Swedish or Norweigen?? CAN'T DECIDE!!!

So I want to learn a Scandinavian language and I've ruled out Danish from the list (due to it's very strange and hard pronunciation which I don't think I can ever master). So it's down to Swedish or Norwegian.

Swedish:
It sounds awesome and I've heard so much about Sweden from my friends. However I heard that even though language is easy to some extent, spoken Swedish is whole another ball game and can be quite hard as the words tend to flow like a song without a pause. Also apparently a lot of the words, when spoken fast, are literally shortened or abridged which sounds a bit discouraging for a learner. I want to know if it's possible for foreigners to master this language (not just written but also the spoken part with the right tones and so on). If so, how long would it take to master this language? (I do have an intermediate knowledge of German and I speak Spanish, Czech and Hindi).

Norwegian:
Nothing beats the Norwegian Fjords. I would love to learn this language too (mainly for academic purposes). But the whole dialect dilemma is just crazy. Is Norwegian harder than Swedish? in terms of grammar? pronunciation? and is spoken Norwegian more comprehensible than Swedish? (I heard that Norwegian has more clear sounds and are easier to master but I'm not sure how true is this). How long would it take to master such a langauge and which dialect specifically? (Bokmål or Nynorsk)? Which one is necessary in order for students to study in a Norwegian university (in Norwegian for eg. medicine)??

Thank you for you help...
Ciao
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I find Norwegian more pleasant. Swedish sounds a bit too Slavic for my taste (a bit Redneckish, don't like it)

I also find Norwegian sound much more pleasant.

You said yourself that in spoken Swedish, many words are shortened so that in the end understanding spoken Swedish is more or less quite as hard as understanding the different dialects of Norwegian.

I guess the complication in Norwegian is that the written language has numerous, rather minor, variations. Even though this might be confusing for a learner, many see in it a certain degree of freedom practically absent in written Swedish, which is more codified.

I suppose there's also Icelandic.

For something completely different, don't leave out Finnish.

Norwegian is difficult because of the instabile orthography. You have to learn lots of variants for one word. One single sentence can be written in a huge variaty of possibilities.

I once heard two girls talking to each other somewhere in a university. I asked them about the language they used, an it was Swedish. It sounded wonderful.

Do also consider literature, e.g. the Moomins by Tove Jansson, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moomins.

Sorry, use that link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moomins

<<It sounded wonderful.>>

Did it really? or were they just hot?

Norwegian is the best gateway to Scandinavia (its written forms are extremely similar to Danish, and when spoken it sounds in such a way that the Swedes understand it with much more ease than Danish), *BUT* you shall choose Swedish.
Because:
- Twice as many speakers than in Norway,
- A regional language status (most people in Helsingfors/Helsinki as well as in Copenhagen are familiar with it),
- Great literature, great poetry, great cinema,
- Sweden is (along with Germany, France, England, Russia, Italy) amongst the major European cultures. It's the smallest of the big cultures of Europe (while Poland is the biggest of the small ones).
- Swedish soesn't sound just as musical as Norwegian, but still it really sounds wonderful.
- It's not difficult.

There's plenty of weird and unique sounds like the 'u' whose pronunciation depends of the consonants around (not to be confused with 'y' that sounds like German 'ü' of French 'u'), and the amazing 'sj-'sound. Ask a Swede to pronounce "777" ("sju hundra och sjuttiosju") and you'll hear what I mean.

Spelling is not as simple as in German or Spanish, many final consonants are silent, but this happens generally with the most common words (it's not as complicated as French).

Thanks for the reply Parisien...Swedish seems to have several advantages over Norwegian. Although I hear that mastering the Swedish tons is much harder than mastering the Norwegian tones (which are much more distinct and clear). Furthermore I heard that spoken Swedish is very hard to understand as opposed to spoken Norwegian (again due to the tones and the fact that in Norwegian, the words don't overlap quite as much; in Swedish they overlap with each other, making it sound like it's one word when it's two.)

But nevertheless, the fact that Swedish is a more or less a codified language makes it a bit easier to learn I guess (as you can adhere to the strict rules of the language as opposed to Norwegian where you have to familiarize yourself with the different types of dialects and variants....and that just sounds too overwhelming!).

Regarding the learning material, which text/audio do you suggest I use as a beginner? I actually did do a bit of Swedish (and I'm aware of the two tones which sound beautiful!!!) already before and I have an intermediate knowledge of German. I learned this from three site I found online but I also want to use a good textbook with an audio CD or something.

Thank you for your opinion on what to learn.......

<<Great literature, great poetry, great cinema,>>

I'm sorry but I've never heard of a great Scandinavian film or book, so unless you can give me concrete examples I will have to consider you a horrendous fraud.

Six Swedes have gotten the Nobel Prize in Literature, three from Denmark, and three from Norway.

What about Hans Christian Anderson or Soeren Kierkegaard?
Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder is read by millions of American students every year. Pippi Longstocking is also very popular around the world.

Someone else chime in, outside of what I read in school, my familiarity with the fiction genre is pretty much limited to American and British authors... Because I speak English...

Morten Harket alone is enough reason to learn Norwegian... ;)

English is the best language. If you already know it, there's no need to learn another.

Norwegian literature is in fact more famous than the Swedish one. Ibsen is a writer known even by the people that know nothing, zip, nada about Norway.

<<Norwegian literature is in fact more famous than the Swedish one. Ibsen is a writer known even by the people that know nothing, zip, nada about Norway.>>

Very true; Knut Hamsun has been called "the father of modern literature."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knut_Hamsun

And art & music: Edvard Munch, anyone? Edvard Grieg? I am hard pressed to find as many famous Swedes, and they have twice as many people in their population as Norwegians, so per capita, the Norwegians seem to be doing all right...

Sports: Knute Rockne