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How do you all understand one another

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Pellaken

Pellaken

TheNewTeddy
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Mar 24, 2009
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Skall! Or something.

This is probably a very stupid question, but,
how do you all understand one another.

I don't mean like how does Johan understand Fredrick, but how does some random from Vaxjo understand some random from Trondheim and how do they understand some random from Aarhus?

Are the languages that close to one another? And if they are (here comes the stupid question bit) how do you know they are actually different languages?
 
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Not a stupid question at all. The three languages are very similar, probably because we've shared common borders throughout history. The Kalmar Union existed between 1397 and 1523. After that, Norway was a Danish province until 1814. Following the Napoleonic wars, Norway became a Swedish puppet, lasting until 1905.

The languages are very close indeed. However, there are differences which linguistics could explain better than I can. I can tell you the differences from a Norwegian's perspective.

In written language, Danish and Norwegian are extremely similiar. More so than Norwegian and Swedish or Swedish and Danish. Norway and Denmark shared a common written language throughout the long union which lasted 400 years. Modern Norwegian has merely evolved from that. Our constitution (1814) is written in Danish, for the most part.

In spoken language, Norwegian has more in common with Swedish. I'm not sure how to explain it. Perhaps we have the same "tone" or "flow". The danes (as we put it) appear to have a "potato stuck in their throates".

We know they are different languages because the differences are very distinct. They can't be compared to English/American English for instance- the differences are way bigger. Yet they are at the same time very similiar, just not identical. I have an easier time understanding written Danish than speaking to a Dane directly. When I've been in Denmark, and I talk to the locals, I often nod my head pretending to understand everything.
 
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I'd like to add that there are greater differences within the languages than between them. For example, as a Norwegian I might have an easier time understanding a Swede than a person from some part of Norway with a certain dialect. Many dialects even have different grammar and sentence structures.

I have heard it said that "a language is a dialect with its own army and navy", or in other words, that the main reason we speak of Norwegian, Swedish and Danish as separate languages, and their variations as dialects, is that the borders happen to run where they do. I sometimes just say I speak Scandinavian when people ask ;) .
 
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They are all descended from Old Norse, they sound and spell differently but most words are the same.
 
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As I don't speak any of these three languages, the danish is the most distinct of the three. It's the one with the german accent.
 
As the other guys have said, we share a common history, in unions and wars and soforth .
As I can tell Danish is more influenced by German / Plattdeutsch(low saxon) while Sweden (and Norway in particual) is influenced by Danish (from old norse) - And as a wild card Island being the closest thing to the old northern language.
 
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Why is this not considered a single language. Even English has different words and pronunciations: lift/elevator flat/apartment etc
 
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Emilir said:
As the other guys have said, we share a common history, in unions and wars and soforth .
As I can tell Danish is more influenced by German / Plattdeutsch(low saxon) while Sweden (and Norway in particual) is influenced by Danish (from old norse) - And as a wild card Island being the closest thing to the old northern language.
Click to expand...

Old norse was spoken by all 3 countries, then they developed accents.

Norway-Iceland-Shetland-Faroese spoke old west norse dialect, while Sweden-Denmark spoke old east norse.
 
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Nickjbor said:
Why is this not considered a single language. Even English has different words and pronunciations: lift/elevator flat/apartment etc
Click to expand...

The reason you ask that question is simply because the world is becoming smaller.

A Norwegian and Swede speaks the same language, a Swede and a Japanese does not. When the world was smaller, the differences between peoples were larger.
 
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Nickjbor said:
Why is this not considered a single language. Even English has different words and pronunciations: lift/elevator flat/apartment etc
Click to expand...
Because nationalism and politics.
 
Jag menar inte hur Johan förstår Fredrick, utan hur en någon slumpmässig från Växsjö förstår någon slumpmässig från Trondheim och hur de förstår någon slumpmässig från Aarhus?
Click to expand...
Swedish
Jeg mener ikke ligesom hvordan Johan forstå Fredrick, men hvordan nogle tilfældige fra Växjö forstå nogle tilfældige fra Trondheim og hvordan de forstår nogle tilfældige fra Århus?
Click to expand...
Danish
Jeg mener ikke liker hvordan Johan forstå Fredrick, men hvordan noen tilfeldige fra Växjö forstå noen tilfeldig fra Trondheim, og hvordan de forstår noen tilfeldige fra Aarhus?
Click to expand...
Norwegian
 
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hitchens said:
If I was your teacher, you would get a F-simply for using google translate. Kinda like using wikipedia as a source ;)
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I don't speak Norwegian, you can translate the sentance and then I can properly translate the Swedish one.

Proper translation
Jag menar inte hur Johan förstår Fredrick, utan hur en någon slumpmässig från Växsjö förstår någon slumpmässig från Trondheim och hur de förstår någon slumpmässig från Aarhus?
Click to expand...
 
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Nickjbor said:
Why is this not considered a single language. Even English has different words and pronunciations: lift/elevator flat/apartment etc
Click to expand...

Danish, Norweigan, Swedish and to some extent Icelandic aren't the only mutually intelligble "languages" within the cathegory, it's just that the other languages aren't considered languages but dialects: Älvdalsmål, Gutniska, Nynorsk, the Själland Jylland divide and so forth.
 
If the PM of Norway and the PM of Sweden have a joint press conference, do they just both speak their own language?
 
Nickjbor said:
If the PM of Norway and the PM of Sweden have a joint press conference, do they just both speak their own language?
Click to expand...
They should, yes.
 
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RB33 said:
They should, yes.
Click to expand...
So, if they, for example, were at a meeting in Denmark at the time...

Could a Danish journalist, ask a question in Danish... and the Swedish PM answer in Swedish, and the Norwegian PM answer in Norwegian...
and most importantly....
people from all 3 countries would not consider this weird in any way?
 
Nickjbor said:
So, if they, for example, were at a meeting in Denmark at the time...

Could a Danish journalist, ask a question in Danish... and the Swedish PM answer in Swedish, and the Norwegian PM answer in Norwegian...
and most importantly....
people from all 3 countries would not consider this weird in any way?
Click to expand...
Yes, if they can understand each other.
 
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Nothing weird about it Nick.
 
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