Nordisk Ministerråd

Karin Arvidsson

Why is it impossible to talk Swedish while queuing for a hamburger on a Friday night in Helsinki without getting into a fight, despite Swedish being an official language in Finland? The Queen of Denmark, the Government Minister, the Nobel Prize winner and the young editor-in-chief all have an intense relationship with language. In this book, they - along with a number of other people with a keen interest in language - talk about how language has shaped their lives, both private and professional. Language affects people - it engages and provokes. And power lies in language. Icelanders and Finns only have access to translated and interpreted material if they have not learned a Scandinavian language. Does the way we handle language in Nordic collaboration mean that we are creating ademocratic deficit? How are we affected by tradition on the one hand and by the accelerating change brought about by globalisation on the other? Is it a question of generational boundaries? Would young people in Nordic countries rather speak English than Norwegian? These are some of the issues touched upon in this book.

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