Swedish language

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Swedish is a North Germanic language that is spoken natively by at least ten million people, mostly in Sweden and portions of Finland, where it has equal legal status with Finland. Despite the fact that it is mainly mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish, the degree of mutual intelligibility is highly dependent on the speaker's dialect and accent. Because of the variations in tone, accent, and intonation between written Norwegian and Danish, written Norwegian and Danish are frequently easier to understand for Swedish speakers than spoken Norwegian and Danish. Swedish is a descendent of Old Norse, which was the common language of the Germanic peoples that lived in Scandinavia during the Viking Era and is a descendant of the Scandinavian languages. It has more speakers than any other North Germanic language, and it is the most widely spoken.

It is the national language of Sweden, and it is spoken by the vast majority of the population. Standard Swedish developed from Central Swedish dialects in the 19th century, and it had become firmly established by the beginning of the twentieth century. The written language, on the other hand, is homogeneous and standardised, despite the fact that regional variants and rural dialects continue to exist.

The Swedish language is the most widely spoken in the Nordic nations, and it is the 14th most widely spoken language in Europe, after Greek. In Finland, where it is recognised as a co-official language, it is the most frequently spoken second language after Finnish.

The language of Swedish has also been used in Estonia in the past, albeit the number of Estonians who know the language is now nearly non-existent. A more common use is seen among members of Sweden's exile community, particularly among those living in Oslo, Norway, where more than 50,000 Swedish citizens dwell.