The Swedish chef: from Norway?!

Posted on April 24, 2008 by doctoralstudent

In Språktidningen (”The language magazine”) there is an article about the Swedish chef in The Muppet Show. Tomas Riad, a professor at Stockholm University, has taken a closer look at the tonal accents in the chef’s “Swedish”. The intonation reveals that the Swedish chef is neither from southern Sweden nor from Dalecarlia, but that he might be from Stockholm or Gothenburg. What may come as a surpise, is that the intonation contour in his speech suggests that he might as well be from Norway. See for example Tomas Riad’s “Remarks on the Swedish tone accent typology”(pdf) for more about tone accents in Swedish.

For more fake Swedish, check out the Bergman parody De Düva. The language consists of English words, -en verb endings (as in German) and some Russian influences. But Swedish - I’m not sure…

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2 Responses to “The Swedish chef: from Norway?!”

  1. Kris, on April 25th, 2008 at 5:12 pm Said:

    This gets a big laugh from me! When I was a very wee lass, my parents used to think my Swedish Chef impersonation was hilarious and I was commanded to perform it for their friends. I love that people look at things like this. :)

  2. doctoralstudent, on April 27th, 2008 at 7:17 pm Said:

    Well, then you won’t have a problem making yourself understood in Sweden, then… ;-)

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