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Easiest Scandinavian language?

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Solfrid Cristin
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 Message 9 of 74
17 October 2013 at 8:57pm | IP Logged 
I guess that grammatically there is not much difference, but unless you have a serious reason for learning Danish, (girlfriend, family, immersion opportunity) the pronunciation of Danish would give you so much extra trouble, that I would have chosen Swedish or Norwegian.


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Medulin
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 Message 10 of 74
17 October 2013 at 11:23pm | IP Logged 
Josquin wrote:

The problem with Danish phonology that I was referring to is not obtaining native-like pronunciation but understanding what people are saying.

.
This is also problem in Norwegian.
Only 20 % of Norwegians speak in accents close to Standard Eastern Norwegian.
While native speakers of Norwegian can understand people from Sarpsborg, Stavanger, Bergen, Florø,
Ålesund, Molde, Trondheim, Tromsø, Bodø with ease,
most foreigners have problems with these dialects (and dialects mentioned here are urban modern dialects and not some forgotten rural ones).

I'd say that Swedish is the easiest of the 3 languages, after all facts are taken into consideration (pronunciation, standardization, dialects, number of norms, sociolinguistic situation).
In terms of pure production, Danish is the easiest, because it has the simplest morphology, and it has no tonal accent (both Norwegian and Swedish pitch accents are difficult to imitate, so only few foreigners can sound native-like).

I don't really think the Danish pronunciation is that ''difficult'' to understand.
Spoken Danish and written Danish are much much closer
than the Norwegian written in many parts of Norway and the spoken Norwegian.
(I'd say that spoken Danish is easier to understand than Trondheim dialect of Norwegian).


Edited by Medulin on 17 October 2013 at 11:36pm

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Solfrid Cristin
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 Message 11 of 74
17 October 2013 at 11:34pm | IP Logged 
Why do people tend to forget that Swedish also has dialects? After I once said that I had listened to so many
Swedish dialects for such a long time that there was not a single dialect I had trouble with, Ari made me listen
to a tape with someone speaking an obscure Swedish dialect. I found it extremely difficult to understand. My
consolation was, that so did he.

Where do you have the figure of 20% from by the way? I would put it closer to 70% based on the contact I
have on a daily base with people from all over Norway. A lot of the dialects, even if they are a little bit
different from the standard, would still be easy to understand for a foreigner, presuming his Norwegian was
good.

Edited by Solfrid Cristin on 17 October 2013 at 11:38pm

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tarvos
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 Message 12 of 74
17 October 2013 at 11:35pm | IP Logged 
It in effect doesn't matter. I picked Swedish 'cause I liked it best, but I would have no
problem learning the other two either. I don't understand this "easiest language" thing
anyway.

I find Korean easy. Easy is an attitude.

Edited by tarvos on 17 October 2013 at 11:36pm

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1e4e6
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 Message 13 of 74
17 October 2013 at 11:39pm | IP Logged 
I do not have much expereince in Scandinavian languages compared to Romance, but few
years ago when I learnt Norwegian from books (I am not sure what to call standard
Norwegian, but only what was in my books), the grammar seemed fairly straightforward, a
bit like Dutch, not as many tenses as Portuguese, for example, and indicative mood is
usually predominant.

I tried Finnish for fun for several months when I was around ten years old and was bought
a self-teaching book, and it was quite difficult for me, but I am not sure if that
experience truly counts.
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languagenerd09
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 Message 14 of 74
18 October 2013 at 3:26am | IP Logged 
I find it fairly adaptable to be able to read something in Danish or Swedish and take a sensible guess at what the word would mean in English when I translate it in the
back of my mind from Norwegian.

Example being:

Norwegian (Bokmål) - kan jeg hjelpe deg?
Danish - kan jeg hjælpe dig?
Swedish - kan jag hjälpa dig?

So there's a lot of common/shared similarities in terms of grammar and vocabulary, some of course with slight changes of spelling.
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Henkkles
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 Message 15 of 74
18 October 2013 at 8:55am | IP Logged 
Solfrid Cristin wrote:
Why do people tend to forget that Swedish also has dialects? After I once said that I had listened to so many
Swedish dialects for such a long time that there was not a single dialect I had trouble with, Ari made me listen
to a tape with someone speaking an obscure Swedish dialect. I found it extremely difficult to understand. My
consolation was, that so did he.

Where do you have the figure of 20% from by the way? I would put it closer to 70% based on the contact I
have on a daily base with people from all over Norway. A lot of the dialects, even if they are a little bit
different from the standard, would still be easy to understand for a foreigner, presuming his Norwegian was
good.

If you heard Älvdalska, that is not a dialect but a language of its own.
1 person has voted this message useful



caam_imt
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 Message 16 of 74
18 October 2013 at 10:49am | IP Logged 
I would go for Swedish, as it has the most learning materials (am I wrong?). There is
also the Finland-Swedish variation, where there are no tones in pronunciation. This could
make pronunciation easier for some people (e.g. me).


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