learning Swedish or Norwegian
I am interested in learning Swedish or Norwegian. I am leading toward Swedish, since there is so much more material available, has a much bigger population, has more films produced (like Bergman's), etc. The pronunciation and orthography also seem clearer to me. The main argument for Norwegian seems to be that learning it makes it is easier to understand Swedish and Danish.
A few questions: Does anyone out there (especially English speakers) have any experience learning either one?
Was it relatively easy, or were there some difficult points?
Were there authors you particularly liked?
Any recommendations for Internet resources?
Thanks.
as I know that Norwegian had been about more than a century under Sweden rein, so it is precisely Norwegian to become many words from Swedish and not on the contrary and that's why these languages have much in common. that's why learning Swedish you can understand more things in Norwegian, than if you learn Norwegian and try to understand Norwegian.
I don't like the way Swedish sounds. It sounds a bit countrylike/redneckish. Norwegian has clearer sounds, almost like English.
Swedish pronunciation is, in my experience, a little bit more complicated, but I suppose it all depends. Essentially the languages are very similar and in picking up one you're probably 75% of the way in picking up the other. If you'd rather learn Norwegian, go for Norwegian. There's more materials for Swedish but it's not difficult to find Norwegian materials. It does have three genders, but if you've studied German or any Slavic language then you're ready for that. Either of them would be relatively easy for an English speaker.
An interesting thing about Norwegian is its diversity both in written and spoken variants.
There is a certain spectrum of words and grammatical construction you can choose from.
On the other hand, Swedish has a pretty codified written language and a certain pronunciation standard, even though I think Norwegian pronunciation with all its variations is generally still easier than Swedish, IMO at least.
Good luck on whichever you decide to learn!
i think there is also a danger to mix up Swedish and Norwegian words if you learn both of them. the same thing was with me when i after having learned Dutch started to learn Swedish. Dutch and Swedish are not that similar as Swedish and Norwegian but despite i used to use some Dutch words speaking Swedish, and some Swedish words speaking Dutch. so there is a real danger if you start to learn both of Swedish and Norwegian or even one and after some time another...
I think that there's always a little of mixing up similar languages when you're learning another one. I started on Norwegian being fluent in English and German and also having had several years of Latin. All that background helped...
I've started looking into Dutch a bit and I keep getting mixed up with German. I think this is a common mistake, though.
"I've started looking into Dutch a bit and I keep getting mixed up with German. "
hehehehe! When I took German lessons for 2 years my teacher always used to say "Nederlands is geen duits"!! :D
Is it true that Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish are all similar, also in terms of difficulty?
When looking back, I must admit though that German has more grammatical terms that I must remember than English. I don't think declensions are that difficult (syntax and meaning ARE), but I do learn much faster with English and French...
I lean toward Norwegian for its position as the "middle language". If you have both English and German in your pocket already, I doubt that either will be very difficult.
By the way, what is everybody's suggestion for Norwegian/Swedish materials? Right now I'm using a book called "Vi ses igen" published by Kirjahtymä. This book is interesting because it's a Swedish textbook for Finnish speakers which I got from an old Finnish school in Japan.
Näkemiin!!
"Is it true that Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish are all similar, also in terms of difficulty?"
well, i can't say about about Danish and Norwegian i just know them a bit, but i can say about languages that i can speak. in my opinion Dutch is much easier than Swedish in grammar things. in Dutch for ex you don't have to change adjectives in every case, using their plural, neutra etc forms that often with all these endings, it is easier to memorise plural form of nouns... not like 4 form in Swedish... 'flicka-flickan-flickor-flickorna' and also these supin forms in Swedish are really difficult to memorise. also at the very beginning that was really difficult for me to say Swedish sentences with 'inte' i always mixed up where i have to say it, but there aren't such difficulties in Dutch with the word 'niet'. so i think Dutch is much easier with grammar.
Tack saa mycket, carrier!