Ämnas

Ämnas is a Swedish verb that is generally regarded as archaic or dialectal. It conveys the sense of being mentioned or named, and is often treated as a historical variant of the more common nämnas (to be mentioned). The form appears in older texts and in some regional speech, where phonological variation preserved ämnas as an alternative to nämnas.

Etymology and history: The form is linked to the verb nämna, but linguists interpret ämnas as a regional or historical variant that emerged in Early Modern Swedish. Its use declined as standardized Swedish consolidated around nämnas in most registers, leaving ämnas primarily in poetic or philological contexts.

Usage and register: In contemporary Swedish, ämnas is rare and typically found in scholarly writing, historical texts, or poetry that seeks to evoke older language. In everyday speech and writing, speakers normally use nämnas or employ periphrastic constructions such as det nämns or det ska nämnas to express the idea of mentioning or naming something.

Grammatical notes: Ämnas follows a passive conjugation pattern similar to nämnas. The present form is ämnas; the past is usually given as ämnades, with ämnats appearing in the supine. In practice, the form is encountered mainly for historical or stylistic effect rather than as a productive part of modern Swedish grammar.

See also: nämnas, nämna.