 From the 13th to 20th century , there were Swedish @-@ speaking communities in Estonia , particularly on the islands ( e.g. , Hiiumaa , Vormsi , Ruhnu ; in Swedish , known as Dagö , Ormsö , Runö , respectively ) along the coast of the Baltic , communities which today have all but disappeared . The Swedish @-@ speaking minority was represented in parliament , and entitled to use their native language in parliamentary debates . After the loss of Estonia to the Russian Empire in the early 18th century , around 1 @,@ 000 Estonian Swedish speakers were forced to march to southern Ukraine , where they founded a village , Gammalsvenskby ( " Old Swedish Village " ) . A few elderly people in the village still speak Swedish and observe the holidays of the Swedish calendar , although the dialect is most likely facing extinction . 
