“Our beloved father and husband, Sture Allén, have today left us in great grief and loss.

After a period of illness, Sture fell asleep in silence surrounded by his family.

Please respect our need for peace in this difficult time ", the family writes in a comment to TT.

Answered language questions in the media

Documentation of all the nuances of the Swedish language through dictionaries, publishing classics and language care was Sture Allén's main arena, both at the Swedish Academy and at the university.

He often answered language questions on radio and TV, including in Gomorron Sweden in the 1980s, where he sorted out viewers' thoughts with a versed Gothenburg dialect and quiet humor.   

Sture Allén was for more than three decades active as a professor of linguistic data processing, researcher and rector at the University of Gothenburg, where he defended his dissertation in Nordic languages ​​in 1965.

Conflict over the Satanic verses

He was elected to the Swedish Academy in 1980 as a member of Chair 3 and was Permanent Secretary from 1986 to 1999. During this time, international turmoil arose around the Academy, as a minority of members believed that the Academy should condemn the death threat from Iranian religious leaders against author Salman Rushdie .

The mullahs believed that Rushdie had insulted Islam in the novel The Satanic Verses.

With reference to the Academy's rules not to take a political position, no statement was made in support of Rushdie, which led to members Kerstin Ekman and Lars Gyllensten from 1989 ceasing to participate in the Academy's work.

Knut Ahnlund also came into conflict with Allén's diplomatic stance and left a few years later.  

Sture Allén said that the Swedish Academy did not betray free speech, among other things by individual members signing support for Rushdie and also for other persecuted authors, despite the Academy as an institution according to Allén was prevented from campaigning or signing appeals. 

Conducted dictionary project

Beyond the newspaper headlines and the work of nominating Nobel laureates in literature, Sture Allén ran long-term and extensive dictionary projects on the Swedish language, SAOL and SAOB.

Just in time for the Academy's 200th anniversary, Sture Allén wrote in the anthology Svenska Akademien och svenska språket (1986) that in a country like Sweden with such strong regional differences in dialect and language use, care is required to preserve a common basis for grammar and comprehension.

Language care, Allén emphasized, was one of the founding questions of King Gustav III: the very main purpose of the Swedish Academy's existence.

Sture Allén turned 93 years old.