Rikssvenska and högsvenska
In Swedish, the terms rikssvenska "Realm Swedish" and högsvenska "High Swedish" are used in Sweden and Finland respectively, particularly by non-linguists, and both terms are ambiguous. The direct translation of standardsvenska "Standard Swedish" is less common and primarily used in scholarly contexts.
Rikssvenska has come to mean all Swedish as spoken in Sweden as opposed to the Finland Swedish spoken in Finland. For speakers in Sweden, this term however often, perhaps primarily, indicates "non-dialectal" (spoken) Swedish. The term Sweden Swedish (sverigesvenska) is sometimes used instead, as a parallel to the term Finland Swedish. There is however no common agreement on how rikssvenska should sound. What appears as rikssvenska to one Swede may appear dialectal to another. (Etymologically, "rik-" is a cognate of the German Reich.) National Swedish TV and radio news broadcasts that are often produced in Stockholm have historically preferred commentators speaking what is seen as rikssvenska, though this has gradually been relaxed. Undoubtedly, mass media broadcasts have had an important influence on the concept of rikssvenska.
The meaning of högsvenska (literally "High Swedish") was formerly the same as for rikssvenska, i.e. the most prestigious dialect spoken in (the capital of) Sweden. During the 20th century, its meaning changed and it now denotes the prestige dialect of the Swedish speakers in Helsinki.
Until the late 19th/early 20th century, Swedish was the primary language of status, government, and education in Finland, although spoken as a first language by a relatively small minority. Since the 1970s, both domestic languages have been mandatory subjects for all Finnish pupils in primary and secondary schools, although the requirement to include Swedish in the upper-secondary final examination was dropped in 2004.
Read more about this topic: Standard Swedish