xocet
I think I was more attentive to what my Norwegian teacher was telling back in school - than I believe he ever would believe me to be 
as he was rather good in explaining it to me - and the others....
NTNU who is based in Trondheim (by the way) is maybe one of the best universities in Norway at the moment - and have some of the best expert on many subjects....
And it is correct to point out - that it is a difference between the written and spoken language - sometimes the words change rather different from proper spoken - to written language - sometimes it confuse even the natives 
So it it not exactly a secret that many foreigner have some problems understanding the fine flavors of Norwegian - as it can be a rather subtle language - even if it is a rather easy language to learn if you just broke the language barrier first... And as NTNU point out - most Norwegian write either nynorsk, or bokmål - two written languages who is similar - family from the same tree as it is - even though Bokmål is the largest written language of the two - and basically what everyone is able, or should be able to read fluent... And even then - we have also a 3th written and spoken language - the Same language in the north of Norway - specially in the Northeast part of Norway Finmark - have a large minority - called Samer - who have its written and speaking language who differ largely from Norwegian - in fact it is difficult from a Norwegian to understand the language the same are using - as it is not in the same family - it is more in the family with the finns - and hungarians.... So for all practical means - we have 3 different languages written and spoken in Norway - bokmål - Nynorsk and the Same language....
Danish and written båkmål is very similar - it is possible mostly because of the influence the danish had on modern Norwegian - as it facially is the same written language - of course over 100 years time the two languages differ a lot - but basically a Norwegian is able to read danish as it was Norwegian - and vie verca - Swedish on the other hand is more easy to listen to - and it is so similar - that people from Denmark have difficult hear the difference between swedish and Norwegian - even that we do... And I have in Denmark - experienced some difficulty been served - if I speak Norwegian - because they believe it to be swedish - then I have to tell in english that I'm not a **** swede - I'm Norwegian - and then got the whole nine yard of service It is a old habit going back to when Sweden and Denmark was in each others troath all the time - and it is even today - some grudge between Sweden and Denmark on that level... Between Norway and Sweden it is all peace and quiet - as long as we do not win over Sweden in the Olympics And instead of making wars - we make jokes - rather hard hitting sweden-Norwegian jokes - who for the most part is harmless - but have some point to be made - but for the most part - it is just good fun bend it... And we recently could celebrate 200 year of peace between Sweden and Norway - so I guess we are good friends...
If Norway - Sweden and Denmark had been in a close union - maybe as a single nation called Scandinavia or similar - the tree languages would have been seen as tree regional dialects - of the same language -as the tree different languages can be interconnected and are understood by most in scandinavia (Iceland and Finland are not really part of Scandinavia something that confuse the hell out of everyone else than us, Finland and iceland is part of the larger "Norden" who is more diffuse - as the baltic states also claim some place in it, as the baltic states had close contacts with the rest of scandinavia and Finland between WW1 and 2 - and also had some trading contacts with Sweden going back centuries, even was part of the Swedish empire around the baltic sea at one time) Iceland was part of Norway - at least from the 12th century - when Iceland was ruled by Norwegian kings - for the most part it was left alone - and many who was in disagreement with the kings of Norway - had the possibility to leave for iceland - and even for Greenland - as Erik Raude did when he had to flee - first Norway for Iceland - and then Iceland - to what become Greenland when he had the misfortune to kill a powerfully man in Iceland - who was a good friend of the Norwegian king at the time - you don't do that without consequences - and then he discovered what become Greenland - and was able to build one of the largest farmers in the whole of Greenland - and was a powerfully figure there - his son - Leiv (Not Leif as many americans claim him to have the name of ) Erikson - was sailing westward - and discovered what today is best known as New Foundland - in Canada...
And Iceland had the misfortune - or maybe the opposite - to be left alone when the rest of Norway was hit hard by the plague in the mid 1300s - in fact modern Icelandic is very similar to the old norse language - written and spoken - and as pointed out - have been a rather conservative language - new words is seldom emigrated intot he language without problems - and Iceland have been one of the few languages who try to keep foreign languages at bay - with a creative work with their own language - and they use it to make sure the language stay livable - specially after the influent of english into many languages - that be swedish, danish and Norwegian - specially for the kids who grew up after internet got commonplace have tonnes of english in their language - who the authorities in Iceland want to make sure is kept to a minimum - and they have been rather clever in keeping the language as it is - by making new words in Icelandic - to be used with all the new things.... Icelandic is difficult to read - and hopeless to speak if you do not know the language - but it is possible to read it - if you take your time - and is patient doing it, but reading a newspaper in icelandic - is difficult....
And last - here is a person who made a comic about how scandinavia sees at the world - it is some steriotypes about the diffierent countries - and then the interaction between them - rather funny in fact - as the author also have some point to be made - many of them is maybe best understood if you live in our corner of the world - many others is more universially understood all over the board...
link:http://satwcomic.com/sweden-denmark-and-norway
Diclotican
Edit history
= new reply since forum marked as read
