Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/534

 510 SWEDEN" (LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE) with Russia at this time deprived Sweden of Finland. A new constitution was decreed, and the prince of Holstein-Augustenburg was elected heir to the throne as crown prince. The sudden death of this prince in April, 1810, led very unexpectedly to the nomination of Bernadotte, prince of Ponte Corvo (see BER- NADOTTE), as crown prince, whose success in securing Norway to Sweden (the rest of Swe- dish Pomerania being given up) endeared him to the people. In 1818, on the death of Charles XIII., he ascended the throne as Charles XIV. John. During his reign Sweden prospered, commerce, the arts, and manufactures made rapid progress, and the moral and social con- dition of the people was greatly advanced. His son Oscar I. succeeded him at his death in 1844, and encouraged the moral, social, and political progress of the country. (See OSCAR I.) At his death in 1859, he was succeeded by his son Charles XV., who had been regent of the kingdom since 1857 in consequence of King Oscar's illness. (See CHARLES XV.) Du- ring the Crimean war Sweden and Norway re- mained neutral. Many constitutional reforms were effected during Charles's reign. On his death in 1872 without male offspring, he was succeeded by his brother Oscar II., who has continued his liberal policy. (See OSCAR II.) SWEDEN, Language and Literature of. The Swe- dish is one of the Scandinavian tongues, and as such belongs to the Germanic (or Teutonic) branch of the family of the Indo-European languages. (See GERMANIC RACES AND LAN- GUAGES.) Though Old Norse proper was the speech of the whole Scandinavian peninsula and of Denmark until the llth century, its dialects varied considerably even in the most primitive times, and out of one or more of those ancient dialects the modern Swedish was developed. The change was so slow that the Icelandic lays and sagas were still understood at the Swedish courts as late as the 14th cen- tury. (See ICELAND, LANGUAGE AND LITERA- TURE or.) In its earlier stages the Swedish was influenced by the German through the commercial connection of Sweden with the Hanseatic towns, by the Latin through the Catholic priesthood and the monastic institu- tions, and by the Danish through the political union of Sweden and Denmark subsequent to the pact of Calmar (1397). The reformation again subjected it to German influences, but it was less affected by them than was the Da- nish. The language was greatly purified and a multitude of foreign vocables driven out by the efforts of the zealous Icelandic scholars of the latter half of the 17th and first quarter of the 18th century. But later in the last cen- tury^the French tastes prevalent at the court and in the literature introduced a large num- ber of Gallic words, many of which, how- ever, have been since superseded by genuine Scandinavian derivatives. Several dialects are now spoken. In the northern provinces the approximation to the Old Norse or Icelandic forms is much more marked than in the south- ern, where Danish and German influences have been felt ; the southern dialects of Scania and Blekinge have great similarity to the Danish, and that of Dalecarlia presents the greatest departure from the written language, while that of Sodermanland approaches it the near- est. Swedish is also the language of the edu- cated classes, and partly of the press, in the Russian grand duchy of Finland. The Swe- dish alphabet has 28 letters, the same as in English, with the omission of w (in Swedish formerly the equivalent of, by which it is now generally replaced) and the addition of a, d, o. Formerly the German character was mostly used in Swedish works, but now the Latin character prevails, though the former is still sometimes to be found. A letter peculiar to the Swedish is d, which is pronounced almost like the English o in note. The vowels a, e, ', a, and o are pronounced as in German ; o has two sounds, either similar to that of the Eng- lish o in move, but intermediate between o and w, or equivalent to the English a in fall. The sound of u is intermediate between the Ger- man u and u. Fis pronounced almost like the German u. G before e, *, y, u, o, has a sound like the English y in you. J has the same sound. D, g, h, and I before j, and h and f before v, are mute. K before e, i, y, d, o, is soft and pronounced like cJi in much. 8k before the same letters, and the combina- tions skj, sj, stj, are pronounced like the Eng- lish sh. The indefinite article en (masc. and fern.) and ett (neut.) is placed before the noun ; as en hast, a horse, ett fiord, a table. The definite article is d&n in the masculine and feminine, det in the neuter, and de in the plu- ral for all genders ; but it is also expressed by only adding in the singular number en or n to masculine and feminine substantives, and et or t to the neuter, and in the plural ne, na, a, en; or, thirdly, both these ways may be com- bined, as den mannen, the man, det bordet, the table, de Jiastame, the horses. Substantives have a distinct case ending only in the geni- tive, which is formed by the addition of s. The plural of substantives is formed by add- ing or, ar, er, or en; and in some words the singular and plural are alike. The adjectives are formed after two declensions, the first of which has a separate form for the neuter gender, while the second has only one form for all the three genders. The second person singular pronoun is used in conversation only among intimates or when addressing inferiors; otherwise the title of the person addressed, or Herr (sir, Mr.), Fru (madam), or Mamsdl or Froken (miss), with the verb in the third per- son, must be used ; thus : Have you seen the book? Ear Ilerrn (Has the Mr.) sett lokcn? Verbs have a strong and a weak form of con- jugation, and two simple tenses, present and imperfect. The passive is formed by adding s to the active ; as, att skdra, to cut, at skdras, to be cut ; jag kallar, I call, jag Icallas, I am