Swedish language group

[Sc0ut]

Ha, that's interesting. I have no experience with Norwegian. I'm listening to some Norwegian radio right now. To my untrained ear it sounds about as jolly as Swedish, but I'm sure the universal human need to poke fun at your neighbours make the differences appear super obvious to Swedes

[Divra]

... but I'm sure the universal human need to poke fun at your neighbours make the differences appear super obvious to Swedes

In my experience, the Norwegians can take a joke and give as good as they get, so it's all good.

[Laufey]

In my experience, the Norwegians can take a joke and give as good as they get, so it's all good.

It's basically the Nordics' shared national sport to make fun of each other.

For me, this is how the languages sound like:

Finnish: the only normal ones.
Icelandic: almost normal, but are they angry all the time?
Swedish: they're not talking, they're singing. And they do it a LOT.
(Skåne dialect: wat.)
Norwegian: ...at least they aren't singing, but I think they're disappointed with me.
Danish: are you ok?
Faroese: uh, I thiiiink I kind of sort of get what you mean but you did WHAT to a WHAT?

[kjeks]

it took me some time tu get pronounciation right, but with german in mind it makes sense to me which letters combine to what sound. This is for passive pronounciation (all in my mind). My mouth cannot handle it that well, but this is because I have not trained enough.


and thanks laufey XD

[Sc0ut]

It's basically the Nordics' shared national sport to make fun of each other.

For me, this is how the languages sound like:

Finnish: the only normal ones.
Icelandic: almost normal, but are they angry all the time?
Swedish: they're not talking, they're singing. And they do it a LOT.
(Skåne dialect: wat.)
Norwegian: ...at least they aren't singing, but I think they're disappointed with me.
Danish: are you ok?
Faroese: uh, I thiiiink I kind of sort of get what you mean but you did WHAT to a WHAT?

This is great! I was aware of this friendly rivalry between the Nordics from reading SATW, and it's always fun to find out new aspects of it. I wish we could get a person from each nation to comment with their opinion on the other languages

[Solovei]

Ha, that's interesting. I have no experience with Norwegian. I'm listening to some Norwegian radio right now. To my untrained ear it sounds about as jolly as Swedish, but I'm sure the universal human need to poke fun at your neighbours make the differences appear super obvious to Swedes

I once spent about 20 minutes watching a Norwegian TV drama fully convinced that it was swedish.

[Cat Is in the Moon]

I must also admit that riksvenska is extremely difficult for me to understand despite having studied Swedish for such a long time. XD Like finlandssvenska - yeah sure I can hold a conversation and pretty much understand the stuff, but if I go to Sweden... I mean the two are actually really different. XD Well last time I understood nothing they said, we'll see what happens this time... XD

[Armchair Survivalist]

I must also admit that riksvenska is extremely difficult for me to understand despite having studied Swedish for such a long time. XD Like finlandssvenska - yeah sure I can hold a conversation and pretty much understand the stuff, but if I go to Sweden... I mean the two are actually really different. XD Well last time I understood nothing they said, we'll see what happens this time... XD

Er... If you have studied Swedish, and don't understand rikssvenska, there must be something wrong. I mean, it's like saying that you've studied English, but doesn't understand standard English. I can understand that dialects like finlandssvenska can be a bit hard for non-native speakers to understand fully, though.

[AquaAurion]

I must also admit that riksvenska is extremely difficult for me to understand despite having studied Swedish for such a long time. XD Like finlandssvenska - yeah sure I can hold a conversation and pretty much understand the stuff, but if I go to Sweden... I mean the two are actually really different. XD Well last time I understood nothing they said, we'll see what happens this time... XD

I'm with Armchair Survivalist here, it sounds really strange. Rikssvenska is the one thing you'd be expected to understand if you've studied Swedish =\

[Laufey]

Er... If you have studied Swedish, and don't understand rikssvenska, there must be something wrong. I mean, it's like saying that you've studied English, but doesn't understand standard English. I can understand that dialects like finlandssvenska can be a bit hard for non-native speakers to understand fully, though.

I'm with Armchair Survivalist here, it sounds really strange. Rikssvenska is the one thing you'd be expected to understand if you've studied Swedish =\

There's a logical reason behind this though: rikssvenska and finsk-svenska are almost identical in written form, and in Finland it's finsk-svenska that's demanded (for obvious reasons) so that's the only one we're taught to listen to. The two are pronounced so differently that you could drop a fully fluent Finnish-Swedish speaker to Stockholm and they'd just feel very confused for a day or two before the ear would start getting used to what sounds now mean what. Most of us - myself included - don't speak Swedish fluently though, so for us it would be even harder to train the ear to a whole new and entirely different pronunciation of the same language.

[AquaAurion]

There's a logical reason behind this though: rikssvenska and finsk-svenska are almost identical in written form, and in Finland it's finsk-svenska that's demanded (for obvious reasons) so that's the only one we're taught to listen to. The two are pronounced so differently that you could drop a fully fluent Finnish-Swedish speaker to Stockholm and they'd just feel very confused for a day or two before the ear would start getting used to what sounds now mean what. Most of us - myself included - don't speak Swedish fluently though, so for us it would be even harder to train the ear to a whole new and entirely different pronunciation of the same language.

I seem to have misread the comment my interpretation was that both rikssvenska and finlandssvenska were difficult to understand.

[Pessi]

you could drop a fully fluent Finnish-Swedish speaker to Stockholm and they'd just feel very confused for a day or two before the ear would start getting used to what sounds now mean what.

Especially since Swedes (at least in Stockholm) are very much like Finns (at least in the metropol area) in switching quickly to English if they realise someone has difficulties with speaking and understanding their language. I've found there's no point in trying to get along with my rusty school Swedish there since everyone will aswer me in English anyway.

[fluffernutters]

This is great! I was aware of this friendly rivalry between the Nordics from reading SATW, and it's always fun to find out new aspects of it. I wish we could get a person from each nation to comment with their opinion on the other languages

I'll represent the swedes then (or at least attempt to, haha)

Swedish: Obviously the only normal language. People think it's melodic, I can't hear it! D:
Norwegian: They're like a younger brother to us. We'll make bad jokes about them, they make bad jokes about us, but in a bad situation (read Breivik) WE SMOTHER THEM WITH LOVE. They speak a bit funny, they often use words that feels a bit "old" in swedish, in the same way that saying father seems a bit old when you're used to saying dad. They always sound happy. It's very easy to understand norwegian for a swede.
Danish: If Norway is a younger brother, Danish is the constantly drunk uncle. The joke is that if you get a swede drunk enough, they'll start speaking danish (this is at least true for swedes with heavy Scanian accents, I've seen it happen). Most swedes can read danish, but I think only half the swedes I know understand spoken danish, and the other half pretends to be tourists from an english-speaking country.
Finnish: Who came up with this?? Not even a chance of understanding. This video pretty much sums up finnish for me:

/>Finlandssvenska: It's sooooo nice to listen to. Talk about people who sound like they have no worries in the world at all. Like, it comes through so strong even in english:

/>Icelandic: Don't really have much to say. It sounds a bit like finnish!
Faroese: Sounds like a mix between finnish and danish. Hm. Hadn't really heard it until I googled it now.

Would be interesting to hear what other scandinavian people think.

[Laufey]

Finnish: Who came up with this?? Not even a chance of understanding. This video pretty much sums up finnish for me:

/>

That's the most accurate representation of Finnish drinking I've ever seen... if he was pulling that act somewhere in Finland I'd think he was some local dude, just drunk.

[Cat Is in the Moon]

But yes. Jag förstår finlandssvenska bra, men riksvenska är mycket svårare för mig att förstå. Finlandsvenska has all these pronounciation diffrences to riksvenska, and it's also much closer to finnish in it's pronounciation, so for a finn finlandssvenska is much easier to understand, especially since that's what we are mainly taught at schools.
 My mom explained that once when she worked in Sweden for a while it took her a month to get used to the Swedish way of speaking Swedish, and she was always really good at Swedish...

I'm babbling again, ain't I?