Norwegian, Danish, Swedish: so similar - why are they even different languages?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 ก.ย. 2023
- Norwegian, Danish, and Swedish are so similar that it is legitimate to ask why are they even different languages?
All three languages go back to the same root, and at some point in history they got "fixed" by writing. Is mutual understanding still possible? Have a look at the example in this video.
🎧🎧🎧 Story-based language courses: www.skapago.eu/en/
▶️▶️▶️ Video about Norwegian written languages bokmål and nynorsk:
• Bokmål vs. nynorsk - ...
I like to refer to a Norwegian joke that explains the situation quite well: "There is only one Scandinavian language, but in Sweden they don't know how to write it and in Denmark they don't know how to speak it".
The languages all go back to the same root, but they got "fixed" in their written form by the bible translation. The story of the Norwegian language is still a bit different since it was not considered a separate language until Norway got independent from Denmark in 1814.
🎧🎧🎧 My Norwegian course based on a coherent story instead of boring dialogues:
Beginners (A1-A2): courses.skapago.eu/lp/norwegi...
Advanced (B1-B2): courses.skapago.eu/lp/norskku...
As a Finn who has only learnt Swedish at school I find it mostly quite easy to understand both Norwegian and Danish when they are written but only Norwegian when spoken. I've even read a detective story in Norwegian and it was fun!
Yes spoken Danish is a bit hard. I guess you would understand it if you studied a bit how the different sounds are produced in Danish. However it's great to hear that you benefit from your Swedish classes when travelling around Scandinavia!
I have been learning Norwegian for over 3 years and have just started to learn Swedish and Danish. It is interesting how the languages have their similarities and differences. The word in Norwegian and Danish are but in Swedish is . I often get this confused when typing/writing Swedish I sometimes use instead of . Then there are words that are exactly the same for example is in all 3 languages.
I have found learning Norwegian (Bokmål) first has made it easier to learn Swedish and Danish. Swedish pronunciation is a challenge, but nowhere near as hard as Danish. I understand written Danish because I am use to Bokmål, but trying to listen to it is tricky as it is quite fast, the words seem to blend into one another and Danes also do weird things to and hedder sounds a bit like hether and in some instances makes a /l/ sound. Danes also do this thing where they put a lot of effort into the first part of a word, stumble in the middle and then just give up at the end… Oh and the /r/ sound.
Yes Danish pronunciation is a bit tricky ;-)
'Er' and 'är' are actually the same word, with almost the same pronunciation in Norwegian and Swedish, but different spelling.
Fifty plus years ago I was living and working in Oslo. My close colleagues were two people from the extreme north of Norway, a Dane and a Swedish speaking Finn. When I tried my Norwegian out on the locals they always said the equivalent of what the duck is that accent
Tusen takk, Werner. En utmerket oppsummering av temaet.
Bare hyggelig, flott at du likte det :-)
I prefer the sound of Norsk so I think I will stick to it ^^ takk for et forklaring!
Nice to hear :-)
This is a great explanation. Love the joke!
Great to hear :-)
I am an English speaker, and I have worked very hard to accomplish my goal of learning Norwegian. It is challenging for an English speaker to understand Norwegian language when it's spoken, because of the rhythm.. half the sentence is spoken quickly and then the tone changes. It's hard. Swedish is much easier because the rhythm of the language is steady like English. Personally I can't understand a single word of spoken Danish. There are very few Norwegian teachers on TH-cam that I enjoy watching, and I love your channel very much. Is there another place online that you teach Norwegian courses?
Understanding spoken Danish would require to get a basic understanding of the pronunciation differences between Norwegian and Danish - without that it's really hard. I don't teach 1:1 at the moment but check out my courses here: courses.skapago.eu/lp/all
Veldig godt story! Jeg fortrekker alle sammen to start with Norsk as the pronunciation is not too crazy like Svenska or Dansk.
Sounds great :-)
What part of Svensk pronunciation is crazy in your ears?
Skillnaderna mellan ”språken” är mindre än mellan de tyska dialekterna.
Amazing video!! I'm very interested in Scandinavian languages and I've been researching about Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish. However, I can not decide between Norwegian and Swedish. Which one would you consider the most influential or practical in terms of having access to the Scandinavian culture in general? Thank you very much!
I'm a bit biased and would suggest Norwegian as it is (in some way) linguistically between Swedish and Danish. However if you're just more drawn to Swedish, I would say go for Swedish! You can even change from one language to another one at a later point.
Thank you very much for your answer! @@TheNorwegianSchool
You are Norwegian, speak Norwegian, and prefer Swedish over Danish
I am Norwegian, speak Norwegian, and prefer Danish over Swedish.
Så..., ed rødgrød med fløde, på dansk!
Som svensk har jag inga som helst problem att förstå norska i skrift eller tal. Kollar på nrk när det är skidskytte och längdskidor :) Danska är lite svårare men mest en vanesak. Efter att ha umgåtts med en dansk i en månad som va det inga problem.
Føler det samme :-)
@@TheNorwegianSchool :)
you have a course for danish? I only see swedish and norwegian on the website
Danish will come this winter, you can subscribe to the newsletter here: be9dbbc0.sibforms.com/serve/MUIFAAcFlBDM_8uB4eCprQloct79X4hWcF5k6KHMah-s9zvuNu0ZkZT45b98I7CVT9kMl0vnIfExhTaptGSvTv8zub3F6pek2__MJCNXU_cxb5oCOaOwPWkPNJ7VbIIowoQFsNmjz85N0AIo_PPYen7f0E2151cvE2g97FbYd7kmsitC45dt5XwcKOk6boZgvX-eoun-h5Sk6JI0
In the ultra-correct country of Norway (where I have learnt that everyone is in bed by 10.30 and even half-ten), I'm surprised that I often hear it reported that "there are two official Norwegian languages, Nynorsk and Bokmål," without parliament being immediately re-assembled to create new protection: give guidance, and offer therapy to 15,000 offended Sami. 🙂
That's true but Sami is not a Scandinavian language.
@@TheNorwegianSchool Why is sami not "Scandinavian" really? Of course it does not have germanic roots, but it has been spoken in Northern Scandinavia for thousands of years. (I'm not saying they were here first, because they were not, but still.)
@@herrbonk3635 Sami is a Uralic language, it has no similarities with Scandinavian languages. Calling Sami a Scandinavian language would be like calling Hungarian a Slavic language. Also Finnish is a Uralic language btw, not a Scandinavian language. Scandinavia as a geographic region only includes Sweden and Norway, the linguistic group differs from the geographical area (as it does for the Uralic languages, which are predominantly spoken very far from the Ural).
@@TheNorwegianSchool Of course it hasn't, but you miss my point. In a sense, our languages are not "scandinavian", they are (north) germanic. Spoken in Denmark, Island and Finland as well as Norway and Sweden. And with other almost as old languages spoken here as well.
Slavic is also aiming at a group of people, not a region.
(Parts of Finland is actually also part of Scandinavia and Skanderna, even after parting with Sweden in 1809, but that's another part of the complexity.)
@@herrbonk3635 You can call them North Germanic languages if you prefer that. These names are pretty arbitrary. As I pointed out before, Uralic languages are barely spoken in Ural and still bear that name. I don't see what's the problem here.
Is it very common for Danes, Norwegians and Swedes to interact with each other? Do your cultures also form a continuum, like languages? Do you watch each others' TV shows, listen to music etc. in all three languages or do most of you rather stick to your own cultures?
It's relatively common to interact. The Scandinavian countries have had close ties to each other for a long time.
@@TheNorwegianSchool Yes, especially after Denmark and Sweden stopped constantly fighting, more than two centuries ago.
Short answer. Yes. - We interact with each other alot, we all consider each other as family, because of our herritage and shared history (we are god damn proud to be vikings lol). We also go on vacations alot between ourselves. We also watch each others TV shows, all the time, and listen to each others music to some degree, if it gets popular enough (lyrics can get washed out a great deal, so can be hard to understand). Our languages are mutually intelligable, but ofc there are differences and dialects can make it harder to understand. In recent time, there has been a shift towards english speaking entertainment tho, and we all speak english so well by now, that like, maybe 50%ish of ppl (mostly the younger generation) dont even bother try to speak scandinavian to each other anymore, and just defaults to english instead, which is a shame... If u tell someone to slow down, because u have a hard time understanding it, it will usually result in us understanding each other still.. But its just much easier to do it in english in the end, because its just "easier" (and faster). Im a Dane and obviously the odd one of the three, as norwegians and swedes dont have much trouble understanding each other, while we are bordering Germany, and have developed somewhat broken form of scandinavian, and we get friendly mocked for that. Norwegians and Swedes tend to say our language sounds like "a strangeled goose" or "someone speaking with a potato in their mouth" or something like that. :p Its all friendly banter tho. We would always show up for each other, if any shit hit the fan. Always.
There is only one Scandinavian language but the Swedes don't know how to write it, the Danes don't know how to speak it and the Norwegians can never agree how it should be written or spoken.
Immaculate 🤌
Thank you!
I heard that Norwegian is the most accessible for German native speakers (in comparison to Swedish and Danish). Would you agree?
I wouldn't say that, I think Swedish and Norwegian are on par.
@@TheNorwegianSchool Thank you :) Takk for ditt svar.