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Which Scandinavian language to study? | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Skandinavisk & Nordisk |  | |
| ruskivyetr Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5487 days ago 769 posts - 962 votes  Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish, Russian, Polish, Modern Hebrew | Message 73 of 169 24 July 2010 at 11:55pm | IP Logged | ||
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A quick question about Scandinavian languages:
If I were to learn a Scandinavian language, I would choose Swedish (sorry Danes and Norwegians). However, my question concerns the parts of Denmark (Greenland and the Faroe Islands), where Danish is spoken as a second language by many many people. If I were to learn Swedish and visit those places, would there be any difficulties in communication? Same with someone learning Danish or Norwegian and visiting Finland, where Swedish is widely spoken as a second language (or so I've heard). Also, if you know one Scandinavian language, and you work or are a student in another Scandi country, would it be weird to write and speak in the one you know? For example, let's say I learn Swedish, and go to Denmark for a job. Would it be strange to write in Swedish and communicate with clientele in Swedish, or would it be better to switch over to Danish? Edited by ruskivyetr on 24 July 2010 at 11:56pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| mrhenrik Triglot Moderator Norway Joined 6085 days ago 482 posts - 658 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, French Personal Language Map | Message 74 of 169 25 July 2010 at 12:06am | IP Logged | ||
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I don't know a lot about the first part of your post, but I might be able to offer my
two cents on the second part: When you begin studying/working in the other Scandinavian country it would be normal to keep your spoken language, simply for the fact that it's sort of difficult to change (try changing dialect entirely, nearly the same). I assume you'd have to attempt writing in the "new" language though, especially if you're doing it profesionally. This shouldn't be that difficult as you can take your time - it's worse when speaking quickly. With regards to speaking you'd be expected to move your speaking closer to the spoken language of the country you're in, partially out of courtesy but mostly because it might be difficult to keep a comfortable conversation long-term across the languages. Danish immigrants in Norway, for instance, are often extremely difficult to understand, a few times to the point where I wish it wouldn't be rude to ask them to speak English. I believe these are from the southern parts of Denmark, with a heavier accent. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| ruskivyetr Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5487 days ago 769 posts - 962 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish, Russian, Polish, Modern Hebrew | Message 75 of 169 25 July 2010 at 12:21am | IP Logged | ||
What about lexical differences? Of course I would write things like hjælpa instead of hjälpa, but I doubt it's the right word (and perhaps e instead of a). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| mrhenrik Triglot Moderator Norway Joined 6085 days ago 482 posts - 658 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, French Personal Language Map | Message 76 of 169 25 July 2010 at 12:50am | IP Logged | ||
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hjelpe* ;)
You would probably pick up on words from the other language and begin using them, some are quite big and will have to be used correctly (Danish "grine" = laugh, Norwegian "grine" = cry/weep) whereas others are fine if they aren't used 100% correctly. The most important part is that you put a tiny amount of effort in to adapting to the country you're in. Most people will be able to tell that you're from the other Scandinavian country anyhow, so it's more about just being able to communicate well. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Piotr1981 Diglot Newbie Poland Joined 5239 days ago 26 posts - 27 votes Speaks: Polish*, EnglishC2 Studies: Spanish, Italian | Message 77 of 169 02 August 2010 at 7:33pm | IP Logged | ||
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Some time ago I became interested in Iceland (mostly because of culture and nature) and I even started to toy with a thought of learning some basic Icelandic. Right now I'm busy expanding my Spanish and Italian so I don't want to start something completely different and unknown but the though won't go away :) I've read the whole thread and I could see that a vast majority of it was dedicated to Swedish, Norwegian and Danish with Icelandic only being mentioned as some sort of a "weird cousin". Still, I would like to know your opinion about this language. From what I've noticed its grammar seems a bit similar to that of Old English and German. Am I right? Edited by Piotr1981 on 02 August 2010 at 7:38pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5459 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 78 of 169 02 August 2010 at 8:34pm | IP Logged | ||
Yes. It's probably more similar to Old English than to Modern German, but I'm only guessing … 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6709 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 79 of 169 03 August 2010 at 11:34am | IP Logged | ||
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Icelandic (and Faroese) is too far from Danish-Norwegian-Swedish to be relevant in this discussion - even other Scandinavians have to learn it from scratch like they learn German. And German is a good comparison because Icelandic has just as much morphology, much more than the three 'continental' Nordic languages. However there are many words in Icelandic that are found in the other Nordic languages, so knowing one of these is a good background for learning Icelandic. Knowing both German and one or more Nordic languages is the ideal combination.
It is true that Old Norse was closely related to Anglosaxon, but the level of knowledge of Anglosaxon being what it is among Anglophones, this observation will be of limited value to the average language learner. Edited by Iversen on 03 August 2010 at 11:38am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| egill Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5702 days ago 418 posts - 791 votes Speaks: Mandarin, English* Studies: German, Spanish, Dutch | Message 80 of 169 11 August 2010 at 9:18am | IP Logged | ||
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Iversen you say that knowing one of the continental Scandinavian languages is a good background for
learning Icelandic. I wonder what your opinion is on the other way around, i.e. going from Icelandic to Skandinavisk. Were I to go from Icelandic to, say Danish, roughly what percent of the lexicon can I expect to be cognate? Also, for Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish; is there a difference in their predilection for loanword adoption? That is, does one have a higher amount of West-Germanic loanwords than the others? 1 person has voted this message useful |
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