A Case of Prestige and Status Planning: Swedish and English in Sweden

The position of English vis-à-vis Swedish in Sweden is gaining attention because of a growing concern that the encroachment of English in certain domains may result in Swedish losing ground. A current language policy proposal, entitled Mål i mun, commissioned by the Swedish Government, addresses this concern, in part, by outlining recommendations for the respective roles of Swedish and English (1) in primary, secondary, and higher education and (2) in public, commercial, and governmental settings with the aim of strengthening Swedish. The present paper traces the development of this proposal and the relative positions of Swedish and English in its policy recommendations, focusing particularly on status planning and reflections of prestige planning in the document.