Re: Scandinavian languages (was: Re: anti-Sanskritism and more)

Isidora Zamora scripsit:

> I'll leave it up to the Scandinavians on the list to give you the
> definitive answer on this one, since Danish is my second language.  When I
> have tried to read Norwegian, it has gone reasonably well.  When I have
> tried to read Swedish, it has not gone nearly so well.  I have had very
> little aural exposure to either language.
You'd have some trouble adjusting, but not as much trouble as people who
only speak Norwegian or Swedish (probably as L2) would have adjusting
to Danish.  Historically, Danish pronounced Norwegian style was the
official language of Norway until the beginning of the 20th century,
and even now the main written norm hasn't drifted that far from Danish.
(There is a second written norm based on a fusion of Norwegian dialects).

In general, Swedes and Norwegians know which words each other are saying,
but may misunderstand due to different semantics; Danes use words with
the same semantics as Norwegians, but pronounce them very differently.
"Norwegian is Danish spoken in Swedish", in a word.

--
John Cowan  jcowan@reutershealth.com  www.reutershealth.com  www.ccil.org/~cowan
Big as a house, much bigger than a house, it looked to [Sam], a grey-clad
moving hill.  Fear and wonder, maybe, enlarged him in the hobbit's eyes,
but the Mumak of Harad was indeed a beast of vast bulk, and the like of him
does not walk now in Middle-earth; his kin that live still in latter days are
but memories of his girth and his majesty.  --"Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit"