Cover not available
Part of
Germanic Heritage Languages in North America: Acquisition, attrition and change
Edited by Janne Bondi Johannessen † and Joseph C. Salmons
[Studies in Language Variation 18] 2015
► pp. 359–388

Variation and Change in American Swedish

| University of Oslo
| The University of Gothenburg
| The University of Gothenburg

This chapter surveys variation and change in Swedish spoken in America. We compare data from a corpus of American Swedish collected in Minnesota 2011 with material collected in the 1960s. Linguistic change in American Swedish can partly be accounted for in terms of koinéization. Marked dialect features seem to have disappeared quickly from American Swedish, but we can also observe dialect mixing and simplifications in, e.g., the pronominal system. At the same time, Swedish has been lost in the public domain, and there is considerable variation between speakers even with the same dialect background. It can also be noted that some speakers (even those that have Swedish as a first language) now have linguistic features that are otherwise typical of second language learners. We attribute this to the loss of Swedish-speaking communities, but view it as features of language learning rather than attrition. The paper concludes that it is mainly in the lexicon that American Swedish stands out. This variety of Swedish has its roots in a koiné situation of speakers of different Swedish dialects living together, but also includes language-contact traits from English

Keywords: American Swedish, attrition, bilingual acquisition, dialect leveling, heritage language, koinéization, language contact
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].

Published online: 20 August 2015
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/silv.18.16lar
References
Ameel, Eef, Barbara C. Malt, Gert Storms and Fons Van Assche
2009 “Semantic Convergence in the Bilingual Lexicon.” Journal of Memory and Language 60(2): 270–290. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Andréasson, Maia, Ida Larsson, Benjamin Lyngfelt, Jenny Nilsson and Sofia Tingsell
2013 “I jakt på amerikasvenskan”. In Svenskans beskrivning 32, ed. by Björn Bihl, Jessica Eriksson, Peter Andersson and Lena Lötmarker, 83–93. Karlstad: Karlstads universitet.Google Scholar
Argyri, Efrosyni and Antonella Sorace
2007 “Crosslinguistic Influence and Language Dominance in Older Bilingual Children.” Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 10(1): 79–99. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Arnbjörnsdottír, Birna
2006 North American Icelandic. The Life of a Language. Manitoba: The University of Manitoba Press.Google Scholar
Bailey, Guy
2002 “Real and Apparent Time.” In The Handbook of Language Variation and Change, ed. by J.K. Chambers, Peter Trudgill and Natalie Schilling-Estes, 312–332. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.Google Scholar
Boas, Hans
2009 The Life and Death of Texas German. Durham, NC: American Dialect Society.Google Scholar
Clyne, Michael G
2003 Dynamics of Language Contact: English and Immigrant Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Columbus, Samuel
. En swensk ordeskötsel ed. by Sylvia Boström 1963 Uppsala: Almqvist and Wiksell.Google Scholar
Cummins, Jim
2000 Language, Power and Pedagogy. Bilingual Children in the Crossfire. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual matters.Google Scholar
Dahlstedt, Karl-Hampus and Per-Uno Ågren
1980 Övre Norrlands bygdemål : berättelser på bygdemål med förklaringar och en dialektöversikt. Umeå: Vetenskapliga biblioteket i Umeå.Google Scholar
Eide, Kristin Melum and Arnstein Hjelde
2015. “V2 and Morphological Paradigms in Norwegian Varieties Spoken in the American Midwest.” In Heritage Languages in the Americas: Theoretical Perspectives and Empirical Findings ed. by Richard Page and Michael Putnam
Engdahl, Elisabet
2006 “Semantic and Syntactic Patterns in Swedish Passives.” In Demoting the Agent, ed. by Benjamin Lyngfelt and Torgrim Solstad, 21–45. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fraurud, Kari and Sally Boyd
2011 “The Native-Non-Native Speaker Distinction and the Diversity of Linguistic Profiles of Young People in Multilingual Urban Contexts in Sweden.” In Young Urban Swedish. Variation and Change in Multilingual Settings, ed. by Roger Källström and Inger Lindberg, 67–88. Gothenburg: Department of Swedish language.Google Scholar
Ganuza, Natalia
2008 Syntactic Variation in the Swedish of Adolescents in Multilingual Urban Settings. Subject-Verb Order in Declaratives, Questions and Subordinate Clauses. Stockholm, Sweden: Stockholm University dissertation.Google Scholar
Hagren, Kristina
2008 Hur märks infinitiven? Infinitivkonstruktioner i svenska dialekter med fokus på infinitivmärket. Uppsala: Uppsala Universitet.Google Scholar
Håkansson, Gisela
1995 “Syntax and Morphology in Language Attrition. A Study of Five Bilingual Expatriate Swedes.” International Journal of Applied Linguistics 5: 153–171. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hasselmo, Nils
1974 Amerikasvenska. En bok om språkutvecklingen i Svensk-Amerika. (Skrifter utgivna av Svenska språknämnden 51). Stockholm: Essellte studium.Google Scholar
Haugen, Einar
(1953) 1969 The Norwegian Language in America: A Study in Bilingual Behavior. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Hedblom, Folke
1963 “Om svenska folkmål i Amerika. Från Landsmåls- och Folkminnesarkivets bandinspelningsexpedition 1962.” Svenska landsmål och svenskt folkliv 1962.Google Scholar
1970 “Amerikasvenska texter i fonogram. 1. Hälsingland. Bergsjömål. Utskrift och kommentar.” Svenska landsmål och svenskt folkliv 1969 92: 1–52.Google Scholar
1974 “Svenska dialekter i Amerika. Några erfarenheter och problem.” Kungl. Humanistiska Vetenskaps-Samfundet i Uppsala. Årsbok 1973–1974.Google Scholar
1978 “Hälsingemål i Amerika.” Svenska landsmål och svenskt folkliv 1977.Google Scholar
1982 “Swedish Dialects in the Midwest: Notes from Field Research.” Svenska landsmål och svenskt folkliv 1981.Google Scholar
1992 “Dialekt och språknorm i Svensk-Amerika. Värderingar och attityder från 1960-talet.” Svenska landsmål och svenskt folkliv 1992.Google Scholar
Hof, Sven
1753 Swänska språkets rätta skrivsätt, ed. by Mats Thelander. Uppsala Universitet: Institutionen för nordiska språk.Google Scholar
Johannessen, Janne Bondi and Piotr Garbacz
2011 “Fältarbete med Nordic Dialect Corpus.” In Studier i dialektologi och språksociologi. Föredrag vid Nionde nordiska dialektologkonferensen i Uppsala 18–20 augusti 2010, Acta Academiae Regiae Gustavi Adolphi 116, ed. Lars-Erik Edlund, Lennart Elmevik, and Maj Reinhammar, 169–176. Uppsala: Swedish Science Press.Google Scholar
Johannessen, Janne Bondi and Signe Laake
2012 “Østnorsk som norsk fellesdialekt i Midtvesten.” Norsk Lingvistisk tidsskrift 30(2): 365–380.Google Scholar
Forthcoming. “Eastern Norwegian as a Common Norwegian Dialect in the American Midwest.” Journal of Language Contact.
Källström, Roger
2011 “Multiethnic Language in Reviews of the Novel Ett öga rött.” In Young Urban Swedish. Variation and Change in Multilingual Settings, ed. by Roger Källström and Inger Lindberg, 125–148. Gothenburg: Department of Swedish.Google Scholar
Karstadt, Angela
2003 Tracking Swedish-American English. A Longitudinal Study of Linguistic Variation and Identity. [Studia multiethnica Upsaliensia 16]. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis.Google Scholar
Kerswill, Paul
2002 “Koineization and Accommodation.” In The Handbook of Language Variation and Change, ed. by J.K. Chambers, Peter Trudgill and Natalie Schilling-Estes, 669–702. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.Google Scholar
Larsson, Ida
2004 Språk i förändring. Adjektivändelserna -a och -e från fornsvenska till nysvenska. [MISS 49]. Göteborg: Institutionen för svenska språket.Google Scholar
Larsson, Ida and Janne Bondi Johannessen
2015a. “Embedded Word Order in Heritage Scandinavian.” In New Trends in Nordic and General Linguistics ed. by Martin Hilpert, Janet Duke, Christine Mertzlufft, Jan-Ola Östman and Michael Rießler 239 269 Berlin Linguae et Litterae, Mouton de Gruyter
2015b. “Incomplete Acquisition and Verb Placement in Heritage Scandinavian.” In Moribund Germanic Heritage Languages in North America: Theoretical Perspectives and Empirical Findings, ed. by Richard Page and Michael Putnam. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill. DOI logo
Lubinska, Dorota
2011 Förstaspråksattrition hos vuxna: exemplet polsktalande i Sverige. Stockholm: Center for Research on Bilingualism.Google Scholar
Lundquist, Björn
2013 “Bliva and varda.” In The Nordic Atlas of Linguistic Structures Journal Online 1: 270–269. [URL]Google Scholar
Lyttkens, Ivar Adolf and Fredrik Wulff
1889 Svensk uttalsordbok. Lund: Gleerup.Google Scholar
Montrul, Silvina
2008 Incomplete Acquisition in Bilingualism: Re-examining the Age Factor. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2010 “Current Issues in Heritage Language Acquisition.” Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 30: 3–23. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Montrul, Silvina, Rebecca Foote and Silvia Perpinán
2008 “Gender Agreement in Adult Second Language Learners and Spanish Heritage Speakers: The Effect of Age and Context of Acquisition.” Language Learning 58(3): 503–553. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nilsson, Jenny
2011 “Dialektal anpassning i interaktion.” In Interaktionell dialektologi, ed. by Gustav Bockgård and Jenny Nilsson, 223–250. Uppsala: Institutet för språk och folkminnen.Google Scholar
Noreen, Adolf
1903 Vårt språk: nysvensk grammatik i utförlig framställning. Band I. Lund: Gleerup.Google Scholar
Nützel, Daniel and Joseph Salmons
2011 “Language Contact and New Dialect Formation: Evidence from German in North America.” Language and Linguistics Compass 5(10): 705–717. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Odlin, Terence
1989 Cross-Linguistic Influence in Language Learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pavlenko, Aneta
1999 “New Approaches to Concepts in Bilingual Memory.” Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 2(3): 209–230. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Petri, Laurentius
1571 The Swenska Kyrkeordningen. Stockholm.Google Scholar
Putnam, Michael and Joseph Salmons
2013 “Losing Their (Passive) Voice: Syntactic Neutralization in Heritage German.” Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism 3(2): 233–252. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rietz, Johan Ernst
1962 Svenskt dialektlexikon. Ordbok öfver svenska allmogespråket. Lund: C.W.K. Gleerups förlag.Google Scholar
Rothman, Jason
2007 “Heritage Speaker Competence Differences, Language Change, and Input Type: Inflected Infinitives in Heritage Brazilian Portuguese.” International Journal of Bilingualism 11: 359–389. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
SAOB = Svenska Akademiens ordbok över svenska språket
1893–.
Seliger, Herbert W. and Robert Vago
1991 “The Study of First Language Attrition: An Overview.” In First Language Attrition, ed. by Herbert W. Seliger and Robert Vago, 3–15. New York: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Selinker, Larry
1972 “Interlanguage.” International Review of Applied Linguistics 10: 209–241. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sorace, Antonella and Ludovica Serratrice
2009 “Internal and External Interfaces in Bilingual Language Development: Beyond Structural Overlap.” International Journal of Bilingualism 13(2): 195–210. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sundgren, Eva
2002 Återbesök i Eskilstuna: en undersökning av morfologisk variation och förändring i nutida talspråk. Uppsala: Uppsala Universitet.Google Scholar
Tingsell, Sofia
2013 “Reflexive Binding in Heritage Language Speakers of Swedish in the USA.” Manuscript.
Widmark, Gun
1998 Stora vokaldansen: om kvantitativa och kvalitativa förändringar i fornsvenskans vokalsystem. Uppsala: Gustav Adolfs akad.Google Scholar
2000 “Boksvenska och talsvenska. Om språkarter i nysvenskt talspråk.” In Boksvenska och talsvenska. Ett urval uppsatser samlade till författarens 80-årsdag 31 juli 2000, ed. by Gun Widmark, 19–56. Uppsala: Institutionen för nordiska språk. [Reprinted from Språk and stil N.F. 1991, 1: 157–198.]Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 11 other publications

Dehé, Nicole & Tanja Kupisch
2022. Prepositional phrases and case in North American (heritage) Icelandic. Nordic Journal of Linguistics 45:3 ► pp. 254 ff. DOI logo
Ehresmann, Todd & Joshua Bousquette
2015. Phonological Non-integration of Lexical Borrowings in Wisconsin West Frisian. In Germanic Heritage Languages in North America [Studies in Language Variation, 18], ► pp. 234 ff. DOI logo
Hjelde, Arnstein
2015. Changes in a Norwegian Dialect in America. In Germanic Heritage Languages in North America [Studies in Language Variation, 18], ► pp. 283 ff. DOI logo
Hoot, Bradley & Tania Leal
2023. Resilience and vulnerability of discourse-conditioned word order in heritage Spanish. Applied Psycholinguistics 44:5 ► pp. 668 ff. DOI logo
Johannessen, Janne Bondi & Signe Laake
2015. On Two Myths of the Norwegian Language in America. In Germanic Heritage Languages in North America [Studies in Language Variation, 18], ► pp. 299 ff. DOI logo
Johannessen, Janne Bondi & Ida Larsson
2015. Complexity Matters: On Gender Agreement in Heritage Scandinavian. Frontiers in Psychology 6 DOI logo
Johannessen, Janne Bondi & Joseph Salmons
2021. Germanic Heritage Varieties in the Americas. In The Cambridge Handbook of Heritage Languages and Linguistics, ► pp. 252 ff. DOI logo
Pierce, Marc, Hans C. Boas & Karen A. Roesch
2015. The History of Front Rounded Vowels in New Braunfels German. In Germanic Heritage Languages in North America [Studies in Language Variation, 18], ► pp. 117 ff. DOI logo
Urban, Aileen
2021. Idioconstructions in conflict. In Constructions in Contact 2 [Constructional Approaches to Language, 30], ► pp. 18 ff. DOI logo
Westergaard, Marit & Merete Anderssen
2015. Word Order Variation in Norwegian Possessive Constructions. In Germanic Heritage Languages in North America [Studies in Language Variation, 18], ► pp. 21 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2021. Heritage Languages around the World. In The Cambridge Handbook of Heritage Languages and Linguistics, ► pp. 11 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 19 march 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.