Norwegian-Swedish-Danish: The Same

Tiffany   Tue Aug 22, 2006 4:52 pm GMT
<<Can't u see Americans translate "British books"?>>

Are the differences between Norwegian, Swedish and Danish really as small as differences between Bre and AmE, then? By the way, I am laughing at the idea that I would not be able to read text written by a British person and would need translation. Indeed there are British posters here too, and as an American I have never had any trouble reading their postings. Please don't try to tell me they have editors that translate before they post! The only things I might stumble on are expressions, and those seem to be few and far in between as I can't remember many.
Arthur   Tue Aug 22, 2006 5:13 pm GMT
Hi Tiffany,

The differences among the three Scandinavian languages are by far much bigger than those between AmE and BrE:

1) different use of auxiliary verbs
2) differences in the gender of some cognates
3) several false cognates
4) big differences in ortography, especially No/Dk vs. Se
5) different declension rules
6) big differences between No/Se vs. Dk pronounciation
7) different verbal periphrastic constructions
Fredrik from Norway   Wed Aug 23, 2006 4:07 pm GMT
Arthur:
Yes, the -or plural for weak feminine nouns is a direct descendant of the
-ur ending for the same nouns in Norse/Icelandic. According to my Norwegian language history book, the dialect of Western Telemark (vesttelemål) is one of the few if not the only dialect that has preserved it in modern Norwegian.
Old Norse: vísa - vísur
Vesttelemål: visa - visor
Archaïc Landsmål: visa - visor
Modern Nynorsk: visa - viser
Swedish - visa - visor?
English: ballad - ballads
The -or ending is a direct descendant of Old Norse also in the case of pronounciation. As you know -or in modern Norwegian and Swedish corresponds to Old Norse -ur, both pronounced as /ur/.

sino:
You can see plenty of books in Danish and Swedish in Norway, indeed at university you are supposed to be able to read texts in both Danish, Swedish and English without any problems. If there is a good manual or textbook in Danish or Swedish and it is not available in Norwegian, university teachers will not hesitate to put it onto your curriculum.
The large amount of Danish and Swedish fiction books which you find in book shops is often translated though, because for people not used to reading these languages it can be a bit exhausting. I admit myself that for me as a southwestern Norwegian, I find it a bit exhausting to read long texts in Swedish, whereas written Danish is super-easy. Eastern Norwegians are more familiar with Swedish (they used to and still watch much Swedish TV), while on the South Coast we understand Danish better than them.

Guest:
Your transition rules are correct, but I would like to point out that while the infinitie verb ends with -e in Norwegian Bokmål, both -a and -e are used in Nynorsk and many Norwegian dialects, either exclusively or combined. I just wanted to point that out in order to show that Norwegian truly is the language in the middle!

And Arthur's list of the differences between the three languages is very good. While the differences between Norwegian and Swedish pronounciation, and Norwegian Bokmål and written Danish might not be any bigger than the differences between spoken American and British English, the overall differences are more like English and Scots, I suppose.
Joey   Wed Aug 23, 2006 10:52 pm GMT
If you look at the history of these three countries you find nearly constant wars and trying to force there will on each other, but now they are at peace and have a good relationship between themselfs.
Even though if the Scandanavian countries realy wanted to they could amalgamate the three languages into one but this would bring all this history back.
It's better to be different but the same as it is now
JR   Thu Aug 24, 2006 1:14 am GMT
Well I have heard that sometimes (if not usually) the dialects of Norwegian and Sweedish are closer to the ones across the border than to others in the same country. I do not know to what extent this is true, if so, then it is certainly possible to join the three languages, but pollitical divisions will probably keep the languages separate.
Fredrik from Norway   Thu Aug 24, 2006 3:01 pm GMT
JR:
To a certain extent true. When you hear a guy from the Swedish border province of Värmland speak in Värmland dialect it sounds as if he is a Norwegian speaking Swedish with Norwegian intonation!
Travis   Thu Aug 24, 2006 3:41 pm GMT
I myself would favor the interpretation that (Standard) Danish, (Standard) Swedish, Bokmål, and Nynorsk should not be treated as "languages", but rather as standard varieties within a greater Scandinavian dialect continuum. These standard varieties are close enough together that the only claim that can be made so as to support treating them as standards of separate languages is sociopolitical, rather than linguistic, in nature. However, I would also not speak of a single Scandinavian language either, as the variation between Scandinavian dialects is too great too justifying it as a single unitary language. The variation between Scandinavian dialects is far greater than that between Scandinavian standard varieties, one must remember; for example, it is hard to speak of things such as Dalska and Synnejysk (Sønderjysk in Standard Danish), or even just Dalska and Standard Swedish, as being merely dialects of one single language.
bodil   Sun Sep 10, 2006 3:23 am GMT
good website,but could you please write danish and then translate it but besides that your website rocks !
Arthur   Thu Sep 14, 2006 3:16 pm GMT
Is this correct?.... what does the segment (... de hvide ville de vilde) mean? ... the whites wanted the wilds?, if so, it doesn't make much sense to me.....

Da de hvide kom til de vilde, ville de vilde vide, hvad de hvide ville de vilde; men de hvide ville ikke lade de vilde vide, hvad de hvide ville de vilde, for de hvide vidste, at hvis de vilde vidste, hvad de hvide ville de vilde, ville de vilde ikke lade de hvide vide, hvad de vilde vidste, for de hvide ville jo vide, om de vilde vidste, at guldet var værdifuldt.
Fredrik from Norway   Fri Sep 15, 2006 2:59 pm GMT
Since Travis mentioned Sønderjysk, I might just add that I have read about a very strange linguistical situation in South Jutland in present Denmark. Traditionally, everybody in the area spoke Sønderjysk in informal situations, also the people who identified themselves nationally Germans during the German period 1864-1920. Those people who defined themselves as Danish thought it very odd that the others claimed to be Germans when they in fact spoke a Danish dialect at home. On the other hand the self-proclaimed Germans thought that you were not necessarily a Dane just because you spoke a Danish dialect at home.

Appearently this still goes on, with the German minority in South Jutland ("hjemmetyskerne") speaking Sønderjysk at home, while they officially are a German minority!
Paul from Denmark   Sun Sep 17, 2006 10:18 pm GMT
Hi... uhum.. i think this webside is kinda interresting :P

Hmm lets see... i have met alot of people both from Norway and Sweden..
And we Danish always thinks that they sing when they talk....And they think that Danish Rap when we talk... specially when i ask a swedish or a norwegian how we talk... Some others just say that we have a potato in the mouth..... Well its sounds like a patato when we use The "D" or Dobble "D" Example "Jeg hedder Paul" /My name is Paul...While on Swedish ...."Jag hetter Paul" or something... it is kinda funny... :P

And the Ø... Not only Norwegian use it, Danish use it alot too!...
Å and Æ too as well...


....

Danish = Kneppe
Swedish= Knulla
Norwegian = knulla

>_< lol

Posted because i was borred >_< :P
Unkown guest   Mon Sep 18, 2006 1:48 pm GMT
Danish (dansk)
Danish is a North Germanic language with around 5.5 million speakers mainly in Denmark, but also in Greenland, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Canada, the UAE and the USA. Danish was the official language of Norway until about 1830 and of Iceland until 1944. Danish is now the first foreign language learnt in Iceland.

During the Middle Ages, Danish was heavily influenced by Low German dialects, while during the 17th century Danish absorbed many French loanwords and from the 19th century onwards, many English words have been taken into Danish.

The first written work of Danish literature was Gesta Danorum (History of the Danes) written in Latin in about 1200 by Saxo Grammaticus. This recounts the history of Denmark up to 1186 and includes Danish versions (in a somewhat Christianized form) of Scandinavian myths and sagas, including the earliest version of the Hamlet story.
Fredrik fra Norge   Mon Sep 18, 2006 3:06 pm GMT
Paul:
Den lyd du forsøgte at beskrive er ð-lyden.
Paul from Denmark   Tue Sep 19, 2006 10:21 am GMT
Det er det sikkert :P >_<
Hva det så end er xD
Fredrik fra Norge   Thu Sep 21, 2006 3:01 pm GMT
Gad vide hvem Unknown Guest henvændte sig til med den information om dansk?