Centuries ago, during the Viking era, the Old Norse spoken by the Northern Germanic tribes evolved into the modern day languages of Scandinavia of which Swedish is by far the most common. The language is reported to be spoken between 9-10 million people mainly in Sweden and Finland. Swedish is the official language of Sweden and the second official language of Finland (a vestige of the fact that much of Finland was under the control of Sweden for over five centuries) after the Finnish.
What's useful about the Swedish language is that knowing it will allow a person to communicate to people across most of Scandinavia. Swedish is mutually intelligible with Norwegian in a manner somewhat akin to a Southern drawl is to a New York accent. Some websites will say that the same is true of Swedish and Danish but in practice that tends to be true mainly of the Danes. Native Swedes by and large cannot understand Danish. It should be noted that for the past century Sweden has been the powerhouse economy of Scandinavia which status of being "number one" gave rise to a need by their surrounding neighbours of understanding Swedish. On the small island nation of Iceland, the second official language is "Scandinavian" which is a mix of the various Scandinavian languages but is at its core mainly Swedish.
Those people who endeavour to learn this Northern European language benefit from a rich blend the rich literature in this language. While I, the author, personally speak Swedish as the third of four languages, I know of what I speak. One of the most beneficial books to be read in Swedish is the Bible or "The People's Bible" as it is known. The translation, made by Lutherans centuries ago, followed in the tradition set forth by Martin Luther to render a translation as true to the Hebrew & Greek texts as possible. Christians would be surprised to find that common words in the Christian vernacular such as "repentance" and "contrite" are non-existent in the Swedish version. In their place were words that the Lutheran translators believed were truer to the original text and they are respectively "self-turn-around" and "remedy-ready". The wildly popular trilogy which was the best seller in a post-Harry Potter world "The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo" were written in Swedish and are best understood in that language. Incidentally, the first novel was known as "Men who hate women".
In an era when the "best" languages to know have been, according to conventional wisdom, Spanish, Japanese, and now Chinese, those who obtain this lesser known language will find themselves deeply enriched and amenable to a venerable history of art, literature, and culture.
Contact Axis Translations for assistance with Swedish translation and transcription.
