Swedish Academy

The Swedish Academy or Svenska Akademien, founded in 1786 by King Gustav III, is one of the Royal Academies of Sweden. Modelled after the Académie française, it has 18 members. The motto of the Academy is "Talent and Taste" ("Snille och Smak" in Swedish). The primary purpose of the Academy is to further the "purity, strength, and sublimity of the Swedish language" ("Svenska Språkets renhet, styrka och hōghet") (Walshe, 1965). To that end the Academy publishes two dictionaries.

The first is a one-volume dictionary called Svenska Akademiens Ordlista (SAOL). The second is a multi-volume dictionary, edited on principles similar to those of the Oxford English Dictionary, entitled Svenska Akademiens Ordbok (SAOB). The SAOL has reached its 13th edition while the first volume of the SAOB was published in 1898 and today (2005) work has progressed to words beginning with the letter "T".

The current permanent secretary of the Academy is Horace Engdahl, who was preceded by Sture Allén. Since 1901 the Academy has annually decided who will be the laureate for the Nobel Prize in Literature, awarded in memory of the donor Alfred Nobel.

The building now known as the Stockholm Stock Exchange Building was built for and is owned by the Academy. It is here that the Academy meets and, amongst other business, announces the names of Nobel Prize laureates.

Current members

Current members of the Swedish Academy:

• See also: List of all members, past and present, of the Swedish Academy

See also

• List of language regulators

References

Walshe, Maurice O'Connell (1965). "Introduction to the Scandinavian Languages", Andre Deutsch Ltd., 1st edition, p. 57

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