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Swedish language history: From prehistory to the viking age
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The word apelsin originally means apple from China. True or false?
An orange? Good choice Selma! Do you know how it got its Swedish name: apelsin? Well, it's because Swedish has borrowed this word from the German language. The Germans first called it Appel de Sina - an apple from China.
This was then shortened to Appelsina and then became the Swedish word Apelsin. The Swedish language consists of thousands of words. Where do they all come from? To find out, we'll take a journey through time and space. In... "tada"...
our time machine. - No way you'll get me into that. - What? Well okay! But only if we're home at 5 o'clock. We're competing in Karma Strike SM. Sure!
You'll be back in time. Now, let's set the time machine to minus 6 000 years. The GPS we set for an area north of the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. Ready? Let's go!
The people that lived here had their own language. They're called Proto-Indo-Europeans. Look at this map of today. See the orange spots? In all these countries the majority of the people speak a language that has developed from the Proto-Indo-European language.
But how did this language spread all over the world? The people split up. Different groups of Indo-Europeans went in different directions to find new places to live. All the different groups brought their language with them. But, during their travels the ways of speaking changed within the groups.
Different dialects arose. With time these dialects became languages in their own right. Now let's set the time machine to two thousand years ago. And the GPS to Northern Europe. One of the Indo-European groups has reached this far.
We call this group's language Proto-Germanic. From Proto-Germanic, developed Dutch, German, English, and Proto-Norse, among other languages. Let's fast forward to the 9th century; and set the GPS for 'home'. Now, the Viking era has started. Proto-Norse has now developed into Pre-Norse and split into three; Old West Norse - which is to become Norwegian and Icelandic, Old East Norse - which is to become Danish and Swedish, and Old Gutnish - that was spoken on Gotland.
Oh, did he scare you? You're kiddin' right? I've battled worse in Karma-Strike. Now I really need to get home and win SM. But this is a time machine, you'll be in time...
Leave it out. My inner clock is set on kicking ass. Can we go on after that? We were just about to get to the rune stones. - Aah... - I'll tell you about words like LAN. - Know that already. - Levla, Spawna? Know them too, - but all right. - Good, see you in part two.