Sweden: state language, capital, head of state

Swedish society is considered one of the most prosperous in the world. A high quality of life and a significant level of human development is achieved through a complex political system that has been created over the past two centuries. Having gained invaluable experience of defeats in major international conflicts, the kingdom had to concentrate on developing its own economy and building an open, fair society.

Sweden: the capital, the head of state, the state language

The largest city in Sweden is Stockholm. Since its foundation in the beginning of the Xll century, Stockholm immediately declared itself as a major economic center of Northern Europe. Today, the Swedish capital continues to position itself as the capital of the whole of Scandinavia, attracting a large number of tourists from all over the world.

In Stockholm there is a residence of the monarch, the parliament of the country and the Academy of Sciences, whose members select candidates for the Nobel Prize. The Nobel Committee also sits in the capital.

Sweden, whose official language is Swedish, nevertheless recognizes the right of national minorities to use their own languages in everyday activities. The languages officially recognized by the Swedish government include the Saami, Mejankiel, Finnish, Gypsy and Yiddish.

In the northernmost region of Sweden, Norrbotten, the Saami and Finns, who speak the languages of Myanikeli and Finnish, live. It is in this region that indigenous languages are allowed in official institutions, such as kindergartens, nursing homes and schools.

The official language of Sweden is akin to Danish and Norwegian. However, despite very similar grammatical systems and a great similarity in the vocabulary, understanding is often difficult due to phonetic discrepancies, especially such difficulties arise with the Danish language.

English-speaking Sweden

The capital of Sweden, whose official language is Swedish, is almost entirely English-speaking. This is due to the high level of teaching foreign languages in public schools, as well as the fact that many Swedish TV channels broadcast in English with Swedish subtitles. The same applies to foreign films shown in cinemas. Most distributors simply do not duplicate films, but accompany them with subtitles.

Such a scheme allows not only to save money on voice-over, but also gives an opportunity for constant practice in a foreign language.

Sweden: the state language as a matter of pride

The Swedes are very pragmatic about their language and do not consider it necessary to specifically control its natural development. Unlike France or Iceland, where special state institutions monitor how language is used, in Sweden the Language Council does not engage in formal monitoring, although it is funded by the government.

This may be due to the fact that Swedish is the most common in northern Europe because it is spoken by over nine million people. However, already in neighboring Finland the official language research institute of Finland is looking after the Swedish language, where Swedish is the second state language and is recognized by the overwhelming majority of Finnish citizens as an integral part of the national culture. It should be noted that in the Kingdom of Sweden the state language is not named in the Constitution and has no official status, but de facto all citizens own it.

Monarch - a symbol of the state

The head of state and the national symbol is the monarch. The present King of Sweden Carl XVl Gustav of the Bernadot dynasty ascended the throne in 1973. Meanwhile, the dynasty, to which the ruling monarch belongs, was established in the country in 1818, and its founder was the Napoleonic marshal Bernadotte, who was the faithful companion of Napoleon Bonaparte for many years in the most difficult military campaigns.

The Swedish monarchical tradition is considered one of the oldest in Europe. The first monarchs, the existence of which is reliably known, ruled in the Swedish lands in the Vll century.

The Kingdom of Sweden, whose official language is one of the official languages of the European Union, makes a great contribution not only to the European economy, but substantially enriches the culture of Europe. For example, the well-known Finnish writer Tove Jansson wrote her popular books in Swedish.