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Which Scandinavian language to study? | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Skandinavisk & Nordisk |  | |
| Ygangerg Pentaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5315 days ago 100 posts - 140 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, Arabic (Written), Mandarin, French Studies: German | Message 81 of 169 22 January 2011 at 3:31pm | IP Logged | ||
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I second Egill's question about learning Icelandic first. I've started Icelandic, but as I'm only a couple months in I feel I need to assess: should I learn another Scandinavian language first? Or even German? I plan to learn several Germanic languages, including Scandinavian ones, so what is the wisest order for someone with no Germanic background (besides good ol' English...)??
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| Maypal Pentaglot Newbie Russian Federation Joined 5058 days ago 32 posts - 40 votes Speaks: Russian*, Icelandic, English, Danish, Faroese Studies: Greenlandic, Scottish Gaelic | Message 82 of 169 07 February 2011 at 9:44pm | IP Logged | ||
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To Egill and Ygangerg - Icelandic is the first Germanic language I've tried to learn
and it certainly did help me when I proceeded to the other languages, especially Faroese of course. As for German and Swedish/Danish I learned afterwards, the connection was more distant, although still present. I would divide Icelandic and Swedish/Norwegian/Danish into 2 separate groups that are quite reminiscent of each other, but should be learned on their own, speaking frankly. Faroese I'd place somewhere inbetween, its grammar is very close to that of Icelandic, but the vocabulary, still having much common with Icelandic, has a lot of words that are rather to be found in Danish and Norwegian. There's also an interconnection with German, because there's many (Low-)German words in SE/DK/NO (and Faroese as well). Strangely enough, I would say that Faroese is the best option, because it gives you a bit of Icelandic, Danish, Norwegian and German at the same time. But you should not be spending too much time into considering which Germanic language is the best to facilitate for you the mastering of all the other ones. Each language is to be learned on its own and will enrich you in its individual way. Edited by Maypal on 07 February 2011 at 9:47pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| louisjanus Newbie United States NorwegianLanguage.inRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5616 days ago 11 posts - 19 votes Speaks: English* | Message 83 of 169 23 February 2011 at 9:33pm | IP Logged | ||
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Norwegian is a great language to learn for (at least) these reasons
1. Fascinating historical development, including development of nynorsk. 2. Dialects are encouraged and rich 3. Great literature, much of which is not translated 4. Nobel peace prize is given out from Norway 5. primary source material in many fields like equality, social justice, human rights etc etc 6. a relatively easy in to Swedish (Swedish SOUNDS like Norwegian) and Danish (Danish LOOKS like Norwegian) 7. It sets you apart from the masses who have studied other languages (so our graduates tell us when they are out on the job market) Of course I don't know how you define 'good languages to learn' Decide what your motivations are, your access to resources, your goals (since many Norwegian are almost perfect in English, travel isn't all that important). My website with lots of resources for learners of Norwegian is listed below. Source(s): http://NorwegianLanguage,info 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Aquila123 Tetraglot Senior Member Norway mydeltapi.com Joined 5303 days ago 201 posts - 262 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Italian, Spanish Studies: Finnish, Russian | Message 84 of 169 16 April 2011 at 12:14am | IP Logged | ||
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My simple advise is as such:
FLIP A COIN!!! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5006 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 85 of 169 16 April 2011 at 3:42pm | IP Logged | ||
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This is just a theory, because I have lots to do with my school and the languages I am already studying, but I have thought about this. These languages have fascinated me since... approximately since I came to this forum. :-)
So, if I ever find the time to learn a skandinavian language, I will be put to hard choice. :-) Norwegian looks really great, as you say it's closer to both Danish and Swedish than those two to each other. But there are more available textbooks for Swedish around, which matters to me a lot when beginning with a language. And both Norwegian and Swedish sound great. I haven't thought of learning Danish much, not sure why. Btw this is a great thread, even though I couldn't understand half of it, because of my lack of knowledge of the language. :-) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| KimG Diglot Groupie Norway Joined 4974 days ago 88 posts - 104 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English Studies: Portuguese, Swahili | Message 86 of 169 21 April 2011 at 11:51am | IP Logged | ||
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Would you be able to practice speaking any of the languages where you live?
Personally, I think it's simpler to understand Swedes and Danes for us Norwegians, since we are more open to dialects, an speaker of any 3 languages can as easy figure out the differences and speak freely to other scandinavian speakers. I'd think, it's just we Norwegians encourage dialects a bit more than in Sweden and Denmark, giving us a bit training. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6906 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 87 of 169 21 April 2011 at 1:11pm | IP Logged | ||
More open to dialects? I can't see how Sweden is any exception, regarding the number of dialects/accent, actors/artists/other media persons, and the likelihood of meeting just any dialect in any working place in any town in Sweden. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| nicolai Diglot Newbie Denmark Joined 4939 days ago 13 posts - 13 votes Speaks: Danish*, English Studies: Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish | Message 88 of 169 19 May 2011 at 11:13pm | IP Logged | ||
Yeah, it must definitely be the openness. I personally find the dialectal variation in Denmark to somewhat huge; -almost- as varied as in Norway. The difference is probably that Denmark is considerably smaller, thus causing people to adapt to Copenhagen Danish/rigsdansk due to television/radio influence. Edited by nicolai on 19 May 2011 at 11:15pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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