4 ms·

Would you consider Danish and Swedish separate languages or are they dialects?

by tored 5y ago

raverbashing 5y ago
This is one of the lowest mutual intelligibility pairs if you don't count Icelandic/Faroese, so different languages. Very similar, of course, but different (especially since Danish had more outside influence) - one source https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Percentages-of-correct-answers-in-the-intelligibility-test-broken-down-for-group-of_tbl2_228758544 https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Percentages-of-correct-a... Now is Elfdalic more or less similar than Danish to Swedish? Based on the article video it seems there's some marked difference but probably more understandable than Danish.
- tored 5y ago
  As a Swede I understand Danish better than Elfdalic. Elfdalic sounds closer to Icelandic and Faroese. Elfdalic also has other characters in their alfabet. I guess that has to do with that Elfdalic has been somewhat frozen in time, they speak closer to what we spoke in the region during the early middle ages. It is true that how languages sound does not equate to closeness of relationship, Swedish and Norwegian are much closer in sound than Swedish and Danish, but Swedish and Danish both belong to the family of East Nordic languages and Norwegian, Icelandic and Faroese to West Nordic. Here is Tennysons poem Ring out Wild Bells in Elfdalic https://youtu.be/-3Q9kLgsHIs https://youtu.be/-3Q9kLgsHIs Swedish https://youtu.be/TID9osnlsiY https://youtu.be/TID9osnlsiY I'm not a linguist so I don't have the expertise to say if Elfdalic should be classified as a separate language or not, scientifically it may very well be a dialect, but if some one spoke to me like in the video I wouldn't recognize it as Swedish or any of the common dialects Swedish.
  - raverbashing 5y ago
    Cool, thanks for explaining it. I only know Swedish very superficially so I couldn't really tell how Elfdalic it sounds to native speakers. (I'm guessing exposure to Danish also makes Danish easier to understand for Swedes)

Would you consider Danish and Swedish separate languages or are they dialects?

by tored 5y ago

Would you consider Danish and Swedish separate languages or are they dialects?

This is one of the lowest mutual intelligibility pairs if you don't count Icelandic/Faroese, so different languages. Very similar, of course, but different (especially since Danish had more outside influence) - one source https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Percentages-of-correct-answers-in-the-intelligibility-test-broken-down-for-group-of_tbl2_228758544 https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Percentages-of-correct-a... Now is Elfdalic more or less similar than Danish to Swedish? Based on the article video it seems there's some marked difference but probably more understandable than Danish.

tored 5y ago
As a Swede I understand Danish better than Elfdalic. Elfdalic sounds closer to Icelandic and Faroese. Elfdalic also has other characters in their alfabet. I guess that has to do with that Elfdalic has been somewhat frozen in time, they speak closer to what we spoke in the region during the early middle ages. It is true that how languages sound does not equate to closeness of relationship, Swedish and Norwegian are much closer in sound than Swedish and Danish, but Swedish and Danish both belong to the family of East Nordic languages and Norwegian, Icelandic and Faroese to West Nordic. Here is Tennysons poem Ring out Wild Bells in Elfdalic https://youtu.be/-3Q9kLgsHIs https://youtu.be/-3Q9kLgsHIs Swedish https://youtu.be/TID9osnlsiY https://youtu.be/TID9osnlsiY I'm not a linguist so I don't have the expertise to say if Elfdalic should be classified as a separate language or not, scientifically it may very well be a dialect, but if some one spoke to me like in the video I wouldn't recognize it as Swedish or any of the common dialects Swedish.
- raverbashing 5y ago
  Cool, thanks for explaining it. I only know Swedish very superficially so I couldn't really tell how Elfdalic it sounds to native speakers. (I'm guessing exposure to Danish also makes Danish easier to understand for Swedes)