A Suecophile is someone with a great interest in the
Swedish
Swedish or ' may refer to:
Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically:
* Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland
** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
culture
Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups ...
and the
Swedish language. The term is most often used when this interest is held by a non-Swede. An individual like this is also sometimes referred to as a ″Sweaboo″.
In the language debate in
Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...
in the 19th and 20th centuries, the
Svecoman movement
The Svecoman ( sv, Svekoman, , ) movement was a Suecophile or pro-Swedish nationalist movement that arose in the Grand Duchy of Finland at the end of the 19th century chiefly as a reaction to the demands for increased use of Finnish vigorously p ...
was the name for those who preferred the Swedish language to the
Finnish language
Finnish ( endonym: or ) is a Uralic language of the Finnic branch, spoken by the majority of the population in Finland and by ethnic Finns outside of Finland. Finnish is one of the two official languages of Finland (the other being Swedis ...
. The word Suecophile is however more used in non-political circumstances.
A well-known American Suecophile of the 19th century was
William Widgery Thomas, Jr., who was US
minister to Sweden and wrote the book ''Sweden and the Swedes'' in 1892, de facto promoting a better understanding and acting towards
Swedish immigrants to the US around the end of the 19th century.
See also
References
External links
{{Cultural appreciation
Admiration of foreign cultures
Swedish culture