Notice: This is the official website of the All Empires History Community (Reg. 10 Feb 2002)

  FAQ FAQ  Forum Search   Register Register  Login Login

"W" gets its own place in Swedish languag

 Post Reply Post Reply
Author
flyingzone View Drop Down
Caliph
Caliph
Avatar

Joined: 11-Dec-2005
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 2630
  Quote flyingzone Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: "W" gets its own place in Swedish languag
    Posted: 23-Apr-2006 at 14:25

This is a good demonstration of how dynamic the evolution of languages is:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060423/ap_on_re_eu/sweden_langu age_change

'W' Gets Its Own Place in Swedish Language

Sun Apr 23, 3:20 AM ET

The letter 'W' has entered the mainstream of the Swedish language, getting its own section for the first time in the country's most respected dictionary.

While 'W' has long been a letter in its own right in other Nordic languages, Swedish linguists have always viewed it as a lesser sibling of the letter 'V,' as the two letters are pronounced identically in Swedish.

The few Swedish words that use 'W' have generally been borrowed from other languages such as "watt," "walkie-talkie" and the "World Wide Web" and have so far always been lumped under the 'V' section in dictionaries.

Sweden is called "Sverige" in Swedish and its language is named "Svenska."

But the Swedish Academy, which awards the Nobel Prize in literature and whose members are considered the guardians of the Swedish language, decided it was time for 'W' to come out of the shadows.

The letter, called "double-v" in Swedish, "can no longer be sorted in under the single V," the academy said when it introduced the 13th edition of its dictionary this week.

The change means that the Swedish language, at least according to the academy, now has 29 letters instead of 28.

Back to Top
Maju View Drop Down
King
King
Avatar

Joined: 14-Jul-2005
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 6565
  Quote Maju Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23-Apr-2006 at 18:50
Basque has many letters that are decribed as "used to write some foreign words and symbols that are wished to remain invariable". They are considered part of the Basque alphabet in a wide sense but not in the purest sense and are sometimes listed in brackets in alphabets or just not listed at all. These are: C, Q, V, Y and W.

In fact sometimes options or lists in Basque are listed as A, B, D, E... though other times the Spanish "C" keeps its place between B and D. "" is most confusing, as the nh/gn/nj/ sound is common in Basque but normally appears as "-in-", like in sorgina (sohr-ghi-nya). Obviously in the North is never used but it happens in the south instead of N occasionally.

All the letters that are foreign in the Basque alphabet, except V (when pronounced smooth, close to F), have an equilvalent letter-sound, so you can always try to write them in a Basquizied form - though the tendency is to accept their original spelling as long as they use the Latin alphabet.

NO GOD, NO MASTER!
Back to Top
 Post Reply Post Reply

Forum Jump Forum Permissions View Drop Down

Bulletin Board Software by Web Wiz Forums® version 9.56a [Free Express Edition]
Copyright ©2001-2009 Web Wiz

This page was generated in 0.078 seconds.