Which Nordic Language Are Your Favorite?

[curiousnorway]

Please tell me why it's your favorite. I've also written a MyTake on the Nordic languages: The Scandinavian Languages .

#Scandinavia #NordicLanguages #Language

Norwegian (Why)

Swedish (Why)

Danish (Why)

Finnish (Why)

Icelandic (Why)

Other (Explain Which one & Why)

[alice55]

Finnish is my favorite one, it's really different from all the others language I've heard and they got a good accent (there's a Finnish lullaby that I really like :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFCixLn9qRw

Iceland is a cool language too cause they still used really old letters. Like ð , others Nordic language don't use it if I'm not mistaken. This letters was also used in the old English language.

The last pics you used it really cute ^-^

[curiousnorway]

That's correct. Norwegian and Danish have the same alphabet as the modern English one in addition to three letters "æ", "ø" and "å". Swedes have "ä", "ö" and "å".

[alice55]

That's very interesting they have another letters. It's like German who have the letter ß.

[curiousnorway]

That's true. But the Swedish's "ä", "ö" and "å" are similar to the Norwegian versions "æ", "ø" and "å". Pronunciation wise it could pass as dialects of the same language.

[Aynsof]

To note on æ ø and å they are relatively newer inventions they are essentially commonly used double vowels that make a unique sound æ is ae ø is oe and å as these sounds are somewhat unique to the Scandinavian languages and are notoriously hard to non natives to learn
Oh and the German ß is a similar situation it is a double s that creates a sort of humming almost whistling s sound that far as I know is unique to the German language

[alice55]

@Aynsof

æ is a new invention? I thought they used it in Old English (during the middle age). I've saw that a Princess had a name with a "æ" in it.
German ß is easy to pronounce though, I learned German in middle school and found the pronunciation very easy especially when comparing it to English which I really struggles with.

[Aynsof]

Well yes æ is a bit special and not exactly like ø and å
It was a commonly used letter in old English as an example Alfred who is created with unifying the kingdom of England under one rule is more properly Ælfred
However it's origin is actually Latin
It fell out of use entirely in English and while in the Scandinavian languages the sound remained the actual writing of it remained through the middle ages but fell out of use as well for some time possibly as a result of the printing press? Just speculation but if you read texts from 100-150 years ago or so at least you will really not see it used it will like å and ø be spelled out as ae aa and oe
Ø is actually also from Latin origin and dates back just as far as æ å however in Danish is from post-WWII I think the Swedish å is actually ao and dates back a deal further but not sure about that
So yes you are right I suppose I should not have used the term invention that did not properly convey what I meant

[alice55]

@Aynsof This is all really interesting *-*
Yes, it's surely because of the printing press, it seems like a logic reasons.

[ChocoLada]

LoL, Finnish is not a Nordic language, it's Finno-Ugric (related to Hungarian and Estonian). It's not even similar to Nordic languages (which are actually Germanic in origin).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finno-Ugric_languages

Nordic aka Scandinavian languages are Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic and Faroese.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Germanic_languages

I like them all but I prefer Swedish.

[curiousnorway]

As a Scandinavian myself I'm aware it's not from the same language tree, but with "Nordic languages" I actually meant the languages the countries lying in north uses. Finland lies in the north in the map.

[ChocoLada]

They are geographically present, but their language is totally different, just like Estonians live on Baltic, but they are not Baltic ethnicity (linguistically speaking) - unlike Lithuanians, Latvians and Prussians.

[ChocoLada]

Thank you for MHO

[BlueCoyote]

Swedish is my favorite. I really love its sound and its melody. It's almost the most closely related to my native language Swiss (most mutually intelligible). I also love Sweden as a country... always have.

Before I began to study at university, I attended some private lessons to learn Swedish but I had to quit it after a few months because it became too expensive.

[curiousnorway]

Can you understand some Swedish and can you've a conversation in it?

[BlueCoyote]

No, I can't have a conversation in it. Like I said, I only learned it for a few months. That was like the level A1.1 on the European language equivalency level.

However, when I read a reasonably simple text (a novel, a newspaper article etc., not an academic research paper), I understand about 50%. But that's mainly because of the similarities between Swiss and Swedish. In some ways, they're actually more similar than Swedish and German. A few examples:
Swedish: Hus
Swiss: Hus
German: Haus
Swedish: Get
Swiss: Geiss
German: Ziege
Swedish: Tid
Swiss: Ziit
German: Zeit

Also, the Norwegian word "hurtig" exists in the Swiss dialect of Bern and it means exactly the same (fast). The Swiss word doesn't come from the Norwegian word though, or the other way around, it's just a funny coincidence. In German, the word would be "schnell", which is very different.

[matchrestore]

I've got Icelandic and Swedish heritage, and my wife has Finnish heritage, so its a difficult decision for me. I did recently read this article about the Finnish word kalsarikännit, which I find to be an amazing word. bigthink.com/.../kalsarikanni-finnish-pantsdrunk

[JimRSmith]

I like the sing song cadence of Swedish.

[Aynsof]

Well Danish...
Obviously because I am Danish and it is my native tongue
I like Finnish too because it sounds really funny can't understand a word of it though
Icelandic I guess is sort of cool in that it is almost old Norse but hard to understand more than a couple words here and there

[FatherJack]

Suomi ( Finnish ) is related to Estonian, Hungarian and to a lesser degree , Turkic languages. I'm part Magyar ( Hungarian ). It's the Scandinavian " odd one out "

[Aynsof]

@FatherJack
Indeed yeah completely different language tree but it is understandable since the "local" ethnicity is one that came from the east original a Slavic one I presume rather than a Germanic one that came from southward
Though of course there is a great many people with Norwegian and Swedish ancestry in Finland now

[spuitkaas]

Norwegian, because it's the easiest. Danish has a lot of weird vowels and Icelandic and Finnish is overall just very different.

[FatherJack]

Been to Denmark , sounds like Nederlands in reverse. Striking similarities between Denmark and Nederland , my Dutch friend even commented on Denmark as " de tweede Nederland " ( the second Netherlands )

[Aynsof]

We share a lot of similar history with Holland the Dutch were traders for much of their history and so were the Danes with each other and the rest of Europe

[FatherJack]

@Aynsof Yes the Nederlanders are old allies with the Danes , NL even intervened on the side of the Danes against Sweden , an old dispute over Baltic trade. Written Danish ( & Norwegian ) & Dutch show clear similarities. Several Dutch people I know have settled in Norway now. NL is much more densely populated , so can see why.

[Aynsof]

Indeed so
So it is natural since there has been so much cultural exchange that there are a great many similarities
I have had friends from Germany comment on how being in Denmark is much like being in Holland

[yasii]

To be honest, I don't think I could tell the difference

[curiousnorway]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MKKXToZzAI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxrCNf8utsE

Swedish, Danish and Norwegian sounds almost identical - more like dialects of the same country, so there's no wonder they sounds almost the same. Icelandic and German are Germanic languages, so they're still in the same language family tree and similar. Finnish belongs to an own family tree and shares little to no similarities with Norwegian, Danish and Swedish.

[yasii]

I'm german and some phrases sound very familiar. I still couldn't distinguish them from each other

[curiousnorway]

I think saying Finnish is similar to Scandinavian languages and German is like saying Arabic, Chinese and Japanese are similar to the Scandinavian languages and German too. It's mostly the words and grammars that are completely different, but the intonation has some differences too.

Norwegian in Bergen goes like this: ------->
Norwegian in Oslo goes like this: _____---->
Finnish goes like this: _-_-_-_-_---_-_-_->

[Curmudgeon]

Isn't Finnish different from all the others, being closer to Magyar, while the others are Germanic?

[curiousnorway]

That's true and Finland isn't considered a Scandinavian country, but the country just lies in the north. Finland belongs to the Finno-Ugric tree and is closer to the Hungarian language.

[Logorithim]

As a speaker of English and German, Danish is the easiest of the bunch to read, so I'll go with that one.

[Aynsof]

Easiest to read probably but probably also the hardest to learn to speak and understand spoken

[Logorithim]

@Aynsof: Sure seemed so- I worked with Danish peacekeepers in Bosnia and could only understand spoken words that were identical or almost identical to German.

[Anonymous]

Withou offense to all the people from these counties...
You all sound the same.

[Aynsof]

I am horribly offended!
But just on a side note finnish is actually a completely different language tree which is utterly different from the rest of us just FYI

[curiousnorway]

Norwegian, Swedish and Danish are quite similar and could pass as dialects of the same language, but Icelandic aren't as similar and Finnish don't resemble the Scandinavian languages at all. It's almost the same as saying Arabic, Mandarin and Portuguese resembles the Scandinavian languages. There's literally no similarities at all.

[Opinion Owner]

Lol, as a person who doesn't know any of thes elanguages but have heard all of them.
They do sound the same.
For you guys that notice the samll details since you ar eprobably natural speakers it's different but for us lol it's all the same.

[Aynsof]

Well yes that does hold true for Danish Swedish and Norwegian
Finish is a completely different language tree it's closest cousin is Hungarian

[curiousnorway]

Difference between Icelandic, Norwegian, Danish and Swedish.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MKKXToZzAI

Finnish:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxrCNf8utsE

[BlueCoyote]

@OpinionOwner
I'm not from a Nordic country but I have to agree - Finnish sounds completely different. It is unmistakably unique. I think if you'd listen to it, you'd easily agree.

[curiousnorway]

The Finnish vocabulary, grammar rules, intonation etc. are completely different.

[SngBirdy]

Honestly even as a german, all scandinavian languages sound so cringe and ugly to me.
No offense

[curiousnorway]

Ha ha, we thinks the same about German! x'D

[SngBirdy]

Yeah german sounds ugly too, not gonna deny that. Scandinavian langauges, or even dutch just sound much worse. Again, no offense.

[curiousnorway]

Ha ha, I think German sounds worse than Norwegian and Swedish. x'D But not as bad as Russian.

I think French, Spanish, Italian and English-English are the most beautiful languages in the world.

[SngBirdy]

Russian really? I mean its not pretty, but i dont think of it as an ugly language.
French is the most beauitful language in my eyes, and next to it is English.

[Alessus]

I mean, I'm a bit biased, but I'll go with Finnish, since you know I speak it the most.

[abc3643]

Finnish, of course! The amount of vowels and umlauts are magnificent.

[DeeDeeDeVour]

Not really a favorite but a bit of a necessity... Swedish, because I have a few Swedes as friends.

[TheHillsRAlive]

Norwegian... it's what the hubbys family goes on and on in... especially when the uncles get a little tipsy

[spunkygiraffe]

I don't know any of these languages and have never heard any of them either I don't think! XD

[BipBipLeddus]

Faroese, because it's so isolated so it developed in its own way.

[Selina_Kyle_]

I really don't know the huge difference between them when I hear

[esotericstory]

Finnish is not a Nordic language, its Finno-Urgic. Finns are not from Indo-European descent as most Europeans are, they are from central Asian descent.

[FatherJack]

Correct , also from the same root as the Turkic languages. Same as my part ancestral Magyar ( Hungarian )

[esotericstory]

@FatherJack Thats true.

[name_is_eric]

Not the same roots as Turkic. Turkic languages are Altic, not Uralic. There are some loan words, but there's no connection between the roots.

[princessfromjupiter]

Finnish, it's so different & sounds kinda cute but at the same time strangely sophisticated? 😂

[Udbhav_Bantwal]

I would choose Icelandic cause I would really love to live there...

[ZeussLightningBolt]

Finish, because it's more closely related to Mongolian than it is to Nordic languages