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Swedish - dialect problems ? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Zeta Diglot Newbie Norway Joined 5692 days ago 31 posts - 31 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English Studies: German, Spanish | Message 9 of 20 13 June 2009 at 7:17pm | IP Logged | ||
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I know some exchange students. They learned one spoken Norwegian and one written, since they lived a place where they dont speak Bokmål. They have some problems with the hardest dialects but they can understand most of them even though they have only heard one for the most time. I have to admit, I myself cant always understand everything a person says if it talks a hard dialect very fast, but usually it just takes a little while to get used to. I also have problems understanding some English dialects in the beginning, so I think you will meet this problem in many languages, not just Norwegian.
I dont think it will be a problem for you to understand most Norwegian if you learn Bokmål. You might have some problems at first, but if you tell the people you are talking to, to slow down a bit and you concentrate you will probably to be able to understand most of it. Its not like its a different language, it is just some words that are different. It is often something as easy as a words ending being changed. Like this: Hund-hunder (Bokmål Dog-dogs) Hund-hunda (My dialect, same word) Or just the same word with a strange way of pronouncing it. Nynorsk have some special words, but is easier when spoken than when it is being written. When listening to Norwegian Radio and watching TV-shows you will be exposed to many dialects. If you only use a language course I dont think they will learn you anything else than Bokmål. When reading you will also find that most are in Bokmål, some in Nynorsk and very, very few are in a dialect. So in order to learn to understand dialects I think you just have to try to expose yourself to them as early as possible and dont just listen to Bokmål. If Swedish is more usefull to know than Norwegian I dont know. I think Swedish is better to learn than Norwegian since more people are talking it, but it depends what you want to use the language for and how much Norwegian you already know. Swedish has as other languages different accents and dialects too. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Calvino Diglot Groupie Sweden sammafllod.wordpress Joined 5966 days ago 65 posts - 66 votes  2 sounds Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: French, Spanish, German | Message 10 of 20 13 June 2009 at 7:24pm | IP Logged | ||
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Jeff:
I'm from Luleå, and the "places around" I was referring to certainly includes Överkalix (which is "around" according to the norms of northern Sweden), and also Piteå. Edited by Calvino on 13 June 2009 at 7:25pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Calvino Diglot Groupie Sweden sammafllod.wordpress Joined 5966 days ago 65 posts - 66 votes 2 sounds Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: French, Spanish, German | Message 11 of 20 13 June 2009 at 8:05pm | IP Logged | ||
For those with a hazy conception of the geography of northernmost Sweden, here is a map. Gulf of Bothnia to the southeast, Norway to the west and the north, Finland to the east.
 Edited by Calvino on 13 June 2009 at 8:11pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| cordelia0507 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5838 days ago 1473 posts - 2176 votes Speaks: Swedish* Studies: German, Russian | Message 12 of 20 14 June 2009 at 3:10pm | IP Logged | ||
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This is a non-issue, don't worry about it.
Sure, there are some Norwegian accents that can be hard to understand, and a few ones in Sweden too. But written and spoken Norwegian are usually not that different. Remember, there are some very tricky dialects of English too (American South, Scotish etc) this doesn't stop anyone from learning! Any native Swedes or Norwegians that you run into will understand the situation (that you are a learner) and they will adapt their way of speaking so that it sounds more like standard speech. Don't let this put you off studying either of these languages. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Marlowe Triglot Newbie Norway Joined 5712 days ago 24 posts - 25 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish Studies: French, German | Message 13 of 20 17 June 2009 at 5:24pm | IP Logged | ||
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Don't forget that no one speaks Bokmål. It's what we call a "målform" (the other one is Nynorsk), and it's only called by that name as a written language. Standard Eastern Norwegian is the dialect that resembles Bokmål the most, but it's still not simply oral Bokmål.
As for the dialect situation, it's nothing like the situation in the Arab world, so I wouldn't worry too much about it. Certainly some dialects can be a bit hard to understand, but I meet foreigners in Norway who overcome that all the time. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ABOUJAD Triglot Newbie France myspace.com/chajaloRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5852 days ago 5 posts - 5 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: Arabic (Written) | Message 14 of 20 17 June 2009 at 6:05pm | IP Logged | ||
So, do Norwegians who speak very different dialects ever resort to using Bokmål in order to understand each other ? Will Norwegians find it weird or unnatural if I "speak" Bokmål to them ? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Marlowe Triglot Newbie Norway Joined 5712 days ago 24 posts - 25 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish Studies: French, German | Message 15 of 20 17 June 2009 at 8:13pm | IP Logged | ||
I've never done that, and it's certainly not common, if it even happens. Sometimes (albeit rarely) you might have to clarify words, kind of like the coke/pop/soda situation in the US, but I just think that's fun. No one will think it's weird that you speak with a standardized accent. Edited by Marlowe on 17 June 2009 at 8:32pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| cordelia0507 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5838 days ago 1473 posts - 2176 votes Speaks: Swedish* Studies: German, Russian | Message 16 of 20 17 June 2009 at 8:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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Well, I didn't know that "no-one speaks Bokmål" I thought it was the preferred way of writing Norwegian for most Norwegians! It is certainly more easy to understand than Nynorsk! It sounds like Norwegian to me??!!
Bokmål is almost completely comprehensible to a Swedish person at any rate. I sometimes have to read Norwegian for work, and occassionally I check a story in Norwegian papers online. No problem whatever! Dialects in Scandinavia is really not a big issue --- there is no serious "snobbery" associated with accents (or lack of it) as in England for example. People might have some preconceptions of what people from Northern Sweden or the west coast of Norway are like, and occassionally imitate the accent for fun. But not in a negative way at all. Snobbery is generally frowned upon in Scandinavia. I'd say that between Sweden and Norway you could almost treat the other language as a dialect, not a separate language. (Please don't flame me for saying this - it's an opinion, not a statement) Here in England I once worked with a couple of Norwegian people who had to write "in Swedish" and it didn't always come out like perfect Swedish. However since it was 100% comprehensible and obvious that the correspondence was written by a Norwegian, it wasn't considered a problem. Anybody fussing about someone writing "ikke" instead of "inte" is a moron! If I moved to Norway for example, I would start changing my speech as fast as I could into sounding as Norwegian as possible. I would try to write Norwegian as much as I could and learn the differences. Also, I would expect Norwegians to be understanding and friendly about me occassionally using the "wrong" words or spelling -- same as Swedish people would be towards a Norwegian who lived in Sweden. Historically people have moved between our countries a fair bit -- right now I think there are more Swedes in Norway than the other way around, but in the past it was the other way around. I have never heard of a Norwegian or Swedish person being discriminated or bullied for their nationality in the neighbouring country. In Sweden, most people REALLY like Norwegians and all the "stereotypes" of them are positive. I sure hope the Norwegians feel the same way, and I think they mostly do. There isn't much more to say about this --- just pick one of these languages and go for it! People in Sweden would treat you just as well if you spoke Norwegian, and if any Norwegian gave you a hard time about speaking Swedish I'd like to have a word with them... Once you know one of these, you can communicate with the speakers of the other. End of story... Edited by cordelia0507 on 17 June 2009 at 8:59pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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