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As a native Swedish speaker I have almost no problems understanding Norwegian, to my ears it feels like yet another Swedish dialect, its the almost same language.
Danish on the other hand can be a bit trickier due to their very different pronounciation (Danish pronounciation reminds more of German/Dutch pronounciation, rather than Scandinavian), even if the words are pretty much the same as in Norwegian/Swedish.
I also find it easier to follow Norwegian than Danish. When it comes to written language I think it is pretty much a tie. I seldom read Norwegian or Danish Newspapers and if I do I use Google Translate – which almost gives a perfect translation because of the similarity between the languages so I have never taken it under consideration. I have a few friends in Scania and they understand Danish pretty well and also the Danish culture – at least more than we on average do in Stockholm. I’m keener on Norwegian than Danish – I like it more and it sounds “happy”.
I also find it easier to follow Norwegian than Danish. When it comes to written language I think it is pretty much a tie. I seldom read Norwegian or Danish Newspapers and if I do I use Google Translate – which almost gives a perfect translation because of the similarity between the languages so I have never taken it under consideration. I have a few friends in Scania and they understand Danish pretty well and also the Danish culture – at least more than we on average do in Stockholm. I’m keener on Norwegian than Danish – I like it more and it sounds “happy”. They are all North Germanic languages – so they are very similar.
Quote:
English: "It was a moist, grey summer day at the end of June."
Swedish: "Det var en fuktig, grå sommardag i slutet av juni."
Danish: "Det var en fugtig, grå sommerdag i slutningen af juni."
Norwegian (Bokmål) "Det var en fuktig, grå sommerdag i slutten av juni."
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ariete
As a native Moomin-Swedish speaker I can't understand almost any Danish at all. More than once I've been encountered with the situation that when I speak Swedish the Danish person understands everything I say, but I can't understand much in return.
Norwegian is much less tricky, and when I get the hang of it, having a conversation is no issue. The problem is that I'm hardly at all exposed to the Norwegian language, so it requires a warm-up period before I'm "into" it.
Oh, Are you a Swedish Finn? (Finlandssvensk)? How is your understanding of Estonian and baltic languages? Do you understand them better than Swedish or Norwegian?
Oh, Are you a Swedish Finn? (Finlandssvensk)? How is your understanding of Estonian and baltic languages? Do you understand them better than Swedish or Norwegian?
Yes, I'm 50% Finlandssvensk. Speak Swedish with my mother and went to Swedish-speaking schools. Estonian isn't intellegible with Finnish, so I can understand hardly any spoken Estonian. We speak English with Estonians if they don't know Finnish. In written form maybe some. Latvian and Lithuanian are complete jibberish and semi-Russian to all Finnish speakers, as the languages aren't even related. Can't understand a word of what they say.
Yes, I'm 50% Finlandssvensk. Speak Swedish with my mother and went to Swedish-speaking schools. Estonian isn't intellegible with Finnish, so I can understand hardly any spoken Estonian. We speak English with Estonians if they don't know Finnish. In written form maybe some. Latvian and Lithuanian are complete jibberish and semi-Russian to all Finnish speakers, as the languages aren't even related. Can't understand a word of what they say.
Oh, so there are ethnic schools for Swedes in Finland? I thought Swedes were assimilated or a least a few of them. I thought Finnish was a Uralic language just as Livonian and Estonian. Is it true that Swedish-Finns are an political and economical elite in Finland, look down on finns and are in general disliked?I did not know that we were almost related - that you are a half member of the "tribe".
Oh, so there are ethnic schools for Swedes in Finland? I thought Swedes were assimilated or a least a few of them. I thought Finnish was a Uralic language just as Livonian and Estonian. Is it true that Swedish-Finns are an political and economical elite in Finland, look down on finns and are in general disliked?I did not know that we were almost related - that you are a half member of the "tribe".
Around 300,000 Finns speaks Swedish as their native language, and they are not Swedes, they are Finns, who speaks Swedish. There is some though who considers themselves as Swedes, in particular Ã…landers, though I think most identifies with Finnish nationality. In Finland there is certain Swedish-speaking schools where everything is taught and spoken in Swedish, just like there is Sami-language schools in Sweden.
In western Finland (Österbotten) there is some certain towns where you can live your entire life without having to use of a single word in Finnish. Examples of such towns and municipalities (kommuner) are Närpes (88% Swedish), Nykarleby (89% Swedish), Pedersöre (90% Swedish), Korsnäs (92% Swedish) and Larsmo (91% Swedish). These are Swedish-speaking towns and kommuner like any others, despite not being in Sweden.
From what I heard its even common there to know what happens in Sweden and reading Swedish newspapers like Aftonbladet. Though I also heard this is much less common in southern Finland, where Swedish-speaking Finns lives among Finnish-speaking Finns in big cities, where the use of the Swedish language is limited to mostly family and home.
But in Swedish-speaking towns and municipalities (kommuner) in western Finland, Swedish is the one standard language used in everyday talk just like in Sweden, and knowledge of Finnish may even be limited cause people there has little to no use of Finnish in everyday talk.
Sometimes those Swedish dialects spoken in Finland are very very different from standard Swedish, in some cases much more so than Norwegian.
Take the dialect they speak in Närpes (in western Finland) for instance:
I also find it easier to follow Norwegian than Danish. When it comes to written language I think it is pretty much a tie. I seldom read Norwegian or Danish Newspapers and if I do I use Google Translate – which almost gives a perfect translation because of the similarity between the languages so I have never taken it under consideration. I have a few friends in Scania and they understand Danish pretty well and also the Danish culture – at least more than we on average do in Stockholm. I’m keener on Norwegian than Danish – I like it more and it sounds “happy”.
I live in Sölvesborg which is in Blekinge but almost Scania since its well just 2 or 3 km from the border to Scania, so we kind of speak the Scanian dialect, I'm sure a person from Stockholm would not notice any difference at all. And yes I understand Danish pretty well, I go to Denmark pretty often since Copenhagen is actually the nearest big city (besides Malmö which is much smaller and less fun), places like Tivoli and Copenhagen Zoo are very common day trips for Scanian and Blekinge families in the summer, and even by Scanian schools.
Whenever I'm in Denmark I speak Swedish (Sölvesborg Scanian-like dialect), and they speak Danish to me, and it works pretty fine. Though I have to admit that even as a Blekingebo (almost Scanian) I find Norwegian easier to understand than Danish, but we down here find Danish way easier to understand than other Swedes ever will. Even if there is problems, its not complete gibberish to us.
Its also common down here to know what happens in Denmark, local news like Sydsvenskan writes about things that happens in Denmark every day and not just the sensational and remarkable stories. And on the trains there usually is both Swedish and actual Danish newspapers to read. The trains (Øresundståg) used in Skåne and Blekinge are the same trains used in Copenhagen and Helsingør. To watch Danish TV is also common here.
Last edited by Helsingborgaren; 05-28-2014 at 06:19 PM..
I'm leaning toward German, but the discussion between the similarities of the Scandinavian languages is interesting!
As a Swede, I say take German! Its spoken as the native language of Europe's to the population second biggest country (Germany) plus Austria and the majority of Switzerland, and may even get you understood in the Netherlands, Belgium (Flanders) and Suriname due the similarity with Dutch.
By understanding and speaking German, you can communicate with literally tens of millions.
Swedish/Danish/Norwegian is just a mere 20 million people, most of whom speaks English fluently. Infact you can make it perfectly fine living in any of these 3 tiny countries speaking English only. Even Dutch is a bigger language than these 3 combined.
Last edited by Helsingborgaren; 05-28-2014 at 08:52 PM..
Swedish/Danish/Norwegian is just a mere 20 million people, most of whom speaks English fluently. Infact you can make it perfectly fine living in any of these 3 tiny countries speaking English only.
Only true to a certain extent. Since Norwegians (or Swedes or Danes for that matter) don't speak English with eachother, you will be left out of the conversation of anything not directly involving you, and that can be frustrating in the long run. Not knowing the language in the country you pick is a major drawback no matter what. English is basically only an emergency communication tool. Nobody speaks English unless being forced to.
Only true to a certain extent. Since Norwegians (or Swedes or Danes for that matter) don't speak English with eachother, you will be left out of the conversation of anything not directly involving you, and that can be frustrating in the long run. Not knowing the language in the country you pick is a major drawback no matter what. English is basically only an emergency communication tool. Nobody speaks English unless being forced to.
Yes true, infact this problem is even explained in a fun way in the new American/Swedish comedy series Welcome to Sweden. However to my understanding the person who started the thread is not planning to actually move to a Scandinavian country. By speaking only English you will make it perfectly fine traveling through a Scandinavian country including having interesting conversations with locals. And annoying things like the thing you mentioned will not be a problem for one who is only staying for a limited time.
But other European countries (except the Netherlands and Belgium) are not like that, in Germany for instance there is millions who are very bad at English or speaks no English at all. As well as in Europe's bigger countries like France, Spain, Italy etc when it comes to English and other foreign languages.
Speaking English in Scandinavia can be compared to speaking English and living in Montreal, most people can speak English but will speak French to eachothers and only speak English when they have to.
But I would as you say not recommend living here and not speaking the language. Infact Swedes has even encountered this problem in their own country, for example in the town of Haparanda, Sweden and even more in Övertorneå (Matarenki) the most common language spoken between locals is Finnish, and they will only speak Swedish when they have to. I read on a forum about a Swede who moved to Haparanda and felt so uncomfortable by that, that he instead moved to another town cause it was so frustrating to not being able to directly take part of a conversation cause he didn't understand Finnish.
It would be the same thing with a Finnish-speaking Finn moving to Närpes or Nykarleby, without any moderate understanding of Swedish it would be hard to directly take part in daily conversations even if the locals also can speak Finnish (and English).
Last edited by Helsingborgaren; 05-29-2014 at 04:28 AM..
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