Swedish Is Not The Official Language of Sweden?

Yes, despite what it says in your atlas, encyclopedia, and any number of other sources, Swedish is not the official language of Sweden. Why? Well, in my opinion it is because of politics taking the place of common sense.

Sweden has five minority languages, Finnish, Tornedals Finnish, Sami, Yiddish, and Romany. Swedish is considered the national language, but not the official one.

Last Wednesday, the 7th of December, the debate over this issue was once again brought before parliament where it was decided by a vote of 147-145 not to legally make Swedish the official language.

Now, I am probably not as well informed on this topic as others but it seems to me that this begs the question, "Why not?". I did some exhausting research and discovered some rather startling facts; German is the official language of Germany, French is the official language of France, Spanish is the official language of Spain, and get this, Italian is the official language of Italy. Need more? Well, Swedish is an official language in Finland, it is also recognized as an official language by the EU.

So, why isn't it the official language here in Sweden? Where it is spoken by, well, nearly everybody? Because Sweden doesn't want to be discriminatory. At least that's the way Matilda Ernkrans, who represents the Social Democrats on Sweden's committee for cultural affairs, sees it. "She voices her worry that a law making Swedish the official language of Sweden could be seen as discriminating." (SVT)

Discriminating against who? Seriously, I want to know. Is having it the national language not being discriminatory? Will the people who speak one of the five minority languages feel discriminated against? Considering they speak Swedish as well, I'm going to assume not. Next on the list, foreigners and immigrants. Now, as a foreigner, and I guess an immigrant, I'm not gonna feel discriminated against because the name of the language actually stems from the name of the country itself. Swe-den, Swe-dish. "Swedish, a language spoken by the people who live in Sweden." Hmm...anyone upset by that? I have English as a first language, I don't go around feeling discriminated against because the newspapers are in Swedish, or that signs are in Swedish, or that the people on the radio and TV speak Swedish. I kind of expected it before I came here as, I would assume, anyone else who has moved here from a foreign country. But what about the rest of my fellow immigrants, foreigners and people of different ethnic backgrounds, well, I can't speak for them, but I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say they probably don't really care, and have more important things to worry about when it comes to discrimination than what the official language is. Like blatant racism, biast job placement, stereotyping, and the fact that every want ad comes with the phrase "Must speak fluent Swedish." and when they do, they still don't get the job. (Strange, that last one, considering Ernkrans worries.) If you really believe that people will feel discriminated against because of the official language of the country, is there anything they aren't going to feel discriminated over?

What is making it the official language going to change? If anything it will make legal issues and dealing with the EU work more efficiently. (At the moment Sweden does not have the ability to use Swedish when it comes to official EU matters.) But, that's beside the point. The real point is that some form of discrimination is at some point going to maybe be possible in certain circumstances towards a group of people that may or may not actually feel discriminated against. Get it?

You know what lingual discrimination is? Lingual discrimination is some moron in the US wearing a t-shirt that says, "Welcome to America, now speak English!" (Let it be known that America does not have an official language either.) So far I haven't seen any t-shirts that say "Welcome to Sweden, now speak Swedish!" And I really don't think I'm going to ever see one. Most likely they wouldn't be in English anyways.

But, wait. Maybe they would. That's the other side of this debate. Another reason why Swedish has not been legally deemed the official language is because the politicians don't see it to be a language that needs to be protected, the five minority languages are, and that English is not considered to be enough of a threat. Tell that to Wales less than a century ago. The shear amount of English used regularly in this country when Swedish could be used should be proof enough that it is a threat. A large portion of university text books are in English, the majority of shop names are in English, job titles are quite often in English, and the entire IT sector is pretty much in English. That would worry me if I was considering the future of this country's language. Of course English is not going to replace Swedish, but it is going to have a massive effect on how Swedish is spoken and how it is used in businesses and schools.

Sure, only 9 million people speak Swedish in this world, so it is important that Swedes speak English so as to be able to communicate with the other 99% of the planet. But that doesn't mean that a beer after work has to be called an "after work" or that a meeting has to be called a "sit-down" or that the public safety board has to use "Don't Drink and Drive!" as their official slogan from keeping people from driving after drinking. Seriously? Why English? I'd be worried.

Personally, I'd like to see more Swedish. I'd like everything in Swedish. And that's coming from someone who suffered for years before finally getting a grasp on this language. (Ironically I probably would have learned it faster if people weren't so quick to just speak English to me, even when I made gallant attempts at speaking Swedish.)

Really, I would. I want it to be the official language. I want the buttons on my remote controls in Swedish, V and K on the taps, 7-11 to be called "sju-elva", stop signs to say "stopp" instead of "stop", the market at Hornstull to be called "Gata" instead of "Street", and a cheeseburger at McDonald's to be called an "ostburgare" instead of a "cheeseburgare". And, if that's not enough, all Finland and Åland boats that have English names should be re-christened with Swedish or Finnish names. (IKEA gets my respect for calling all their products by Swedish names, even if the IKEA is located in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania.)

I say let the people decide what language is the official one here in Sweden. Let's have a referendum next December, because frankly, if any one person in this country doesn't get to make their voice heard, then they are being discriminated against. And we don't want that in any språk.

K. Panda