Speakers of Six Swedish Dialects

Swedish has many dialects. Many linguists divide the language into six. They are Central Swedish, Western Swedish, Southern Swedish, Northern Swedish, Eastern Swedish and Gotlandic. Gotlandic is spoken on the island of Gotland, and Eastern Swedish is spoken in Finland.

Here are the six dialects with the approximate percentage of speakers:

Central Swedish 39%

Western Swedish 28%

Southern Swedish 18%

Northern Swedish 11%

Eastern Swedish 3%

Gotlandic 1%

Central Swedish is the dialect with the most speakers. It is spoken in the capital city of Stockholm and also in Uppsala. Western Swedish is spoken in Gothenburg, the second largest city in Sweden, and Southern Swedish is spoken in Malmo, the third largest city.

Northern Swedish is spoken in an area that covers more than half of Sweden, but it has a relatively small population. Eastern Swedish is spoken by approximately 5% of the population of Finland, and Gotlandic is spoken by less than 1% of Swedish speakers. The Gotlandic dialect has been influenced by Gutian, a language that is now extinct.

The Central and Western dialects are spoken by more than half of all Swedish speakers. It is important to note that many Swedish speakers use a standard form of the language but retain traces of their dialect in their pronunciation and vocabulary. Though most Swedes speak a variety of Swedish that is close to Standard Swedish, the language can be classified into six main dialects.