Swedish
Indo-European family · Germanic branch · Eurasia
Swedish is an SVO language, like 488 of the 1,376 languages WALS codes for basic word order.
On Coding of Evidentiality, WALS codes Swedish as “Mixed systems”, a value held by 10 of the 418 languages coded, Georgian and Khalkha among them.
On The Perfect, WALS codes Swedish as “From possessive”, a value held by 7 of the 222 languages coded, English and French among them.
Contrast Swedish with Danish or with any other language
Uncommon values
Values that fewer than one in ten of the coded languages share with Swedish, rarest first.
- Polar QuestionsInterrogative word order13 of 955
- Action Nominal ConstructionsOther: Minor patterns6 of 168
- Weight-Sensitive StressRight-oriented: The antepenultimate is involved27 of 500
- Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate NegationNegative indefinites show mixed behaviour13 of 206
- Indefinite PronounsSpecial indefinites22 of 326
- Weight Factors in Weight-Sensitive Stress SystemsLong vowel + Coda: long vowels or closed syllables35 of 500
- Number of Cases2 case categories23 of 261
Inside the Indo-European family
Swedish matches the most frequent Indo-European value on 42 of the 63 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (67%). Among the 39 Indo-European languages profiled here, that rate ranks 25th from the top.
Closest profiles
Languages that share the most coded values with Swedish; the count is out of the features both languages are coded for.
Outside the Indo-European family, the best match is Finnish (Uralic), with 38 of 63 features alike.
The rest of the profile
WALS codes Swedish for 63 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 53 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Swedish shares with the fewest languages comes first.
Sounds 2
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Rhythm Types | Absent: no rhythmic stress | 98 of 323 |
| Fixed Stress Locations | No fixed stress (mostly weight-sensitive stress) | 220 of 502 |
Word structure 1
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology | Predominantly suffixing | 406 of 969 |
Nouns and pronouns 13
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Definite Articles | Definite affix on noun | 92 of 620 |
| Ordinal Numerals | First, second, three-th | 61 of 321 |
| Asymmetrical Case-Marking | Additive-quantitatively asymmetrical case-marking | 53 of 261 |
| Indefinite Articles | Numeral for 'one' is used as indefinite article | 112 of 534 |
| Comitatives and Instrumentals | Identity | 76 of 322 |
| Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns | Second person pronouns encode a binary politeness distinction | 49 of 207 |
| Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes | No possessive affixes | 260 of 902 |
| Position of Case Affixes | Neither case affixes nor adpositional clitics | 379 of 1,031 |
| Occurrence of Nominal Plurality | Plural in all nouns, always obligatory | 133 of 291 |
| Coding of Nominal Plurality | Plural suffix | 513 of 1,066 |
| Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives | Two-way contrast | 126 of 234 |
| Intensifiers and Reflexive Pronouns | Intensifiers and reflexive pronouns are formally identical | 94 of 168 |
| Pronominal and Adnominal Demonstratives | Same forms | 143 of 201 |
Noun phrases 1
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Noun Phrase Conjunction | AND-languages: 'and' and 'with' are not identical | 131 of 234 |
Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 15
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| The Morphological Imperative | Second person number-neutral | 89 of 548 |
| Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking | Overlap for both possibility and necessity | 36 of 207 |
| Suppletion According to Tense and Aspect | Suppletion according to tense | 36 of 193 |
| The Prohibitive | Normal imperative + normal negative | 113 of 496 |
| Epistemic Possibility | Verbal constructions | 65 of 240 |
| Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality | Only indirect evidentials | 166 of 418 |
| The Past Tense | Past/non-past distinction marked; no remoteness distinction | 94 of 222 |
| The Future Tense | No inflectional marking of future/non-future distinction | 112 of 222 |
| Imperative-Hortative Systems | The language has neither a maximal nor a minimal system | 201 of 375 |
| Perfective/Imperfective Aspect | No grammatical marking of perfective/imperfective distinction | 121 of 222 |
| Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes | Tense-aspect suffixes | 667 of 1,131 |
| Situational Possibility | Verbal constructions | 158 of 234 |
| Suppletion in Imperatives and Hortatives | None (= no suppletive imperatives reported in the reference material) | 153 of 193 |
| Verbal Number and Suppletion | No singular-(dual)-plural pairs/triples | 159 of 193 |
| The Optative | Inflectional optative absent | 271 of 319 |
Word order 13
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Order of Adjective and Noun | Modifying adjective precedes noun (AdjN) | 373 of 1,367 |
| Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions | Interrogative phrases obligatorily initial | 264 of 902 |
| Position of Polar Question Particles | No question particle | 355 of 884 |
| Order of Numeral and Noun | Numeral precedes noun (NumN) | 479 of 1,154 |
| Order of Object, Oblique, and Verb | Verb-object-oblique (VOX) | 210 of 500 |
| Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase | Prepositions | 511 of 1,184 |
| Order of Demonstrative and Noun | Demonstrative word precedes noun (DemN) | 542 of 1,225 |
| Order of Object and Verb | Object follows verb (VO) | 705 of 1,518 |
| Order of Degree Word and Adjective | Degree word precedes adjective (DegAdj) | 227 of 481 |
| Order of Genitive and Noun | Genitive-noun (GenN) | 685 of 1,249 |
| Order of Adverbial Subordinator and Clause | Initial subordinator word | 398 of 659 |
| Order of Relative Clause and Noun | Relative clause follows noun (NRel) | 579 of 824 |
| Order of Subject and Verb | Subject precedes verb (SV) | 1,192 of 1,496 |
Simple clauses 6
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Expression of Pronominal Subjects | Obligatory pronouns in subject position | 82 of 711 |
| Predicative Possession | Have-Possessive | 63 of 240 |
| Nominal and Locational Predication | Identical | 117 of 386 |
| Predicative Adjectives | Predicative adjectives have nonverbal encoding | 132 of 386 |
| Negative Morphemes | Negative particle | 502 of 1,157 |
| Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals | Zero copula is impossible | 211 of 386 |
Vocabulary 1
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Tea | Words derived from Min Nan Chinese te | 84 of 230 |
Other 1
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Para-Linguistic Usages of Clicks | Clicks may express affective but not logical meanings | 71 of 143 |