|
 |
Danish, Norwegian, Swedish | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4834 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes  Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 9 of 29 21 April 2013 at 12:43pm | IP Logged | |||||
Uh, while written Swedish and Danish may be mutually intelligible, oral Swedish and Danish don't sound anything like the other. I speak Swedish and spent my winter holidays in Denmark. I could read virtually everything, but in conversation with native Danes, I was only able to understand the most basic of sentences. Everything else was absolutely unintelligible. Danish pronunciation is very peculiar and different from the other Scandinavian languages. E.g. they have the stød, a kind of glottal stop within words while Swedish and Norwegian have a corresponding pitch accent. Danish has a lot of vowel phonemes and diphthongs that don't exist in Norwegian and Swedish, and the Danes tend to slur and mumble their words a lot. If you really want to learn Danish well, you will have to invest a considerable effort. Grammar-wise it's very similar to Swedish, even a bit easier, but pronunciation-wise it's a nightmare. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| daegga Tetraglot Senior Member Austria lang-8.com/553301 Joined 4511 days ago 1076 posts - 1792 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Swedish, Norwegian Studies: Danish, French, Finnish, Icelandic | Message 10 of 29 21 April 2013 at 1:10pm | IP Logged | |||||
It's actually not as hard as it seems at first. The only thing you really need is input and time (at least once you know 1 Scandinavian language well already). A textbook would be nice to have to get an overview over the basics, something "cheap" like Teach Yourself or Colloquial would be sufficient, and there are ways to get them for free (library or illegal stuff). A cheap site for audiobooks in Danish is mibook, but you can't really browse the catalogue there, better use ennybog for that. The 'jordens børn" series (translated from Jean M. Auel - Earth's Children) has a good price-content-ratio for example, it costs less than 10$ per 20-30h audiobook (and there are 6 of them). After enough input, Danish pronunciation isn't that much of an issue anymore. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4697 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 11 of 29 21 April 2013 at 1:35pm | IP Logged | |||||
Nah, just different. And to learn pronunciation, a textbook doesn't really help that much, unless it's specialised in Danish phonology, in which case, the TY books are off the shopping list anyways. Just take some time to learn to assimilate Danish sound and pronunciation for a couple months, and remember what differs in Danish and language xyz of the other Scandinavians, and you're more or less good to go. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6899 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 12 of 29 21 April 2013 at 1:38pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
Don't forget Dr.dk which has a lot of podcasts, including radio dramas and (last summer, at least) audiobooks.
Getting used to Danish is a bit like having learned Spanish in school and then tuning your ears to Portuguese. Not too different in writing but more so in speech. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4834 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 13 of 29 21 April 2013 at 1:42pm | IP Logged | |||||
Yes, but (s)he talked about getting a textbook + audio-CDs, the latter of which could be useful for practising pronunciation and oral comprehension. At least I prefer practising with recorded audio material aimed at learners before heading into native materials. And, let me add this, not only will the pronunciation be difficult but also understanding spoken Danish. From reading AlOlaf's and Serpent's posts I understand that this is quite an obstacle for the beginner. I'm not saying it's not manageable, I'm just saying the effort needed should not be underestimated. Although Danish and Swedish are closely related, they sound very different from each other. Edited by Josquin on 21 April 2013 at 1:47pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4697 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 14 of 29 21 April 2013 at 1:50pm | IP Logged | |||||
In my experience with Danish (albeit limited) I've been able to understand about 20- 30%, more with subtitles. What you are describing is "I have never heard Danish before". Yes, then buying some audio CD's would help, and the textbook is nice to have the transcript, but that's pretty much it. But is it hard? Not particularly any more hard than it is to get your ears tuned to Portuguese while speaking Spanish, or Italian when speaking Romanian. Yes, speaking Swedish does not get you out of jail for free, but it sure tells you about the locksmith who is going to make you the key to get out of there. Of course for a beginner the audio will be hard, it's a new language that doesn't sound like Swedish but is quite close to it in written form. Then you focus for some time on the audio, and you pay attention to some Danish phenomena, but that's nothing solid practice won't cure, and you'll have to do less guessing what the words might be, just in which pronounced form they'll be appearing. That's very different from it being a nightmare. It's just different and takes some time getting used to, but that's no different from getting used to Swedish pitch accent, Spanish stress-timed syllables, or Vietnamese tones. If you're going to learn Danish, then the fact it's pronounced somewhat different is part and parcel of the package. And if you don't enjoy that then maybe Danish is not for you (general you). Edited by tarvos on 21 April 2013 at 1:51pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4834 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 15 of 29 21 April 2013 at 1:57pm | IP Logged | |||||
Isn't that the situation we are talking about? Obviously, the OP doesn't know the similarities and differences between the Scandinavian languages, so I rightfully assume (s)he has never heard Danish (and Norwegian) before and is an absolute beginner. As I said, of course Swedish does help, but you nevertheless need a considerable effort in order to master Danish. I'm not trying make it seem more difficult as it is, I'm just opposing the view that Swedish and Danish are so closely related that they're more or less the same language. Edited by Josquin on 21 April 2013 at 2:08pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Ariail Newbie United States Joined 4234 days ago 23 posts - 23 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Finnish | Message 16 of 29 21 April 2013 at 7:50pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
Sehiralti: There's absolutely no reason to apologize. I appreciate your input. As a matter of fact, I've already been learning German for some time now, but I haven't been studying it as actively as Swedish and Esperanto. German shares quite a few similarities with Swedish, which has enabled me to catch on more quickly.
Josquin: That isn't quite what I meant. I was referring to their written similarities. I understand how different Danish pronunciation is. Please note that I was trying to communicate how I'm not willing to spend a lot of money on a textbook in addition to audio. I never said Danish and Swedish are "more or less the same language." I merely said they're not different enough (as in, entirely different languages) for me to shell out $100. There are too many free resources on the internet for me to do that. I have heard Danish before, and I'm not trying to claim that their pronunciations are different. This http://www.speakdanish.dk/ is a good website to hear the pronunciation of Danish. I know they have differences from each other, and I will have to put effort into learning it. You are correct in saying I'm a beginner, so yes, I'm not trying to argue against you. You are helping me, and I appreciate that. I just think I'm being misunderstood here. Also, I'm male; Ariail, unlike Ariel, is a male's name. Daegga: I'll have to look into those audiobooks, thanks. Tarvos: That is exactly my point. A textbook doesn't help with pronunciation unless, as you stated, is specialized in Danish phonology. Even then, I'm not sure if I would want to spend money on it. If I could get good deal on a used book, then I might. The blacksmith and key analogy summarizes what I have been trying to communicate. Thank you. Edited by Ariail on 21 April 2013 at 7:56pm 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. |
