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Easiest language for an English speaker? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5235 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes  Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 25 of 80 02 June 2012 at 8:10am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
What is weird about Norwegian word order (compared to other Germanic languages)?
How many native speakers of Norwegian can speak English with a native-like accent? Very few. Edited by tractor on 02 June 2012 at 8:10am 5 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6691 days ago 4250 posts - 5710 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 26 of 80 02 June 2012 at 10:37am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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It's funny how the original poster suggests Swedish as the easiest, and in the next breath makes Norwegian sound annoyingly difficult...
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| jazzboy.bebop Senior Member Norway norwegianthroughnove Joined 5200 days ago 439 posts - 800 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Norwegian | Message 27 of 80 02 June 2012 at 1:19pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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I don't understand Camundonguinho's attitude to Norwegian at all.
I'm at a basic conversational level of Norwegian and have found learning the language far easier than any others I've dabbled with, Esperanto excepted. The different dialects are not so wildly different as to be incomprehensible and it is not that difficult to figure out variations in pronunciation of certain words or get used to people using different word endings. You can usually figure things out from context. I've been together in a group of people where we had someone from Trøndelag, someone from Kristiansand, someone from Tromsø and a few people from Oslo all speaking in their respective dialects and it was not that hard to get used to. Norwegians are known for having one of the most egalitarian attitudes in the world, especially when it comes to people speaking in dialects. I think the number of people who would label you based on whether you stick to a certain gender system is extremely small indeed, and these people would do so not because it is a regular thing to do in the culture but because they are silly, judgmental people who can be found in any country. If they were to treat a foreigner in such a way, they would have to be complete idiots. As for word order, I don't see the problem. For the most part it is very close to English but does use inversions which are easy to learn how to use and identify. Edited by jazzboy.bebop on 02 June 2012 at 1:23pm 5 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Einarr Tetraglot Senior Member United Kingdom einarrslanguagelog.w Joined 4395 days ago 118 posts - 269 votes Speaks: English, Bulgarian*, French, Russian Studies: Swedish | Message 28 of 80 02 June 2012 at 2:32pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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Considering the fact, that I'm not even a native speaker of English, and my native language's nowhere even close to Germanic languages, excluding the international words and so of course, indeed, Norwegian is the easiest (for me) foreign language as an English speaker.
And I really cannot understand why I get the feeling that people are blaming the Norwegian pronunciation being so difficult and hard to master and so on. I mean, surely, one will need quite a lot of time to even master to a native - like level, the pronunciation of the chosen dialect, but after all - isn't that the case with pretty much every language. Surely one can speak native - like, but perfection is always hard to achieve, no matter the language. Anyway, I remember that for me, the pronunciation was even easier than the language itself, back in the day, when I was studying it. It always made perfect sense to me, I won't even mention how good it sounds - definitely one of the most beautiful aspects of the language. About the dialects of Norwegian - well, sadly, I've never been to Norway, so I cannot judge by first hand experience, but I did watch quite a lot of movies, programs in Norwegian, and I believe I had a grasp of what different aspects of Norwegian dialects are like, and indeed they cannot be considered rocket science. After all English does have its share of being language with quite a lot of accents, but believe me - if one spends even a limited amount of time being exposed to a certain dialect, I do believe it will not pose any significant problems when it comes down to the understanding part whatsoever. Surely, one must also mention Dutch together with Afrikaans as being considerably easy for an English speaker (it was for me, for the short time of my studies). It really was very easy to understand, even an unknown text, indeed a very "light read" for a native of English. A honorable mention here would be another Scandinavian language too - like Swedish or Danish (Icelandic and Faoese both being a little bit on the more difficult side), yet Danish pronunciation may seem a bit tricky at the beginning, but later on it seems quite easy and actually not - so - demanding. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4404 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 29 of 80 02 June 2012 at 2:54pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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Dutch seems pretty close to English and if you have a good command of German, you're laughing. I have never studied Dutch in my life (apart from some "holiday Dutch" cassettes) yet I can figure out a lot of what is being said.
Norwegian and Swedish, from listening to movies, seems to have a softer, less guttural sound, which I can't really tune into from a starting point of zero. But I'm sure the words must have the same Germanic roots and many would be recognisable in written form. What about Fresian? Isn't that language regarded by linguists as being English's closest relative? Edited by beano on 02 June 2012 at 2:55pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Марк Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 4838 days ago 2096 posts - 2972 votes Speaks: Russian* | Message 30 of 80 02 June 2012 at 3:28pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
what's the connection between softness and gutturalness? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| COF Senior Member United States Joined 5613 days ago 262 posts - 354 votes Speaks: English* | Message 31 of 80 02 June 2012 at 5:27pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
Anti-English nonsense. Norwegian has a vast range of different dialects, many of which are very difficult for the other to understand, and still they are all considered part of the same language, Norwegian. Likewise, European Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese are very different in both vocabulary and pronunciation, and still no one seriously thinks they're completely different languages. Only SNP nationalists really think Scots is a separate language, it's all stems from anti-Englishness. What's more, no one really speaks Scots anymore in Scotland, just as no one in England speaks Old English. Edited by COF on 02 June 2012 at 5:33pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| COF Senior Member United States Joined 5613 days ago 262 posts - 354 votes Speaks: English* | Message 32 of 80 02 June 2012 at 5:36pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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The problem is, the Scots have managed to portray themselves as victims to the rest of the world. The reality is, the Scottish have always spoken English, and only a minority of the country ever spoke Scottish Gaelic.
Everyone thinks the English oppress the Scots and FORCE them to speak English, when the truth us the Scottish were some of the biggest colonialists during the time of the empire, and actually out-numbered the English in the colonies. The Scots are far from victims. If anything, they were very brutal colonialists and punch far, far above their weight, both at home and overseas. Edited by COF on 02 June 2012 at 5:38pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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