The Institute for Language and Folklore, , is a Swedish government agency with the purpose of studying and collecting materials concerning dialects, folklore and onomastics

Onomastics

Onomastics or onomatology is the study of proper names of all kinds and the origins of names. The words are from the Greek: "ὀνομαστικός" , "of or belonging to naming" and "ὀνοματολογία" , from "ὄνομα" "name". Toponymy or toponomastics, the study of place names, is one of the principal branches of...

.

In June 2006 the Swedish government decided to centralize the Swedish language preservation institutes, starting on the July 1, 2006. The former name, Swedish Institute for Dialectology, Onomastics and Folklore Research was changed to the current name.

The institute consists of several, originally independent, units, located in different Swedish university towns. The central unit of the institute is located in Uppsala

Uppsala

- Economy :Today Uppsala is well established in medical research and recognized for its leading position in biotechnology.*Abbott Medical Optics *GE Healthcare*Pfizer *Phadia, an offshoot of Pharmacia*Fresenius*Q-Med...

, with other departments located to Lund

Lund

-Main sights:During the 12th and 13th centuries, when the town was the seat of the archbishop, many churches and monasteries were built. At its peak, Lund had 27 churches, but most of them were demolished as result of the Reformation in 1536. Several medieval buildings remain, including Lund...

, Gothenburg

Gothenburg

Gothenburg is the second-largest city in Sweden and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated on the west coast of Sweden, the city proper has a population of 519,399, with 549,839 in the urban area and total of 937,015 inhabitants in the metropolitan area...

, Umeå

Umeå

- Transport :The road infrastructure in Umeå is well-developed, with two European highways passing through the city. About 4 km from the city centre is the Umeå City Airport...

 and Stockholm

Stockholm

Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...

.

The institute is, among other things, responsible for the ongoing publication of Sveriges ortnamn (a dictionary of all Swedish placenames) and Sveriges medeltida personnamn (a dictionary of medieval Swedish personal names).

Units of the Institute

• Administrative Unit (Uppsala)
• Department of Dialectology, Uppsala (Dialektavdelningen, DA)
• Folklore Department, Uppsala (Folkminnesavdelningen, FA)
• Phonogram Unit, Uppsala (Fonogramenheten)
• Department of Onomastics, Uppsala (Namnavdelning, NA).
• Archive for Dialects, Placenames and Folklore in Gothenburg (Dialekt-, ortnamns- och folkminnesarkivet i Göteborg, DAG)
• Archive for Dialects and Placenames in Lund (Dialekt- och ortnamnsarkivet i Lund, DAL)
• Swedish Language Council
  Swedish Language Council
  The Swedish Language Council is the primary regulatory body for the advancement and cultivation of the Swedish language. The council is partially funded by the Swedish government and has semi-official status...
  
   (Språkrådet)
• Archive for Dialects, Placenames and Folklore in Umeå
  Institute for Dialectology, Onomastics and Folklore Research in Umeå
  DAUM, the Institute for Dialectology, Onomastics and Folklore Research in Umeå, is a Swedish governmental archive bureau which collects, preserves, works up and provides information about dialects, place names, folklore culture and local history. DAUM is part of the Swedish Institute for Language...
  
  (Dialekt-, ortnamns- och folkminnesarkivet i Umeå, DAUM)

External links

• SOFI, main website
• DAL
• DAG
• DAUM
• Sveriges medeltida personnamn, online edition (A-H)
• Sveriges ortnamn, list of published fascicles