Torsten:
> Glen's grandmother would have spoken with a less "extreme" /s./ than
> today's Stockholmers.
More specifically, my grandmother was a child of 10 or so (because
Swedish farmers liked to breed like bunnies). They settled in
Minnesota before my grandmother moved to Canada (I think that was
when moving to another country was simpler and less bureaucratic).
So technically, my grandmother may have been influenced by American
English as it was in Minnesota at the time. One interesting thing
that I never quite understood is why she was pronouncing "w" in
"vitt". She pronounced it more like /wIt/. I'd be interested to know
what Swedish sounded like in Stockholm during the turn of the
century and what differences there are from today that would have
affected my gramma's speech.
As for the shibboleth thing... jury's out.
= gLeN