens ordbok 1913-1919, member of the Bible Commission 1884-1917, and member of the Swedish Academy from 1882 onward. Tegnér was the grandson of the well-known poet Esaias Tegnér, also his namesake, and was brother-in-law to the poet and composer Alice Tegnér.
Kumamoto dialect is a dialect of the Japanese language spoken in Kumamoto Prefecture. It belongs to the Hichiku group, and shares similarities with other nearby dialects in Kyushu.
Carl Ivar Ståhle was a Swedish linguist, toponymist, and member of the Swedish Academy.
