Sweden once again proves its ethno-masochism by protecting the languages of outsiders, while allowing one of its own languages to perish.
Like many developed countries, Sweden has a policy to protect endangered languages from going extinct. Some languages like Meänkieli and Samisk are spoken by Sweden’s Finnish and Sami ethnic minority groups. Other languages like Yiddish and Romani are protected, despite being spoken exclusively by non-Swedes and in no risk of going extinct. One language the Swedish government has chosen not to protect, however, is Elfdalian, an archaic North Germanic language, an immediate descendant of Old Norse. Indeed, the Swedish government seems determined to hasten its demise through aggressive refugee resettlement.
First, a bit of background regarding the languages that have received protection. The first protected minority language is Meänkieli (tornedalsfinska, Finnish dialect in north-eastern Sweden). In the 18th century, what is now Finland was part of Sweden. Following the creation of the Grand Duchy of Finland in 1809, Sweden inherited some ethnic Finns living in what is now northern Sweden. These people speak an older dialect of Northern Finnish. The people who speak this language are an organic part of the country and its population. Thus, it is quite reasonable to preserve and protect this dialect.
The second protected minority language is Sami, spoken by indigenous peoples in the northernmost parts of Sweden, Norway and Finland. The Sami are counted among the Arctic peoples and have inhabited the northern arctic and subarctic regions of Scandinavia and Russia for at least 5,000 years. They are the “Native Americans” of Northern Europe, so to speak. The Sami language belongs in the Uralic language family and is very distantly related to Finnish. Therefore, it too is perfectly reasonable to consider protecting.
Along with these rightfully protected dialects, two other languages enjoy the status of minority languages in Sweden which implies generous state subsidies for their speakers. These languages are Yiddish and Romani chib, better known as a Gypsy tongue. These languages are actively encouraged to be taught and developed within their respective communities. Their speakers are subsidized to set up centers to promote both their language and cultural values.
Jews have their own museum (the Jewish museum in Stockholm) and cultural centers where they remind Swedes of the Holocaust. The Jewish community’s website says that “Today’s Sweden is undergoing a renaissance for Jewish culture, song, klezmer and Yiddish. In Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö, Lund, Borås there are Jewish unions that organize cultural evenings, gatherings and theatrical performances.” Mikaela Rohdin, from a Jewish family in Sweden has recently started to teach Yiddish in Stockholm. “One becomes happy from Yiddish, it’s a pleasant language”, says Mikaela. “Through the language one gets a special tie to the Jewish culture where the language originates from.”
For Mikaela, the opportunity to learn Yiddish through teaching it means that “one can express their Jewish identity in many ways besides going to a Jewish school or being religious.” Mikaela says that in order to further exist for Yiddish there must be a critical mass of people who speak it. There are currently 20,000-25,000 Jews living in Sweden, of whom 4,000 speak or understand Yiddish. Given the torrent of Muslim immigration, it seems more likely that such newcomers will gain their own “critical mass” much faster than Jews, many of whom are already making aliyah.
Another official minority language in Sweden is Romani chib. Romani chib is a gypsy tongue that Sweden is struggling to preserve along with her unsuccessful attempts to integrate its speakers into the Swedish society. Sweden is perhaps the only country in the world that pours millions of kroner into so-called “bridge builders” who work to increase knowledge of Roma culture, promote the gypsy language and make social care programs more available for the so called “Swedish travellers” (the term for Gypsies in Sweden).
In 2009, the Romani Information and Learning Center was opened in Malmö. Another such center is in Stockholm. The centers help Gypsies to translate Swedish bureaucratic paperwork from bureaucratic institutes and work to defend “human rights” for the Roma people. One high school in Stockholm focuses on Romani language. Professors from Swedish and British universities actively collaborate to develop a comprehensive Romani language program.
For those not familiar with Gypsies. They are indeed a unique group of people whose origin can be traced back to medieval India. Given how much vibrancy and color Gypsies add to Sweden’s otherwise boring monochromatic lifestyle, it too is reasonable that their language, traditions, and culture should be protected by the state and generously subsidized by the Swedish taxpayers. Last year, the number of Gypsies coming to Sweden from Romania and Bulgaria doubled to 4,000. According to Euractiv, “there were between 3,400 and 4,100 begging EU migrants in Sweden following Easter, in April, compared to an estimated 800 to 2,000 at the same time last year.”
Meanwhile, Elfdalian, whose closest ancestor Old Norse was spoken by Vikings, is now on the verge of extinction and is spoken by barely 3,000 people who have grown up in Älvdalen, a small town 40 miles from the Norwegian border in Northern Dalarna, Sweden. Elfdalian has its own vocabulary, which is for the most part unintelligible to Swedish speakers, and unique grammatical features that are not found in any other Scandinavian language. It has retained many characteristics of Old Norse and proto-germanic languages.The dialect is spoken in families but not taught at school.
Even though linguists consider Elfdalian to be a separate language, officially it has no language status in Sweden and is regarded as merely another dialect. “Elfdalska is going to die out if nothing is done to preserve it and keep it alive,” says Henrik Rosenkvist, professor in Nordic languages. “We receive no help from the state. The state refuses to acknowledge it as a minority language.”
To hasten Elfdalian’s demise, the Swedish government recently dumped 551 “Syrian refugees” onto the poor town of Älvdalen. Soon enough, Arabic will likely be the first language of Älvdalians and Elfdalian will be the subject of a handful of linguistics dissertations, if that.
Please, for the love of God! RomaniAN language =/= Romani (Gypsy) language!
Romanian is the national language of the Romanian people. Our cultural and genetic roots lie in Europe, we have nothing in common with those migrants from the Indian Subcontinent. Please make the necessary corrections!
Pretty funny quote from the Älvdalen article:
“I don’t like [Iraqi/Islamic] rules: you have to marry this and this, you have to listen for your family. But I don’t want to listen for everyone, I want to listen for myself and for freedom (sic). Here in this aisle we have Nescafe and Arabic coffee. And here we have meat halal.” – Mustafa.
Ol’ Mustafa’s recites pidgin PC to squeals of delight from Liberals while making sure halal meat is in stock. Terrific. He’s also laughing to himself “stupid kafirs”.
Virtue signalling runs deep and strong in suicidal Scandinavians.
The stuff about minority language subsidies is irritating, but I knew about it already. Then you brought up the killshot at the end. It’s one thing to subsidize Yiddish and gypsy languages while ignoring local languages. It’s another to do that while dumping Arabic-speaking illegal migrants into the villages that speak an archaic dialect of Old Norse.
In other words, the minority language policy of the Swedish state:
– Jews and Yiddish = originating from the Middle East, then Germany. Recognized, state funding, state protection.
– Gypsies and Romani = originating from India. Recognized, state funding, state protection.
– Old Norse = originating from Sweden. No recognition, no funding, no protection, instead, its speakers now have to deal with hundreds (if not thousands soon) Arab migrants who had enough money to pay a human trafficker (who is probably a gypsy who speaks Romani) to smuggle them north.
Good riddance to any society that considers itself too good to reproduce or safeguard its children’s future. In addition to all the other negative things it may be, being a cuck is an evolutionary dead end, and our gene pool is better off without those predisposed to it.
The people of Älvdalen should speak only in Elfdalian when around the migrants. They have that right.