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If you're in Stockholm Nov. 15 you have to come by Bloggforum Stockholm 2004, organized by Erik Stattin and myself. While the design for the website was copied shamelessly from MemeFirst, the format for the forum was copied shamelessly from Gothamist's New York Bloggers event last May, because it was such a successful format: Three informal panel discussions comprised of some of the area's most interesting bloggers (and Felix), with the location sponsored by a patron of the blogs.
In our case, we're gathering Swedish opinion page writers, PR gurus, university lecturers and usability experts — all bloggers — at the Swedish HQ of IDG as guests of Internetworld. The debate topics are blogs and politics, blogs and media and blogs and knowledge, all from a Swedish perspective. Which is why it's in Swedish. I thought I'd leave that tidbit till last, so you'd keep reading. (Here's the press release.)
By the way, blog is spelled blogg in Swedish because without the second g you'd pronounce it blogue, or blowg. And it's one blogg, two bloggar. Bloggers are bloggare.
"By the way, blog is spelled blogg in Swedish because without the second g you'd pronounce it blogue, or blowg. And it's one blogg, two bloggar. Bloggers are bloggare."
Ummm...who cares how it's pronounced?
Case in point - today a friend of mine at the local coffee shop asked what I was doing. I was writing a comment for Memefirst, and I told her I was writing up something for a blog I contribute to. She asked "A what?" I said, "A blog. Have you heard of blogs before?" And she replied, "Oh. Yeah, actually I have one at LiveJournal. I just never heard anyone say the word before."
All that matters is how it's spelled. And you're spelling it wrong!
Posted by: Sterling on October 25, 2004 05:02 AMBecause if one g was good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for you?
Posted by: Stefan on October 25, 2004 08:37 AMThat's very clever, Stefan.
But no. Because "blog" is a contraction of "web log". How would we translate "web log" into Swedish, oh Sudden Purist Of The Language?
Posted by: Sterling on October 25, 2004 11:47 AMAlways happy to oblige in the furthering of linguistic knowledge. Both web and log already existed in Swedish, as "webb" and "logg". A weblog became a webblogg, clearly, and hence blogg.
I guess you could make an argument for bblogg.
As for which came first, Swedish or English, I'm willing to have the fight but it's likely going to be ugly and without a winner.
Posted by: Stefan Geens on October 25, 2004 12:23 PMChrist on a bike - both words are perfect cogates? What're the f____ odds on that? Well, you called my bluff, so now I have to pull out the big guns - in Googlefight, "blog" beats "blogg" by a factor of 90. Vox populi, royal flush, etc, etc.
Posted by: Sterling on October 25, 2004 02:12 PMI assume that Swedish gets "webb" and "logg" from English originally, right? And they just changed the spelling to make them pronounceable, right?
What do the Icelanders call a weblog?
Posted by: Eric on October 25, 2004 04:51 PMOh hell, it looks like webb was imported from English. But it has to have two b's or else it sounds like "wayb".
Posted by: Stefan on October 26, 2004 12:35 AMI'm somewhat disappointed. I wanted to be wrong.
It looks like even the Icelanders use "blogg".
Life seems so meaningless now.
Posted by: Eric on October 26, 2004 03:17 AMMaybe he could sponsor the "No b left behind" act.
Posted by: Stefan on October 26, 2004 06:23 AMExactly, Sterling. That's what tipped me off. Except for foreign words, the Nordic languages do not use the letter "W".
Posted by: Eric on October 26, 2004 11:27 AM