Grammar Lesson 14:

An introduction to Swedish dialects

Sweden has many different, regional dialects, where many words are different and only used locally, and the pronounciation of the same, nationally used words are vastly different in the north and in the south, for example. The difference can be quite discernable sometimes even from one city to another, only a few dozen kilometres away from each other!

It would be good when learning Swedish to focus on "rikssvenska", which is a formal way of pronouncing Swedish that is highly streamlined against the written Swedish.

Many dialects are even hard to understand for Swedes that travel to a different part of the country, which is especially true for older people or people who have lived their whole life in an area where the dialectal pronounciations are very "broad", or "breda".

Some of the main dialects in Sweden (but remember, there are many varieties within them as well): norrländska, skånska, västgötska, östgötska, stockholmska, värmländska, småländska, närkingska, gotländska, öländska, sörmländska etc.

If you'd like to listen to some of them, here is a link to a Swedish institute with recordings of different dialects:

https://www.isof.se/sprak/dialekter/lyssna-pa-dialekter.html

Learn Swedish and other languages online with our audio flashcard system and various exercises, such as multiple choice tests, writing exercises, games and listening exercises. Click here to Sign Up Free! Or sign up via Facebook/Google with one click:     Watch a short Intro by a real user!