Similarities Between Norwegian and Frisian

Can Norwegian and Frisian speakers understand each other? In this episode we showcase some of the similarities and test the degree of mutual intelligibility between Norwegian and Frisian. It should be noted that Frisian refers to a group of languages which are closely related and in this video West Frisian is represented.
We start the video with a list of common words that share the same Proto-Germanic origin, and then we move on to the more challenging part where Tjitske (Frisian speaker) and Luke (Norwegian speaker) will each read one short sentence and a longer one in their respective languages to see how well they can understand one another.
Please follow and contact us on Instagram if you have any suggestions or if you speak a language that has not been featured before and would like to participate in a future video: / bahadoralast
For those who may be interested, Luke will be turning his Instagram page into a learn Norwegian/Celtic language page, and will be giving history and information regarding each of the languages. Here is the link: / amluee
Norwegian (norsk) is the official language of Norway. It is classified as a North Germanic language and the descendant of Old Norse, the common language of the Germanic peoples living in Scandinavia during the Viking Age. Norwegian is more or less mutually intelligible with Swedish, and Danish, which are also North Germanic languages. Other living North Germanic languages include Faroese and Icelandic which are also close to Norwegian, but not mutually intelligible.
All Germanic languages share a common ancestor, known as Proto-Germanic, which was a single language spoken in Iron Age Scandinavia. As one of the main branches of the Indo-European language family, Germanic languages are further split into 3 subdivisions:
- West Germanic languages: English, German, Dutch, Afrikaans, Yiddish, Scots, Luxembourgish, Limburgish varieties, and the Frisian languages.
- North Germanic languages: Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, and Faroese.
- East Germanic languages: Gothic, Burgundian, and Vandalic, all of which are now extinct.
Despite the differences, these languages still share a lot in common, and have a large number of cognates with the same roots.
The Frisian languages consist of a group of West Germanic languages. They are primarily spoken in the southern fringes of the North Sea in the Netherlands and Germany. West Frisian (Frysk) is the one represented here in this video. It is the one with the most number of speakers and has official status is the Dutch province of Friesland where it is primarily spoken. There is also a significant community of Frisian speakers in the province of Groningen.
The other two Frisian languages are:
- North Frisian (nordfriisk), which is primarily spoken in North Frisia (Nordfriesland) or Northern Friesland in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein.
- Saterland Frisian, also known as Sater Frisian or Saterlandic (Seeltersk), spoken in the municipality of Saterland in the Lower Saxon district of Cloppenburg, Germany.

[@BahadorAlast]

As mentioned multiple times in the comments, Luke is not a native Norwegian speaker. When he contacted me to participate, I was fully aware that Norwegian is not his first language. However, not being a native speaker does not mean a person is not suited to represent a language. On this channel, one of the objectives is to promote learning new languages. Luke contacted me a long time ago to participate in a video, he put forward his qualifications and credentials to adequately represent the Norwegian language. Though it was never possible for me to judge his fluently in a language that I do not speak, I did put my trust in him and the official documents that certify the completion of his training. He has worked very hard to get to this point and I applaud his dedication. So please, keep that in mind as you comment! Hope you enjoy the video! Please follow and contact us on Instagram if you have any suggestions or if you would like to participate in a future video: instagram.com/BahadorAlast For those who may be interested, Luke will be turning his Instagram page into a learn Norwegian/Celtic language page, and will be giving history and information regarding each of the languages. Here is the link: instagram.com/amluee/

[@monarchyofjackalliancesind3937]

Yes.We enjoyed very much ❤️

[@samspear8772]

It's nice to expand into the Nordic region. Would be interesting to have Icelandic.

[@markomiljkovic1137]

Do a Croatian video with Russian again but just using sentences

[@michaelmcalinden5902]

Do Scots, Frisian and Low Saxon comparison.

[@alirezabeiranvand2984]

@@michaelmcalinden5902 I thought Scots is Celtic because Scottish people are Celtic

[@andreasjorgensen8597]

As a Dane I feel like the natural middle man between these languages.

[@christiannicolasborgenstee3092]

scandinavian languages are all from the same language group aswell so makes sense

[@magoria1382]

I do too, as a swede from scania 😂

[@magoria1382]

Btw people from other parts of sweden thinks people from scania sounds danish Do you think it's easier to understand the scanian dialect of swedish than other swedish dialects? ^^

[@gillmonsta]

I'm not a Dane ok f u

[@hermangalle425]

We have Danish friends. They tought us some danish words like sommerfugl, pinsvin, ruskumsnusk, flauermus(?). We tried them to pronounce some Dutch words liked 'negenennegentig' which means ninetynine. Especially that typical 'g' was very difficult for them. But when we told them that we visited Tivoli in Kopenhagen they laughed at us. They pronounced it as 'Tsjuli'.

[@svenkaahedgerg3425]

It is really nice to hear and see this. I have not heard Frisian before and Frisian sounds like a blend between the Scandinavian languages with some Dutch and German for colour to my ears. A beautiful language. I'm looking forward to hearing more.

[@janvanaardt3773]

I am Afrikaans speaking I can understand most of the Frisian words Dutch is much nearer to Afrikaans than Frisian I find German also a little nearer to Afrikaans than frisian

[@ReneAltena]

Frisian has almost no loan words from skandinavian languages. All the words that sound skandinavian, are from the Dutch language.

[@svenkaahedgerg3425]

@@ReneAltena I do not agree but I will keep exploring Frisian further.

[@svenkaahedgerg3425]

@moi2833 Yes I agree. I am looking though as many versions of the roots as possible to combine the different clues.

[@KibyNykraft]

@@ReneAltena There could be some borrowed words from danish though in the north frisian (west part of border areas of Denmark and Germany)

[@johanbjorkstrom4957]

First of all I want to say Luke you have done well. For everyone pointing out that he is not a native speaker, that is correct, he is not a native Norwegian speaker but then again there are many people in Norway who are not native speakers. Luke has actually done a very good job learning the language because having been to Oslo, I can tell you that many people have lived there for many years and didn't even learn Norwegian properly, realizing that they can manage with English. Same is the case here in Stockholm with Swedish. So good on you Luke! Cheers!

[@kilipaki87oritahiti]

It’s not about him not doing a good job. You missed the whole point of the criticism. And you’re not even Norwegian, so butt out jævla Svenske faen😝 But about having someone who is an actual native speaker representing the language in question. Not talking about ethnic appearance or some other racist bs. There are many reasons why people has lived somewhere for a long time and not been able to learn it properly! Especially if moving to a totally different country, culture and society from your own when old. Even many ethnic white Norwegians suck at their own language!

[@avidavidzada4721]

@@kilipaki87oritahiti Do the Sami people speak Norwegian well?

[@manfredneilmann4305]

Why didn't they chose a native speaker for this task?

[@laurenford9057]

@@manfredneilmann4305 Cause this is not the Olympics

[@AudunWangen]

@@avidavidzada4721 Yes. I don't think you will find many Sami in Norway that don't speak Norwegian. Actually many Sami loose their language, because Norwegian is so dominant and common, and there's few schools that have the Sami as the primary language.

[@BernardBakker]

A funny anecdote, my grandmother was from Frisia, she only spoke Dutch and Frisian, however, she never used the Frisian language, as in the early part of the 20th century it wasn't considered 'done' to speak Frisian. One christmas, she stayed with my uncle and aunt, who also had guests from Denmark. To everyone's suprise she could converse quite well with these guests, she in Frisian and the guests in Danish.

[@aiaesthetics1124]

Thank you for calling it Frisia 😊

[@mankytoo]

Mooie dierbare herinneringen aan je grootmoeder. En ja de Scandinavische taal komt heel dicht in de buurt van het Fries. Ik denk dat juist het Deens ( als verschilt dat niet veel van Noors en Zweeds ) het dichtste bij het Fries komt. Misschien ook doordat een deel van Denemarken ooit toch het Koninkrijk Friesland behoorde. :)

[@VitorEmanuelOliver]

The Frisian flag is so cute with all these hearts in it lol

[@brianlewis5692]

They're not hearts, but are called pompeblêden, that is water-lily leaves

[@sunscream8502]

almost looked edited but it's cool

[@conan4632]

frisian flag is one of indonesian milk brand, lol, yeah, since frisian flag is from netherlands, which colonised indonesia.

[@jangrouwstra3927]

@@conan4632 Over here in The Netherlands 'Friese Vlag' is cream. Is it this same cream that gets exported to Indonesia? Another famous Frisian company is Douwe Egberts; I see their coffee abroad as well.

[@marlieskonijnenburg-ruisch2225]

This was really interesting to see as a Dutch person learning norwegian. Last summer I was in Friesland and tried to read a piece of text in frysian and certain points I could understand only because they were similar to norwegian.

[@lucamara6424]

I’m also a Dutch person learning Norwegian😁

[@KibyNykraft]

@@lucamara6424 My brother has a coffee cup at home where the text is written in frisian from a trip he did through northern Germany and Netherlands. I could read and understand all of it (I am norwegian). But that was a simple text. Some kind of verse. I can only understand 40 percent maybe of the spoken I have heard on the web. But more than in dutch, where the spoken is difficult (the written dutch and german is not so difficult).

[@mysmilesarah]

You are doing amazing work through these videos! I've been watching for a while and really enjoy them.

[@ballantynemoyes8019]

The first word in Frisian was interesting since in Scotland some would say "bairn" for a child.

[@jiros00]

"Bairn" came from the Viking influence. It's barn in Norwegian and Danish.

[@johnnorthtribe]

@@jiros00 and swedish as well

[@jiros00]

@@johnnorthtribe Sure. I didn't mention Swedish because Swedes didn't invade or settle in Britain.

[@dutchman7623]

@@jiros00 Björn Borg conquered Wimbledon... 😛

[@jiros00]

@@dutchman7623 Yes. Won it five times I think. There were actual Swedish vikings of course but they went East.

[@monarchyofjackalliancesind3937]

Very nice, Bahador.Appreciate your work ❤️🇧🇩

[@sintegunnar6651]

Its funny how these languages are so similar. I feel like she would have had an even easier time with the Western Dialect of Norway. I was astounded at how many things she pronounced the same way as I do!

[@ciaranhenderson9464]

In my north east england where im from (aswell as scottish) we also say "bairn" for kid (pronounced like 'bear-n').

[@alexeiabrikosov360]

Is that retained from old English?

[@Jojikiba]

Yes, no one says it down south though. I don't think they say it in the Midlands, or even Lancashire/Yorkshire either right? It's only the very north of England that people still use it, like Cumbria, Tyne & Wear etc.

[@ciaranhenderson9464]

@@Jojikiba i have a few cumbrian/Lancashire friends and I've never personally heard them say bairn before. pretty sure it's just a north east/Scottish thing but i could be wrong

[@ciaranhenderson9464]

@@alexeiabrikosov360 yeah. Another thing I believe Geordie has retained is that we pronounce -er at the end of words exactly like Germans. By that i mean, i don't say bett-uh, butt-uh, weath-uh, but instead bett-a, weath-ah and so on. Believe it's the only English accent to have that

[@Jojikiba]

@@ciaranhenderson9464 Oh right. I just found this on Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumbrian_dialect According to that, it seems they say "bairn" in Cumbria, but I personally have no idea (I'm from Wiltshire 😃). Cheers!

[@abdovideolyrics]

Great video Mr Bahador all the best guys! The two languages are great! And concerning the guys they did such a great job. I like It.

[@Sernik_z_rodzynkamii]

I do appreciate your work, Bahador. Wonderful material! The guys also did it well. The English guy seemed to be a little bit confused but I find it quite cute :) His Norwegian is epic, he's done a great work to get to the point where he is now.

[@ronaldderooij1774]

As a Dutch guy, I understood most of the Frisian and half of the Norwegian.

[@ReneAltena]

That is because all Frisian words that resemble the Norwegian words, were actually Dutch words (exception was 'bern' / barn for child)

[@svenrichtmann6792]

It’s so much easier when you can read the sentence as well. When you only hear it, the pronunciation can mask the lexical similarities. I found words in both languages that are similar in German, but mainly with the help of the text. The words when spoken actually tend to throw me off the trail. Nice video!

[@jheat585]

Ek praat Afrikaans in Suid Afrika en meeste woorde word ook gebruik in my taal maar tog bietjie anders - dit is so interresant 😊

[@mikaelrundqvist2338]

"sv: Och jag talar svenska. Det är intressant att försöka förstå Afrikaans. En: "And I speak swedish. It's interresting to try to understand Afrikaans." A try without google translate: En: "I speak Afrikaans in South Africa most of the words is used in my language but I took a small part of the other (norweigan?) - It's is so interresting". tog = en: "took" bietjie= ge: "bisschen", a bit, anders = "en: "others" Sv: "Jag pratar Afrikaans i Sydafrika och de flesta orden används i mitt språk men förstod lite av det andra (norskan) - det är så intressant :-)" Sv. "Jag pratar Afrikaans i Sydafrika och de mesta orden brukas i mitt tal men tog lite av det andra (norskan) - det är så intressant." Fully understandable but a bit formal and old fashion swedish. With a slight grammatical error in using mesta istället för flesta. In swedish we say "prata" informally for speaking, formally "tala" while danes and norwegians snakker which we retain as slang in swedish as "snacka". I think that prata came into swedish from low german. We both have mesta och flesta. "Tal" in swedish is speach not language but close enough "brukas" is cognate with gebruik

[@fjalls]

@J Heat Jag förstod exakt vad du skrev

[@kr-lp2nj]

Yes afrikaans here and its the same basically Voël bird Skruiwe write Blom flower Hond dog Swart black Tyd time Alot is pronoumced the same as either the norwegian or the frisian. Very interesting

[@soderlund3610]

I'm swedish and understood what you wrote

[@yt-nx1qm]

Afrikaans is een dialect van het Nederlands met een eigen spelling. Groet uit Vlaanderen.

[@annasofienordstrand3235]

The second he said he's speaking "bokmål", you know he's actually a foreigner

[@chuckitaway466]

What would a norwegian say

[@jiros00]

@@chuckitaway466 Vestkantsmål maybe.

[@chuckitaway466]

@@jiros00 it means western edge target?

[@jiros00]

@@chuckitaway466 Lol. No. It means West side standard. It is an unofficial term for how people on the West side of Oslo speak.

[@chuckitaway466]

@@jiros00 thank you

[@elizaa.367]

Amazing job!! 👍👏👏

[@jahanas22]

It was interesting hearing Frisian. I have been learning Norwegian and I understood a lot of it.

[@keanancupido]

Lukeeeee my friend well done. Your Norsk was on point. Such an inspiration for all native English speakers who want to learn another language🎉🎉🎉

[@crossiantos8162]

He’s English? His Norwegian is pretty good being from there I could barely tell!

[@trevkyleaa]

If they had of seen the sentences written down, I’m sure Luke would have gotten more.

[@bjrnarestlen1234]

This norwegian dude should up his game a little bit. I'm aware that you probably are a bit nervous when being filmed, but the way he pronunces dog and guilt in norwegian is actually wrong (if he is talking "Bokmal"), as the d's at the end of those words aren't actually pronounced. So "She" and "Dog" sounds exactly the same. In danish you can just about hear the "d", and in german, it is pronunced with a T. So Dog in norwegian, danish and german respectively would be like this: hun (just as she), hon(d) (danish) and then "hont" (german) (not spelled, the way it's pronunced). Edit: if Luke isn't a native Norwegian speaker, forget everything I said; I think he's doing quite well :)

[@DrGlynnWix]

Could he be speaking a dialect? It seems weird to invite a non-native speaker for one of these videos. EDIT: I've seen several comments now saying he's not a native speaker, and the linked instagram account kind of seems like he's probably English. I have to say, I find it disappointing to invite a non-native speaker to represent a language.

[@nicklasdincer6720]

It is just amazing to see how languages develope!!!!!

[@matanadragonlin]

In Swiss German they say "Summervogel" (Summer bird) for butterfly 😃

[@80snewwavemusic-synthpostp80]

Unfortunately I have been depressed for several years but I love seeing people who are so happy. They are cute 😊 (and he's nice 😏😄)

[@BahadorAlast]

I hope you feel happier through this process as well.

[@80snewwavemusic-synthpostp80]

@@BahadorAlast It's ok, thanks 😉😊

[@Idonious]

Love this comparison! Frisian is intriguing to a native English speaker like myself, and I found myself making, in my mind, educated guesses as to what the words meant. What I love most however, is to see a fellow Englishman do so well with a Scandinavian language. I'm self taught in Swedish and have been learning for more than ten years. Sadly I don't have a certificate like Luke has, but it's still nice to see. I checked the link to his Instagram, and he's also from Birmingham, same as me!

[@svenkaahedgerg3425]

A certificate can be useful but it doesn't take anything away from you and your knowledge that you don't have one. I'm Swedish and I think that it is great that you chose to learn our language. If you travel here you will probably have to tell people that you want to speak Swedish though since most Swedes will want to practice their English with you.

[@ILOVEDAVIDCAVAZIS]

So, he’s from England

[@peteymax]

That’s great that he worked towards fluency in a foreign language.

[@Baduri89]

Interesting! I’m half Swedish, we have distant German from the Frisian islands and I also have Norwegian. So very interesting, thanks for making the challenge!

[@isabellabosch148]

So many words we also have in Afrikaans from both sides. Vugel - Voel / Guilty - Skuld / Blom is flower / Skruiwe is to write / Tyd is time / pragtig is beautiful or wonderful all very similar!

[@quintenmantez6934]

This is funny and interesting! Nice video!

[@BinneReitsma]

As a Frisian I thought I knew some Swedish but Norwegian is a bit easier except for some words. Great video!

[@cw4karlschulte661]

Emotial to hear these two. I am half ostfriesich via Texas and half Norman. Emden and Stavanger. Sea captains, stea & sail and cowboy rancher army officer. Dad spoke Old Friesian at home but hochdeutsch in school in Texas. Later English and Spanish. He passed long ago. Mother, aunt, uncle, grandpa, nane and gr grandpa all spoke riksmal and nynorsk. We belonged to Sons of Norway. All gone. I am 78, but it was like being a boy and hearing their voices. Tesekur ederim Bahador beg. Dostum. Allaha ismarladik. Karl/Kadri. Radio wa2kbz at y

[@AlphaChinoz]

What's that you wrote at the end? Looks like Turkish or something, or were you attempting to write something in Frisian or Norwegian? By the way, Riksmål (which I guess technically now is Bokmål) and Nynorsk are written languages, you can't speak them.

[@Nabium]

Dude Luke did so good in guessing those words that sounds similar. He must have an ear for language. Norwegians learn to decipher language because we had to constantly do it when we grew up with dialects, Swedish and Danish, so for someone who learned it later it's impressive. Does he have an Irish or Scottish background, where he is used to interpreting different dialects? The one cognate he missed was prachtich, which is prektig in Norwegian. While pracht is prakt in Norwegian. But that word is not used so often now a days, a lot of Norwegians would not get that either. Ferbyndt really sounds like the Norwegian word forbinder, but forbinder means associate. So I thought she said "eleven cities that is associated with ice skating", but that turned out to be wrong. The one thing though, most Norwegians will know the Dutch by ice skating seeing how they have been beating us in that sport the last 30 years or more, so that's the one thing most Norwegians would have gotten but that's not due to the cognates or language, but due to cultural reference. So yeah, I think he did better than most Norwegians would have done honestly. The weird thing is the one little mistake that was made in the text. Which he corrected. The text said "mange dyr [...] på jord" which means "many animals on earth", while he said "mange dyr [...] på landet", which means "many animals [...] in the countryside". You could also say "mange dyr [...] på land", which means "a lot of animals on land". But yeah, the text did not make sense, because it says there's a lot of animals on earth in Norway. The earth is not in Norway, so that doesn't make sense. So he actually corrected that. If he found that sentence somewhere else, he basically corrected a native Norwegian on the fly.

[@SteveWilliamsD]

So cool to see such similarities in these languages! I'm an American, but know some Icelandic and a little German. So surprised I was able to understand so much of both!

[@KibyNykraft]

A trick is to learn førøyskt. (Torshavn/Faroe islands, in danish Færøerne) If you learn it pretty well you will understand pretty much of norwegian, swedish afterwards and probably a good deal of frisian.

[@BrazilResearcher]

You are unique, because most people in the United States don’t know a second language.

[@SteveWilliamsD]

@@BrazilResearcher 1 in 5 Americans speak another language. Only 20% are learning a new foreign language. Knowing that we are not in Europe, seems pretty good. Don't hate!

[@lani6647]

It’s interesting how all these Frisian words could also be used in English, but would sound very archaic. Bern: Born, as in Firstborn, literally first child. Svart: Swarthy Blad: Blade of grass Skuld: guilt Hund: Hound Vogel: Fowl

[@sungod86]

Also noticing Friesland's closeness to Denmark, the Danish word for dog is written "hund" but pronounced "hunn" just like in Frisian.

[@robinviden9148]

I would pronounce it hunn in Norwegian as well. I honestly don’t think many Norwegians pronounce the d in hund.

[@michaelrasmussen6405]

In Danish you can hear the “d” in hund. Otherwise it’s hun = she. The two words sounds differently, but hard for non native speakers to hear

[@hemmper]

"Hound" is a word in English which means dog. More specifically hunting dogs I think.

[@sungod86]

@@michaelrasmussen6405 I'm not a native speaker but my father was Danish so I'm fluent in Danish. Well in a way you're right, the "d" morphs into the "n". But a foreigner learning Danish would probably just say "hunn".

[@tuborg38]

Here in the innland Norway central Norway we pronounce the word hund. An example would be: e går på tur med hunden (hundn) min 🙂

[@axisboss1654]

I guessed Skuld was guilt because a lot of times German has sch for Nordic/Frisian sk and the word in German is Schuld. It helps when you know about Older Germanic Languages and their sound shifts.

[@KibyNykraft]

Yes. In Norway now it is pronounced shyll. In some dialects they will say "skülld"/"skoolld"

[@hannofranz7973]

I'm German and a bit familiar with low German ( platt ) and have picked up a few words of Frisian in my life, some of them by living in Scotland thirty years ago. Now I'm learning Dutch. There are so many ways to approach.

[@quovadis5172]

Afrikaans: Bern - kind, svart- swart, roppe - tou, blad - blaar, skuld - skuld (skuldig), hund - hond, fûgel - voël, blomst- blom, skriuwe - skryf, tid - tyd. Afrikaans is the second word for either the Fries or Norwegian.

[@mikaelrundqvist2338]

Swedish: Bern - barn, svart- svart, roppe - ropa, blad - blad, skuld - skuld (skuldig), hund - hund, fûgel - fågel, blomst- blommor, skriuwe - skriva, tid - tid. Swedish is the second word for either the Fries or Norwegian.

[@quovadis5172]

@@mikaelrundqvist2338 That’s awesome. There’s a lot of similarities in the root of the words, across all the language’s. I spent about two weeks in all of the Scandinavian countries, but it seems that the pronunciation is very different, so I could necessarily understand. But the written text always gave clues as to what was written. Goeie naand van Suid Afrika. ( Good evening from South Africa)

[@mikaelrundqvist2338]

@@quovadis5172 God kväll från Sverige (Good evening from Sweden)

[@libertyjustice1620]

If they had been able to read the sentences they would most likely have been more accurate as both languages have some striking similarities in their written form.

[@honda_prod_2145]

as a dutch i could understand most of the words that both of them said!

[@finnhauge2535]

Norwegians pick up Dutch fast, and vice versa. Luke speaks perfectly Norwegian

[@corinna007]

I could actually understand quite a bit of this one! 😁 I've heard that Frisian is related to my family's Mennonite Low German. I'd love to volunteer for one of these videos if I was better at speaking it. (Also, still hoping for a video featuring Finnish at some point. 😅)

[@Weda01]

That's true, the Mennonites are actually called after a Frisian named Menno Simons (Minne Simens in Frisian).

[@corinna007]

@@Weda01 I know about Menno Simons but I didn't know he was Frisian. 😅

[@Weda01]

@@corinna007 He first was a Roman Catholic Pastor in the Frisian town of Witmarsum where he was also born.

[@hemmper]

(Finnish is almost a linguistic island a.f.a.i.k., except maybe Estonian and a bit Hungarian)

[@corinna007]

@@hemmper I think there are some smaller languages in Russia that are in the same language family, but Finnish and Estonian would be the most likely comparison for a video like the ones Bahador makes. (I don't speak Estonian but I can speak some Finnish, and the little bit of Estonian I've heard/read is really close.)

[@user-zh7yr1up8g]

Good job Luke!

[@servantofaeie1569]

ooooh yes this is going to be awesome!

[@1234smileface]

Finally a Scandinavian language

[@hamzehshashaa2659]

Bahador and his cute people👌 nice video😍

[@NKKBerlin]

As a German, frisian was quite easy to understand. But of course I could read everything... 😂

[@Wearldsproake]

Very interesting! I'd like to propose a test between Norwegian and Low Saxon, another language of the Netherlands and Germany. Norwegian borrowed like half of their words from Low Saxon in the Middle Ages and it would be nice to see how much we would still be able to understand each other.

[@PeterBuvik]

Specifically someone from Bergen

[@SebHaarfagre]

"Like half of their words". Interesting. Can you link a source to this claim? I know the Hanseatic League brought some mutual influence, but "half their words"? Damn. Maybe my historic sources are wrong. Edit: Also interesting how you refer to it as a "language of the Netherlands and Germany" considering I believed it was non-extant. I need to check this up.

[@ReneAltena]

Indeed. There are much more similarities between lower saxon dialects and scandinavian languages, than there are between frisian and scandinavian languages

[@joelmattsson9353]

@@SebHaarfagre the influence of medieval low german on scandinavian was extensive, yeah. "like half" is obviously hyperbole, but low german was helped by the fact that the languages were already incredibly similar, so that incorporating low german terms into your speech took little effort and was often understandable even to people unfamiliar with low german; it's the same reason old norse influence on English was so extensive. An example from swedish, because that's my language, is the word for human. "människa" is a loan from medieval low german, but the native word also persists, which is "männska", which is often percieved as a rural pronounciation of människa but is actually the native cognate. Important to note is that medieval low german was a much different language than modern standard german, or even modern low german.

[@tonegrail650]

I propose a test between low Saxon, and Frisian and old english (with Simon roper).

[@tomrogue13]

I really can't wait to learn Frisian. Just need more time

[@trwijbenga]

De tiid hâldt gjin skoft

[@sandraspruill4831]

❤ this!!!

[@CirclesForever]

The first example was very interesting to me, as in the regional Scottish dialect of English, "bairn" is one way to say child (plural would be "bairns")

[@happyspanners]

It’s the same in North Eastern English dialects. Pronounced pretty much exactly as the Frisians do.

[@KibyNykraft]

@@happyspanners Ironically in Norway we usually use "unger" and "ungar" (oungerr, oungarr). (Children). "Barn" is mostly used in a sort of formal language or/and in the west Oslo and Drammen areas. But even they occasionally say unger. The NG in norwegian is more like one sound. We call that a "diftong".

[@Ian-dn6ld]

Think of things left over by Viking conquests. The history of the dialects is actually fascinating imo 😅

[@wozman93]

I was lucky enough to grow up bilingual; Dutch and English with my Dutch family all being Frisian. My degree was in German and Spanish and I chose to study Norwegian in Germany. To date, Norwegian is the easiest language I’ve learned because I had the knowledge of a few “cousins” to lean on. Beautiful video!

[@laurensvisser6476]

Norwegian is in my opinion the easiest language

[@ReneAltena]

The cousin to lean on learning Norwegian is Dutch, not Frisian... Dutch is way more like Norwegian than Frisian is.

[@wozman93]

@@ReneAltena I didn’t say Frisian was the only one did I, I said “a few”? To me it was more so a case of “if it doesn’t mean X in Y, then X might be similar to Z”.

[@KibyNykraft]

@@laurensvisser6476 Yes, it's because modern-day written norwegian since around the 1600s have been very influenced by latin, german and danish. With a simplified grammatical system. The really old norwegian would be more of a monster to learn :) The old swedish even worse.

[@laurensvisser6476]

@@KibyNykraft you mean Sami?

[@aphexon.]

Should probably tried that with a native Norwegian, I got it all..

[@boniibobo8189]

In swedish we have a older word rarely used more than maybe in nice sounding essays / texts i know of similar to prachtich : "praktfull"

[@dri_him]

Or simply "präktig".

[@Helgardt6189]

Of pragtig in Afrikaans.

[@davidjenkins7784]

@@Helgardt6189 or pretty in English.

[@zeyadyahya1180]

I just already guessed skrive cause it's like scrivere in Italian which means to write as well 😄😃 so that's cool.. Good video 👏

[@dan74695]

We got "skrive" from Latin.

[@JClaytonUK]

Just like in English script and scribe 👍

[@KibyNykraft]

Modern norwegian for example "informere" / italian "informare"

[@trwijbenga]

They seem to really like each other 😁

[@dymytryruban4324]

In Lithuanian "berniukas" means boy. The root sounds quite similar to "barn" in Scandinavian languages. Suffix "iuk" is gently small form and "as" is masculine nominative. "Antra" - second. Interestingly, in Russian "другой" means (an)other, in Polish, "drugi" is second, but in Swedish "andra" means both.

[@hamudiel1110]

And in danish it’s ‘Andre’ with a strong french ‘r’. Which means an(other)/others too

[@KibyNykraft]

During the medievals Latvia and coastal Lithuania had a gothic language, which was a kind of ancient eastern nordic also used in parts of Poland, Denmark and Germany. Many human names and area names in the Baltics, Scandinavia still have a gothic touch to it pretty clearly. The last of the gothic languages was spoken as late as the 1600s in Crimean Peninsula (by a group of Ostrogoths).

[@pindsvinen9384]

Haven't read all the comments so may be repeating what others have said. But I would point out that several english dialects have some words that are obviously connected. For example in northern england and scotland mountains are "fells", valleys are "dales", streams are "becks" children are "bairns" and they "laik" (play) the weather can be murky and there are probably many other examples.

[@marchauchler1622]

The words you mentioned definitely resemble (low) German and Dutch cognates...

[@dri_him]

That sounds really swedish. We have both Fjäll / Berg for mountain. We have Dal for Valley, Bäck / Ström for Stream, Barn for Children, Lek for Play, Väder for Weather..

[@BertHaerens]

I've been learning Norwegian for a while now and I have really noticed some remarkable similarities between Norwegian and West-Flemish, my dialect. Seeing how it is that part of Belgium that is connected to the North Sea and maybe is the shortest distance to Great Britain, it wouldn't surprise me that there were interactions which spilled over some language. It might be nice to do such a comparison video, to see the few parts where it is more Norwegian than it is Dutch.

[@KibyNykraft]

I worked in Norway with some belgians who spoke what we call "flamsk" with each other. This is somewhat easier to understand than dutch and german. Something to do with the accent. I didn't hear so many sounds from the throat :) :) Unlike the dutch

[@BertHaerens]

@@KibyNykraft Indeed, Flemish mostly has a softer 'w' and 'g' compared to Dutch. Flemish can, however, change quite a lot in just a few kilometers. Not every Flemish person understands every other Flemisch person, so it's even hard for us :D We do have this kind-of-official Flemish, but it's only for media purposes or talking to people from other regions.

[@frodehagen8690]

Luke speaks very good norwegian.. :-)

[@IsMiseLucas]

Tusen hjertelig takk Frode. 🥰

[@keanancupido]

@@IsMiseLucas Hiii Luke it's meeee. Well done broo🎉👏🏻

[@perberger809]

Except for "blad", where he added a -t sound. Blah is how we say it.

[@frodehagen8690]

@@perberger809 And some say blad, eg on the west coast.

[@KibyNykraft]

@@frodehagen8690 My one grandmother said (in Norway) "sitter & bler" (looking/skimming though the newspaper)

[@joansmith69]

To be fair, "skuld" would be the correct spelling of "skyld" in Nynorsk (New Norwegian), so if Luke had been using that, he'd nail that right out of the park first try I think!

[@dan74695]

"Skyld" er òg tillate på nynorsk, men det er frå dansk.

[@Leon-jp7ch]

"Ny-Norsk" how ironical. Nynorsk goes far back, at least to the time of the Viking. Nothing new about it. Nynorsk Faroese and Icelandic are extremely similar. Norwegian people do not really understand their own language anymore, and more tragically. They are ashamed of it for some strange reason. They literally makes fun of them who speaks strong Nynorsk dialect such as Sogndal and Setesdalen Just to mention a few

[@joansmith69]

@@Leon-jp7ch It's an uphill battle to use it as your main written form, but we who use it seem to be a tightly knit group. You sort of have to take a stance in language politics if you decide to use it. I wouldn't say we are made fun of as much, but sometimes urbanites try their utmost to not meet us half way, that's for sure. I speak a very broad and old Telemark dialect, and we have almost no representation in the cultural mainstay. Too few of us to make a dent in the majority.

[@Leon-jp7ch]

@@joansmith69 Broad Old Telemark dialect is Beautiful. Be proud of it.

[@syntaxerror8955]

Would have been easier with a Swede: skuld

[@tenzin682]

My mother's maiden name is Swarthout. And yes, my ancestors were from Groningen. I'm becoming very proud of that. They helped establish New Netherland before it was New York. My ancestor that came here Tomys Swartwoud, was Frisian, his wife was Norwegian.

[@DutchKC9UOD]

My grand parents were freesian, what is the term for using a long pole to cross the canals? we did that as kids around the canals draining the corn fields in the USA i can no longer speak it but could understand 90% of what she was saying? brings back fond memories of life on my grandparents farms

[@gvis3880]

It's called firljeppen

[@Sungawakan]

No problem at all for a German who learnt both Danish and Dutch at least in the written form

[@LB_die_Kaapie]

As a South African i could understand 80% of the Frisian and like 30%-40% of the Norwegian lol

[@yt-nx1qm]

Afrikaans is 95% Nederlands 👍🏻

[@hugobenitez1441]

Wow id love to do this😍

[@jonaberge9695]

Yes, it seems that the languages has a lot of similarities. Proabably very easy to learn the other from the basis of one.

[@parallax_6162]

In northern england and southern Scotland children are referred to as bairn. Nice connection to bern

[@dan74695]

Might be from Old Norse.

[@ginginitonic]

Can you try to arrange someone in West-Flemish and Norse? They look similar as well.

[@KibyNykraft]

We only have written accounts from the norse, since it is very old. But I guess it's accent was somewhere inbetween rural scandinavian and modern-day icelandic. I am pretty sure that the norse must have had a strong emphasis on all the syllables of the words and an equal sound pressure on all the words of the sentences, since this is still done among elders in rural parts of Norway and Sweden. But in icelandic, english and more modernized norwegian dialects it has become more customary to fade out the sound in the end of a word or sentence. One exception is Oslo where one instead moves up in the end of all sentences even when not asking about something.

[@user-tf5qr7fy2i]

I enjoyed watching your video 😊. I must say that you both did well in guessing, also taken into consideration that Luke isn't a native speaker. Will check out some more of your videos. There are still a few more words that a native speaker of Norwegian possibly would understand, such as the Frisian word "prachtich" that in Norwegian would be "prektig"/"praktfull". Differing between adjectives such as opp/oppe, ned/nede, inn/inne is something that probably can be difficult to non-native speakers, but "opp" indicates a movement, while "oppe" is static. "Opp i fjellet" and "oppe i fjellet" are therefore not the same thing. Å gå opp, or: å være oppe. "Land" and "landet" can in some cases be used to describe the same thing, while in other contexts not. "Dyr på land" would indicate terrestrial animals, refered to as "landdyr" in Norwegian. While "dyr på landet" would indicate countryside animals. I think Luke tries to say that: "In Norway we have many forests and many different animals in the sea, on land and in the mountains. It turns out as "on the countryside", this is a possibility, but be aware of this difference as land and countryside doesn't equal in Norwegian as it is used here for this particular sentence. So no slash between the two. The use of the adjektiv "up" is incorrect. It also isn't needed, to say "up" in the mountain, and it isn't used "down" in the ocean in the same sentence. If still wanting to use "up" then it should be "oppe" instead of "opp". The word "jord" in the subtile is not what Luke says and this word is incorrect in this connection. If wanting to include the word "jord" it needs to be together with "land" as the word "landjorda/"landjorden", or it would mean (the) Earth or soil, and not referering to Norway in particular or the animals living exactly here. I would stick to the word "land". It was fun to see many equal words between our two languages. Great job.

[@aparupduke]

Got nearly all of them correct, have been learning German for sometime now...

[@AngelOfKawaii87]

Enjoyed the video,its funny that Children in Norwegian is Barn,in Sweden it is also Barn,and Iceland is almost the same,there it is called Barna

[@hathi444]

In Scots we call children bairn. 😊

[@AngelOfKawaii87]

@@hathi444 nice,almost the same

[@adityaanantharaman7963]

That was great! 😀 With the help of English and my limited knowledge of German I could pick up many words.

[@servantofaeie1569]

same but i have limited knowlege of almost all major Germanic languages, modern and ancient.

[@rovcanada1]

I was amazed that as an English speaker who loved reading Chaucer at school, I was able to 'guess' many of the Frisian words.

[@Sydebern]

As a (west) Frisian, i would like to see a video like this with a real Norwegian guy (or girl). I learned some Norwegian myself and years ago i went to Norway and met with a Norwegian guy i knew online. He couldn't understand my Frisian and thought it sounded mostly like German and i only could understand him speaking Norwegian because i learned Norwegian. The two languages (and also Swedish and Danish) obviously are quite related, as you can see in this video. But it's not like they are mutually intelligible.

[@rolfjohansen5376]

Norwegian (bokmål), reading Frisian is like reading a old remote dialect, where I fell like I kind of am almost there if I just get a few hints ....

[@compier12]

Frisian and Norse Viking often came together. For trade but also because one Viking king ruled Frisia for awhile.

[@nimmen]

Frisian coins (sceatta) from 1000-1300 years ago were found on the British Isles, Scandinavia, along the rivers into Europe, along the North Sea and Baltic Sea coasts and into modern day Russia.

[@lazlow9640]

Students of Middle English songs and text should certainly know Fugel as Fugheles from the song "Mirie it is while sumer ilast" which was the only word I recognised from this video ;)

[@albertrynkowski3599]

Afrikaans really helped me with this one.

[@TomWaldgeist]

The frisian in my area Schleswig-Holstein seems to have a very different pronounciation. The frisian in the netherlands sounds very dutch influencerd

[@trwijbenga]

Even within Friesland there are a lot of differences in pronunciation.

[@TheMichaelK]

Hint: Dutch was also influenced a lot by Frisian and has a Frisian substrate. The North Frisian in Germany is surely also influenced by Low Saxon, Standard German and maybe Danish.

[@lani6647]

in Scottish Bairns are children as well, as well as in old English.

[@MrNicopa]

And Geordie

[@rohitchaoji]

I think it's due to the Norse rule of Northern Britain for a while. There are some words in the local English accents/dialects in North of England and Scotland that have Nordic roots.

[@boringpolitician]

@@rohitchaoji - True. Since Hjaltland (the Shetland islands) are actually Norwegian, no wonder a lot of Norwegian has affected the language in the area. That's also where the name "scouse" (short for lap-skaus, lapskaus is a mixed dish of various) comes from.

[@rohitchaoji]

@M.L I don't know why I never made the connection between "barn" and "born". That makes a lot more sense now.

[@languist]

This comparison surprised me as a Norwegian :D

[@kilipaki87oritahiti]

Just realized Luke is probably British due to his accent. And the problem then besides mispronunciation, is that he thinks in English, not Norwegian, which affects this challenge a bit, as to how he will manage to recognize and understand words. It’s easier as a Norwegian as we have the cross cultural references as the majority of us are familiar with German. Most of us learning it in school at one point. That or French, besides English. I was fluent. But now lost it all as I never used it. Also in Norwegian, except with certain dialects, we don’t pronounce the last letter/sound when it comes to certain words: Dog: “hund” pronounces “hun”. The letter -d is silent. So you will only know the difference depending on the context. In some dialects (west coast/western Norway) they say hund as “hond/honda/honden”, if not mistaken. Sundmørsk - Sundmøre… Even for many Norwegians it’s difficult that the written form isn’t the same as the verbal form. Remember my brother while growing up, would always be corrected on this by my mom who used to be a Norwegian language teacher for those learning Norwegian as immigrants, before being put in their respective classes after their language level, and age. When I went to school we weren’t allowed to write how we’d speak it. This was in the 90’s and 2000’s, being a real Millennial hahaha. But now days I believe they aren’t as strict. Also because kids now days speaks way more English in their everyday life, and mixes that in with Norwegian, like a fusion due to being exposed to more English through social media, games and movies/music etc. They are basically bilingual at an early age… then again English is our 2nd language😝🤷🏾‍♀️👀

[@davidkasquare]

I agree 👍🏼

[@davidkasquare]

I also realised, that at least in some cases, it would’ve been easier for us Swedish speakers with the Frisian, especially us Finland Swedish speakers as we kind of pronounce all vowels and consonants of the words …

[@sungod86]

Interesting (I'm Swedish) I always should the "d" in Norwegian "hund" should be spelled out and not silent. But then it's just like Danish where the "d", just like in hund, often is silent.

[@KibyNykraft]

@Prof. Spudd That was in the old days. Now the kids learn mostly american english. From mass media, but the teachers are also now affected by that. The more UK english teachers in Norway are retired now...

[@SpriteCranberry6699]

​@@Prof_SpuddAt school yeah, but school isn't where most kids learn English anymore.

[@ElTompito]

9:18 Lúd means goose in Hungarian...and the gooses are very loud... :-)

[@HeroManNick132]

In Bulgarian (written as лют) means something hot/spicy. 😂

[@prospektarty1513]

barn/Bern is still used in Scots as bairn for child and in Northern English dialects too. it is Anglian and Scandinavian in origin. Child/children is West Germanic and related to Dutch and German words for child Kinder/ kinderen.

[@KibyNykraft]

I remember seeing the scottish town name Stenhousemuir, which sounded more like norwegian than english to me :) In norwegian it would have been Steinhusmyr. The bog with stone houses.

[@DeviDeer]

Im German who lives next to the Netherlands. I taught myself Norwegian (also quite good nynorsk). And i instantly understood the Frisian words :D

[@TheMichaelK]

Do had wul meist ouk eynfak platdüütsk vöär langt

[@memsom]

The funny thing is all the words, except possible skrive, are still in English, but some have changed meaning slightly. Hound, tide being two that are more specific.

[@anonymoususer1224]

"Skrive" has cognate in English as "scribe".

[@memsom]

@@anonymoususer1224 which I think comes from Latin, the English native is shrive/shrove, as in shrove Tuesday. Svart has the dialectal swart, but more commonly swarthy.

[@anonymoususer1224]

@@memsom Norwegian "skrive" is cognate with German "schreiben", which probably has same origins as the English "scribe".

[@dan74695]

@@memsom It is from Latin. Norwegian alsp has "rite"/"rita".

[@TheSeNaBi]

Nothing is English

[@AdaKitten]

10 minutes in. "Lyden av fugler i luften er praktfull." Not that dissimilar, I feel. Granted, it is easier to read Frisian than to understand all of it by the sound of it. For me, I should say.

[@miewwcubing2570]

I speak Dutch English Norwegian and German ( at least of the Germanic languages ) so I understood it all

[@ramondenhartog8730]

forskjellige in Dutch is verschillende, it actually sounds a bit similar :) This was cool. Many similar words but then when it comes to full sentences its mostly completely different xD

[@CrippleX89]

Forskjellige is one of those rare words that’s actually easier to understand when you hear it rather than when you read it because it looks different but sounds quite similar to our word: verschillende.

[@dutchman7623]

I thought of: verscheidene. German: verschiedene.

[@dri_him]

Interesting, in swedish "different = olik (unlike)" while "skillnad = difference".

[@fartreta]

4:00 in Swedish it's "skuld", pronounced as in Frisian. "Guilty" is "skyldig" though, with a more Norwegian like pronunciation.

[@fartreta]

@Prof. Spudd yeah, we (including myself) have that notorious "sh" [ɧ] sound. It's roughly like trying to blend "h" and "sh" together, as the IPA symbol hints. Northern Swedes (Norrlänningar), people from Värmland (Värmlänningar) as well as (some) "posh" speakers (e.g. the Crown Princess Victoria) have a more international "sh" [ʃ] sound though and Finland Swedes have a very fronted and thin "sh", like the German "ich" [ç] sound. The Scanian "sh" sound is the same as German "ach" [χ] sound. All in all, the pronunciation of "sh/sj/sch/sk/stj" etc vary a lot in different Swedish accents.

[@dan74695]

It's actually "skuld" in Norwegian as well.

[@fartreta]

@@dan74695 is it like "skuld" = debt, "skyld" = guilt? (In Swedish it's "skuld" in both cases)

[@dan74695]

@@fartreta They're both "skuld" in Norwegian as well.

[@dutchman7623]

@@dan74695 In Dutch guilt and debt are: schuld. Guilty is: schuldig.

[@mankytoo]

Leuk stel zo samen. Zo lekker enthousiast ook beide. Super mooi om te zien. En ..... Frysk bloed, tjoch op! En Tjitske, Sa leare wy wer wat :)

[@rudiknol3912]

And in Netherlandish, I try to avoid the confusing English word Dutch and also my regional language Drents as part of the recognised language Nether Saxon, these words are almost the same. Skriuwe, Schrijven (Dutch), Skriev'n (Drents) or It lud fan de fugels yn de loft is prachtich, het geluid van de vogels in de lucht is prachtig/het geluud van de veugels in de locht is prachtig.

[@Leon-jp7ch]

This was pretty interesting. If this young gentleman had spoken the dialect around Karmøy, the similarities would have been even closer. I would argue that Dutch and Faroese are even closer than Norwegian [Bokmål] which basically is Danish. In Faroe Islands they say [Tvey hundra] which means two hundred. I can go on and on.

[@dutchman7623]

Dutch: twee honderd where twee sounds like English tway.

[@Leon-jp7ch]

@@dutchman7623 exactly the pronunciation of Tvey or Twee is 100% the same

[@dutchman7623]

@@Leon-jp7ch An Iranian co-worker was very surprised to discover that the Dutch word and the Farsi word for 'daughter' sound exactly the same.

[@haraldbuseth1995]

@@Leon-jp7ch In my vicinity there is a dialect where there are three words for the number two: Tvo, tvei and tve depending on if it is two males, two females or one of each.

[@nativespeaker8712]

Their faces even similar to each other, like sister and brother)

[@davidkasquare]

Yeah, the eyes are so similar

[@joelkaplan5011]

All white people look the same to you?

[@dutchman7623]

@@joelkaplan5011 You'd better ask their father.

[@fadjeja3141]

Both have Good facial forward growth, probably breastfed for long time 🤷 (mike mew, growing your face)

[@hemmper]

@@dutchman7623 Mothers are usually better at knowing such things ;-)

[@DanSolo871]

I got Bern/barn because I watched a video on the Scots language and they say bairns for children. I also got fugal/fugl as bird because I associated it with foul and I probably recall it from German class 34 years ago

[@AlphaChinoz]

I was very surprised and became interested in Frisian/Dutch when I watched the Belgian Netflix TV-series called "Undercover", as a Norwegian. Frisian/Dutch are one of the languages I haven't really been exposed to, and I love learning so I thought I'd give the series a try - exactly since I knew next to nothing about the Dutch-speaking world. I was almost at a loss of words, for how many similar/shared words there are, and especially how similar the pronounciations were! I never had a clue... Even this one phrase/saying they said a lot was "You know what?" which sounded almost identical to "Vet du hva?". When I heard it I believed it was written almost the same way, but it's something along the lines of "Wet jij wa?" And the way Frisians pronounce "Paid" which is "Betalt". It almost felt like I was watching a Norwegian show at times, I love finding these lingual and historical connections!

[@ole7146]

The main reason why the Scandinavian languages share many similar words with west Germanic languages is due to the significant influence from low German during the 1500-1600 and it is also for the same reason that Icelandic and Faroes maintained closer to our original common language, as they didn't get the same influence as mainland Scandinavian. South west Jutish and north Frisian actually have a very similar soundscape and share even more words that are the same due to the influence on one and another, as they've both been spoken on each side of the border for hundred of years.

[@libertyjustice1620]

In Swedish the word "präktig" ('grand', 'fine' most likely from the German "prächtig") is probably cognate to the Frisian "prachtich", and perhaps also to the English "pretty".

[@TheMichaelK]

But Swedish vocabulary is much more often from Low Saxon (Low German). That’s the language people in Germany wanted to wipe out (ausrotten) after the fall of the Hanseatic League and in many parts of Northern Germany they successfully did so. Actually it’s estimated that about 50% of Swedish vocabulary was borrowed from Middle Low Saxon.

[@Sydebern]

As a (west) Frisian with quite a bit of understanding of Norwegian, Swedish and Danish, i think that Swedish sounds most like Frisian of those three, although Danish probably is most closely related (due to the geographical location probably).

[@KibyNykraft]

@@TheMichaelK I almost suspect that since old rural swedish in the north and in Gotland 100 years ago was quite different than today's swedish. In a way it resembled to some degree frisian and rural central and Vefsn norwegian (including the classic Jemtlandish, which was norwegian until it became a part of Sweden)

[@NathaliedeJong]

Prachtig means beautiful.