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Why not just one Scandinavian language?

 Language Learning Forum : Skandinavisk & Nordisk Post Reply
69 messages over 9 pages: << Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ... 8 9
unggiona
Tetraglot
Newbie
Sweden
Joined 5312 days ago

5 posts - 5 votes
Speaks: ItalianC2, Swedish*, English, French
Studies: Arabic (Written), Mandarin

 
 Message 65 of 69
10 April 2010 at 11:37am | IP Logged 
Jag tror, att du är lite för negativ cordelia0507. Dels tror jag inte att man kan
fördöma alla som säger takaway pizza och Big Brother, för då får man inte så många
vänner. Däremot tror jag att man lätt kan argumentera för en språkunion på ett sätt som
kan tilltala alla. Det finns ekonomiska argument, utbildningsargument, och detta till
priset av en minimal ansträngning. Dessutom, när jag diskuterar frågan med andra, så är
de flesta redan positiva, bara bryr sig inte så mycket. Det räcker med en person som är
tillräckligt engagerad, som får tillräckligt många "efterföljare" för att frågan skall
bli intressant. Man kan inte beskylla politiker, de gör bara de är valda till, de
fokuserar på de frågor som de tror de kan vinna röster på. Frågan ligger hos de
"skandinavisktalande".

Och för att inte prata för mycket politik: Folk som bor i gränsområdena, jag till
exempel, som är från Skåne, kan ofta redan förstå grannmålen i ganska stor
utsträckning. Jag kan ha svårare att förstå norrlänningar än dansktalande. Eftersom
det, bevisligen, bara handlar om tillvänjning, krävs ingen "utbildning" i grannspråken,
utan bara meterial, böcker och filmer. En svensk kan faktiskt gå och läsa vid ett
danskt universitet, och danskan kommer av sig själv. Skillnaden vore bara, att om han
eller hon hade läst och hört danska sen barnsben, skulle det inte kräva någon
ansträngning alls.
1 person has voted this message useful



Solfrid Cristin
Heptaglot
Winner TAC 2011 & 2012
Senior Member
Norway
Joined 5293 days ago

4143 posts - 8864 votes 
Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian
Studies: Russian

 
 Message 66 of 69
02 May 2010 at 4:10pm | IP Logged 
Having grown up with the misguided attempts to force upon as a merger between two Norwegian languages, there is nothing, short of an armed invasion, which would make me accept a suggestion like this.

Much as I appreciate my Scandinavian neighbours and their languages, the thought is absolutely repulsive. We have been colonized twice, and as long as we are an independent nation, we will not be subject to a cultural take over like that. Language is identity, and I would never give up my Norwegian identity.

I would however definitely support more ressources being allocated at school for the other two languages. I see with regret that the young generations do not have the comprehensive understanding of Swedish and Danish that we did.

And I am not the least worried about our languages disappearing, or being too much influenced by English. In the past, I know of no nation who has given up a national language spoken by millions unless there are political reasons for it (being invaded or ruled by someone who has another language) e.g.). I cannot imagine any of the Scandinavian governments deciding to give up their national language and introduce English in stead. It is much more likely that Spanish will be introduced as a second language in the US.

And as for influence from English that is a normal process. English is influenced by French, the Scandinavian languages as well, in particular Swedish, and we have in the past been influenced from Latin, Greek, German and a lot of other languages . I don't think that is a problem.
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cords05
Diglot
Newbie
United Kingdom
Joined 3299 days ago

15 posts - 20 votes
Speaks: English, Swedish*
Studies: Russian

 
 Message 67 of 69
07 October 2015 at 12:37am | IP Logged 
ruskivyetr wrote:
I'm sorry if this has been discussed before, but why not just unify the Scandi three create
a pan Scandi language? To me, it seems that the three countries, although with different
culture, don't really have all the much of a problem with the language "differences". The
three are already mutually intelligible, so it wouldn't create a huge problem. All it would
take is a uniform spelling rule and a uniform lexicon. Not only would it unite the three
Nordic countries a little more, it would create a more powerful language since it would
have a higher amount of speakers than just Danish, Norwegian, or Swedish. I'm not
Scandinavian, so maybe it's not my place to say this because maybe I don't know the
whole story, but it doesn't seem like a bad idea.


As a Swedish person I agree 100%
I'd be quite happy to start using Norwegian or Danish words and/or spelling up to a point, in order for us to be able to have a common official language.

This is also the way our language can stand up to the influence of English and preserve literature and culture a bit longer.

Looking at the languages of Europe, it's really only those languages with more than, say 50 million speakers that can really hold up against the English (well, American, really....) onslaught.

I think of places like Kazakhstan, Ireland, Singapore etc - where people actually prefer to speak another country's language over their own!

And I can see the exact same tendencies emerging in Sweden. I.e. English is the "sophisticated", "international", "cool" language that people want to be fluent in, to prove that they are modern, educated, cool etc. Some people openly claim to prefer English over Swedish (not necessarily because they are better at English).

I worked at a company in Sweden - Swedish owned, world famous - where the "working language" was English. Swedish people regularly wrote emails to eachother, in English, if you would believe it!!! I wrote several pieces of documentation that I knew perfectly well would be read only by native Swedes - yet it had to be in English.

This happens at the expense of people's skills in Swedish, and the English they actually speak is full of grammatical errors and mis-used expressions and words.

Just think of Kazakhstan - in only 70 years, the majority of the population lost their skills in the Kazakh language and now prefer Russian. I don't think they were forced - they chose to use the more "prestigious" language - just as I can see happening in Sweden. In Ireland, it happened over a period of 100 years, or so, I think.
We are already 25-70 years into the "American" era, depending on when you start counting from.

My sister, in Sweden, who lives in a medium sized town in Sweden, wants to send her children to the local "English" school. I think this is a terrible idea, and I highly doubt whatever teachers they can find out there will be native English speakers.

I admire the French who stand up for their language, against English - but as a tiny language you can't really do that. In order for our tiny Scandi languages to survive, we must come up with a strategy and joining forces is a great idea.

I also love it that Merkel sticks 100% to German in her public speaking.

Edited by cords05 on 07 October 2015 at 12:44am

1 person has voted this message useful



tornus
Diglot
GroupieRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5102 days ago

82 posts - 113 votes 
Speaks: French*, English
Studies: Spanish, Swedish, Danish

 
 Message 68 of 69
02 November 2015 at 9:24pm | IP Logged 
Instead of having one Scandinavian language, I would just suggest fostering the learning of other Scandinavian languages. It's just about getting more familiar with the other languages and the main differences, much like if you had to learn a quite different dialect of the same language.
The thing is that as it is right now the different languages are not as mutually intelligible as people might think. I've been living in Denmark for 3 years now and learned a bit of Swedish prior to that. The difference between the two languages is actually big. I've heard quite a lot Scandinavians struggling to understand each other even when those Norwegians or Swedes had lived in Denmark for a long time ( but didn't make much efforts to learn the language I must admit).
But those who made efforts got used to it quite quickly. That is why I think it is more about getting more exposure to the other languages.
1 person has voted this message useful





Iversen
Super Polyglot
Moderator
Denmark
berejst.dk
Joined 6662 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
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 Message 69 of 69
03 November 2015 at 1:42pm | IP Logged 
I would like to learn the speak all the other Scandinavian languages, but not a mixture of them. But it won't happen. Right now the main risk is that we start speaking Danish, Swedish or Norwegian with a high percentage of English words and a domain loss which a number of influentual persons would like to increase even further. Weakening the present assortment of Scandinavian languages in attempt to force us to speak an artificial mix would not lead to a union of those languages, but more likely to their demise.

Edited by Iversen on 04 November 2015 at 12:02am



2 persons have voted this message useful



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