Karen, you intentionally left out God created Adam and Eve with the ability to communicate not only with each other, but with God as well ....
You friggin' pagan,
Ping to you...
“To that end, a group of five Swedish researchers are set to spend more than a week in Minnesota, a northerly mid-western state known to be a part of the heartland for Swedish-American communities, to conduct interview with anyone they can find who speaks Swedish.”
A week, compared to the years that Vilhelm Moberg lived in Chisago Lakes MN, Monterey CA and Laguna Beach CA, studying and writing?
And then went back to Sweden and killed himself.
One way the Swedish language changed on the North American continent was: Patronymic surnames were made more “American”
For example, “Andreasson” first became “Andersson” and then later “Anderson”
The earliest group from Sweden came in the 1600s.
The big emigration from Sweden to Minnesota began in the 1850s. Read Moberg.
My greatgrandmother came in 1861, age 8. To Chisago.
My great grandfather came in 1870, age 25.
Why none of the usual photos of hot blonde chix? I don’t get it...
I am of Swedish descent, but I am NOT Swedish American! My Swedish ancestors immigrated in 1904 to Maine and they forbade their children from speaking Swedish even at home and so it was lost. They wanted their family to assimilate and become true Americans and my Great-Grandfather believed that was part of how to accomplish it. I understand the family’s reasoning, but it’s unfortunate for generations after that would have liked that connection to our history.
When I lived in Sweden (2000-2004) I took Swedish class for immigrants, and was very happy to see so many words that were either close to the same or same pronunciation as English, even if they were spelled differently; “kom hem” instead of “come home” for example. I read a book about the origins of the English language, and so much of the basic stuff came from the Vikings, and so forgiving the 1000 years in between, many words were close in both languages. I especially liked finally understanding why some English words make no sense, such as the silent k in knife and knock (”k-niv” and “k-nock” in Swedish) as well as the ever elusive “w” in “two” (tva—though I can’t add accents on my keyboard).
It was very enlightening! (though I know you know all of this Western Culture!)
Ping
They are going to be talking to very old people. My family is all from eastern North Dakota and none of the younger generations speaks Swedish, Norwegian, or German. That group of immigrants were true pioneers who bought into the American experiment.
I find it funny that when the Swedes voted with their feet that the homeland had to reform. If we lose Federalism in the US you can be sure that a lot of people won’t vote with their feet by moving to another state, they will leave the friggin country!
Recently watched the “Girl Who” movies in Swedish with subtitles. (Very good, BTW. The girl in question, just a little bit of a thing, is quite believable as a badass who WILL kick your fanny.)
Hadn’t really heard much Swedish before despite being at least 1/4 Swede.
I was quite amazed that Swedish “sounds” so much like English. If you can’t make out the individual words, it sounds very much like English.
German, French, Italian, Spanish etc. all have a very distinctive sound and you can tell someone is speaking each of those languages even when you can’t hear the words. But not Swedish.
Cool data? This specialized scientific terminology always throws me for a loop.
My grandmother came over to America in the 1890s as a girl, my grandfather came over in 1902 as a young man. They both lived until the early 1970s (when I was in my late teens), and they both spoke with a Swedish accent, my grandfather especially so.
By 1910, Chicago had become the Swedish-American capital, with more than 100,000 immigrants making it the second largest Swedish city in the world, next to Stockholm.
That number included my granparents. There is a nice Swedish-American Museum on the north side of the city (where I grew up), devoted to the Swedish migration to Chicago.
Minnesota remains by a wide-margin the state with the most inhabitants of Swedish descent—9.6 percent of the population as of 2005.
Perhaps by percentage, Minnesota would be the largest. But in terms of absolute numbers, I would say Illinois.
Ping to the Swedish Ping List.links for some reading on the subject:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_language
go the link and then click on the “PDF” link, at: http://epubl.ltu.se/1402-1773/2007/085/
http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_language
This one is interesting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYmIE4jW4C0
And this was an interesting discussion:
http://www.antimoon.com/forum/t12914.htm
“In Hindu stories it was a tree being humbled, in North American Indian folklore it was a great flood, in east Africa it was starvation-induced madness, in the Amazon it was stolen hummingbird eggs and in aboriginal Australia it was a goddess’ gift of play for children.”
flowery tales told around the campfire to children (and anthropologists) should never be taken seriously.