Best Scandanavian language to learn
I'd like to branch out further into the field of Germanic languages. I'm an English native speaker, my German is good and I have a smattering of Dutch. I'd like to add a Scandanavian language to the list. I'm ruling out Finnish as it's non-Germanic and Icelandic as it's quite a remote place.
But I do like to visit Sweden and am tempted to go for Swedish. How mutually intelligible are Swedish, Norwegian and Danish? Is there one of the three that would give me good access to the others?
I don't think they're really that mutually intelligible to be honest. About the same as Spanish and Portuguese, in terms of reading you'll understand 80-90% of the other two depending on which you learn, but in terms of speaking, without formally studying another, you'll be lucky to understand 30-40% unless the speaker talks slowly and tries to talk in a nuetral way.
But ultimately they are not the same language and learning one does not mean you'll understand the other two. If you wanted to learn Portuguese you wouldn't learn Spanish and hope to understand Portuguese, and the same goes for the Scandinavian languages.
It's a hard choice, and I suppose it depends where you see yourself visiting the most. If you already enjoy visiting Sweden, then Swedish would I suppose be a natural choice.
I'd heard that Norwegian is very simplified and relatively easy for English speakers to learn. I like the strange sounds of Danish, but I'm not sure what I'd ever do in Denmark. There must be much more than pigs and Copenhagen, but I just can't imagine what. Apparently Bokmal is heavily Danified, so perhaps Danish would help a lot learning Bokmal afterwards.
Personally, I've just got through two of Stieg Larsson's milennium trilogy and they sell Sweden quite well (apart from the psychopaths and neo-nazis). So right now I'd learn Swedish if I had the opportunity. Apparently the Swedish films of those books are unusually good for the Swedish film industry.
Icelandic is my bet, it has few vowels only those rounded b*****s are difficult/ ø , y/ , some half voiced consonants, but it still make sit easier than the rest
except Icelandic has case declensions!
ICELANDIC:
Engan mann skal hneppa í þrældóm né nauðungarvinnu. Þrælahald og þrælaverzlun, hverju nafni sem nefnist, skulu bönnuð.
FAROESE:
Eingin skal liva í trældómi ella trælkan; trældómur og trælahandil av øllum slag skulu verða bannað.
NORWEGIAN NYNORSK:
Ingen skal haldast i slaveri eller trældom. Slaveri og slavehandel av alle slag er forbode.
NORWEGIAN BOKMAAL:
Ingen må holdes i slaveri eller trelldom. Slaveri og slavehandel i alle former er forbudt.
DANISH:
Ingen må holdes i slaveri eller trældom ; slaveri og slavehandel under alle former skal være forbudt.
SWEDISH:
Ingen får hållas i slaveri eller träldom; slaveri och slavhandel i alla dess former skall vara förbjudna.
http://www.lexilogos.com/declaration/index_english.htm
Go with Swedish! It is the largest Scandinavian language, spoken in Sweden (of course) and throughout Finland and Norway.
<< Go with Swedish! >>
-- Je suis d'accord.
Pour 2 raisons:
. Littérature & cinéma: la Suède a plus à offrir que les autres pays scandinaves réunis,
- Avec le suédois, tu ne comprendras pas ce que disent les Danois, et très mal ce que disent les Norvégiens, mais EUX te comprendront.
Order of superiority of the relatively significant Scandinavian languages:
Swedish (has more finesse than Norwegian and is culturally the most significant one) > Danish (might sound harsh, but technically the language is okay) > Norwegian (too small, standard language is deemed too artificial)
Of all Northern Germanic languages one must also say Icelandic and/or Faroese are the most interesting ones. Sadly, they're small languages and will always stay so.
Problem with Germanic language is that they've already disintegrated a great deal before they were of any significant influence in written form, it would be great to have ONE big Scandinavian language based on some conservative variant.
<<Go with Swedish! It is the largest Scandinavian language, spoken in Sweden (of course) and throughout Finland and Norway. >>
Yes, I think I will give Swedish a bash.
<< it would be great to have ONE big Scandinavian >>
-- Ce serait comme rêver de fondre espagnol, catalan et portugais en un.
Techniquement possible, psychologiquement infaisable (a cause des nationalismes)
-- It would be like dreaming of merging Spanish, Catalan and Portuguese into one.
Technically possible, psychologically unfeasible (because of nationalisms)
Yes, now, after the democratization of the standard languages (everyone finally has become active participators in the written language) and the century-long histories of the languages it has become very hard to do. I'm not looking for that, it needed to happen in the past. For that matter High German and English have done a greater job. Many have learned these languages as a somewhat 'artificial language' in comparison with their 'regional tongue(s)' and they have somewhat been 'perfected' by an elite before the masses started learning them. Scandinavians have had too much isolation and prosperity both combined and lack of Ancient History, factors which play a role in early decentralization.
Anyway, of course even the Scandinavian languages have been 'perfected' artificially, but more than one variant for all low and separate populations (whilst German has swallowed up countless of dialects/regional languages that could be standardized on their turn). Political isolation has contributed to this outcome more than anything else. Nationalism has often deeper roots than that of course, but in its modern form it's usually the result of whether the history was written down or not.
Go for Swedish Yeaaa! ABBA is from Sweden and I'm Gay so I say go SWEDISH!
Swedish is by far the most spoken Scandinavian language, as well as the most useful. When you speak Swedish, you'll find Norwegian very similar, and to lesser extend, Danish.