That’s the current raging question of the day as TheLocal and some other news groups write. I don’t see the issue with a linguistics professor, Dr. Finn-Erik Vinje (retired by the way, which totally allows him for full on bashing), asking a rhetorical question: Kvifor er svenskane så dumme? : Why are Swedes so dumb?
I don’t care actually for either side, it’s the same damn language system. Okay Swedish is Eastern Norse while Norwegian is Western Norse. Turns out Danish is Eastern Norse and more linguistically similar to Swedish but Swedes do not understand a bloody word a Dane says. Maybe the Swedes are dumb in Norse languages? I mean only in Swedish do the skä, skj, sje sound exist. And they have an awesome name for it: voiceless dorso-palatal velar fricative, more info here. Say that phrase ten times. But going back, Swedes seem to have a hard time understanding anyone, even if its their own people in different parts of the country. Skåne, Norrland, whatever, Swedish people cannot comprehend themselves.
Maybe we should all revert back to Icelandic and Norse, get rid of all those horrible Swedish sounds, dump the apple stuffed Danish accents, and speak like true vikings.
If you want more fun, read the comments from the locallers: http://www.thelocal.se/article.php?ID=21208
True, and that’s why the Swedes have invented the phrase “Vasadu?”, LOL! Can’t help but notice the ‘Finn’ in the name of the basher. That might explain why he isn’t bashing Finns but Swedes..?
I love your blog! Also, shouldn’t the title of the blog be “Why are Swedish People Bad at Norwegian?”? It just seems that title would make more sense. :) Keep up the great work!
Swedes not understanding a word of Danish is a myth that we (swedes) ourselves have perpetuated. It’s a part of the ongoing rivalry between the countries and not really true. Danish sounds ugly. Danes speak like they have porridge in their throats etc. To emphasise this we say that their language is totally unintelligible. This has gone on long enough that some Swedes even believe it. But like I said; it’s not true. All it takes is a bit of effort from both parties. Norwegian is easier to understand. But only because their accent is easier to understand, making it so that you can devote your full focus to understanding the words. Most of the words used in all three Dialects of Scandinavian exist in each of the other language. What differs is what synonyms are the most commonly in use. I.e. the fuller your vocabulary in one of the dialects, the better you will understand the other two dialects.
The exception is when meanings of words change in one country but not the other though. And when words are shortened down differently. But if you’re good in Swedish you probably know the full version of the word. Same for Danes and Norwegians.
Oh, and I did read that thread on the local. It’s kind of funny to see the Swede-haters glee at how our brother-people hate us. It’s not true though. If they were to read Finn-Erik Vinjes blog and the following comments I think they’d see a better representation of reality.
As for reverting…
I do think that we have in part intentionally drifted apart dialect vise. That is, that Danish and Swedish has. We fought so many wars. How do you work up a nationalistic frenzy against another people if it’s obvious that we’re really the same people? I wouldn’t mind it if we drifted closer again. But I wouldn’t want the regional dialects died out completely. It’s a difficult finding the balance there. More Swedish TV in Denmark and more Danish TV in Sweden would probably do the trick.
Norwegian has been drifting closer to first Danish and later Swedish for a long time. Which is why Norwegians can understand Swedish but not Icelandic. This is also why everyones mouth dropped in Swedish class when our teacher in HS taught us about language history that Swedish and Danish were closer related than Swedish and Norwegian. We all objected because OBVIOUSLY this wasn’t true.
Oh, and we were told that Danes studied Swedish words in school. This made us feel important. Looking back I could wish that we had reacted by wanting to learn more danish words instead. The whole subject was covered in less than an hour and all the we learned about Danish was the danish number system. I suspect few of my class-mates bothered to fix the number system to their memories. I didn’t. I did re-learn later though. And I still think it’s impractical. And somewhat impressive that they manage to hold on to it despite of that.
Jacob, what is strange about the Danish number system? Is it not like how it is in Swedish?
Anonymous: Danish counts (partly) in twenties rather than tens, so 55 in Danish could be interpreted as something like “five plus half a twenty less than three times twenty”, or shorter “femoghalvtres” (with reservations for spelling).
Swedish does similar to English: “femtiofem” (five tens (and) five).