Swedish is a North Germanic language spoken by 10 million speakers, mainly in Sweden and parts of Finland. It has been designated as one of the official languages of the European Union since 1995.
Swedish directly evolved from Standard Swedish in the 19th century, which originated in Old Norse. There are many dialects in Swedish which can be categorized into 6 groups from distinct regions of the country. The Standard Swedish evolved from dialects in central Sweden and the area of Stockholm.