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Are you Scandinavian? I used to date a Norwegian and learned the language decently well. I'll second the OP and note that knowing Norwegian I can pretty much re
by jeffreyrogers 10y ago
Are you Scandinavian? I used to date a Norwegian and learned the language decently well. I'll second the OP and note that knowing Norwegian I can pretty much read Swedish and Danish at the same level as Norwegian. I also experienced Swedes and Danes speaking their respective languages to Norwegians (sometimes people would just switch to English too). It seems like Norwegians understand Swedes and Danes better than the other way around, but the written languages are pretty easy to understand even for someone like me who isn't that good at any of them.
- reitanqild 10y agoDanish can be pretty terribly actually. Around here people say Danish is not a language but an impediment ( and I fully expect them to laugh at Norwegians too. Norwegians are spoiled brats for a start ;-)
- kpil 10y agoGiven some practice, you don't actually need that much time until you find it's rather ok. But yes. Danish is probably the hardest to understand, and particularly speak properly, especially some dialects. Some Norwegian dialects are quite hard too, but there are some rather incomprehensible dialects in Sweden as well. The Danish queen speaks perfect Danish AND Swedish by the way, as her mother was Swedish. I think she is probably unique in that way, as you more or less have to change your whole personality to get rid of the Swedish accent when trying to speak Danish in a relaxed way :-)
- e12e 10y agoNorwegian is the common denominator as we were occupied by the Danish (and effectively adopted Danish for writing) and were then traded to the Swedes. The three languages fit well with the quote about "a language is a dialect with a flag and a navy".