Germanic Languages Comparison

Germanic Languages are spoken natively by a population of about 515 million people and by 2 billion as total (natives and second language speakers) around the world
In this video we have a comparison of Germanic Languages
English 0:00
German (Deutsch) 0:24
Dutch (Nederlands) 0:47
Swedish (Svenska) 1:16
Afrikaans (Afrikaans) 1:47
Danish (Dansk) 2:14
Norwegian (Norsk) 2:37
Yiddish (ייִדיש) 3:01
Luxembourgish (Lëtzebuergesch) 3:30
Icelandic (Íslenska) 3:57
Faroese (Føroyskt) 4:22

[@emmanuelmartinez-zuviria5785]

When she said “øtëgærûqžčmnœ” I felt that

[@umbrellastation25]

Ok ese

[@lordvoldemort5725]

umbrellastation25 What?

[@umbrellastation25]

Lord Voldemort just making fun of the Chicano about his inability to comprehend Germanic languages. Why?

[@lordvoldemort5725]

umbrellastation25 Oh okay. Why what?

[@gorgar6059]

Did you say Fluggegecheimen?

[@winniethepootietang6152]

I didn’t hear the Icelandic because I was distracted by the legendary footage of Boris Johnson tackling Japanese children

[@Threezi04]

I thought it was him!

[@mariogonzalez4928]

Lmao

[@OnlyGrafting]

Next it'll be an array of european children.

[@mateusalbuquerque2582]

@@OnlyGrafting But only blonde ones, to remind him of the good old Home Counties

[@chitreshmahendran7401]

Uh dont you mean FUCKING SLAM HIM INTO THE GROUND SO HARD HE SENT HIM TO THE 7TH DIMENSION

[@gagetolinwrites6845]

As an English-speaker, Dutch is like the uncanny valley of languages

[@rugiiman8917]

Irish is worse. They speak it with an English accent but all the phonemes except for /x/ are kind of the same. It’s a mess.

[@humbrix-allaboutthebuildin7891]

Try Scouse its not even legal tender

[@slyasleep]

@@humbrix-allaboutthebuildin7891 Hey, I love my high-pitched brethren!

[@MatiasDypala]

@@rugiiman8917 Irish is not a Germanic language, is Celtic.

[@WarriorofSunlight]

Wait until you discover Frisian.

[@bronson4574]

As someone from Brazil, I understand: Dutch: 0% Danish: 0% English: 0% Afrikaans: 0% German: 0% Yiddish: 0% Norwegian: 0% Swedish: 0% Luxembourgish: 0% Faroese: 0% Icelandic: 0% I am deaf...

[@pattypixel5851]

underrated comment

[@gabrielgoes5357]

Lol

[@sbug65]

yes officer, I found the best comment

[@helloworld0911]

...written in English

[@Wahrheit_]

​@@helloworld0911he's deaf

[@randomcomment7675]

To me as a German, Luxembourgish sounds like a really really drunk Grandma.

[@aliasDonaldDuck]

In der Tat

[@Liproqq]

Zu viel Kölsch

[@joshina4497]

To me as a german with a father living in Luxemburg, it sounds like... Home ♡

[@mxrsExe]

Random Comment Karin ritter haha

[@Sorstalan]

Afrikaans was like Dutch on downers.

[@PixelBytesPixelArtist]

danish sounds like a german trying really hard to learn chinese but they just can’t

[@danielled108]

Exactly!!!

[@Kayloow]

@@Drikkerbadevand omg I found u here again

[@LCNfootsoldier]

Fuck you beat me to it

[@Paxicology]

omgg

[@Nightshadow12]

As a German I agree

[@Tomungru]

It’s weird that as a German speaker, I understand Afrikaans better than I could understand Dutch despite the fact that Dutch is so similar to German.

[@chemicallifeblog]

Nachvollziehbar 😂 die niederländische Schriftsprache versteht man aber ganz gut, finde ich.

[@The_uglybastard]

Afrikaans is older Dutch so thats why

[@Laksamdotcomspecial]

Im afrikaans and i understand dutch but i dont inderstand a word german

[@arolemaprarath6615]

On nac, di kon osspionerto in da palas in hogplas de konagland-rik vin Frankrik and Doshlandrik. Der, ereen fond a svart kat, ereen bang. Ereen atalefall, ten, nin, ottach, sefn, six, fif, vour, tri, to, on, ereen lep vegi.

[@willek1335]

I think it's similar in Scandinavia, where every country, including Iceland, understand Norwegian, but they often struggle to understand one another.

[@woodwardscreditcard7482]

As a Swede i understood: 1: 100 % Swedish & Enlish 3: 95% Norweigian 4: 25% German 5: 5% Icelandic / Farsoe 6: 5% Dutch 7: 4% Yiddish / Luxemburg / Africaans 8: 0% Danish

[@user-zr9fw4nv2s]

"As a Swede i understood: 8: 0% Danish" Вы смайлик забыли поставить. ;)

[@dorte3791]

I’m Danish and i can hardly understand her she’s talking super fast and is kinda mumbling Norwegian is much easier

[@tobiasa9071]

​@@dorte3791I swear the Swedish chef in the muppets is actually speaking danish

[@slyasleep]

😏

[@alistairt7544]

😂😂😂

[@Daniel-mr3bi]

Dutch sounds like they're speaking backwards

[@marvellara-4084]

Hahahah why?

[@robertvillena6164]

Hahahhaha

[@LandelRey]

It does sound like a bunch of gibberish edit: nau 😭 I posted this way back when I was still on my cringe phase. I don't dislike Dutch, I love Ajax 😍

[@canuck21]

@Lara It sounds like when you're rewinding a video with speaking parts.

[@trentbacker9562]

They sound like they have a mouth full of wall nuts.

[@erichherb714]

As a german native speaker I understand german quite well!

[@HeroManNick132]

The floor is made out of floor lol

[@jovanfisher3072]

Water is made out of water OMG

[@KnocksSchiller]

BLASPHEMIE!

[@user-qy3vl2rb6n]

As a Dutch native speaker i understand dutch very well!

[@jo_240B]

See, this is why I fucking love Germans.

[@TheFearlessDave]

As an Afrikaans & English speaker - I find Dutch similar to a way a modern English speaker hearing Shakespeare for the first time. I understand the words, but the pronunciation of it and the way it is used in a sentence sounds like someone saying "Alas, I shalt be venturing off thine vicinity to proceed to mine humble abode" instead of saying "I'm going home" lol

[@Baker92849]

That exaclty the opposite how Afrikaans sounds to Dutch natives. It sounds like simplified Dutch with less internationalised words. And some words in Afrikaans are not Dutch, but Low Saksen.

[@TheFearlessDave]

That's so cool - I just went to check it out and understood a lot of what the guy in the vid said. Thanks for the info

[@MSS47Ag]

As a Dutch person, the only language that sounded really foreign and unknown was Faroese. To me it sounds nothing like other Nordic/Scandinavian languages, but actually closer to a Celtic family language.

[@Olole]

That's interesting you would say that, seeing that celtic monks inhabited the islands before the norse and lived somewhat side by side for a while. Celtic ancestry is very present and even some of the words are of celtic origin, such as "dunna" which is duck. In the other nordic languages it is and or anka. Some of the islands even retained the celtic names such as the two dímun islands. Very sharply noticed.

[@haraldsigurdsson1232]

Im Norwegian and to me it sounded like Norwegian that i should be able to understand but still cant understand anything. It has the same tone and flow as Norwegian. Its strange because i have heard Faroese spoken before and then i understood like 95% of a 5 minute long conversation but i couldnt understand a single word this woman was saying. Maby its a diffrent dialect or something.

[@Zapper1993]

@@haraldsigurdsson1232 Yeah, it was like hearing someone nearby speak Norwegian. You can recognize it from the tone, but you are too far away to make out the words.

[@jarl8815]

@@haraldsigurdsson1232 Yeah, as a swede I could understand some words. It's hard but not that different.

[@weepingscorpion8739]

@@OloleThe Celtic (specifically Goidelic) influence on Faroese is a bit overstated but it is true, there is some influence there. The word 'dunna' is under dispute these days but other words which are definitely from Goidelic, i.e. Old or Middle Irish are: tarvur, grúkur, drunnur, ærgi, and some personal names like Kjartan and Njál(ur).

[@livebullshitygamer5468]

When she said “Arbeidsongeschiktheidsverzekering” I felt that

[@derkateramabend]

Livebullshity Gamer Isn’t this Dutch for “Work-related carelessness insurance”? I’m German, and I recognized some words

[@livebullshitygamer5468]

Richard Walter yes

[@blacat2168]

Jiaxu Yu Or in German "Arbeitsungeschicktheitsversicherung" (word by word of course) They are really similar for real!

[@e.abrahamovich8981]

😭😭🤣

[@beluwuga2573]

Arrbeisongschiktheidsverrzekering

[@mayoneso7393]

Romance languages speakers about themselves : *Lmao I can understand what this guy’s saying* Germanic languages speakers about themselves: *U sound like a “insert nationality” trying to speak “insert language” with “insert accent” and also drunk*

[@willrichardson519]

Alcohol is a feature in higher latitude countries :-)

[@DeVocthcKa]

Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Galician speakers talking to each other cheerfully Catulunians enter the chat: "I'm sorry what?" French enter the chat: "I'm sorry WHAT?" Occitania enter the chat: "I'M SORRY WHAT" Romansch enter the chat: "Now that's just German" Romanians enter the chat: "..."

[@captainbarbossa5325]

Fuck yea. No brotherhood among Germanic peoples. Each one is just a bigger bastard than the other 😂

[@andreaw2053]

... I... I literally said exactly that to my boyfriend like a minute ago...

[@lepeangel3700]

Andrea W what do u speak and what does he speak

[@ElectroPunk79]

As a German I can only understand Yiddish very well. I'm very confused how Faroese sounds so different from other Scandinavian languages. Sounds so smooth like farsi.

[@FrozenMermaid666]

What ns - Faroese sounds smooth like the other Germanic languages, not Farsi, pfff! Unless Frisian was misspelled because the name also starts with an F! Do hum’ns even understand what smooth means LMAO! Farsi is an Arabic language! Arabic languages and Chinese / Korean / Japanise and Turkish / other similar languages and most languages spoken in Africa etc and most languages are just so unrefined and unpleasant-sounding and have mostly non-pretty and funny / ridiculously funny words with repetition of the same syllable aka poorIy-constructed words, and are the exact opposite of smooth!

[@FrozenMermaid666]

Norwegian is a truly smooth language, even smoother than Faroese, without the TH sounds - almost as perfect and refined as Dutch & English (despite the TH sounds, which should be pronounced like a normal D and T etc) which are the best languages ever! Modern Dutch & Modern English (and then Modern Norwegian) are the most refined and the most poetic and the prettiest languages ever, with the most logical patterns and rules qua word construction and letter combinations and pronunciation and grammar etc, which give words that perfect flow and harmony! And, one should read the actual words, instead of judging the language based on a video that doesn’t use a speaker that can actually enunciate and pronounce the words clearly and not speak fast / too fast etc, and should try finding videos with speakers that speak properly and clearly and not fast and that have a good-sounding voice, as it’s always the speakers’ fauIt, not the language’s fauIt!

[@FrozenMermaid666]

Dutch sounds so epic - it’s a perfect language, like English, and is perfect for lyrics and poetry and songs, for example, the Flemish / Dutch versions of the songs that have the hunchback from Notre-Dame in the title, and the versions of the Frozen songs and Vaiana songs etc, Boos Op De Wereld etc! And Norwegian also! There are Norwegian versions for most of those songs as well, which show how refined and smooth Norwegian is - one should never judge the language by the tone of the voice of news ppl selected for such videos, instead of selecting the right vocal samples that have a good-sounding tone and a soft and warm and high voice with a clear sound! Do hum’ns even realise that it’s the speaks’ fauIt if it doesn’t sound ‘smooth’ or whatever, not the language’s fauIt!

[@FrozenMermaid666]

And most voices aren’t a pretty voice with a soft and smooth sound, so one has to try finding vocal samples that are actually good-sounding, as the vocal samples selected in such videos just don’t do it justice, and if one’s voice has a non-pretty tone or intonation or speaks too fast and mumbles etc, most are going to think it’s the language that doesn’t sound good, because most know nada about pretty words and pretty languages and pretty sounds or great and logical pronunciation rules and good letter combinations, and most don’t bother reading the actual words and trying to find proper vocal samples that show how pretty Germanic languages are!

[@FrozenMermaid666]

We waren in Eden . . . We vallen naar beneden . . . Een eindeloze vrijeval door de lucht . . . Daar heerste de regen . . . Zoals de eerste dag van lente . . . We wachten af voor hoelang hij duurst . . .

[@85Pushead]

As a native Afrikaans speaker fluent in English and Swedish and studied German at University for 4 years I can safely say that Danish is the most unintelligible of all the Germanic languages (even for native Swedish and Norwegian speakers). Not sure if most Danes understand each other to be quite honest...

[@antohein.]

We don't. My family is from Køge (Zealand) and last time I was in Aalborg (Jutland) I thought I was in a different country for a while. 😂 Took a bit to get used to the way they speak.

[@noelsamson876]

it sounds like English left the Germanic nest a long time ago and flew far far away

[@elbowache]

Some linguists even think it's a creole of French. It's a lonely little language, no siblings to play with. So, it went out into the world and made everyone else speak it!

[@EbrunV]

yes it did, English was influenced by various languages, espacially French, this is why English has this spelling: you write it that way but read it another way and it doesn't have rules how it is read

[@ammalyrical5646]

It came originally from Old-Frisian (which is Germanic, Ostfriesish is still spoken in Germany). But it has with the Angels, Saxons, Kelts, and then a while later French just partly took it over. I'd no longer call it Germanic,

[@noelsamson876]

@ ammalyrical @ebrun thanks for your insights! it's interesting, too that French and English both have gaelic/Celtic and German elements

[@noelsamson876]

@elbowache it's interesting how that developed. English is fond of borrowing from other language and very open to outside influence and it ended up being almost the lingua franca of the world right now

[@leea8706]

As an English speaker Luxembourg’s sounds like someone speaking German and French at the same time while not being very good at either.

[@leea8706]

Local host yeah I suppose that is true, it’s just harder to hear it that way when you speak the language.

[@MarkDDG]

That's just what I thought 😂

[@wietzevanderwijk3169]

As an German and French speaker too

[@jorbennoten9536]

I don't hear french

[@joelt.7493]

As a Luxembourger, yes.

[@cufflink44]

One of my Yiddish teachers, the late, great Pesach Fiszman, was also a wonderful storyteller. He would tell us students about his speaking engagements in Germany, where he would entertain German-speaking audiences with his stories, speaking to them only in Yiddish. He said the Germans had no trouble understanding him. I've alway wondered, though, if he consciously tried to avoid the element of Yiddish vocabulary derived from Hebrew and Aramaic, which would be unintelligible to German speakers.

[@matthewl6700]

He would've had to avoid them if they understood him. The beautiful thing about Yiddish is that there are both Germanic and Hebrew/Aramaic words for most things (though a Germanic term might be much more commonly used than a Semitic term and vice versa). So depending on how much a Yiddish speaker wants or doesn't want a German speaker to understand what they are saying, they can adjust their vocabulary accordingly. Yiddish can range from a 10% Semitic vocabulary to 50% depending on what the speaker wants.

[@chinesespeakwelsh]

My teacher told me there are Yiddish speakers who prefer to use more Germanic words and grammar. Fraynd instead of khaver for instance

[@ZenoDiac]

Shout-out to retired news reader, Riaan Cruywagen (Afrikaans). What a legend. Everyone in South Africa recognizes him.

[@heinoobermeyer7566]

As a Afrikaans speaker, Dutch is how i imagine a doctor's handwriting would sound

[@viii7258]

As a dutch speaker, afrikaans is incorrect broken dutch

[@demanofall]

Yea, if dutch is what a doctors handwriting sounds like, than Afrikaans is what babies speak.

[@_nycollee]

Afrikaans seems like flemish

[@viii7258]

@@_nycollee flemish speak dutch with a baguette in their mouth

[@VRBLNSLT]

Afrikaans is old Zeeuws, thats why it sounds somewhat between Flamish and South Hollandish.. its one of the most fun and easy dialects to speak as a Dutch tho... when your drunk

[@Jojo-lr5yc]

Why does Swedish sound like 📈📉📈📈📉📉📈📈📈📉📈📉📈

[@davidhildebrandt7812]

Because it uses tonal stress marking

[@Neophema]

@@davidhildebrandt7812 So does Norwegian. :) The other Germanic languages don't.

[@zenith8417]

Different pronunciations mean different things. It's kinda like how the English use tonal changes to show emphasis or sarcasm, but with the pronunciation of the word making the definition entirely different.

[@haitike]

It is called "pitch accent" if you are interested in looking at it on internet. It is used in Norwegian and Swedish but not in other Germanic languages. It is used in Japanese too.

[@itzminka]

i so love that about swedish

[@stephanledford9792]

As an English speaker, I was able to pick out some of what the Dutch and Yiddish speakers were talking about but was pretty well lost with the rest. It would have been interesting to include Frisian, which I think is the closest Germanic language to English, although not spoken by many people.

[@atrixcanada7204]

I'm actually learning Dutch! I can understand a super tiny amount of it. A lot of the comments I agree with, it sounds a bit like english but backwards

[@Slobber88]

Swedish sounds like the speaker is surprised to find a particular syllable there about every third word, but just continues speaking.

[@Brakvash]

To be fair she sounds surprised even to Swedes. She uses the "should it be like this?" tone of voice. It might be more pronounced in Swedish.

[@AslanW]

As a swede, I can tell you we don't talk like that normally, just like brits don't talk like BBC news anchors. The cadence and tonality is very exaggerated.

[@carolinaklint9004]

That's just how a lot of news reporters talk. It's not how swedish usually sounds

[@Slobber88]

@@AslanW That's too bad. I think Swedish is the most beautiful of the Germanic languages, especially because of that uppity cadence.

[@emilfalk561]

Yeah swedish newsreporters has a very special candence when speaking

[@nilalee7416]

For me, as a German, everything just sounds like german with a wierd accent.

[@Argos_RB]

Well, it’s surprising I know, but they are called, Germanic languages, they all pretty much stem from one very old language, and grammatically it seems German or Dutch is closest to the original, being someone who can speak a fair amount of these, It seems like German is the base, and other Germanic languages have taken different parts of German, and left out others, like English turned “der, die and das” into “the” but another language like Danish just left that out entirely

[@Magnus_Loov]

@@Argos_RB Not sure if German would be a better candidate than other Germanic languages besides it is actually called "German". They all, including German, come from a common proto-Germanic "ancestor" and split up into different branches (Northern, Western and Eastern Germanic). Over the years the different "Branches" on that language tree have changed a lot. If anything, the language that has change the least is actually Icelandic that have changed much less the last 1000 years than other germanic languages and that could probably mean it could be closer to the old Proto-Germanic language than modern german.

[@drakevevo3710]

@@Argos_RB no they all stem from old norse, in which case north germanic languages like danish norwegian and swedish are closer, icelandic being the closest. the western germanic languages, english dutch and german are slightly different, although english has the same sentence structure as northern germanic but dutch and german have their own.

[@Alexander_01]

@@Magnus_Loov The German language and the country Germany is only called "German" (from the word "germanic") in the English language. In Germany our language is called "Deutsch", which is basically the same word as "tysk", I guess how you would call it. The English word for it would be "dutch". This is pretty interesting, because you can see the similarity between Dutch and German there. I think German is quiet an interesting language in the Germanic branch. It sits somewhere between English and Dutch on the other side and Scandinavian on the other side. Luxemburgian and Yiddish are basically just German dialects btw

[@Magnus_Loov]

@@Alexander_01 Gernan as a language is called"Tyska" in Swedish. A german is called "Tysk". On the other hand we have a name for the collective folk group that historically existed in the whereabouts of what is now Germany and that is "Germaner" (where one person from it is actually called "German"). And we and many others call the whole language group "Germansk" . So there still is the fact that "German language group" is derived from the word "German" for the people who lived in the area which became Germany later on. When it comes to where the German language place in the "family tree" of languages it is made harder to judge by the fact that for different periods of time a lot of loan words were introduced into the different languages. Sweden was very influenced during the Hansa period and the Luther bible period. But later on we were influenced by French and even later English. England were influenced a lot by Danish invaders at that time. To me English feels closer to Swedish in grammar and also some basic words. Dutch also feels closer to Swedish were many very basic words are spelled closer to Swedish. But it is much easier to understand spoken German than Dutch which sounds to slurry. But, yeah, strictly speaking German, Dutch is part of the west Germanic stem. Swedish is part of the North Germanic. So in theory they SHOULD be more closely related. In practice though I am not sure. I mean the same is said for Swedish and Danish in the northern Germanic language group which are said to be more closely related (east Nordic) compared to Norwegian, Icelandic and Faroes, which are west Nordic languages. In practice now in modern time these languages have evolved (or not in the case of Icelandic which have changed the least) so much that Swedish and Norwegian are much more closely related and Icelandic and Norwegian are far, far apart.

[@TalosBjorn]

As an English and German speaker I got a bit of the Dutch and almost all of Yiddish and Luxembourgish. Yiddish sounds more German than Bavarian and Swiss German does 😆😂 also understood a little bit of Faroese and Swedish but Gods above is Danish in a league of its own

[@Celisar1]

For me as a native German speaker the ranking is: German, English, Norwegian (have lived there for some time), Swedish, Yiddish, Danish and the rest just gibberish 😄 But once, after having travelled through the Netherlands for 3 weeks, I remember that I was able to understand quite a lot.

[@dragonslayer10000]

you haven't heard real gibberish if u haven't heard frisian

[@WalterFalter]

Natürlich hat der Hsv verloren, hätte mich auch gewundert

[@lovemore7050]

Oh nein die ewigen Verlierer haha

[@giuliolocke]

Klassiker

[@richardgreer459]

Lol but of course! Aber hier sitze ich als Dortmund Fan und es scheint zu sein dass wir einen Sieg sogar nicht kaufen kann 😭

[@scfog90]

2. Liga ole

[@tonijelecevic4332]

Großer Klub bei dem es gerade nicht so läuft

[@echobless6556]

Danish sounds like she is stopping in the middle of each word.

[@MSETTER98]

(Danish person here) she actually kinda is. There's this specific way that news reporters usually talks, and it kinda sounds like she hasn't quite figured it out yet and therefore there's weird breaks between the words. I think it's frustrating to listen to

[@juliancowell8485]

Lord Taemin Francesco Thanks for clearing that up.

[@AlxzAlec]

Dalongabonk im Danish and i wanna say even to me her voice is pissing me off and her Zealand accent is pissing me off so yes the news people always try to look professional and They Sound like They lag

[@paulbeach8181]

That's how it seemed to me too, and I know no Danish at all.

[@hopesy12u4]

@@AlxzAlec lmao, "they sound like they lag" so true

[@flavoursofsound]

Native English speaker - When the clip transitioned from English to German, I genuinely thought I was still listening to English as I understood “after the first conference in Munich (something something) outland/abroad” at which point I then realised it was German. I find Dutch in a Flemish accent easier to understand than the regular Dutch accent for some reason.

[@DrWhom]

the flemish generally enunciate better

[@mr.coolmug3181]

As an English-speaker the German language sounds the best out of all of them. I don't know what it is it just sounds great 👍👍

[@marcelbork92]

Yes. And that is perhaps because, inspite of some sound changes, its overal character remained nearest to (Proto-)Germanic.

[@sdf6508]

No German sounds the worst to me. So choppy and annoying.

[@mr.coolmug3181]

@@sdf6508 it just sounds more distinct. It doesn't possess the softness of the other Germanic languages.

[@ndie8075]

Anglosaxon

[@ndie8075]

@@sdf6508 sorry for that....😩what can we do...🇩🇪perhaps you love russian...more?

[@sureshnair9427]

- its uncanny - - Dutch sounds like German with an American accent

[@arvedludwig3584]

Plattdeutsch is closer to Dutch than high German, although it's spoken along the coast of the north sea in Germany.

[@karleppo9043]

How is that "uncanny"? Dutch is just a German accent

[@arvedludwig3584]

@Balder Geffen, van having ancestors from the lower Rhein region i can see similarities with your sentence. Dat is het niet = Das ist es nicht = Dat isset nit (Dialekt vom Niederrhein).

[@aarondaniel1342]

Hmm 🤔 vind ik niet...

[@gabrielseaborn257]

To a native English speaker, it sounds like they’re speaking the language with a distorted Irish accent

[@martindouge1947]

As a French who learnt a bit of German, Luxemburgish sounds like a French student putting random words in French in his German sentence because he didn't remember his vocabulary

[@blanco7726]

C’est marrant pcq au lux on fait ca mais avec le luxembourgeois. Si t’oublies un mot en luxembourgeois tu le dis en francais, allemand, anglais, portugais meme dans certains groupes. Du coup on commence souvent des phrases en lux et termine en francais ou l’inverse.

[@janbruggemann5636]

Why did I read this with a french accent

[@martindouge1947]

@@janbruggemann5636 Probably because I would say it with a French accent myself ? :)

[@ddt77ta]

Tip top

[@svenakkessen4690]

Perfect description!

[@fortnitetrashcan8308]

i only speak swedish and english fluently but i can read some dutch and german sentences, and yes other scandinavian languages too (more than german and dutch)

[@olgashati8020]

Люблю немецкий язык, красивый, с удивительной интонацией, произношением t, r.... Очень мелодичный... На слух, фонетически понравился норвежский и исландский.

[@matildas3177]

You really found some of the most depressing news clips for Swedish and Norwegian, both are about different violent terror attacks.

[@kristinnfreyr4931]

the icelandic one was about a guy that got trapped under ice and died.

[@rohitchaoji]

Also one about the plane crash near Moscow.

[@pretty_gay]

They had to take some depressing clips, they could have chosen anything else but they chose some depressing stuff.. *Well isn't that just great!*

[@matildas3177]

@Herr Wolf not here it isn't

[@deivisony]

@@kristinnfreyr4931 I love that little cross you guys have above that D thingy! I have a Icelandic friend that everytime she says thor or R ahe spits in everyone's face. Do all icelandics have this difficult with R?

[@milkycat6901]

Dutch sounds like the Sims language lmao

[@jacqueskibu]

Carter W. It is.

[@fuwafuwamoth]

Stefan Jacques no its not lmfao

[@PrayashLand]

LMAO TRUE

[@mot5919]

Spot on 😂

[@pyropig5369]

Listen to Gaelic... It's spot on Sims

[@Martial-Eagle]

Native Afrikaans speaker here, I can understand Dutch one hundred percent and German 40 percent

[@babyyoda1898]

Me a native german speaker. I can understand Africaans actually better

[@MalakaEnergetic]

Dankie dat jy Afrikaans ingesluit het. Ek is half Afrikaans half Grieks en ek het in Suid Afrika grootgeword. Dit is nie baie dat ek my taal kan hoor nie.

[@bigcheese2128]

Dutch sounds like a German doing an impression of a Sims character

[@julianmalipaard2498]

Stfu Dutch is superior🔥🔥 jk obviously

[@gamingwithpluis1963]

German sounds like Dutchmen doing an impression of a sims character

[@amosamwig8394]

@@gamingwithpluis1963 Dutch sounds like a german with lots of nicotine in his lungs and a heavy voice talking in sims language

[@emilianopaz3805]

lmao

[@lilhotepjesusgrift6669]

Hahaha fuck you😂😂

[@Menxo]

YIDDISH sound like when a drunken russian boy tries to speak german Edit :OMG I NEVER GET SO MUCH LIKES THANKS FOR THAT

[@bilalthefighter829]

@Simon Eminger thats interesting

[@tonijelecevic4332]

Mainly central and eastern Europe

[@Menxo]

@Simon Eminger i know

[@eeaotly]

Menxo Yydish and Afrikaas are the least German...

[@Menxo]

@@eeaotly I know because the colony in southafrica

[@irgendsontyp1302]

I wanted to go to bed one hour before, but I checked the commentary section.😂👍

[@Limubi1]

Crumbs, i was not expecting to see Boris' infamous rugby game on Icelandic news XD

[@rohin369]

dutch is what english sounds like when you’re distracted

[@emjk77]

Nonsense!

[@SpeedBird6780]

Nah, English is what Dutch sounds like when you're distracted by the French.

[@sprachen7122]

Dutch is what an english tv show sounds like when you start playing on your phone lmao

[@emjk77]

@@sprachen7122 You don't know what you are talking about.

[@twosunies]

@@sprachen7122 nah it sounds more like german i don't hear the english

[@jarmen49]

As a German speaker, I can make out the content of Germanic languages if I can SEE the words.

[@Hyblup]

Ich auch

[@luminousmiu]

YEAH SAME

[@zacurragazzo9432]

Ja ich auch

[@freezing5]

Funny how I find it easier to understand Afrikaans than I do Afrikaaners speaking English. Or maybe it is this speaker's exceptional clarity and rhythm?

[@kulturfreund6631]

@@forgotsomething4995 Danish and Norwegian are way closer to Swedish, than German is.

[@EvelinaNinudottir]

Considering there are hundreds of unique-sounding dialects in Norway, it would be fascinating to include multiple examples of Norwegian, just to see which dialects are better understood by which people.

[@jannetteberends8730]

That would be interesting. I know the dialect spoken in Limburg, The Netherlands is wel understood by people from Alsace. While I have problems to understand it.

[@annominous826]

There are actually two on display. The man to the left speaks very textbook Norwegian, and the woman on the right has more of a Western accent. That said, her dialect is pretty mild. In school, we had to have subtitles on some Norwegian movies because some of the dialects were incomprehensible. (Dales, I'm looking at you here.)

[@Starkardur]

I once heard a Norwegian dialect and thought they were speaking Icelandic with a foreign accent.

[@Flippityflap]

Funny the afrikaanse dude said 'die werkers houden voet bij stuk', something like the workers stand their ground. In dutch its exactly the same, but maybe we would have said werknemers (work takers). Also 'nieuwe minimumloon' is exactly the same. Kan tot groot financiele last wezen, en kan tot grote werkverliezen leiden. It's kind of a literal version of dutch.

[@NielsDutch1906]

I’m Dutch and when I heard Afrikaans i was like: WAIT! I understand this! Before quickly realizing Afrikaans is basically old Dutch.

[@pancake_ghosty]

Interesting 🤔🤔

[@francofouche8639]

Well Afrikaans is descended from Dutch and a few other languages so it's understandable

[@bramsteenhoek2674]

@@barrage1308 neen broeder

[@barrage1308]

@@bramsteenhoek2674 nee sorry ik bedoelde dat ik zelf ook zo er over denk

[@DutchMolenaar]

It is not old Dutch but old Zeelandish.

[@Hyperactivi]

Dutch sounds like english with a lot of “ghrrh”, “arghhg” and gutteral “uuhh” put in

[@7211_]

there’s a lot of loanwords, the grammar is pretty similar in some ways and compared to other languages the pronounciation is too! if you can speak German and English you’re already like 50% of the way to knowing Dutch. but yes, we have a lot of those ‘gggg’ sounds

[@ChrisM-bn5vr]

Yeah Dutch is definitely the most similar language to English. I like to imagine that when I hear Dutch it's what a non English speaker hears when they hear someone speak English, without the guttural sounds.

[@tyvamakes5226]

Dutch is the King of England exporting english to the Lowland region via Hanover

[@Wiatr2000]

English is the same family. Created in the end when vikings came to island. So that why for You English sound 50% as German. There so many French and local language 🙂

[@Wiatr2000]

@@ushijimawakatoshi1675 Not realy. I thought that before but now i like it 😁🙂

[@tariqkhader6196]

I'm from Ulster, I'm encouraged by how well I can understand the English

[@Celisar1]

Congrats, your parents must be so proud 😄

[@tariqkhader6196]

@Celisar1 I don't think it's possible for anyone to be proud once they've been cremated

[@ddoyle11]

I found all of these languages interesting, but for some reason, Swedish made me smile. It was very melodic and comforting. She could have been having a rant about something or other, but it still would have made me smile.

[@selmastablum567]

Yiddish sounds like a german movie when your‘re not paying attention lol

[@derpderpington7159]

@Ignatz Rosenbaum Oy vey!

[@transformersloverjon]

It's literally impossible to steal a language. Nobody has "ownership" over a bloody *language.*

[@coolbean9880]

@TheCrazyKid1381 the name literally originated from the german word for "jewish"

[@zaashtill1542]

@@coolbean9880 no it didn't. were do you think the supposed german word "yid' came from. the word origin is from the biblical name judah. And while that may seem far fetched, remember that the "y" sound was switched to the "J" sound. so really the name should be pronounced yudah. It's not a german word that's how the jews called themselves for centuries. Heck jews were the ones who names the language.

[@zaashtill1542]

@TheCrazyKid1381 Where not even talking about converts here. originally the Jews just spoke old German. but as time went by the languages diverted a little bit from each other. also you wouldn't believe how much Hebrew there is in Yiddish. so while it isn't semetic it does have a lot of semetic influence.

[@Dabhach1]

Luxembourgish sounds like German spoken by a French person.

[@xryeau_1760]

I wonder why..

[@eddiepoole]

for me it's the sexiest germanic language.

[@lisadedeus6235]

Hahahah fannen zwar net mee bon

[@areyoutheregoditsmedave]

Ha! That’s what I thought

[@jakobf6165]

I think it's the other way round

[@devonflood8232]

I'm Australian and was studying Russian so I know a little bit and will get back to it, but I love Norweigan, sure German is cool and I want to learn it too but something about Norweigan just takes my fancy!

[@craigrussell3062]

Another one to add would be Pennsylvania Dutch, a dialect of German that has evolved as the first language of American Amish people for centuries. One interesting wrinkle of that is that in my experience at least, the Amish are close to 100% bilingual in two Germanic languages: Pennsylvania Dutch (which they speak at home and with each other) and American English (which they speak completely fluently without much of an accent).

[@EineSchwarzeKatzeMiau]

Dwight Schrute 🫡

[@andrepoiy1199]

Well a lot of them do have a noticeable accent in English

[@Proud_Troll]

Right. I visit them ever few years, and their English accent is pretty much non existent.

[@thelastmemphian]

the Amish i have heard speak have a pretty noticeable accent in English, like they obviously arent speaking much of it outside of their jobs

[@jillmarjeanwagner]

@@thelastmemphian Yeah, I also think they have a pretty strong accent, at least in Lancaster

[@noaemanuels5454]

People: omigod that dutch sounds so rough and guttural Me ( a native dutch speaker): would you believe me if I told you she was actually speaking quite gently

[@MinscS2]

The man sounds like he's trying to hit on someone in The Sims.

[@RedFighterNL]

@@MinscS2 They always talk like that on RTL Nieuws / RTL News 😂

[@wolfhound1452]

Noa Emanuels I am a Dutch speaker, but I learned the dialect of Limburg first. The people of Limburg cannot pronounce that guttural Dutch g. You can always pick us out.

[@anonb4632]

Swiss German is more guttural. But neither compare to the gurglings, hiccups and glottal stops of Arabic, the new lingua Franca of Europe thanks to neoliberal capitalism.

[@wolfy9979]

Daarom is vlaams veel beter :) geen GGGGGG

[@abilea4081]

I finally understand what Swedes and Norwegians mean when they talk about Danish people now

[@bodiller9422]

I feel like everyone of these clips should not say how people talk because in denmark you have very different ways of speaking danish, the way the danish girl said was more like she didnt understand the words and was stopping after each word. They should come up with more exsaples.

[@boahkeinbockmehr]

@@bodiller9422 where were there words in that?! That was just unstructured sounds! Like you begin a word but can't be bothered to say more than a syllable of it

[@bodiller9422]

@@boahkeinbockmehr Man even tho im danish, this laungauge sucks ass. To understand danish you have to learn it of course haha

[@paramaaz]

Bodiller I don’t completely agree trat Danish sucks, but I kinda wish we spoke Danish the way we did 75-100 years ago. There is a clear difference in the way words are pronounced.

[@bodiller9422]

@@paramaaz yeah... i think its called evolution

[@jeannehall6546]

As an English speaker, who knows a little German, I understood, surprisingly, Afrikaans and Faroese pretty well! German and Yiddish I could pick up on a little bit. Frisian, Flemish and Greenlandic should also have been included. There’s also work being done to resurrect Jersey Dutch, last spoken about 100 years ago. That would be interesting to hear and study!

[@tmajec]

“Greenlandic” is more of an Inuit language

[@jeannehall6546]

@@tmajec But it contains elements of Danish.

[@tmajec]

@@jeannehall6546 very negligible and thus doesn’t make it Nordic. I’d rather look at comparisons with some of the first nations in Canada.

[@iberius9937]

Icelandic, Norwegian, Dutch and German are probably my favorites. Especially Icelandic.

[@noifurze6397]

it's wierd but when I'm stoned I think I can understand Swedish

[@edvins8863]

Im swedish and i understand danish better when im drunk 😂

[@LivBD]

@@edvins8863 I am Norwegian. I can understand Swedish drunk or sober. Danish however is impossible to understand, no matter how much I drink!

[@edvins8863]

LivBD you need to drink danish beverages like carlsberg to make it work

[@LivBD]

@Onesie fan ツ Does it work?

[@faithhaddad7650]

Exactly! I always think that if I listen a little harder, i will be able to understand. Same with Norwegian and Dutch.

[@sjuderans7730]

It’s so odd hearing Afrikaans when you speak Dutch. It’s like a drunk farmer trying to speak Dutch, and they mess up the emphasis on the syllables and all. Very uncanny.

[@Cassxowary]

Aedificanus yes, because it comes from Dutch. But it’s evolved slightly differently due to influences from things like german and native South African languages.

[@noahgrxcx6097]

in afrikaans we also have a lot of loan words and vocabulary similarities to vastly different languages like persian, indonesian etc

[@noahgrxcx6097]

Fat Earther portuguese is another! I'm not 100% fluent but my mom's family is and between them and my intro linguistics professor i've heard a long list of languages involved with Afrikaans (please don't call it kitchen dutch lol). It's because of the huge presence of a diverse immigrant population to South Africa for a multitude of reasons spanning from the arrival of the Dutch to migrant workers, economic interests, war refugees etc etc. Just a side note, I'm not ethnically Afrikaner, my mom's family ended up there from russia and iran for a few reasons.

[@aryslav9239]

@Fat Earther don't call it kitchen dutch, please... Its cringe...

[@user-bg7ef4ns4v]

Even as German, I’m hearing the different emphasis.

[@ChadGardenSinLA]

As an American (who grew up in the U.S. Military) in Germany, I can definitely understand Dutch, Afrikaans, and Yiddish pretty well; especially when they're spoken in conversation (vs proper). I think it's because diasporas tend to have a more relaxed accent. Similar to how some Australian pronunciations sound like southern American twang - like when they say "fried rice" ... both sound very rural.

[@JesseLegend149]

You grew up in the us military? How does that work?

[@ChadGardenSinLA]

@@JesseLegend149 Army brat or Military brat are the terms typically used. Our parents are career military soldiers (or DoD civilians) that are transferred from one military post to another. Spouses and children typically accompany them. Military bases are regular communities with all the things a town requires, like hospitals, groceries, schools, daycares, and of course, all the military stuff. When soldiers go to war, they leave their families behind on these military bases. Because of WWII, most bases are in Germany and Japan. That's how I grew up in those countries.

[@BananaRama1312]

@@ChadGardenSinLA its not because of world war 2 although it made it easier

[@margaritaclenow9671]

As an English speaker I could understand literally nothing and I have been living in the USA my whole life. But! What’s funny is that there is a Slavic language version of this video, and as a native Russian speaker I understood a lot of the languages to at least a certain degree. (Czech was the one that really surprised me, I didn’t expect to understand it so well!). It’s funny how Slavic languages are closer together then some Germanic languages are lol.

[@larslars8393]

As a German I understand: German: 100% English: 100% Yiddish: 80% Luxemburgish: 60% Dutch: 30% Afrikaans: 20% Rest: 0-5% Danish: -100%

[@angelogaudino3500]

Ahahahaha Danish is so difficult

[@perthrockskinda2946]

Well, since you are writing in English, I will presume that English is a second Language of yours.

[@euivets2892]

Du verstehst Englisch 100% nur weil du es mal gelernt hast.

[@larslars8393]

@@euivets2892 das stimmt

[@ore_red1684]

Nah its not

[@CatMC_1]

"Germanic languages" German: *Halte mein Bier.*

[@tyvamakes5226]

Danish: hold min øl Swedish: båda borde hålla min öl Dutch: Houden jullie eens mijn gouden bieren in Vlaanderen

[@lorcansnow2111]

Öl is 'beer' in Danish and Swedish as you said (and quite a few other languages), similarly 'to drink' and 'bottle of beer' in Irish (and all Gaelic languages) is ól. Also, drunk is ólta. Interesting because of the sheer distance. Must be a word as old as the Vikings. A lot came to our country centuries ago, only time I can think of it would've transferred. Our word for whiskey is best in the world: uisce beatha (water of life). Update: I googled it. Beer in old Norse was öl around the time of the Vikings.

[@CatMC_1]

Öl? What..? It means "oil" in German Imagine someone saying "I'm drinking oil"

[@lorcansnow2111]

@Gay Thağğ0t CockThrobber There's quite a difference in spelling and pronunciation there though, but yeah it definitely derived from öl as well. The distinction that's interesting I found though is that Gaelic languages which were very influenced by Norsemen didn't change the spelling or pronounciation, whereas Brythonic peoples (British, Breton, basque) whom had less contact with Norsemen have since changed it either slightly or altogether. The countries surrounding these such as Spain, Portugal, France have no word relative to öl at all, so it's clear the term migrated along with the vikings, and stayed unchanged where they had most influence. I'm aware of a few others such as 'trosc' for 'cod' coming from Thorskr. Ispín meaning sausage coming íspen. Long meaning ship coming from lang.

[@dolphinbeta514]

Not funny

[@poopyshinji3047]

swedish person here! i think that dutch and german sound very similar to swedish if you understand swedish. for example: when i was in the netherlands, i seriously thought the atm was in swedish! there are a lot of words that is included in both swedish and dutch. for german, we have a lot of similar words like musik, kunst and konst, sprache and språk, macht and makt, spiel and spel, pronunciation is much more dramatic in german if you compare the words. either way, these languages are interesting and unique in their own ways. and also: i don't understand a single thing the danish say, they just sound like drunk skånsk (people from skåne) people

[@ole7146]

I'm from east Jutland, Denmark and I'm impressed that you don't understand "a singel word" of Danish, but anyway... The main reason why you hear / see words within the west Germanic languages that are similar to Swedish is do to the massive influence Low German had on the Scandinavian languages during the middelages. If that hasen't happend our languages would probally lean more towards Icelandic and Faroese now a days.

[@jenspeterhansen3298]

Mod dumhed kæmper selv guderne forgæves

[@LexieAssassin]

Considering how broken my quite limited German is, I understood quite well. While perhaps not everything, I got the broad sweeps of what was being said. At least in the first part. My main issue other than not knowing many words was just the shear rapidity of the speech.

[@TheNotoriousDUDE]

Damn, I knew Yiddish was a Germanic language too, but as a German, I understood a lot more of it that I would've expected.

[@Der.Preusse]

The language is essentially German but with a Hebrew accent. There are probably some other differences as well but in general that's what it is.

[@roodborstkalf9664]

It's the language of Jews from the Rhineland who were kicked out of Western-Europe in the Middle Ages

[@hashar9593]

@@Der.Preusse actually 40% of it derived from polish and russian so yeah

[@Der.Preusse]

@@hashar9593 where do you get that number? To me as a German it doesn't sound much more different than just another dialect. Swiss German is arguably harder to understand for me.

[@emiratesawesome]

A lot of the vocabulary also comes from Biblical Hebrew (Lashon Hakodesh) and Aramaic. For example, in the video the word for Egypt is מצרים which comes from Biblical Hebrew. Or, there are three ways to say question in Yiddish, one way comes from German, one Hebrew, and one Aramaic. Shayla, (Hebrew), kashyeh, (Aramaic), and frageh, (German). I do believe that about 70% of Yiddish is Germanic, as is the grammar and sentence structure.

[@Raven-ti6tf]

Dutch really out here speaking Simlish like it’s nothing

[@SapientEudaimonia]

Simlish?

[@anglicothemonkey3496]

for the LAST TIME dutch doesn't sound like simlish, English is waaaay more similar.

[@erectustesticulus3191]

Drunk sounding

[@asaasa7900]

AnglicoTheMonkey It sort of does. It's closer to English, no doubt, but it sounds like Dutch to many English speakers

[@CapitalLuke]

@R. DB as a dutch I can agree our language sounds like simlish.

[@yahiaouifedi6263]

I'm an arab, I have nothing related to these languages, but just from listening, the Swidish sounds the most beautiful

[@Inferno.176]

as a german, I can understand yiddish almost perfectly, even better than luxembourgish. also weirdly afrikaans is understandably spoken

[@eemmaa]

What I understood (I’m Swedish) 100% Swedish 90% Norwegian 0% danish

[@mytwocents7464]

How about Dutch and German?

[@rerolledDK]

@M Norwegians and Swedes love making jokes about Danish pronunciation being impossible to understand. If you would like to research this subject more, just paste Kamelåså into the youtube search bar.

[@eemmaa]

Alter Ego I do actually study German in school and could therefore understand a little bit. A few words here and there you know but Dutch. Nope. Didn’t understand anything

[@Marie-du8vy]

ಠ_ಠ It was a joke man

[@adammessina6182]

Emma Carlsson no danish really didn’t know it was that different

[@Bruno-gj4jj]

Dutch is like a drunken Brit who tries to speak german or reversed

[@triplex2912]

What the hell is a 'Brit'!? English, Welsh and Scottish live on an island called Britain! Got it!? Verstehen Sie!?

[@CataciousAmogusevic]

@@triplex2912 u ok?

[@twisted9285]

Triplex 29 what’s your problem?

[@nurailidepaepe2783]

Lmao not in my accent trust me

[@Brooklyn-Manhattan]

@@twisted9285 Triplex 29 doesn't have a problem.

[@eXiLe824]

As an English speaker I found Afrikaans and Yiddish the most similar to our language in terms of general rhythm, cadence and phonology, even if I could barely make anything out from either

[@ShannonTubeYou]

Don't tell this to the ardent Boers, but due to the fact that Afrikaans is in fact more closely related to Frisian than Dutch, that makes their language 'very' closely related to English. Although you wouldn't say so..

[@christoduplessis8177]

As one of those "Boers" who has traveled the low countries extensively, Flemish is far and away our closest language sibling. Durch and Frisian too but I think Frisian relates just because of the German influence on both. We have a lot of English influence in South Africa due to iur Commonwealth history and it makes sense that the tempo of Afrikaans has slowed compared to Dutch to match English more over the centuries.

[@pietro3963]

As a native Dutch speaker, Danish sounds like someone only saying one half of each word

[@pietro3963]

or like someone who is speaking gibberish before having a stroke

[@ElectroIsMyReligion]

- And as a Dane I can say that is my exact same experience regarding Dutch 😂

[@mandibiedermann2246]

@@ElectroIsMyReligion 😆

[@ninobrown8332]

@@ElectroIsMyReligion Word! Dutch is the weirdest language of the lot

[@georgb710]

Weird: As a german I dont understand the Dutch part, but Africaans is actually somewhat understandable. Something about minimum wage and the employers complainging about its financial burden. Yiddish is very easy to understand. Luxenburgish is like someone switching between German and French mid sentence.

[@gevoel8293]

Wow that is correct! Afrikaans actually is closer sounding to German, the Dutch have a strange accent. Afrikaans is like what Dutch sounded like 200 years ago.

[@MrRubikraft]

Your perception of Luxemburgish is interesting, because as a French speaker I understood 0% of it. I understood the german part best (maybe 5 to 10%) because I learned basics of german in middleschool and highschool. Actually, appart from german, I understood 0%.

[@spencerlively3049]

@@MrRubikraft As an American who learned English first and then French in school, I definitely found luxemburgish and then dutch to have the most french influence. But generally it was French that English has loan words for (more so in Dutch, whereas luxemburgish had more french-exclusive words). Oddly those were the words i was able to pick up on more easily than the germanic words close to english. Might be because American English doesn't have much interaction with Dutch or Luxemburgish while France obviously still has an ongoing cultural/demographic/linguistic interaction with both countries that would cause their vocab to be more like contemporary French. I expect I would have an easier time understanding either language written down but I'd still find "toilet" easier to understand than the dutch/luxemburgish equivalent to some germanic word we use more in english.

[@AlineBooneMusic]

@@gevoel8293 I'm from Belgium and honestly Afrikaans accent is close to Flemish Dutch as we here in Belgium use a soft G sound and most of the time softly roll our R's. To me the Dutch often speak with some weird English like R, that on top of the G makes the language sound harsher.

[@bean420man]

I speak both German and English. Dutch is hard to understand when spoken. It is spoken so guttural. I agree, Afrikaans is easier to understand and seems less guttural. Reading Dutch is a different matter though, as it is much easier to comprehend the written Dutch than the spoken.

[@whatthefact502]

Dutch sound like speaking english and german at once tbh.

[@Leo-uu8du]

Then, what does Austrian sound like? Here is an example kzbin.info/www/bejne/pnK2naiPrN9katU

[@xxmemestar69xx82]

WhatTheFact what an original comment

[@kevinpagel2527]

@@Leo-uu8du Austrian is not a Language, it is a dialekt of German, like bavarian for example. If you want to have an example, take low-german, this is an own language.

[@Leo-uu8du]

@@kevinpagel2527 Actually Austro-Bavarian is as much of a language as Low-Saxon (that's the real name). The only difference is that Low-Saxon was made an offical language, because of its recognition in the Netherlands, a lot of propaganda and the resulting political pressure of the low-saxon federal state. On the other hand, there is a lot of counter-propaganda to prevent the same scenario in the south and you are the perfect example that it works...

[@illasra]

how

[@sluggo206]

This is a good comparison. I just wish similar languages like Dutch/Afrikaans were next to each other so it would be easier to compare smaller differences.

[@Kelps_K]

Is the Afrikaans reporter talking about minimum wage, financial situations and woman?? I'm swedish and I think I kind of got that if that's right 😮

[@fredswanepoel2425]

Yes

[@macke9215]

Faroese sounds like someone who is perfectly capable of speaking swedish but has forgetten every single word and tries to improvise

[@MsJeli9]

Hahaha! I was thinking the exact same thing.

[@alex25377]

It's actually the closest to icelandic, for me as an icelander i understand most but it's like a person with problems speaking haha

[@TheHarashi]

I’m Faroese! Currently living in Sweden and can speak Swedish. Most swedes think I’m from Western Norway when I speak Swedish, though😅

[@sigridrp]

Just what my dad said after his trip to Føroyar: «I didn’t really understand what they said, but I could tell they were all westerners!» (we’re Norwegian...)

[@jonebjrheim3148]

@@TheHarashi : Det har blitt sagt i Norge at både islendinger og færøyinger lærer dansk på skolen, men når de snakker dansk, da høres det ut som veldig nøytralt norsk.

[@mathmusic]

Danish is so frustrating.... I am able to understand about 50% reading it. However, when they start to speak I am completely lost!

[@DieAlteistwiederda]

I have a similar issue. I can read Dutch and understand basically everything because I can understand about 80% of the words because they look a lot like German but depending on the dialect I can't understand anything when someone talks to me. I can read all the other Germanic languages other than Islandic and Faroese and understand what is going on but Dutch and Africaans are definitely the easiest to understand. I can understand more spoken Africaans than Dutch sometimes.

[@niko3688]

Same

[@lucifer4263]

MarvelousSandstone true. I had no problems understanding 71 döda i flygkrasch (though it‘s probably not the most difficult phrase) but it was way harder to understand what she was saying.

[@cesarsojo243]

Don't worry. Once you hear it more frequently and get use to differentiating similar sounding words it's a piece of cake

[@floris.927]

mathmusic Same about Spanish and Portuguese, and Chinese and Japanese I guess.

[@max_bershtein]

I speak English and German. I have understood something in Yiddish, Luxembourgish and Afrikaans. Others are too difficult

[@UsoundsGermany]

I am surprised that Nordic languages sound so different to German, but it seems Danish is somewhat simmilar to Dutch. I can read Dutch quite easily as Austrian☺... Groetjes Also the Dutch spoken eg. in Amsterdam is more difficult, but Flemish/Belgian Dutch is easier to understand

[@lovisa5579]

The Luxembourgian lady sounds like a pre-recorded lufthansa message.

[@iloveharrypotterda2831]

😂

[@adrian-lq4xc]

luxembourgois or luxembourgish***

[@satan1189]

ädriän luxemburgois is french. Its luxemburgish or on luxemburgish "lëtzebuergesch"

[@lovisa5579]

Thanks Satan.

[@aniinnrchoque1861]

Des erste mal wo ich wen aus Luxemburg getroffen habe dachte ich die Person wäre aus Berlin Marzahn vom Klang.. ^^,

[@cosmosDiv]

Yiddish sounds like a german grandpa off his meds.

[@ottovonbismarckboi9112]

Sofia Permjakova why not

[@cosmosDiv]

I didn't mean to disrespect the language, just friendly joking.

[@Oongaboongabigfatdoggy]

Ya yem chlen

[@cosmosDiv]

@@Oongaboongabigfatdoggy моя? 😏

[@tijmen1557]

and louxemburgish like grandma off her meds

[@diogovenancio2975]

First time realize that english words is similar than the german's was when I was watching the movie Inglorious Basterds and in the german part a few words in german was very similar than the english subtitles. Glass, word, accent , this words for example.

[@GamemodeIdiot]

as a (flemmish)dutch speaker, danish/luxenbougish/icelandic/ faroese sounded like straight up gibberish. I could pick apart some words in swedish/norwegian, german and english were no issue at all.

[@tomosprice8136]

Dutch is like trying to speak German while gargling mouthwash

[@Nordisk11]

It sounds pleasant to me

[@MeidoInHebun]

I heard a German guy say that it sounds like 'cute' German

[@Tflexxx02]

A drunk Englishman trying to speak German.

[@tomosprice8136]

@@Tflexxx02 Enshuldeegung mate, speken zie Inglish

[@tomosprice8136]

@@arunadegroot8974 he's probably just a sad 13 year old 😉

[@hrolfureyj]

Norwegian and Swedish sounds like someone is trying to sing and speak at the same time

[@elli1327]

the dude 42 hahahahahahah great way to express it

[@TTaiiLs]

ITS because the langusges have tones

[@Centurion101B3C]

What a nice way of putting that.

[@Rose-xe4ct]

the dude 42 That’s a really beautiful way to describe our language. Thank you :)

[@ysteinfjr7529]

We are not trying! That's what we do! Greetings from Norway :D

[@ssangari]

so toll ❤

[@dingus7817]

Regardless of whether I understood or not, each language has its own charm

[@Libroblanco456]

Being a Japanese who totally isn’t of European origin, I felt almost all of Germanic languages had the same tone! Interesting.

[@Ambar42]

A classic phenomenon. As a German who speaks English fluently both languages sound extremely different to each other and the rest of the Germanic languages (with a few sounding more close to German and a few further away). The other ones sound far more the same to me. The better you know them the more you recognize how different they all are.

[@Libroblanco456]

@@Ambar42 Ah I mean, of course every language sounds very differently, but apart from the pronunciation, it seems Germanic languages have a similar intonation when spoken.

[@Ambar42]

@@Libroblanco456 True. We have a strong emphasis on certain syllables and express some sentences in the same way no matter the language.

[@melvinjansen2338]

@@Libroblanco456 えええ本とに

[@luxborealis]

It is because they are all from the same root. It’s much like Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean all sound like they have similar tones, as does most Turkic languages in Central Asia. As an island language, Japanese have a more unique tone compared to other Asian languages due to its isolation, really only Ryukyuan which is similar.

[@LordGingerBerry]

I love how everyone in this comment section is a linguist.

[@volund6280]

Wikipedia

[@sonoftheway3528]

to be fair, the comments section of a video about languages will have a higher percentage of linguists than the total population

[@multisingual1241]

As someone who’s a native Yiddish speaker, high level Norwegian, Swedish and German speaker, and speaks some Danish and Icelandic I found it weird that I understood no Dutch, but some Luxembourgish. Plus the Faroese sounded like Norwegian and Icelandic had a baby together

[@brandywineblogger1411]

Wow! This was extremely interesting. I'm a German- American who speaks German moderately well because of our relatives. I was really surprised at how close Afrikaans is to German. But Nederland Dutch. ..oh my gosh! They sound like they're being strangled. 😕

[@silvervixen007]

Me: *Doesn't know that Yiddish is a language.* Also me: Understands Yiddish 🧐

[@user-vr4qo5hj7y]

nani

[@someoneirrelevant1518]

@@J.T... tatsächlich eher andersrum, es war mal eine Art deutscher Dialekt mit hebräischen einflüssen. Aber es gibt tatsächlich auch Worte im deutschen, die von dem jiddischen beeinflusst sind. Sprachen sind echt interessant.

[@ryhanzfx1641]

Well its just germans with hebrew influence in it, in fact most of vocal words are just germanic, its just the written that are hebrew

[@rainerwahnsinn9585]

sounds like old-german,you understand 90% but 10% of the words you don´t

[@zaashtill1542]

@@ryhanzfx1641 Yes, you are correct. But when you said "most" vocal words it only means "most" since there are still hundreds of hebrew words in yiddish for example the famous "chutzpah" or "shiksa". and that's why yiddish wordwise is more different to english than german. there are words in yiddish that allows you to use the german word or the hebrew word for example the german word for "end" is "ende" almost the same but in yiddish you can choose between the german word "ende"or the Hebrew word "suf".Then there are words that only have the hebrew word for example the word "object" is in yiddish "kheyfets" and no other word.and not to mention that yiddish has little bit of Slavic influence as well.

[@toyotatacoma1616]

I can’t tell if Afrikaans sounds beautiful or if that dude is just a really good speaker.

[@harryturnbull963]

Both! Riaan Cruywagen is an Afrikaans cultural icon, an almost mythical figure of pristine character and etiquette. The national news anchor since the invention of the television, for nearly half a century, hardly looking a day older than when he began. A living SA legend. He is THE benchmark for refined Afrikaans language and character. Not every speaker aspires to this refinement, but name a language where that isn't the case...

[@FedoraNation]

Both

[@MissMoontree]

To me it sounds like a lazy version of Dutch; softer and missing a couple of letters, but still comprehensible.

[@Calv-tb1bx]

Hello from south africa

[@thebergbok8279]

@@harryturnbull963 For modern, urban, commercial Afrikaans usage listen to Ryk van Niekerk on Finansie"le Focus program, RSG radio, Mon-Fri, 6 to7pm local time (SA). A good update .Charl van Heyningen for refined enunciation without an attitude.His background Radio theatre & opera.

[@elforeigner3260]

A lot of words are recognizable to me, in a similar way a lot of words in Portuguese, Catalonian, French, Italian and Romanian are familiar to me! I speak Spanish and English so I have a linguistic base for TWO families: Latin and Germanic. From what I hear, we haven’t evolved that much since the Yamnaya took over Europe in the Bronze age!

[@dreamdancer8212]

As a german I remember switching into some crime movie on youtube and watching it for about 2 or 3 minutes before I realized that although it sounded so familiar to me I didn´t understand a word. I was so totally confused why I couldn´t understand what the people were saying that I even turned my volume higher. The language turned out to be flemish. It was a weird experience.