Anglicisms in the Nordic Languages: Stumbling Blocks or Stepping Stones?

Many young Danes, Swedes and Norwegians prefer to communicate in English rather than in their native tongue (Gooskens 2006; Bacquin and Zola Christensen 2013), and a major part of the new words in the Nordic languages are based on English (Gottlieb 2020). Will English prevail as a lingua franca in the Nordic region? With that question in mind, this study analyses some recent English-induced developments in the Scandinavian languages. While Anglicism dictionaries present the three languages as moving in different directions, the present study – by exploiting large contemporary text corpora – shows cross-linguistic convergence, suggesting better chances for mutual understanding among Scandinavians.