Sveticism
Encyclopedia
A sveticism is a loanword
or calque
originating from the Swedish language
.
Sveticisms are particularly found in the Finnish language
, because the governing bureaucracy was mostly Swedish-speaking until the 20th century. The use of Swedish grammar constructions in official speech is a particularly persistent habit. The Swedish kommer att -future tense is an example, being translated to tulla + noun in illative case
, e.g. talo tullaan rakentamaan < Swedish huset kommer att byggas "the house will be built". The language regulator recommends against the use of sveticisms such as this in official speech.
Sveticisms in English are loanwords, such as smörgåsbord
and ombudsman
.
Loanword
A loanword is a word borrowed from a donor language and incorporated into a recipient language. By contrast, a calque or loan translation is a related concept where the meaning or idiom is borrowed rather than the lexical item itself. The word loanword is itself a calque of the German Lehnwort,...
or calque
Calque
In linguistics, a calque or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal, word-for-word or root-for-root translation.-Calque:...
originating from the Swedish language
Swedish language
Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...
.
Sveticisms are particularly found in the Finnish language
Finnish language
Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...
, because the governing bureaucracy was mostly Swedish-speaking until the 20th century. The use of Swedish grammar constructions in official speech is a particularly persistent habit. The Swedish kommer att -future tense is an example, being translated to tulla + noun in illative case
Illative case
Illative is, in the Finnish language, Estonian language and the Hungarian language, the third of the locative cases with the basic meaning of "into ". An example from Hungarian is "a házba"...
, e.g. talo tullaan rakentamaan < Swedish huset kommer att byggas "the house will be built". The language regulator recommends against the use of sveticisms such as this in official speech.
Sveticisms in English are loanwords, such as smörgåsbord
Smörgåsbord
Smörgåsbord is a type of Scandinavian meal served buffet-style with multiple dishes of various foods on a table, originating in Sweden. In Norway it is called koldtbord, in Denmark it is called det kolde bord, in Finland seisova pöytä and in Estonia rootsi laud...
and ombudsman
Ombudsman
An ombudsman is a person who acts as a trusted intermediary between an organization and some internal or external constituency while representing not only but mostly the broad scope of constituent interests...
.