A Sveticism (English: /ˈsvɛtɪsɪzəm/) is a grammatical construction, loanword or calque originating from the Swedish language.
Sveticisms are particularly found in the Finnish language, because Finland's governing bureaucracy was mostly Swedish-speaking until the 20th century. The use of Swedish grammatical constructions in official speech is a particularly persistent habit. The Swedish kommer att future tense is an example, being translated to tulla + third infinitive in illative case,[1] e.g. talo tullaan rakentamaan < Swedish huset kommer att byggas 'the house will be built'. The language regulator[who?] recommends against such usage in official speech.
Sveticisms are also common in Norwegian.[2] Swedish loanwords in Norwegian include words such as kjendis ('celebrity'), kompis ('friend') and the prefix el- ('electric') as well as phrases such as saken er biff ('everything has been taken care of') and på sikt ('in the long run').[2]
Sveticisms in English are loanwords, such as smörgåsbord, ombudsman, tungsten, orienteering, moped and running the gauntlet (reinterpretation of Swedish gatlopp).
References
edit- ^ Osmo Hormia (1967). Lärobok i finska (in Swedish). Lund.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ a b Lønnum, Erlend (2017). "Ord i grenseland". Norwegian Language Council (in Norwegian Bokmål). Retrieved 2022-06-21.