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Which Germanic languages, in which order? | ||
Tags: Germanic Languages | Hit List | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Julie Heptaglot Senior Member PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6691 days ago 1251 posts - 1733 votes  5 sounds Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, GermanC2, SpanishB2, Dutch, Swedish, French | Message 1 of 12 09 April 2009 at 1:26am | IP Logged |
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Actually, I should be studying French right now, instead of writing posts and thinking about all the great languages I would like to learn one day ;), but having an access to some good language libraries here made me think of what and in which order I'm going to learn after my French immersion.
So far, I've learned English and German. I'd like to master at least a few more languages from Germanic family. I started learning Dutch, which I stopped because of going to a French-speaking country, but which I liked a lot and would like to continue soon. I've never learned any Scandinavian language (doing one or two lessons to see how it's like doesn't count). I would learn it out of the linguistic interest and I don't really have any preferences about the choice, apart from it being limited to Swedish, Norwegian (bokmal) and Danish. (Icelandic for sure would be fascinating but I can't think of a single situation where I could use it). Speaking one of these languages and understanding other ones would probably be satisfying. Which language would be the best choice? Is there's any learning sequence for Germanic family you would recommand in this situation? Which learning materials could be good? I hope these questions don't sound too general - I'm just looking for some inspiration. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Kuronue Groupie United States Joined 5787 days ago 45 posts - 45 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese | Message 2 of 12 09 April 2009 at 1:48am | IP Logged |
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Take the one you can find the most material for. Since all of those languages are pretty transparent to each other, I would say, go with what's available. You've already got your focus pretty narrowed down.
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| sprachefin Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5534 days ago 300 posts - 317 votes Speaks: German*, English, Spanish Studies: French, Turkish, Mandarin, Bulgarian, Persian, Dutch | Message 3 of 12 09 April 2009 at 1:57am | IP Logged |
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Ah, the first Germanic language is what you already have. English! But no, something a little more GermanIC
would be proper. Go for German, work your way into Dutch, then do one or two Scandinavian languages. I recommend Swedish and Icelandic. Some may say Danish, but you can really learn Norwegian, Swedish or Danish if you want. If you don't want to learn a Scandinavian language, go for something similar to German and Dutch (which you would already know) like a Swiss dialect (which I cannot for the life of me understand). Swiss Standard German is similar to Hochdeutsch but I didn't here it being spoken by any Swiss so I assumed that it is similar to the MSA and Colloquial Arabic situation. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Julie Heptaglot Senior Member PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6691 days ago 1251 posts - 1733 votes 5 sounds Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, GermanC2, SpanishB2, Dutch, Swedish, French | Message 4 of 12 09 April 2009 at 2:07am | IP Logged |
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I have more materials for Norwegian than for other languages but the difference isn't that significant. Today I've seen Assimil Danish in the library and I guess that's what made me think.
Maybe I should add some more questions: which language is most interesting from linguistic point of view? Which one is the easiest one? Which one offers better understanding of the other ones (that would be Norwegian, as far as I know)? Which one has better learning materials (Assimil / Teach Yourself / Colloquial / other)? Are there any other criteria that could be important? Also, should I learn fluent Dutch before I even start a Scandinavian language? I should probably mention that I'm a passionate learner of German (my biggest linguistic love so far) and I'm looking for a language which would offer me more insight into Germanic family. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Julie Heptaglot Senior Member PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6691 days ago 1251 posts - 1733 votes 5 sounds Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, GermanC2, SpanishB2, Dutch, Swedish, French | Message 5 of 12 09 April 2009 at 2:21am | IP Logged |
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Sprachefin, thanks for your advice. Actually, I already know German very well - that's what made me interested in Germanic languages in the first place. And I do know English is a Germanic language ;). I'm also learning some Swiss German (dialect) (I'm in Switzerland right now), which I don't expect to master, though.
About Swiss Standard German - it's true that you don't hear it much. Actually, it's what Swiss people speak with speakers of standard German who don't understand the dialect, and what they're supposed to speak e.g. at the university. The differences between Swiss Standard German and Standard German are, luckily, small. It's mostly about the pronunciation and some vocabulary (Milchkasten would probably be a good example :)). 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| NuclearGorilla Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6574 days ago 166 posts - 195 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Japanese, French | Message 6 of 12 09 April 2009 at 12:54pm | IP Logged |
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Dutch would be easier, as it like English and German is a West Germanic language, whereas the Scandinavian languages are North Germanic. Dutch at least seems like it'd be really easy, in any case (you could probably learn to understand it rather quickly).
Any of the Scandinavian languages would bring you close to the others (well, I'm meaning the three "common" ones). None of them seem all that complex grammatically. Note that I've never studied any of these for a long period of time (and indeed, only Swedish at all), so these are mostly impressions. I'd say the differences are small enough to just pick the one you like best. Surely there should be adequate materials for all these languages. You haven't ruled out Gothic, which would give you an East Germanic language. But if you thought Icelandic was useless... 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Sprachgenie Decaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5497 days ago 128 posts - 165 votes Speaks: German*, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Faroese, Icelandic, Flemish, Persian, Swiss-German Studies: English, Belarusian | Message 7 of 12 09 April 2009 at 4:27pm | IP Logged |
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If you're looking to learn a Scandinavian language, I would definitely recommend to you to start with Norwegian as it lies between Danish and Swedish. Norwegian and Danish are written almost exactly the same, and Norwegian and Swedish are pronounced almost exactly the same. Danish and Swedish are much less similar to each other than they are to Norwegian. But it all depends on if your end goal is to learn all 3. If not, Dutch would be the easiest Germanic language to learn and has more native speakers than Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian combined.
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| sprachefin Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5534 days ago 300 posts - 317 votes Speaks: German*, English, Spanish Studies: French, Turkish, Mandarin, Bulgarian, Persian, Dutch | Message 8 of 12 10 April 2009 at 2:19am | IP Logged |
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Since you speak German and English, Dutch would be a good and easy choice before the Scandinavian languages.
Definitely go for Norwegian, but learn to catch the rhythm of Danish and Swedish so they can understand you. Norwegian speakers tend to understand both Danish and Swedish, but Danes and Swedes cannot understand Norwegians as easily. Dutch will be easy, trust me. Go for it. I probably will in a year or two, but I guarantee you will be fluent in less than a year. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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