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Scandinavian Languages | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| wharrgarbl Newbie United States Joined 5843 days ago 27 posts - 36 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 1 of 22 13 January 2010 at 6:18am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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I have a couple of questions about Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish:
1. Everyone says that they're mutually intelligible. Just how mutually intelligible are they? Is it like an American/British English kind of separation or slightly more distant? Can Scandinavians usually speak to each other using their own languages without any problems? 2. Which language would be the best to learn to be understood throughout the whole region? And which would you say is easiest for English speakers to learn? I've heard they're all fairly easy but I'd like to hear your opinions anyway. If you can answer any of those questions, it would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5452 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes  Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 2 of 22 13 January 2010 at 6:43am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
Slightly more distant I think.
Normally yes, I believe. Sometimes it is necessary to speak a bit slowly.
Maybe Norwegian, maybe Swedish, but honestly, I don't know. Spoken Danish can be hard for Norwegians and Swedes to understand, but a foreigner probably wouldn't speak so fast and blurry as a native Dane.
I think the three languages are so similar that it is hard to say which one is the easiest. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| davidwelsh Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5528 days ago 141 posts - 307 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, Norwegian, Esperanto, Swedish, Danish, French Studies: Polish, Sanskrit, Tibetan, Pali, Mandarin | Message 3 of 22 13 January 2010 at 10:01am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
It's certainly more than Standard American English and Standard British English, more like a strong New York dialect compared to a strong Cockney dialect.
Scandinavians can certainly communicate using only Scandinavian, but rarely without problems. The extent of the problems depends a lot on which Scandinavians you're talking about. It varies according to how much exposure a particular individual has had to the other languages. The fact that Norwegians watch Swedish TV but not vice versa has a significant impact for example. For example, there are lots of Swedes living in Norway, and I think it's quite easy for them to understand Norwegian once they're used to it. A Swede who's never been to Norway though would probably struggle significantly if you suddenly tried to speak to them in Norwegian. In general I think you can say that spoken Danish is the most difficult to understand for other Scandinavian speakers, and spoken Swedish the easiest. Written Danish and Norwegian (bokmål) are very close, so Norwegians and Danes can read Danish or Norwegian more easily than Swedish. There is a trend towards Scandinavians who are proficient in English communicating with each other in English rather than Scandinavian rather than making the effort to understand each other's language...
If you're concerned with being understood I'd definitely recommend Swedish, as Swedish is spoken with very clear pronunciation, and more slowly than the other two. Also, I think both Norway and Denmark get more exposure to Swedish language and culture than vice versa. If you want to understand as much as possible I'd say Norwegian might be a better bet as in many ways it is between Swedish and Danish linguistically. I don't think any of the Scandinavian languages is significantly easier. The grammatical differences are negligible - there are just really differences in vocabulary, idiom and pronunciation. Danish pronunciation might be a bit trickier to get the hang of, as there are lots of silent letters, but that will probably only make a marginal difference. In short, I'd say that you should listen to a bit of all three languages and pick the one you feel most intuitively attracted to, or pick the language of the country whose culture interests you the most. Edited by davidwelsh on 13 January 2010 at 10:06am 8 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6581 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 4 of 22 13 January 2010 at 10:16am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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I have a hard time understanding Danish. I once went to Denmark and ended up pretending to be an American. Yeah, I'm a bit ashamed of that, but it's hard when they understand you perfectly but you can't understand a word they're saying. If I'd had some more time to plan my trip (it was very sudden), I'd have exposed myself to some more Danish first. In that case, there would probably not have been any problems.
I think that's the largest intelligibility problem: Swedes understanding Danish. Except for people from southern Sweden, probably. EDIT: I have no problem understanding Norwegian. Edited by Ari on 13 January 2010 at 10:16am 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Nelor Diglot Newbie Denmark Joined 5428 days ago 1 posts - 1 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: Danish | Message 5 of 22 13 January 2010 at 11:08pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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Hi.
I am studying in Denmark currently,and as part of my education I take Danish classes. Not difficult. Well, there is quite a difficult pronunciation - R is like in French and D and T in many cases are pronounced in a very soft and special way. But I have no troubles with this letters now and I can already speak a little bit and danish people understand me quite well. And I also understand them - if I hear a word that I know, I can define it. So it is not impossible to understand them, though their speaking manner is very fast. But many people in my class actually have lots of problems - most of them have big troubles with pronunciation. Original English-speakers also told me it is difficult for them to get used to Danish pronunciation. I am Russian originally and many sounds in Danish are pronounced more in Russian way than in English way. I would recomend to start by learning Swedish. Then Norwegian and Danish in the end. Well, this is my opinion, humble. I have no experience learning Swedish or Norwegian, but the ways the same sentences are pronounced in these three languages are very different, and Swedish sounds very easy, then goes Norwegian, and Danish is the weirdest one :) But I like it very much. Edited by Nelor on 13 January 2010 at 11:32pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Gusutafu Senior Member Sweden Joined 5520 days ago 655 posts - 1039 votes Speaks: Swedish* | Message 6 of 22 14 January 2010 at 1:37am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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I think a foreigner should study Danish. They will probably end up with a fairly clear and undanish pronounciation, which will be much easier for us to understand, while they will themselves have no trouble with proper Danish. I know a Japanese girl that speaks Danish, and I understand 99% of what she is saying. The Danes think she's Swedish, but they understand her, and she understands them much better than I do of course.
4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| cordelia0507 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5837 days ago 1473 posts - 2176 votes Speaks: Swedish* Studies: German, Russian | Message 7 of 22 14 January 2010 at 11:09am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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If I wasn't Scandinavian myself I would find this thread incredibly contradictory and confusing. There is a thread about it in the Scandinavian lounge too (in English), with slightly different views expressed.
The mutual comprehension varies a lot and it depends on exposure. Some people have got no problem whatsoever and can even speak like one of the other languages (my father, for one), Others have very little exposure to the other Scandinavian languages and find them confusing. The situation has some similarities to the situation with Russian/Belarussian/Ukrainian which someone may be familiar with. However think our languages are CLOSER than those three Slavic languages. To me, Swedish, Norwegian just sounds like someone very positive speaking and using lots of old-fashioned words and slang when he's speaking. Danish sounds like lots of slang, old-fashioned words and a rather challenging pronounciation, i.e. I have to focus to be sure that I heard the words right. Reading either is a minor inconvenience because it looks like everything is misspelled. But it is completely comprehensible. I had to read some Danish books at university and it was no problem. Every now and then I read a Norwegian paper online. There is no reason to make a big issue of this because it isn't. Just pick the language you fancy the most and start studying. You will soon understand what we are trying to say here. 3 persons have 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 8 of 22 16 January 2010 at 6:55pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
1. They are mutually intelligible to a certain extent. The differences between the three languages are definitely bigger than bwtween British English and American English. For Swedes, the possibilities of communcating with Danes will highly depend on where in Sweden they live. There are about 500 words that are totally different in Danish and Swedish, but one should also be aware of the fact that some other words have slightly different meanings/nuances. In spite of these minor difficulties, I think that Swedes, Danes and Norwegians can speak their mother tongues when they meet (especially if a Dane does not use the highest pace when speaking). In my opinion, an average Swede would understand at least 90 % of a text written in Danish or Norwegian and 95 % of a conversation in Norwegian. My guess is that about 55-80 % of a Danish conversation would be understood by a Swede (without having studied Danish at all), dependning on the exposure to the language, in which part of Sweden one has grown up, interest, attention etc. 2. Linguisticly, Norwegian is in the middle of the other two (a bit closer to Danish as to the written language and a bit closer to Swedish as to the spoken language). Although Swedish is the most widely spoken language in Scandinavia, I would go for Norwegian. It is a mixture between the languages and you would be able to read a newspaper in Danish. Danish is harder than the other two, which entails that it would take more time to reach the same level. Edited by Impiegato on 16 January 2010 at 7:17pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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