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Swenglish



         


Swenglish (or Svengelska in Swedish) Is English spoken with a heavy Swedish accent or Swedish with many English words.

The first one is common among the ordinary Swede who may not speak English too often. The result is very amusing for native English speakers because to the sound of it.

Unlike English, Swedish has monothong vowels which are sometimes forgotten Swedish speakers, resulting in mispronounciation. Swedish also lacks some sounds like 'th' and 'z'. In general, written Swedish corresponds to the pronounciation but thats not the case in English which also leads to mispronounciation and misstressed words.

Swedish expressions and literal translations are sometimes used unawarely or in belief that they are correct English. Some Swedish words have false friends in English. When trying to find a suitable translation for a word, the anglicized Swedish word may mean something completely different. This sometimes results in humours situations. For instance: Swedish "fart" (speed) or "rap" (burp) become "fart" and "rape" if you put an English touch on it. So one might say: So you all have fart controllers in your cars? intending to inquire about cruise control in cars. In my family no one cares if someone rape during dinner. if you talk about your relaxed manners. False friends are common between Swedish and English and in Swenglish they are used without reflection.

Then the melodic accent which might be the funniest part of Swenglish since it's parodied by the Swedish Chef on The Muppet Show. The sound of Swenglish varies heavily with the speaker's Swedish dialect and of course with the knowledge of the English language.

The second one is used mostly in sports, computing and business where Swedish lacks words for many concepts. English words are then imported with or without adjustments. For example, 'serve' in sports or 'outsource' in business. Occasionally, English words are used even if there's a Swedish counterpart like 'mejl/mail' instead of 'e-post' (=e-mail), 'printa' instead of 'skriva ut' (=to print). Such slips happen easily when working with English software, for instance.

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