Samhällens

Samhällens is a Swedish term that represents the genitive plural form of the noun samhälle, meaning the societies’ or the societies’ belonging or relation to multiple communities. In Swedish, samhälle refers to a system of social institutions, norms, and structures that together form a community or a country’s social life.

Morphology and forms: The noun samhälle has several related forms. The indefinite plural is samhällen, the definite plural is samhällena, the genitive singular is samhällets, and the standard genitive plural is samhällenas. The form samhällets versus samhällenas reflects different grammatical constructions; samhällenas is the common way to express “the societies’,” while samhällens is a recognized variant that can appear in older texts, certain dialects, or in some nonstandard usages. In contemporary formal writing, samhällenas is generally preferred for the plural possessive.

Usage: Samhällens is used in contexts discussing characteristics, developments, or actions belonging to multiple societies. Examples include phrases like samhällens utveckling (the development of the societies) or samhällens strukturer (the structures of the societies). The term is common in sociology, political science, policy debates, and comparative studies of nations or regions.

Context and related terms: Samhället (the society) serves as the base concept, with related terms including kultur (culture), demokrati (democracy), ekonomi (economy), and institutioner (institutions). The word reflects the broad Scandinavian usage of describing social life as a cohering system of institutions and practices.

Etymology: Samhälle derives from the Nordic linguistic family, with roots in the idea of togetherness and communal life. The word encapsulates the concept of a connected group of people sharing a common space or framework for living.