Swedish language

Swedish (svenska [ˈsvɛ̂nːska] (listen)) is a North Germanic language spoken predominantly in Sweden and in parts of Finland.[2] 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.[3]

Swedish
Svenska
Pronunciation	[ˈsvɛ̂nːska]
Native to	Sweden, Finland, formerly Estonia
Ethnicity	Swedes
Speakers	Native: 10 million (2012–2021)[1] L2 speakers: 3 million[1]
Language family	Indo-European Germanic North Germanic East Scandinavian Swedish
Early forms	Old Norse Old East Norse Old Swedish Modern Swedish
Writing system	Latin (Swedish alphabet) Swedish Braille
Signed forms	Tecknad svenska (falling out of use)
Official status
Official language in	Finland Sweden Åland European Union Nordic Council
Regulated by	Swedish Language Council (in Sweden) Swedish Academy (in Sweden) Institute for the Languages of Finland (in Finland)
Language codes
ISO 639-1	sv
ISO 639-2	swe
ISO 639-3	swe
Glottolog	swed1254
Linguasphere	52-AAA-ck to -cw
Regions where Swedish is an official language spoken by the majority of the population (Sweden, Åland, Western Finland)      Regions where Swedish is an official language spoken by a minority of the population (Finland)
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Swedish, like the other Nordic languages, is a descendant of Old Norse, the common language of the Germanic peoples living in Scandinavia during the Viking Era. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish, although the degree of mutual intelligibility is largely dependent on the dialect and accent of the speaker. Written Norwegian and Danish are usually more easily understood by Swedish speakers than the spoken languages, due to the differences in tone, accent, and intonation.

Standard Swedish, spoken by most Swedes, is the national language that evolved from the Central Swedish dialects in the 19th century and was well established by the beginning of the 20th century. While distinct regional varieties and rural dialects still exist, the written language is uniform and standardized. Swedish is the most widely spoken second language in Finland where it has status as co-official language.

Swedish was long spoken in parts of Estonia, although the current status of the Estonian Swedish speakers is almost extinct. It is also used in the Swedish diaspora, most notably in Oslo, Norway, with more than 50,000 Swedish residents.[4]