Sweden’s English email addies
p2pnet news view | P2P | Politics:- In Sweden, they speak Swedish.
So why are Swedish government email addresses in English?
It’s a problem, according to the Swedish Language Council.
Could it be because Swedish administrators spend so much time in bed with members of the Korporate Kopyright Klan that English is almost their first language? – one wonders.
Meanwhile, “Olle Josephsson, chairman for the Language Council believe it is an important symbolic question and that the government is violating the new language law which states that Swedish is the main language in Sweden (while Finnish, Romani, Meänkieli, Yiddish and Sami language have status as minority languages),” says the Stockholm News, adding:
“Swedish versions of the e-mail adresses do not exist.
“Mari Ternbo, head of information at the government, says to Aftonbladet that the reason for the English e-mail addresses is that in the 1990ies when they were created, the common thought was that e-mail first and foremost would be used for correspondence abroad and that people domestically would continue to use telephone and ordinary mail.”
Josephsson has reported the government to the Parliamentary Ombudsman, the story adds.
Stockholm News – Are e-mail addresses in English a violation against the law?, July 31, 2009
August, 2009
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August 5th, 2009 at 3:19 pm
http://www.musicianwages.com/the-working-musician/to-a-mother-concerned-about-music-piracy-david-j-hahn
August 5th, 2009 at 3:36 pm
^^ I’ve asked David for permission to re-run the article cited above. It’s definitely worth reading.
Cheers!
August 6th, 2009 at 7:19 am
There is a lot of English infiltrated into the Swedish language nowadays, and some people have been very vocal about it (against it).
I read a letter to a newspaper a couple of days ago from a lady that lives in the States and is “shocked” everytime she comes to Sweden for her holidays. Low-cost flights have “free seating”, a friend is a “Marketing Director” and, shock and horror, there is a company called “Box Delivery”, all in English. I thought it was pretty ironic that she lives in the US and complains about her language having changed in the 15 years she has lived outside of Sweden, but whatever.
The argument that “e-mail first and foremost would be used for correspondence abroad” sounds about right to me, frankly: people in Sweden do use the phone a lot (Sony Ericsson anyone?), and are still sending old-style postcards on special occasions. It’s however not hard at all to set up alternate e-mail addresses in Swedish and redirect them. But that would cost someone’s time, and people’s time is heavily paid in Sweden…
This is just another episode from those refusing to believe that languages have no geographical barriers, because people move and communicate with each other. If Hollywood has had an influence? Sure, there is a general perception that people learn the language more easily if exposed to it, and Swedes are very good English speakers, on average. Other than that, I don’t know. I think it’s more laziness than anything else.
August 7th, 2009 at 2:07 am
“1990ies”? That spells out to “nineteen ninety-ies”…