Current Issues In Language and Society
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Volume: 7 Number: 1 Page: 13–31
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Swedish, English and the European Union
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Bjorn Melander
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This article addresses the linguistic effects of an increased 'Englishisation' of Sweden. Three main aspects are dealt with. The first is English loanwords, which are often seen as a threat to Swedish.
However, borrowings from English cannot be regarded as a major problem: the frequency of un-integrated English words is in general fairly low in contemporary Swedish, and, furthermore, loans from other
tongues appear to be a natural phenomenon in the development of all languages. The second aspect examined is the dominating role of English as a source language for translations. One consequence of this
is the transmission of new genres and genre systems. Thirdly, losses of domains of usage to English are discussed. I report some main results from an investigation of the use of Swedish within different
European Union (EU) bodies. It appears that Swedish is used, to a large extent, by the politically elected representatives, while Swedish civil servants primarily have to use English and French when working
in EU institutions. Finally, I discuss whether Swedish may be regarded as a language 'threatened' by English. My conclusion is that it is exaggerated to assume that wide-ranging linguistic shift is underway.
However, a restricted loss of domains may have negative consequences for a language. It is, therefore, important to promote the use of Swedish within the domains where English has a strong position.
© Multilingual Matters 2001
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