onduQjgAj8Y.txt

Speaker 1:          00:00          Okay, so I've had a lot of requests for a video on the North Germanic languages, so today I present to you a video on Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, and Finnish.

Speaker 2:          00:12          What?

Speaker 1:          00:17          Hello everyone. Welcome to the Lange Focus Channel and my name is Paul. Today I'm going to talk about the north Germanic languages of the Nordic nations that includes the Scandinavian languages, Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian, and I will also touch on the languages of Icelandic and federal. Always. I wanted to call this video at the Scandinavian languages because I just love the way that word sounds Scandinavian, but to the people of that region. The word Scandinavian only refers to Denmark, Sweden, and Norway and not to the other countries that I want to talk about. So if I say the Nordic nations, that also includes Iceland, the Faroe Islands as well as Finland. I want to talk about the north Germanic languages spoken in all of those countries. So I decided on the title that North Germanic languages of the Nordic nations, and please note that finish is not in north dramatic language. It belongs to a separate language family entirely.

Speaker 1:          01:10          There are about 20 million native speakers of North Germanic languages and that includes about 9 million speakers of Swedish, mainly in Sweden, but also as a minority language in Finland. 6 million speakers of Danish, mainly in Denmark, but also as a minority language in the southern region of northern Germany and in Greenland. 5 million speakers of Norwegian, mainly in Norway. Three hundred and 20,000 speakers of Icelandic, mainly in Iceland. 90,000 speakers a feral. We're about two thirds of them living in the Faroe Islands and the rest of mainly in Denmark. The North Germanic languages are, as you probably guessed, a branch of the Germanic language family. All Germanic languages developed from Provo Germanic, which was spoken around 500 bce, portage romantic possibly originated in Scandinavia, and different varieties of Germanic began to emerge with migration. Runic inscriptions from the second century ce show us that by that time, pro dramatic had began to separate into distinct western, eastern and northern dialects.

Speaker 1:          02:08          The northern dialect was spoken in Scandinavia and is today often referred to as pro tow norse and became the ancestor of all the north Germanic languages. Poteau northwest spoken from around the second century Ce to the eighth century CE and by the beginning of the Viking era in the eighth century ce, it had evolved into dialects that are collectively referred to as old norse. During the next few hundred years, vikings seafaring north people explored much of Europe by sea and river conquering lands and establishing settlements and bringing their language with them. During this time, old north was divided into three mutually intelligible dialects of old east, north, old west, north and old goodness. All the east, northwest spoken in Sweden and Denmark as well as their overseas settlements in Russia, England, and in Danish settlements in Normandy, old West northwest spoken in Norway as well. Its overseas settlements, the two most notable where Iceland and the Faroe Islands, but also Ireland, Scotland, and the isle of Man and Norwegian settlements in Normandy.

Speaker 1:          03:08          Old goodness was mainly spoken on the island of Gotland, which is today part of Sweden as well as some overseas settlements to the east. These west, east and goodness varieties of old north gradually developed into the modern north dramatic languages around the 14th century, ce, the Western branch of languages consists of Norwegian, Icelandic, and feral weeds as well as some other extinct languages. The eastern branch consists of Swedish and Danish. The goodness branch consists of only the goodness language which is still spoken to some extent on the island of Gotland, but these days the north dramatic languages are generally not thought of in terms of east, west and goodness. They are thought of in terms of continental and insular. The continental languages are Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian, and the insular languages are Icelandic and Pharaoh always. These categories are based on mutual intelligibility of the languages rather than on the genetic root language that they come from.

Speaker 1:          04:00          Norwegian is grouped with Swedish and Danish because even though Icelandic and Norwegian developed from the same old west North's Norwegian is today much more intelligible with Swedish and Danish. One reason for that is the political union of Denmark and Norway from 1536 to 1814. During this time, the written Norwegian language stopped being used and it was replaced by the written Danish language and this had a big impact on the spoken dialects of Norwegian, especially the central and eastern dialects. The continental languages also underwent a lot of influence from middle, low German, which is an influence that didn't effect Icelandic and always the three continental languages can be referred to as the Scandinavian languages. When talking about the Scandinavian languages, it's important to note that there is a significant amount of dialectal variation within each language. In fact, the three languages are made up of a dialect continuum.

Speaker 1:          04:52          That means if you travel in one direction, the dialects gradually changed. The further you go. That means, for example, that if you are Norwegian living near the border with Sweden, you probably have an easier time understanding your neighbor just across the border and Sweden. Then you do a Norwegian from the other side of the country. Even though you are supposedly speaking a different language from that Swedish person. This makes it kind of hard to determine at what point these dialects become different languages or if they are in fact different languages at all. The three languages are all more or less intelligible depending on where the dialect lies on that continuum and the written languages are almost entirely intelligible. Danish seems to be the odd man out with its complex phonology that has come to be quite distinct from the written language. Swedes and Norwegians often say that Danish people sound like they're speaking with a potato in their mouth.

Speaker 1:          05:39          I can't actually confirm if they do speak with a potato in their mouth, so scandinavians, can you let me know if that's true in the comments down below, I have Danish roots, so I'm allowed to make fun of Dan's. From what I understand, Norwegians have the easiest time understanding the other two Scandinavian languages, though they understand Swedish better than Danish. Swedes can generally understand or we join, but they have much more trouble understanding Danish because of its pronunciation, and Danes can more or less understand Norwegian and to a lesser extent they can understand some Swedish. From what I understand, Scandinavians will generally not speak the other person's language. They will speak their own language while making an effort to understand the other person's speech and maybe they will slow down and clarify things when necessary, but when they have significant trouble communicating, they might switch to English, which isn't that tough for them because Scandinavians are magical geniuses when it comes to learning English. In this kind of situation where you have three closely related languages that kind of blended together on a continuum, the languages are not defined by the spoken variety, but rather by the official standard language associated with that country or region. In Denmark there is standard Danish. In Sweden there is standard Swedish and in Norway there is standard Norwegian or wait, no, there are actually two standard Norwegians.

Speaker 1:          06:54          That's right. Norway actually has two official standard written languages mall, which means book language is a Danish influenced standard language which is very close to standard Danish, but which uses Norwegian pronunciation or new. Norwegian is intended to be a purer version of Norwegian based on Norway's more conservative Western dialects,

Speaker 1:          07:17          which standard language Norwegians are educated in. Depends on the region they grow up in, but despite having two official standard languages, Norwegians don't really speak them. Norwegians generally speak their own local dialect whenever they are speaking, even in formal situations and even when they're speaking to people from the other Scandinavian countries because of this Norwegians have to get used to understanding a wide variety of spoken dialects and that's probably part of what makes it easier for them to understand Swedish and Danish, but that of course is just my speculation. So native speakers, you can confirm or disconfirm that. So let's take a look at the three continental languages and see just how similar they are

Speaker 3:          07:54          in English. I love you first and Swedish

Speaker 4:          07:58          got bang

Speaker 3:          08:00          now in Norwegian. Now in Danish it was good. I,

Speaker 1:          08:05          as you can see, these sentences are very similar, but with some differences in spelling and pronunciation in particular, the Swedish pronunciation is a little different from the other to listen to the first person singular

Speaker 3:          08:15          pronoun. Again, yours at the end of the Swedish one, you can hear a hard g sound. It's not always pronounced that way. It depends on exactly where the speaker is from. Another example, dogs are the best pets first and Swedish.

Speaker 4:          08:31          Who's the best

Speaker 3:          08:34          next in Norwegian? Who knows the best to share with you and in Danish, who knew a diversity? Kayla, do you.

Speaker 1:          08:42          Here we see some more noticeable differences even though the sentences are still really similar. Notice the difference in the world for dogs

Speaker 3:          08:50          who knew, who knew the Swedish word is pretty much pronounced as written, but in the Norwegian and Danish words, some letters are not pronounced and notice the different words for pets. The Swedish word is different from the other two and the Norwegian and Danish words are almost the same, but with a different initial sound and slightly different vowels. Another example, tomorrow I will go to Germany. In Swedish

Speaker 4:          09:16          your computer

Speaker 3:          09:18          and in Norwegian you mourn Scalia Club and in Danish you mourn scaleio to Scotland. In this case, the Norwegian and Danish sentences are basically the same, but the sweetest sentences pronounced a little differently. Again, we hear those hard g sounds which aren't present in the Norwegian and Danish sentences, but again, they're not always pronounced in Swedish either. One more example in English, the party was fun because I liked the music first in Swedish,

Speaker 4:          09:43          that's pretty young

Speaker 3:          09:47          than in Norwegian for the elite and then Danish first show for de Kooning Seton, and these sentences, that preferred word for fun is different in each language. So the word meaning because there's also different in Swedish and Norwegian and Danish. It's spelled the same but pronounced differently and light is expressed differently in all three languages or the ladder with the hard g sound, more like the voice in the recording who newly in Danish. It's expressed in two words. The first one, meaning could the phrase literally means could suffer and listen to the difference for the word for music in Norwegian and Danish. Listen to how the case sound disappears in Danish. And the second was Seton. And listen to the pronunciation of this phrase again. Uh, so the end of the second word seems to vanish. This could be part of that potato phenomenon discussed earlier.

Speaker 1:          10:47          You can probably see just how similar these three languages are and you can probably see how relatively speaking they are easy for English speakers to learn. They are all category one languages according to the American Foreign Service Institute, which trains diplomats for their overseas assignments. None of the North Germanic languages are amongst the most widely spoken languages in the world and people from the Nordic countries generally speak excellent English. So is it a waste of time to learn a north dramatic language? Of course not. If you're interested in the cultures and the history of that region, then learning one of the languages could bring you immense joy and because the three Scandinavian languages are so similar, learning one of them can unlock the doors to the other ones, especially of the written languages, and if you're an avid traveler or you want to go backpacking around the world, then you will probably meet in a surprising number of Scandinavians and knowing their language or even one of the other two languages will help you break the ice and get to know some wonderful and possibly highly attractive people.

Speaker 1:          11:43          And if you are interested in the old Nordic cultures, then you might benefit from learning. Icelandic. Since written Icelandic is still very similar to old norse, so don't hesitate to start learning of the North Germanic languages, which could be your portal into a whole new world. So the question of the day, native speakers of North Germanic languages, what is your experience communicating with the speakers of other languages? Which of the other languages do you understand the most and how do you bridge that communication gap? We'd like to know, and everyone else jump in and leave whatever comments you want. Thank you for watching and have a nice.