|
 |
Scandinavian languages and their dialects | ||
Tags: Scandinavian Languages | Dialect | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Tupiniquim Senior Member Brazil Joined 6085 days ago 184 posts - 217 votes  Speaks: Portuguese* Studies: English, Russian | Message 1 of 39 29 April 2009 at 4:40am | IP Logged | ||
|
. Edited by Tupiniquim on 31 July 2009 at 11:02pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6705 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 2 of 39 29 April 2009 at 8:26am | IP Logged | ||
|
Norway is the only place where there are two official language forms, but the use of nynorsk seems to be waning.
In Denmark at least you can still occasionally hear the old dialects, but mostly from older people, and the dialects are almost never written down - if you want to read thing in dialect your sources will almost all be more than 100 years old. However once in a while it seems that people around the country want to show that they haven't lost the connection to the past. For instance DR (Danmarks Radio (and television)) recently had some programs from Sønderborg in the Southern part of Jutland, and much of what the local people said was in the local dialect 'Synnejysk' (Sønderjysk) ... and without subtitles to a boot so I wonder how much the Copenhageners could understand. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Sprachgenie Decaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5711 days ago 128 posts - 165 votes Speaks: German*, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Faroese, Icelandic, Flemish, Persian, Swiss-German Studies: English, Belarusian | Message 3 of 39 29 April 2009 at 3:07pm | IP Logged | ||
|
If your goal is to communicate with as many people in Scandinavia as possible then I would recommend learning Bokmal Norwegian first. If you just want to learn 1 language, then Swedish would probably be the best since there are more speakers. As easy as they may be to learn, Scandinavian languages have little practical value as the inhabitants of these countries speak nearly flawless English and English is used as their official business language.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Tyr Senior Member Sweden Joined 5784 days ago 316 posts - 384 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Swedish | Message 4 of 39 29 April 2009 at 4:45pm | IP Logged | ||
Even in countries where most people can speak English it still helps a absolutely huge amount if you can speak the native language too. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Tupiniquim Senior Member Brazil Joined 6085 days ago 184 posts - 217 votes Speaks: Portuguese* Studies: English, Russian | Message 5 of 39 30 April 2009 at 4:30am | IP Logged | ||
|
. Edited by Tupiniquim on 31 July 2009 at 11:03pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6705 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 6 of 39 30 April 2009 at 10:27am | IP Logged | ||
What a noble thought. Your risk of getting blocked by dialectal differences in the media isn't that large, - not even in Norway. Sometimes dialects are used in humorous programs, but those that speak it all the time are typically not those that write the newspapers or speak on TV, and in most cases they would immediately switch to the standard version of their language (or even to English) if they sense that there is an alien being around. In fact I see this as a problem, because I like dialects but can't find the speakers when I'm abroad. One thing more: you may start out with Swedish, Norwegian or Danish, but then you probably should learn German before Icelandic or Faroese, because the case systems of these two will be much easier to deal with when you already know a heavily inflected languge like German. Besides you shouldn't underestimate the difficulty of the 'continental' Scaninavian languages: the morphology may be minimal, but on every other account they are just as difficult as German, and there will be fewer chances for active exposure. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Betjeman Groupie Germany Joined 6145 days ago 85 posts - 204 votes Speaks: German* | Message 7 of 39 30 April 2009 at 12:07pm | IP Logged | ||
I hate this argument as it is an argument against 99% of all languages ("just learn English, Spanish, Mandarin, and that's it"). By the way, that strange dialect called "global English" (some 4000 words of vocabulary, lots of doubtful phrases from North American TV shows and overall dubious pronunciation) is not at all flawless (whatever THAT may be) and very limited in its ability to express complex ideas or emotions, to say nothing of a people's mentality. Many people will learn a foreign language just because they have fallen in love with one person speaking it. Don't you think there are millions of reasons to learn a language if you have fallen in love with a whole culture or nation? And don't forget the name of this site: It's "How to learn any language", not "How to learn only the most widespread languages". Language lovers, unite! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Tupiniquim Senior Member Brazil Joined 6085 days ago 184 posts - 217 votes Speaks: Portuguese* Studies: English, Russian | Message 8 of 39 30 April 2009 at 6:50pm | IP Logged | ||
|
.
Edited by Tupiniquim on 31 July 2009 at 11:03pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
