Swenglish: Encyclopedia II - Swenglish - English with a Swedish accent

Swenglish - English with a Swedish accent

This refers to a common phenomenon among Swedes who may not speak English too often. The result can be very amusing for native English speakers because of how it sounds.

Unlike English, Swedish has monophthong vowels. This difference is sometimes forgotten by Swedish speakers, resulting in mispronunciation. Swedish also lacks some common English phonemes, such as [θ] (voiceless interdental fricative), [ð] (voiced interdental fricative) and [z] (voiced alveolar fricative). In general, written Swedish corresponds to the pronunciation more closely than in English. This too, when forgotten, can lead to mispronunciation and incorrectly stressed words.

Literal translation of Swedish expressions and idioms are sometimes used by mistake or in belief that they are correct English. Also, several Swedish words have false friends in English. When trying to find a suitable English counterpart to a Swedish word, it is tempting to "translate" the word by simply using the Swedish word in hope that the English counterpart is similar. However, the anglicized Swedish word may mean something completely different. This sometimes results in humorous situations. For instance: Swedish fart (speed) isn't changed resulting in "fart". So one might say: So you all have fart controllers in your cars? intending to inquire about cruise control in cars. In the stereotypical Swenglish, false friends are used often and without reflection.

There are several Swedish-English false friends that can, unintentionally, take on an even more obscene meaning when used in English. One example of this would be facklitteratur, meaning specialist or non-fiction literature if properly translated. However, when the Swedish word is used in English, it takes on a quite different meaning, since fack is pronounced in a manner very similar to English fuck. The same phenomenon occurs when the word fackorganisation (trade union) is incorrectly translated. Furthermore, the number six is spelled and pronounced sex. Another example could be rap (burp) becoming "rape" if you add an English touch to it. Result: In my family no one cares if someone rapes during dinner, if you intended to talk about your relaxed manners.

There is also the distinct Swedish prosody which is often perceived as melodic or "sing-songy", often parodied by the Swedish Chef on The Muppet Show. The pronunciation of Swenglish varies greatly with the speaker's Swedish dialect and of course with the knowledge of the English language.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "English with a Swedish accent", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki