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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Ryder Diglot Groupie Norway Joined 6584 days ago 67 posts - 70 votes  Speaks: Norwegian, Russian* Studies: English, French | Message 9 of 47 08 November 2006 at 6:50am | IP Logged | ||
Even Norwegians has difficulties understanding the various of dialects in Norway. I'm from Oslo, so I speak 'standard norwegian'. But I can hardly understand what some people from the West Coast of Norway says (English is easier for me to understand actually...). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| sgg Triglot Newbie Germany Joined 6613 days ago 8 posts - 9 votes Speaks: German*, English, Latin Studies: Spanish, Dutch, Norwegian | Message 10 of 47 08 November 2006 at 1:59pm | IP Logged | ||
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That's all very interesting!
Being a 17 year old German, I can understand a great deal of words from a Norwegian text without much trouble, since many words sound & spell alike (as far as I can see). As for the grammar I can say that it is a piece of cake, especially for German speakers. There so are many grammatical structures in the German language that don't appear in Norwegian at all. I think this fact also helps me (and other Germans) learning other languages. However, I don't consider me an expert here... I'm still at the very beginning of learning Norwegian ;) Yeah... all these things were actually reasons for me & a friend (also a language enthusiast ;) ) to choose it as yet another 'second' language. Let's see what time it's gonna take to be somewhat fluent... I'm looking forward to it! Now, I've got a question: what is it really like travelling around in Sweden and Denmark with only knowing bokmål? Can you actually understand people or is the experience limited to being understood ;) ? ttyl, sgg 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Saint Diglot Newbie South Africa Joined 6742 days ago 29 posts - 31 votes Speaks: English*, Afrikaans Studies: Norwegian | Message 11 of 47 08 November 2006 at 2:34pm | IP Logged | ||
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That really depends on where in Denmark or Sweden, you go. The areas where they speak more standardised forms of the local language should be ok. Stockholm shouldn't pose a problem. Copenhagen's dialect is ok, but it does take some getting used to. Edited by Saint on 08 November 2006 at 2:36pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Ryder Diglot Groupie Norway Joined 6584 days ago 67 posts - 70 votes Speaks: Norwegian, Russian* Studies: English, French | Message 12 of 47 08 November 2006 at 5:45pm | IP Logged | ||
People from Sweden often have difficulties understanding Norwegian (while Norwegians understand Swedish), but in Denmark I think most people understand Norwegian. Norwegians often find Danish hard to understand when it's spoken, but written Danish is quite easy, since it's almost the same as written Norwegian (bokmål that is). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| orion Senior Member United States Joined 7012 days ago 622 posts - 678 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian | Message 13 of 47 08 November 2006 at 9:54pm | IP Logged | ||
Can Norwegian, Swedish, or Danish speakers understand Icelandic very easily? How about vice versa? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6694 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 14 of 47 09 November 2006 at 4:46am | IP Logged | ||
No, there is no chance that a Norvegian or Swede or Dane without special preparation could understand spoken Icelandic, and even written Icelandic or Old Norse would probably be too difficult except for isolated words here and there. Icelandic is at least as far from the other Scandinavian languages as Latin is from the moderne Romance languages. I recently had a look at Faroese, which occupies a position somewhere between Icelandic and the Norvegian/Danish/Swedish (just as it does geographically). I could read it, but only because I have spent lots of time on Icelandic. I don't know whether I could understand spoken Faroese because I haven't tried. Edited by Iversen on 09 November 2006 at 4:56am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Saint Diglot Newbie South Africa Joined 6742 days ago 29 posts - 31 votes Speaks: English*, Afrikaans Studies: Norwegian | Message 15 of 47 09 November 2006 at 7:10am | IP Logged | ||
I think that's generally true for Oslo Norwegian and southern dialects. Perhaps even Bergensk. I attended Roskilde Festival in Denmark this year, and generally got by on Bokmål with Swedes although Danes seemed to prefer to speak English with me. My Norwegian friends, all from Ålesund, had a great deal of trouble making themselves understood with the Danes and spoke mostly in English. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Linguamor Decaglot Senior Member United States Joined 6609 days ago 469 posts - 599 votes Speaks: English*, German, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, Danish, French, Norwegian, Portuguese, Dutch | Message 16 of 47 09 November 2006 at 12:08pm | IP Logged | ||
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I've seen Norwegian and Danish teenagers speaking to each other in English even in Oslo - it's just easier when they both know English. However, I always speak Norwegian to Danes - my Danish pronunciation is not very good, and when I speak Danish it's almost as if I'm just changing the pronunciation and a few words - imagine an American trying to speak British - it feels like that.
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