I listened to Swedish radio online the other day and the host was speaking a very distinct Swedish dialect. That made me think about dialects as phenomena. I googled some and found out that the Swedish language, with its approximately 9 million speakers, has 20 different "dialect areas" (including the Swedish speaking parts of Finland).
You can even listen to examples online!
Unfortunately they didn't have any examples of "Stockholmska" - the Swedish dialect I kind of speak...
I wonder what my kids Swedish dialect will be... "Swedish Californian dialect"? Or "Dolph Lundgren"-Swedish...??
Ok, got to go - got to turn on some Swedish children's' DVDs!
Oh brother...it is hard to leave comments on blogger today. Again.
ReplyDeleteI really know the dialects of the Swedish speaking parts of Finland. Quite unique. I am thinking about puttin a dialect link on my blog. Kind of fun, fun with all the different dialects!
This reminds me of a book I read (I think Bill Bryson) where he talks about the fact that even though Britain is a fairly small island, it seems to have infinitely more dialects than the United States, and the reasons for that.
ReplyDeleteNice blog by the way -- just stumbled upon it. I think I could use some Swedish children's DVDs för att öva min svenska...
Annika - yes - wasn't it a fun site! I listened to the Närpes dialect!
ReplyDeleteKusala - hi and welcome to my blog, glad you like it! I love Bill Bryson, I have read all his books. Laughed a lot at "I'm a stranger here myself" a couple of months after we moved to the US!