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Scandinavian Dialects | ||
Tags: Scandinavian Languages | Dialect | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Skandinavisk & Nordisk |  | |
| ruskivyetr Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5480 days ago 769 posts - 962 votes  Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish, Russian, Polish, Modern Hebrew | Message 1 of 6 04 March 2010 at 4:36am | IP Logged | |||||
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From what I can see there are many dialects in Sweden, Denmark and Norway. My
question is whether or not everyone speaks the standard. Is it like the situation with Arabic and the situation in German speaking countries where everyone knows Standard German no matter what the dialect? Edited by ruskivyetr on 04 March 2010 at 4:37am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5452 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 2 of 6 04 March 2010 at 9:51am | IP Logged | |||||
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In Norway the standard language is mostly used as a written language. Most people normally speak their dialect, not the standard language. It is not that people don't know how to speak the standardized language, it is rather that they don't see any reason to speak it and that they don't want to speak it.
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| Blunderstein Triglot Pro Member Sweden schackhandeln.se Joined 5417 days ago 60 posts - 82 votes Speaks: Swedish*, EnglishC2, FrenchB2 Studies: German, Esperanto Personal Language Map | Message 3 of 6 04 March 2010 at 10:30am | IP Logged | |||||
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Swedish is much more standardized than Norwegian. There is a standard spoken Swedish, "rikssvenska". The dialects were hard pressed, on the verge of extinction, but (thank God) have made somewhat of a comeback lately.
You can listen to recordings in various dialects at SweDia. Most dialects are completely comprehensible for someone who only speaks rikssvenska. There are a feω very small dialects that are incomprehensible to outsiders. Älvdalsmål is the most well-known of these. It could well be argued that it is a separate language, but traditionally is it designated as a dialect. Also, the dialects in Skåne (Scania) in the far south might pose problems. They are very influenced by Danish, since this part of Sweden used to belong to Denmark. Spoken Danish is often very hard to understand for a Swede. It's usually much simpler for a Dane to understand spoken Swedish. Reading is seldom a problem. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| ruskivyetr Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5480 days ago 769 posts - 962 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish, Russian, Polish, Modern Hebrew | Message 4 of 6 04 March 2010 at 1:12pm | IP Logged | |||||
My question was, can they speak it. If dialects are usually not mutally intelligible they must know some form of standard Norwegian to be able to understand as well as to communicate with other Scandinavians. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5452 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 5 of 6 04 March 2010 at 1:30pm | IP Logged | |||||
Yes, most people can speak the standard language, but most people don't, even when speaking with people from different parts of the country. We don't learn to speak the standard language in school. We just learn to read and write it.
The dialects are usually mutually intelligible. I believe this is partly due to exposure (as a consequence of the fact that a lot of people don't use the standard language). Some dialects are not mutually intelligible however. Many Norwegians do standardize their spoken language to a certain extent when speaking with people from other places (or when speaking with other Scandinavians). There can be several reasons for this, and the reason is normally not that they wouldn't be understood if they spoke "broad" dialect. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6702 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 6 of 6 04 March 2010 at 5:18pm | IP Logged | |||||
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In Denmark the number of people who speak the traditional dialects is diminishing, though there will often be some local coloring. However there are some subcultures that are developing new ways of speaking Danish, - not least among immigrants and their children.
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