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

Orang wrote:
"Not true. Unfortunately Landsmaal-Nynorsk is based preponderantly on the dialects of Western Norway. It's quite impossible to create a written language based on all Norwegian dialects. They are too varied for that."

The relationship between the written standard language and the spoken dialects is rather abstract, it is not a one to one correspondence. The main reason people believe Nynorsk is based on western dialects is probably that that is where it is mostly written, and so one falsely assumes this must mean something. Actually, someone once suggested that the dialect closest to standard nynorsk is the one from Senja in Nothern Norway.

Wikipedia has more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nynorsk

"It makes so much sense now to learn Swedish...considering the fact that it's a more or less codified language as opposed to Norwegian..."

Is this correct? Do most Swedes speak something close to "Standard" Swedish? Or is that only the case in certain cities/regions?

<< Is this correct? Do most Swedes speak something close to "Standard" Swedish? Or is that only the case in certain cities/regions? >>

That's correct. Most Swedes speak something close to Rikssvenska, the only differences being mostly in pronunciations.

In Norwegian, most people speak more or less "dialect", with basic words such as:
I
you (plural)
what
who
how
why
etc.
differing from the written language (Bokmaal)

Not to mention the different "grammars", and of course pronunciation.

<< Do most Swedes speak something close to "Standard" Swedish? >>

-- Yes. There are regional accents, various ways to pronounce the 'r's and the highly distinctive 'sj'-sound, but all in all Swedish is more unified and consistent than English is in Britain of French in France.
The Dalecarlia region has some unique archaic dialects but people never mix them with standard Swedish.

Some tricky local pronounciations are sometimes heard in the South, in Scania (reminiscent of Danish with heavy diphtonguations) and on Gotland, that's all.

If you want to study norwegian just pick a course you like.
My guess is that all courses is based on "bokmål" and eastern dialect.
Everyone understand "bokmål" in the cities, big and small.

You speak Swedish,all Swedes understand
You speak Norwegian, not all norwegians understand because it decides u speak nynorsk or bokmal

If you learn Swedish, not only Swedes but also all Norwegians understand what u are talking about because Scandinavian languages are mutually intelligible for them.

<< You speak Norwegian, not all norwegians understand because it decides u speak nynorsk or bokmal >>

I think it's the other way around. Even if you learn perfect Bokmaal, chances are that you still won't understand the great majority of Norwegians who live outside of Southeastern Norway. Although you generally don't need a long time to get used to other dialects.



<< Some tricky local pronounciations are sometimes heard in the South, in Scania (reminiscent of Danish with heavy diphtonguations) and on Gotland, that's all. >>

You're right, some Scanian accents are awfully hard to understand. But even there you'll notice that they actually speak more or less Rikssvenska, only with extremely different pronunciation.
I've never heard any Gotland accent, whereas you keep on hearing Scanian accent from time to time. Over a million Swedes have a Scanian accent and it is relatively prominent.