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Loose federal system with a common legislation, foreign policy and being a part of EFTA.
So, it's either being a member of the EU or being member of EFTA and hence the internal market? As a single entity instead of two member states with a voice each? I don't really see the advantages.
Quite frankly, that doesn't make much sense to me and leaves me wondering, if Finns/Swedes know what EFTA/EU/etc are and how they function.
So, it's either being a member of the EU or being member of EFTA and hence the internal market? As a single entity instead of two member states with a voice each? I don't really see the advantages.
Quite frankly, that doesn't make much sense to me and leaves me wondering, if Finns/Swedes know what EFTA/EU/etc are and how they function.
Yes, we know it. Maybe that survey was made as a bit biased. For example, the vast majority in Finland don't want to leave the EU or €.
No, they don't. Linguists tend to consider Danish and Norwegian as dialects of each other. Some go so far as to include Swedish in that.
You are completely correct. For several centuries, Norwegian was not considered as a language of its own, but a dialect of Danish as Norway was a part of Denmark. Norwegian as a language was "invented" for patriotic reasons when Norway declared independence, the dialect was standardized and declared as a language and gave it 2 official written standards Bokmål and Nynorsk with spellings based on Norwegian pronounciation and with some local words added. The modern official Norwegian language officially recognized in the 19th century has little to nothing to do with the Old Norwegian language that was similar to Icelandic and went extinct under Danish rule for hundreds of years ago.
The Serbians, Bosnians, Croatians and Montenegrins has done the same fairly recently for the same reasons, and the Macedonians still refuse to admit they speak a Bulgarian dialect. The Moldovans also did this for quite a while but now admits they acutally do speak Romanian.
And Swedish is reallly, really close to Norwegian, a whole lot more close than say many German and Spanish dialects are to eachothers. For a Swede from any part of Sweden it is a whole lot more likely to understand what people say in Oslo and eastern Norway, than for a northern German to understand what people say in Bavaria, Swabia or Switzerland.
Just an example, the Big Brother reality show on TV is the same in Sweden and Norway with both Swedish and Norwegian contestants in the house who all speaks their native tongue to eachothers, and it works fine, no problems.
Last edited by Helsingborgaren; 11-08-2014 at 06:20 PM..
You are completely correct. For several centuries, Norwegian was not considered as a language of its own, but a dialect of Danish as Norway was a part of Denmark. Norwegian as a language was "invented" for patriotic reasons when Norway declared independence, the dialect was standardized and declared as a language and gave it 2 official written standards Bokmål and Nynorsk with spellings based on Norwegian pronounciation and with some local words added. The modern official Norwegian language officially recognized in the 19th century has little to nothing to do with the Old Norwegian language that was similar to Icelandic and went extinct under Danish rule for hundreds of years ago.
The Serbians, Bosnians, Croatians and Montenegrins has done the same fairly recently for the same reasons, and the Macedonians still refuse to admit they speak a Bulgarian dialect. The Moldovans also did this for quite a while but now admits they acutally do speak Romanian.
And Swedish is reallly, really close to Norwegian, a whole lot more close than say many German and Spanish dialects are to eachothers. For a Swede from any part of Sweden it is a whole lot more likely to understand what people say in Oslo and eastern Norway, than for a northern German to understand what people say in Bavaria, Swabia or Switzerland.
Just an example, the Big Brother reality show on TV is the same in Sweden and Norway with both Swedish and Norwegian contestants in the house who all speaks their native tongue to eachothers, and it works fine, no problems.
Old Norwegian was spoken in some parts of Scotland to the end of 1800 Century for those who didnt know, just a funfact.
And even to this day there exist swedes who romanticize the union between Norway and Sweden, and they see Sweden as liberators. Nothing can be more far away from the truth. Norwegians saw the swedes as superior fascists, and even when Germany offered to assist the swedes against Norway in 1905 it didnt stop Norwegians to declare war against Sweden.
Funny thing is that part of the population in Norway back then were of swedish and german origin.
Old Norwegian was spoken in some parts of Scotland to the end of 1800 Century for those who didnt know, just a funfact.
And even to this day there exist swedes who romanticize the union between Norway and Sweden, and they see Sweden as liberators. Nothing can be more far away from the truth. Norwegians saw the swedes as superior fascists, and even when Germany offered to assist the swedes against Norway in 1905 it didnt stop Norwegians to declare war against Sweden.
Funny thing is that part of the population in Norway back then were of swedish and german origin.
Yes, Old Norwegian used to be spoken in the Shetland Islands and Orkney Islands.
Union issues aside, language is much closer than dialects are to eachothers in Germany, a northern German will have much greater problems to understand what people say in Bavaria and Swabia than a Swede will in Norway, thats a fact. Old Norwegian was not similar to Swedish at all, but modern Norwegian is, which is because of hundreds of years of forced East Scandinavian (Danish) language policy, and Danish is similar to Swedish even originally.
Last edited by Helsingborgaren; 11-09-2014 at 05:28 AM..
The Swedish-Norwegian union was definitely not among the more successful unions as there was so much resistance against it in the other part, though I think you have to admit Norway had much more self-rule in union with Sweden than the old union with Denmark. In union with Sweden, Norway was officially its own sovereign nation and had its own constitution and its own government, it did not have any of that under Danish total rule.
Of course this should absolutely not be considered if the Norwegians don't want it, but significant amounts of people polled in Denmark, Sweden and Finland would not have anything against a Nordic federation. Norwegians were not polled.
Last edited by Helsingborgaren; 11-09-2014 at 05:35 AM..
Old Norwegian was spoken in some parts of Scotland to the end of 1800 Century for those who didnt know, just a funfact.
Old Norse is one of the basics of English.
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