How do you all understand one another

[chralex]

My best tip for casually learning Swedish as a Dane is to listen to Swedish music, I've listened to all Sabaton's Swedish tracks, and every time I hear them I become better at parsing their voices, e.g. figuring out where words start and stop, its great, and 70% of the words they use are either identical in Danish or are very close to a Danish word. Can someone from Sweden tell me if they are using a particular dialect or the official Swedish language, they seem really understandable when i listen to them.

And my tip also applies to a Swede or Norseman as well if they want to get used to Danish, which entails sacrificing themselves to potato sounds apparently, but I just think it is a excuse for not wanting to learn Danish. It is hardly necessary to learn it though so I can't blame anyone who doesn't want to, I personally just like the idea of a united Scandinavia and I might as well start by getting to know the other languages a bit better. Even though the chances of it happening are becoming even more non-existent for each day that passes by, despite how much sense it would make. That said, I hope you find some music that you like, I really enjoy metal myself and Sweden has got that covered.

An interesting fact that I want to share is that the Danish constitution states that Icelandic people has all the same rights as Danish state citizens, it is therefore not uncommon to see Icelandic students here. I am not sure if they actually learn Danish on Iceland, those that I've met seem to be pretty good at picking it up. I wonder if Norway or Sweden also has something like that in their constitution as well?

As for all the examples that has been in this thread showcasing Swedish and Norwegian grammar, Norwegian is clearly the easiest thing for me to read as a Dane. But milage may vary depending on where in Denmark you're from which is why I brought this funny demographic:

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Spoiler: My results

Ethnicity: Basically Swedes
Dialect: The Queen's Danish
Food: Pork Denmark, but just outside of caviar Danmark by a few pixels.
Hatreds: The Swedes
Civilization: The Civilized World
English Fluency: "Denglish"
Landscape: Endless Farmland
Velfærd: Pays for Velfærd (Welfare)

As said, someone with a different combination might find Swedish easier to understand.

If we were to create a single language at some point and join forces again, I'd personally just strike a deal with the Norwegians by saying "we will vote for your spelling if you vote for our pronunciation", if we combine the population of Norway and Denmark a majority vote could actually make that possible. In that way it will be easier for me at least.

 

[TheDungen]

The sabaton guy has an accent yes but not quite sure what, I would say from the inland somewhere in the north I would guess but not all the way up in norrland because they sound diffrent.
If you go right over the bridge then people will sound very diffrent from how he does.

 

[Bengtssonsan]

I just find it fascinating the Swedish (and the other nordic languages) are more similair to Sanskirt than they are to Finnish.

I know it's a few years late (and maybe you already have learned this) but Finnish is not related to the germanic languages at all. It is in the Finno-Ugric language group, making it a very rare language in Europe. For someone only speaking finnish to understand swedish is like (if we ignore the fact that children in Finland are forced to learn swedish) someone from England understanding Japanese without education in the language.

 

[TheDungen]

I know it's a few years late (and maybe you already have learned this) but Finnish is not related to the germanic languages at all. It is in the Finno-Ugric language group, making it a very rare language in Europe. For someone only speaking finnish to understand swedish is like (if we ignore the fact that children in Finland are forced to learn swedish) someone from England understanding Japanese without education in the language.

Yeah... that was sort of his point.

As for not being related at all, not in the roots perhaps but there is heavy crosspollination between swedish and finnish.

 

[Bengtssonsan]

Yeah... that was sort of his point.

As for not being related at all, not in the roots perhaps but there is heavy crosspollination between swedish and finnish.

That was a fast reply, I didn't even have time to read all the way to the finno-ugric discussion! I have noticed that I am a bit less informed in linguistics than others here, so I had intended to edit or remove my coment. To late for that now

 

[Zanderzon]

I'll be completely honest, as a Swede I can barely understand anything said by both the Danes and the Norwegians. Text goes a bit smoother but I understand german better than either of the languages.

You might argue that dialects could be the same way and I agree. As far as me and a lot of other Swedes are concerned, Skåne, which is the most southern region in Sweden, might as well be a part of Denmark (because Skåne it once was part of Denmark and they've also inherited the Danes' "potato" as some put it.) no offense to the people of Skåne. (Nowadays most people in Skåne and above all in Malmö which is a city in Skåne don't even speak Scandinavian due to the large amount of immigration. These immigrants often but absolutely not always end up there.)

I am honestly boggled as to why someone would make this sub-forum for Scandinavian people as I could barely understand the description or subtitle, or whatever it was. Goodnight

 

[Samilou]

It's a matter of getting used to. Skåne swedish for me now is one of the more understandable accents in the Swedish language outside of Rikssvenska after having been there several times and having had a couple of friends from there. Even Gotland Swedish has become quite easy to understand after I went there on a holiday for a few days last year. Norwegian is slowly getting to me as I have been a good friend of several Norwegians for 5 years now.

 

[Styrbiorn]

I'll be completely honest, as a Swede I can barely understand anything said by both the Danes and the Norwegians. Text goes a bit smoother but I understand german better than either of the languages.

Don’t listen to this fellow: he is either dishonest to himself or know good German. Norwegian is completely intelligible after just being exposed to it for a short time (after a month with Norwegians you understand it about as good as any other dialect) and Danish for maybe double that, due to obvious reasons. The two Norwegian writing languages are about as different from each other as from Swedish. German on the other hand needs to be studied to be understandable.

 

[TheDungen]

Don’t listen to this fellow: he is either dishonest to himself or know good German. Norwegian is completely intelligible after just being exposed to it for a short time (after a month with Norwegians you understand it about as good as any other dialect) and Danish for maybe double that, due to obvious reasons. The two Norwegian writing languages are about as different from each other as from Swedish. German on the other hand needs to be studied to be understandable.

No it really does not. German is easier than Danish. While I after living close to Denmark for almost ten years still don't understand a word of danish. German You pick up easy there are loads of words that are the same and from those you can start guessing the others, also all compound words are the same combinations as in swedish. How are you supposed to learn Danish? you can't hear the difference between two different words. You can at best pick oht what vowel tbe word uses. Heck I find Dutch is more intuitive than danish.

 

[Sleepyhead]

No it really does not. German is easier than Danish. While I after living close to Denmark for almost ten years still don't understand a word of danish. German You pick up easy there are loads of words that are the same and from those you can start guessing the others, also all compound words are the same combinations as in swedish. How are you supposed to learn Danish? you can't hear the difference between two different words. You can at best pick oht what vowel tbe word uses. Heck I find Dutch is more intuitive than danish.

Question, is Swedish the native tongue of your parents? The Swedes I know who struggle with Danish typically are X generation immigrants who do not have a strong enough Nordic vocabulary with them from home.

Danish is mutually intelligible with Swedish and as someone who has never lived anywhere near Denmark I have no issues. Well, except for their numbers, but I have them say them one by one.

 

[Styrbiorn]

It is not possible to “pick up”(as in listening and gradually start understanding, as opposed to studying) German, at least not easily, since words and grammar are different, have no cognates, or whatnot. Danish is essentially slurred Swedish. If you are not dishonest or exaggerating, you are quite unique to be able to understand a mutually unintelligeble language while at the same time not being able to understand what is basicly dialects.

 

[TheDungen]

Question, is Swedish the native tongue of your parents? The Swedes I know who struggle with Danish typically are X generation immigrants who do not have a strong enough Nordic vocabulary with them from home.

Danish is mutually intelligible with Swedish and as someone who has never lived anywhere near Denmark I have no issues. Well, except for their numbers, but I have them say them one by one.

My dad's family is Swedish going back to the beginning of time. My mom's parents were German though. Though my maternal grandfathers grandfather was Norwegian. I always spoke Swedish to both my parents. And no Danish is hard because Danish is a slurry mess. Its essentially impossible to learn so i just gave up and spoke English. I have lived 15 minutes from denmark the last 6 years and in skåneland in general the last 25 years.

Meanwhile I know several people who learned German just from going there and listening and talking. Because yea German is different but it's clear and intelligible. And a lot of the words in German have archaic counterparts in Swedish or english.

It is not possible to “pick up”(as in listening and gradually start understanding, as opposed to studying) German, at least not easily, since words and grammar are different, have no cognates, or whatnot. Danish is essentially slurred Swedish. If you are not dishonest or exaggerating, you are quite unique to be able to understand a mutually unintelligeble language while at the same time not being able to understand what is basicly dialects.

What are you talking about? There are plenty of words that are the same in Swedish and German. I used to have a game on my phone were you were supposed to translate German words to Swedish and I could pretty much always find a Swedish or english word to relate it to. This is a gaming forum spiel-spel for an example. Buch bok. Polis polizei. Dusch dusche. Karta karte. Matta matte. Stol stuhl.

Speaking German is not easy but understanding it is not particularly hard.

 

[loup99]

No it really does not. German is easier than Danish.

What? Can definitely disagree with this. German is completely unintelligible for me, Danish is understandable with some effort.

 

[TheDungen]

What? Can definitely disagree with this. German is completely unintelligible for me, Danish is understandable with some effort.

I really don't understand that. Danish is just one long sound you have no idea where one word starts and the next begins. Half the words in German are the same as in Swedish just a bit diffrent.
I remember I went to Tivoli in Copenhagen when i was 15 and tried to order cotton candy and ended up being given Ice cream. And dont get me started on their number system I had a close Danish friend growing up she's explained to me a dozen times I still can't remember what a half fjärs is except that it's not half as much as one fjärs.

 

[loup99]

I really don't understand that. Danish is just one long sound you have no idea where one word starts and the next begins. Half the words in German are the same as in Swedish just a bit diffrent.

Listen to this:

Forget all your German, and try to understand this:

Which one is easiest?

 

[TheDungen]

Listen to this:

Forget all your German, and try to understand this:

Which one is easiest?

That's not hochdeutch it's switzerdeutch. Also a person singing slowly has nothing in common with how Danish people actually speak. And yeah I understood the German despite it being a really isolated dialect. On the flip side we used to get Danish television in Kiel where my grandmother lived and it was impossible to keep up with (but also awesome since the movies were actually in English unlike the German channels were everything was dubbed).
Oh and I can probably find clips on Swedish neither of us could understand because of the heavy accent so what you just tried to pull was really dishonest.

 

[loup99]

That's not hochdeutch it's switzerdeutch. Also a person singing slowly has nothing in common with how Danish people actually speak.

I tried picking a tougher German (mountains and countryside in Switzerland should make it difficult) on purpose while selecting Bornholmsk which is the Danish dialect that is the closest to Swedish. My point is that if you chose selectively you can get a very different picture.

 

[TheDungen]

I tried picking a tougher German (mountains and countryside in Switzerland should make it difficult) on purpose while selecting Bornholmsk which is the Danish dialect that is the closest to Swedish. My point is that if you chose selectively you can get a very different picture.

If you cherry pick you can get the result you want... wow how unexpected... when is that not true?
The point is a randomly chosen German and a randomly chosen Dane the random german will speak hochdeutch and the random Dane will speak the copenhagen dialect. And then yes i very much find hochdeaitch easier. And there are dialects of german even easier than hoch deutsch.

Also switzerditch would have been much harder if a mates girlfriend didn't speak it.

 

[Trin Tragula]

For what it's worth as a random Scanian Swede :

I have no problem at all with Danish (and most people down south also watch both Swedish and Danish television in my experience which I am sure helps with that). Up to the recent border controls (which kind of killed such things) many people I know in the Swedish south also commuted from Lund and Malmö to Copenhagen. The exception is the funny way they count, but I expect I would get used to that quickly enough if I actually talked more regularly to Danes.
I also have no problem at all with Norwegian (in fact I find it to be easier than Danish, it's only slightly different from the dialect in Bohuslän to my ears) while German is a language I can partially figure out from listening to but not hold any conversations in at all.

Written Danish and Norwegian is in my experience somewhat closer to Swedish than a couple of centuries old Swedish is to modern Swedish (and I have read my fair share of 17th century Swedish during my studies). Not identical but not hard to figure out at all.
Written German I can mostly figure out if I get to google a word here and there but it would be slow going and I might miss out on the full picture in any reasonably interesting/advanced text.

In my experience how we learn and perceive languages differ a lot from person to person. My daughter, who left Skåne before she could speak, still speaks Scanian with her mother (but not at her preschool). My son on the other hand, who was older and could speak already when we moved up north, speaks only in a very distinct Uppsala/Stockholm accent at all times.

I have never really spoken with a Scanian accent myself (I have a weird accent), despite being from the area and my family having roots hundreds of years back there.

 

[TheDungen]

For what it's worth as a random Scanian Swede :

I have no problem at all with Danish (and most people down south also watch both Swedish and Danish television in my experience which I am sure helps with that). Up to the recent border controls (which kind of killed such things) many people I know in the Swedish south also commuted from Lund and Malmö to Copenhagen. The exception is the funny way they count, but I expect I would get used to that quickly enough if I actually talked more regularly to Danes.
I also have no problem at all with Norwegian (in fact I find it to be easier than Danish, it's only slightly different from the dialect in Bohuslän to my ears) while German is a language I can partially figure out from listening to but not hold any conversations in at all.

Written Danish and Norwegian is in my experience somewhat closer to Swedish than a couple of centuries old Swedish is to modern Swedish (and I have read my fair share of 17th century Swedish during my studies). Not identical but not hard to figure out at all.
Written German I can mostly figure out if I get to google a word here and there but it would be slow going and I might miss out on the full picture in any reasonably interesting/advanced text.

In my experience how we learn and perceive languages differ a lot from person to person. My daughter, who left Skåne before she could speak, still speaks Scanian with her mother (but not at her preschool). My son on the other hand, who was older and could speak already when we moved up north, speaks only in a very distinct Uppsala/Stockholm accent at all times.

I have never really spoken with a Scanian accent myself (I have a weird accent), despite being from the area and my family having roots hundreds of years back there.

There are people down south who watch television?