The Lamb, the Blood, the River
The Language of Canaan in the Early Swedish Pentecostal Movement
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.58412/hyb.v4i1.56751Keywords:
Christian Sociolect, Language of Canaan, Biblical Language, Group Identity, Social Identity, Reception history, PentecostalismAbstract
This article is a study of the early Swedish Pentecostal movement’s sociolect—the so-called “Pentecostal Swedish,” commonly known as “the language of Canaan.” The source material consists of one hundred letters to the editor published in the movement’s weekly paper Evangelii Härold between 1915 and 1935. The article begins with a historical survey of Christian sociolects. The study shows that the Pentecostal movement’s internal language use was strongly marked by biblical metaphors. Readers of the periodical were expected to be well acquainted with the places, persons, and narratives of the Bible. The article discusses the central importance of language for the identity of a group. It also argues for the significance of a biblically coloured mode of expression in making it easier to absorb the Christian message and to interpret one’s own time in its light
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