Swedish language explained to kids

Swedish is a North Germanic language spoken by about 10 million people in Sweden and Finland. It is closely related to Norwegian and Danish, and to a lesser extent English. Swedish is a descendant of Old Norse, the common language of the Germanic peoples living in Scandinavia during the Viking Era. Swedish is a relatively new language, having arisen from the medieval dialects spoken in the Swedish-speaking parts of Sweden. The oldest Swedish text dates from the 13th century, but the first complete translation of the Bible into Swedish was not completed until the 16th century. Swedish has a number of dialects, the most common of which are the Stockholm dialect, spoken in the capital, and the Gotland dialect, spoken on the island of Gotland. Other dialects include the Scanian dialect, spoken in the southern part of Sweden, and the Norrland dialect, spoken in the northern part of Sweden. Swedish is a very phonetic language, meaning that it is pronounced pretty much the way it is written. There are no silent letters, and most words are pronounced exactly as they are spelled. The main exception to this is the so-called soft consonants, which are pronounced with a slightly different sound depending on whether they are at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of a word. Swedish is a very concise language, and uses very few words to express a lot of meaning. This can make it a bit difficult for beginners to understand, but it also makes it very expressive and poetic. Swedish is a very democratic language, and has a lot of words and expressions that are used to express equality and fairness. For example, the pronoun "hen" can be used to refer to a person of any gender, and the word "folket" (the people) is used to refer to the citizens of Sweden, regardless of social class.