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Swedish/Norwegian/Danish and Icelandic. | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| 学习语言 Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5334 days ago 4 posts - 4 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin, Cantonese | Message 1 of 11 12 May 2010 at 7:29pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hello,
I have an increasing interest in these North Germanic languages but unsure with which one to start with, since I have very little experience in this language family. I have been recommended, by a friend, that learning Swedish would be the best language to learn first, due to the mutuality between Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish. Could someone also elaborate and explain how closely these languages are connected (ie Can Norwegians understand Swedes? etc). Are there any other languages linked with these 3 in the same way? I am also curious about Icelandic, is this language connected to Swedish, Norwegian, Danish or any other languages? Thank you all for your time, effort and knowledge 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| GREGORG4000 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5522 days ago 307 posts - 479 votes  Speaks: English*, Finnish Studies: Japanese, Korean, Amharic, French | Message 2 of 11 12 May 2010 at 7:36pm | IP Logged | ||
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All of these languages are interconnected to each other, and Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish are somewhat mutually intelligible. Icelandic is farther apart, more inflected than German, whereas the other languages have grammars similar to English (though with two word genders). Reportedly, Norwegian has the most widespread intelligibility. Swedish however has the most speakers, and Danish sounds really cool.
Finnish & Northern Sámi are in their own group that's not related at all. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| goosefrabbas Triglot Pro Member United States Joined 6367 days ago 393 posts - 475 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: German, Italian Personal Language Map | Message 3 of 11 12 May 2010 at 8:04pm | IP Logged | ||
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Norwegian and Icelandic are technically more closely genetically related to each other than to either Swedish or Danish, but today it's much, much more close to Swedish and Danish. Norwegian and Icelandic are both West Scandinavian languages, while Swedish and Danish are both East Scandinavian.
Faroese is close to Icelandic, and Old Norse is basically the same language if you just want to read it, since it's a dead language. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| mrhenrik Triglot Moderator Norway Joined 6078 days ago 482 posts - 658 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, French Personal Language Map | Message 4 of 11 12 May 2010 at 8:29pm | IP Logged | ||
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Spoken Norwegian and spoken Swedish are mutually intelligeble without any trouble for either party as long as neither of them speak a particularily strange accent (although apparently the Swedish "Skåne"-accent is easier for Norwegians). Written Norwegian bokmål and written Danish are practically the same, with a few words replaced, and some consonants "hardened" in Norwegian such as g=k, d=t etc. Written Swedish is understandable for Norwegians, but slightly more difficult than Danish. Spoken Danish is theoretically not that bad, but in practice it can be very difficult since Danes speak unreasonably fast and mumble a LOT.
Icelandic is the closest you get to Old Norse, which modern Norwegian is based on to an extent. I can read Icelandic and generally get the gist of it at least without having studied the language at all, but it takes a lot of effort. Hope that helped somewhat! 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 Fasulye Heptaglot Winner TAC 2012 Moderator Germany fasulyespolyglotblog Joined 5846 days ago 5460 posts - 6006 votes 1 sounds Speaks: German*, DutchC1, EnglishB2, French, Italian, Spanish, Esperanto Studies: Latin, Danish, Norwegian, Turkish Personal Language Map | Message 5 of 11 12 May 2010 at 11:32pm | IP Logged | ||
I read a similar statement by Iversen on bokmâl, for me it's good to know that - as my Danish advances further - I will be able to read Norwegian bokmâl texts fluently as well. This proves that by learning ONLY ONE of the three Scandinavian languages a language door will go wide open... Fasulye 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5333 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 6 of 11 13 May 2010 at 9:49am | IP Logged | ||
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If all other factors are equal I would chose Norwegian. It is easier to understand the two other languages from that starting point, and both Swedes and Danes understand Norwegian better than each other's languages.
However they are, as others have pointed out, in principle mutually understandable, so if you have acces to more study material in Swedish, or have friends in Denmark you can visit, you should chose the language where you have the most resources. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Impiegato Triglot Senior Member Sweden bsntranslation. Joined 5432 days ago 100 posts - 145 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, Italian Studies: Spanish, French, Russian | Message 7 of 11 13 May 2010 at 1:12pm | IP Logged | ||
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I think you should learn Swedish, partly because there are more people speaking it than the other Nordic languages, partly because you can use it in Finland apart from Sweden. But of course I realize that I am biased, since I am from Sweden. =)
The Scandinavian languages are closely interlinked, especially Norwegian with the others. Norwegian is easy to understand for a Swede, but I have heard that there are quite a lot of dialects in Norway. I think it is in particular the dialects in the western part of Norway that can be hard to understand for other Scandinavians. I could write a lot more about this, but this is enough for now. In summary, Nowregian is the best choice with regard to mutual intelligibility (shared vocabulary), Swedish with regard to number of speakers and countries in which it is spoken. An argument for Danish is that it would be good to get used to the inarticulate way of speaking, so that once you have learnt Danish it will be very easy to understand the other Scandinavian languages (phoneticly) as you will consider them articulate. An argument against Danish is that it is probably more difficult than the other Scandinavian languages, mostly because of its difficult pronunciation, and it would take a long time to get a good listening comprehension. Is the time it would take to learn a language important to you? Edited by Impiegato on 13 May 2010 at 1:13pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Tyr Senior Member Sweden Joined 5781 days ago 316 posts - 384 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Swedish | Message 8 of 11 29 May 2010 at 4:50pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'd go with the Norwegian as a middle ground idea.
But I think there could be more materials in Swedish available. My flatmate is a Finn studying Swedish at uni. He can handle Norwegian just fine but he never stops bitching about how evil Danish is. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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