Swedish vs Norwegian vs Danish (How Similar Are They?)

[@BahadorAlast]

Swedish, Norwegian and Danish are to a large extent mutually intelligible, but there are of course differences that make them distinct from one another. The degree of mutual intelligibility also varies depending on the dialect, and, in addition to that, the similarities/differences can differ based on written and spoken forms. Hope you enjoyed this episode! If you'd like to participate in a future video, please follow and contact me on Instagram: instagram.com/BahadorAlast

[@arexta153]

At times the definition of what consists of a dialect and a language is political and noting more.

[@honhon252]

Hey Bahador , Can you please make On Similarities between Bahasa Indonesian and Malgasy

[@mytube001]

The main barrier to understanding spoken Danish as a Norwegian or Swede is the Danish pronunciation. Many consonants have been reduced to a glottal stop, there is plenty of elision and assimilation, and several vowels have distinctly different values than in the other Scandinavian languages. In terms of sentence structure and words used, Swedish and Danish are significantly closer than Danish and Non-Bokmål Norwegian or Swedish and Non-Bokmål Norwegian are.

[@franzaepinus2498]

@@honhon252 Malagasy speaker would be very difficult to find

[@honhon252]

@@franzaepinus2498 Malagasy can be found in Madagascar

[@Ulvestorm]

Thank you for finding a Norwegian who's knowledgable about Nynorsk and dialects. Such a breath of fresh air.

[@alexeiabrikosov360]

The guy in the Norwegian and Icelandic video was good too.

[@Ulvestorm]

@@alexeiabrikosov360 Yeah? I'm so hesitant to watch these videos because I expect the Norwegian representatives to be a certain way. Appreciate the recommendation!

[@andurk]

Thanks Alecsander, happy to hear that you liked it.

[@alexeiabrikosov360]

@@Ulvestorm You're welcome. That was a good video because the Icelandic dude (Gabriel I believe is his name?) was very good as well.

[@willum4629]

as a dane its insane how well i can read your language on text

[@MrBern91]

I feel like, as a swedish person, that the language barrier is only in the pronounciation. :P Looking at the sentences it is quite easy to get what they're saying, even if one or 2 words are pretty distinct from one-another. But it is really easy to puzzle it together and make sense of these words only by contextualizing. :) And me personally can apply this strategy to other languages as well by comparing and looking at cognate words.

[@spacetraveler974]

Are you swedish?! Me to:)

[@ventaliq]

@@spacetraveler974 they said they are

[@elzippies]

im Swedish too, in swedish this message is: "Jag är svensk med."

[@spacetraveler974]

@@elzippies yeah, and in swedish. My last comment means: är du svensk?! Jag med:)

[@elzippies]

@@spacetraveler974 Oops jag råkade skriva "are" istället för "är", jag fixade det nu :V

[@martindegn690]

The trouble with translating between these three languages is that we have so many cognates that are used differently in each. So in must cases you can translate word for word and still understand what the phrase means but it's not necessarily how a native speaker would phrase it colloquially

[@Schinshikss]

We are facing similar situations between Mainland Mandarin and Taiwanese Mandarin. Some words, phrases, and sayings are used quite differently and there are points of contentions on which ones should be the correct word usage such as 品質 ("quality" in Taiwanese Mandarin; but would have meant "exalted personality" in Mainland Mandarin) vs 质量 ("quality" in Mainland Mandarin; but would have meant "mass" in the physical sense in Taiwanese Mandarin). And it should be noticed that both Mainland Mandarin and Taiwanese Mandarin are only standardized and formulated less than 100 years ago.

[@shar3066]

@burteriksson I understand pretty much written and spoken, if they speak slowly like here

[@shar3066]

But the danish is a lot harder. Norweigan and swedish is more compatible

[@juliav601]

@burteriksson Actually, as a swede it’s much easier to understand norweigan when it’s spoken, but it’s easier to understand danish when written.

[@shar3066]

@@juliav601 I dont feel like that but its prob because im half norweigan

[@NorwegianNationalist1]

FINALLY a guy from Western Norway in one of these Scandinavian videos, thank you so much. And finally a guy who knows his own language ahah

[@laurenford9057]

I agree Anders is very sharp and knowledgeable.

[@andurk]

Thank you, I appreciate to hear that :)

[@sadxmee]

Shut up

[@loskillo]

I remember my relatives in Østfold going ”uh-uh, we don’t understand those westerners either”

[@tuborg38]

Western Norwegian dialects are a lot harder to comprehend than Danish, and Swedish. I come from the central parts of Norway (the innland) i must add that listening to westerners speak irks me real bad.

[@violawarming7254]

I speak and understand Danish fluently, so this was so fun to watch. I usually find it difficult to understand Swedish and Norwegian orally, but the captions underneath I can understand word for word. They are all very similar in written form, but differ drastically in pronunciation. This was a great video!

[@nikolajbjersing4179]

Yeah

[@hazum101]

Yeah! I’m Swedish and to test myself, I covered the caption when the Danish person first spoke her sentences. I couldn’t understand any of it haha but when I read the caption I understood everything 😆

[@natashacallis2736]

kommer du fra Danmark? Jeg kommer fra England, taler engelsk og tysk men jeg lærer dansk

[@antonmurtazaev5366]

​@@natashacallis2736 меня удивляет, что моих скромных познаний английского и немецкого хватило, чтобы понять всё предложение.

[@samspear8772]

Scandinavian languages are so fascinating. They have so much in common with English yet the way the words are pronounced makes them sound so different

[@kristofferholst6053]

Well some of the words that you might recognize are probably the ones the Danish Vikings left behind

[@alexanderjohansson8133]

@@kristofferholst6053 It wasn't just danish vikings, but yes during the old english period old norse and old english were close to mutually intelligible. Back when swedish and danish were the same language (both were east norse).

[@Vinterfrid]

@@kristofferholst6053 More likely left by Swedish or Norwegian vikings. Right?

[@kristofferholst6053]

@@Vinterfrid no not likely at all. England and Normandie was conquered by Danes, and ruled by Dane law. kzbin.info/www/bejne/bWS7k2eJibqopqs

[@servantofaeie1569]

@@kristofferholst6053 Old English and Old Norse were already close relatives to begin with

[@josephinejenssen8293]

I love putting these languages side by side. My Swedish mother used to babysit a couple of Norwegian boys when she moved to Norway, and there weren't usually any linguistic issues but she found it a little tricky making herself perfectly clear to Norwegians for a while because certain words exist in both languages but have different meanings. "rolig", for example, means "fun" in Swedish, but "calm" in Norwegian. So when my mom called the boys 'fun' their mother was very confused because they were as a rule extremely loud and hyper, and she couldn't believe anyone would describe them as 'calm'. She asked my mother how she managed it lol^^

[@SebHaarfagre]

Yep, that's perhaps the biggest one, then, as a Norwegian, you also get confused when Swedes come here and ask to eat glass 😂

[@User-xw5mk]

@@SebHaarfagre vi e fan hungriga

[@Cloud_that_looks_like_a_cat]

@@SebHaarfagre I'm from Sweden, so I am not sure what "Glass" (English Translation: Ice Cream) is called in Norway, but is it called "Iskreme"?

[@harambe8372]

Wow so rolig means calm. That gives a clue as to why "orolig" in swedish means anxious when otherwise taken literally it means "not-funny". "Not-calm" makes a lot more sense for being anxious but I wonder why we use orolig if rolig does not even mean calm in swedish but in norwegian.

[@DingaLingu]

Poetry at times is simply humor

[@svenrichtmann6792]

I feel like when Anders is saying the Norwegian version of the Danish sentences, he is just reading Danish but pronouncing the letters more. I don't speak any of these languages, but I'm so fascinated by the similarities and this video answers a lot of questions I have. German and English are only helping me understand a few words in the sentences. Great video with lovely languages and nice people!

[@IngridTheDane]

I am a native Danish speaker and am also pretty good with Norwegian, and I feel the same about Norwegian pronunciation.

[@clas683]

Norwegian is written very similar to danish but is pronounced more similar to swedish. That’s how I as a swede see it.

[@ingebrigt8143]

The Norwegian Bokmål was pure danish 200 years ago and have adapted to become more norwegian along the way.

[@cyj7n]

@@clas683 I agree too ^^

[@primrosedahlia9466]

@@clas683 no as a Norwegian I would say that new Norwegian is more like Swedish and bokmål as Danish.

[@accaeffe8032]

My second language is Norwegian (bergensk form of bokmål) and I've been working with Swedes and Danes for many years. We all spoke our respective languages, avoiding special dialectal words, and understood eachother, but I must say that the Norwegians seem to understand both Swedish and Danish the best. Danish speakers have more problems, especially with Swedish. Funny thing is that they had the least problem with "bergensk". So some dialects of these 3 languages are easier to understand for the speakers of the other Scandinavian languages, also depending on where they themselves are from. There is after all, some dialect continuity across the borders.

[@kristofferholst6053]

Depends where the Danes are from, I grew up watching Swedish television. And have no trouble reading or understanding it. Someone from another part of Denmark might have the same relationship with the German language.

[@newguy8222]

Actually, there is something I heard about not long ago, and that is a basic asymmetry in the vocabularies, in that Danish/Norwegian has a greater vocabulary on the indigenous side, i.e., more original words denoting the same thing. Hence it should be easier in theory for Danes and Norwegians to understand Swedish, which in contrast contains more Latin loanwords. New Norwegian is closer to Swedish than traditional Danish-influenced Norwegian. Hopes this makes sense. Someone mentioned bedstemor/farmor/mormor, where bedstemor does not occur in Swedish, whereas the triplet occurs in Danish/Norwegian.

[@Michael-dj6pd]

I think danes will have a fairly easy time with Swedish from Malmö than northern swedish.

[@MagnsATK98]

As a Norwegian it's always nice to hear when someone knows Norwegian as a second language! I'm not quite sure however what you mean by "bergensk form of bokmål"? "Bokmål" is only the written form, no dialect _is_ bokmål but some are closer than others. People from Bergen tend to write in bokmål, but the dialect isn't very close to bokmål compared with Urban East Norwegian. Yeah I've noticed its easier for Norwegians to understand the other two languages, I think the fact that we have two written standards and in addition don't have a standard dialect is part of the reason we Norwegians understand Swedish and Danish easier, we are more exposed to different ways of saying things. The exeption is that it's easier for Danes to understand us than vice-versa.

[@newguy8222]

@@MagnsATK98 "the exception is that it's easier for Danes to understand us than vice-versa." Or, that's what the Norwegians like to think. Norwegian is spoken at a very fast clip when compared with their more staid neighbors, Danish and Swedish. They also tend to drop a lot of endings. One exception is actually the faster Gothenburg dialect, which is also geographically closer to Norway.

[@collectivelove2275]

As someone who has been learning Norwegian, I loved it! It was so intuitive to follow along because for one the participants presented their material really well and also the comparative analysis of each sentence helped so much.

[@charlesf6612]

The video is fabulous and so are the 3 of them. It makes it so enjoyable when the participants are outgoing and fun people all around. Thanks a lot 🙏🏻❤

[@meadish]

The word 'hober' is impossible to guess for the others, because it is a very particular translation of Tolkien's made-up word 'hobbits' that Swedish translator Åke Ohlmarks came up with in his translation of Lord of the Rings. The Swedish translation of 'The Hobbit' by Britt G Hallqvist used 'hobbitar' which would likely have been transparent for the others.

[@kenneth61]

Yeah, never heard it until now and still don't know what it is. Äta som hober, vad är det?

[@douglasug73]

@@kenneth61 Hoberna/hobbitarna har ganska säregna ätvanor. De äter till exempel frukost två gånger om dagen och har en massa mellanmål med olika namn och äter i allmänhet väldigt mycket. Jag tror att det var ett förslag från Andreas bror som hon förklarar i videon att de skulle försöka följa hobernas schema vad gäller mat en dag, inget ordspråk som hon säger utan taget från en konversation hon haft med sin bror.

[@lars-ovewesterberg8426]

I know Ohlmark discussed the translation with Tolkien, and they both agreed, at that time, that translatation to "hobbiter" would be too similar to "semiter", "hamiter" m.fl. "bibliska folk". Tolkien accepted Ohlmark' suggestion to call them "hober". That said, I like the later translation to "hobbitar" better.

[@andreafranne]

@@douglasug73 Exakt! ❤️

[@RandomerFellow]

Hober (håber) - hoppas, på värmländska.

[@emmahirschfeld7542]

This was amazing. I especially liked the discussions around each of the sentences. You all did such brilliant jobs to deliver interesting facts about the languages.

[@JackCoxMSquirrel]

I'm currently translating something from Norwegian, relying on my Swedish and a dictionary. Finding out Norwegian has both non-specific (bestemor) and specific (mormor, farmor) words for grandmother was cool because Swedish does not have a way to refer to both grandmothers at once, for example: "His grandmothers" being "bestemødre hans" in Norwegian, but "hans mormor och farmor" in Swedish.

[@annelenepalmen8839]

I am Norwegian. I said farmor and mormor, because they both lived when I was a child. My farfar (he was Swedish though) I never met, died before I was born. My morfar lived until I was grown up. I always called him bestefar.

[@kilipaki87oritahiti]

It's just a matter of preference. As a Norwegian I've only used Bestemor and Bestefar. Normally you'd use morfar/mormor about the parents of your mother, and farfar,/farmor about the parents of your father. That's it. Most people even just have nicknames. My cousins daughter calls her grandparents for busha, and moffa.

[@repsak_DK]

I Danmark diger man også mormor/morfar og Farfar/Farmor

[@Dan-fo9dk]

Just a little correction: His grandmothers = hans bestemødre. Not - as you write: bestemødre hans. If you want to put the words in that order it is: bestemødrene hans.

[@harvoormotors3050]

@@annelenepalmen8839 Hey Anne!!,according to you who were the Best vikings? And which language is the most beautiful mythological and according to Norse Gods andGodesses?

[@samuelkovanko7198]

As a Swedish speaking Finn, it was easy to understand all the written sentences. But maan was it hard to understand Danish haha

[@ukrainian_mf]

And your surname sounds like Ukrainian with -ko, which translates as "something that has been forged" or just blacksmith

[@samuelkovanko7198]

@@ukrainian_mf hah thanks for the info, i was aware i had some eastern european roots!

[@elgiganten6154]

Min broder

[@alexj9603]

Interesting: While the participants were struggling quite a bit with the second Swedish paragraph, I immediately recognized the cognates of the German words "Anklage" and "mildernde Umstände", and also "absichtlich" (ok, the subtitles did help...). So at least when it comes to "legalese" German and Swedish are not too far from each other.

[@ragnar0209]

Interestingly, in Nynorsk, the word omständighet(Swedish)/omstendighet(Danish, Bokmål) would be "omstende". This is unusual considering that Nynorsk actively strays away from all foreign loanwords. Both the forms are loanwords of German origin, but for some reason one chose a different version in Nynorsk than all the other languages. Now, it should be said that in (good,) conservative Nynorsk one would choose another word altogether ("tilhøve"), but the borrowed form is the one used in law and official documents.

[@annicaesplund6613]

All three languages belong to the germanic language group.

[@koktangri]

@@annicaesplund6613 cap

[@alexj9603]

@@annicaesplund6613 Sure. But still interesting that two fellow speakers of North Germanic languages were struggling while I could recognize West Germanic loanwords.

[@annicaesplund6613]

@@alexj9603 I'm Swedish and I had no problem with this. Maybe it's my age, in school we had to read books in all three languages (and a few Islandic texts).

[@reineh3477]

I'm from Sweden and both Norwegian and Danish (when she spoke slower) was very easy to understand.

[@xylogeist91]

jag förstår norska i max hastighet också men inte danska

[@cherrysweet6937]

I love the sound and the melody of the scandinavian languages. Unfortunatelly I cannot understand anything as my native language is Polish and it is completely diferent language group.

[@hansandresen4392]

Fun! Dialects around Norway are just as different from each other as you could say the 3 Nordic languages are different from each other - so the distinction between dialects and languages up there are just conseptual. Other than differences between words and sentence structure, Norwegian dialects have very different intonation - when Anders speaks he does not "sing" like the teens in Skam.

[@Asteptillustration89]

Interesting like bergensk, travangersk, trøndersk etc

[@dan74695]

We don't talk like the teens in Skam here in the north either, our intonation is closer to Anders' intonation.

[@hightidemidafternoon]

I don't speak norwegian fluently at all but I spent all my childhood summers in Telemark and am very used to hear my cousins from Skien speak. To my native german ears it sounded like Anders threw in some extra "R"s. Skogen for example sounded like skogren. I just love regional difference in any language. They are like different herbs in a soup =)

[@PeterBuvik]

And Bergensk is just a norwegianized low german

[@Asteptillustration89]

@@PeterBuvik bergensk was influenced by low German?!

[@Orazkhanof]

I'm Kazakh from Kazakhstan. Week ago I decided to learn one of these 3 languages but didn't know if I will understand Danish and Swedish if I choose Norwegian. But now I see that I just need to choose one and need to master it to understand others. I really love how your languages sound. Peace✌️

[@vanefreja86]

In that respect Norwegian is possible the best one to chose. Bokmål bridges the small gap.

[@kilipaki87oritahiti]

Salem! Better to learn Norwegian tbh. I don't say that as a Norwegian, but because the Danes doesn't understand Swedish, and Swedes doesn't understand Danish. I grew up with both, and I understand both, but Swedish is easier. Danish I don't care about nor do I like it because it's quite ugly just like German.

[@suzannerichardson5092]

Apparently Norwegian is the easiest language to learn if you are an English speaker.

[@shaunmckenzie5509]

Go with Norwegian. it's the middle ground between swedish and danish

[@Palladiumavoid]

@@suzannerichardson5092 easy? På stølen" fortalt av Guro Seim. Frå Arne Inge Sæbø si hovudoppgåve om vikjamålet, 1977. e:g va: pao: 'stø:l*n i: "nIKKanhUndra-å-Sjeu:. da: va: 'slI:ken "gru:såmme "raignsUmmar "atte mI: "vIsste "IKKe tI: fao: åss kle: so: va: "tUrre. menn mI: saong å: "tralla. e:g "stidde no: 'jai:te dann "sUmmar*n. mI: va: "tvo:samma, mI: va: tvo: "jente i: la:g. nao:r mI: kåmm "hai:matte, so: tI: å si:l Upp "denna "mjelKi. "åsso "skUlde mI: tI: å: "Ysta 'åst*n Umm 'kveld*n, å: stao: da:r å: "fy:ra "Undao: å: "passa "varmen. da: va: Ke tI: "tainKa pao: tI: fao: "laiGGa se:g fø:r alt va: i: 'årn*n. mI: leu:t "sløKKa gått "Undao: å: "IKKe "la:ta ra: "brenna. menn "merKele nåkk, "alder blai: ra: brand. fålk "passte pao: "varmen, va: so: "vande me: å: "verta "varskudde. "åsso va: ra: no: tI: "så:va "nå:ki "mi:nutte. nao:r "klåkkao va: "fi:ra Umm "måroen dao: 'bYnta 'jaittna. so: va: ra: ao: å: 'bYnta "mjelka, e:g "hadde "tre:dve "elde 'fYrrti 'jai:te. da: to:k ai:n pa:r "ti:ma, menn da: va: "mUrrosa:mt. menn nao:r da: va: "stYggever so: "rIste rai: se:g, "åsso "vIlde rai: "spenna "Uppi "bYttao.

[@SeaChrisp]

I am from Gothenburg in Sweden (so rather close to both Norway and Denmark). I had for the most part no issues understanding any of them, even the Norwegians own western dialect. But then of course, I also had the text to read which helped a lot. Without the text I would likely have had problems with a few things. That being said, when you actually have a dialogue with a Danish or Norwegian person, all of us have several different replacement words to choose from and you usually can figure out what they mean if you ask them to rephrase or elaborate.

[@jorkasvupp8674]

Thank you all four for this fun video! I think you three did a good job considering that the sound quality isn’t always the optimal. And I think that danes, norwegians and swedes could really communicate with each other in their native tongue if they spoke a bit slower and ”tilpassa” their vocabulary enough. Just like Anders does from his dialect towards the standard written.

[@roaringviking5693]

Yes, Swedes and Norwegians usually have no problem communicating in our own languages (as long as we avoid heavy dialacts). It's a little harder with Danish, but if we speak slower, as you said, we can also understand each other without any major problems.

[@laurenford9057]

What I love and admire about your videos is on top of what people learn and discover, you bring people from different places together and they seem to always bond and enjoy their time with each other, seemingly creating new friendships. It's really sweet and beautiful to see 🤗🤗

[@jonaslarsen4002]

As a Dane, for me, it's much harder to understand Swedish. The accent makes the words hard to understand, but written it makes a lot of sense. Norwegian makes a lot more sense, the accent is not as heavy, which makes the words easier to make out. Also written, it's much closer to Danish

[@scyphe]

Well, Norwegian bokmål is basically Danish after Denmark forced Norway to adopt it. It's changed a bit over the years but when I read Danish and Norwegian they are very similar and equally easy for me to read (well, I'm half-Swedish and half-Norwegian so that may help). This video doesn't deal with accents or dialects. Stockholm is far away from both Norway and Denmark and the Stockholm accent is very different (and more difficult for Norwegians and Danish people to understand) compared to Swedish accents from the south along the west coast. I can personally barely understand what Danes are saying (depending on how thick their accent is). Denmark is pretty much the "odd one out" since their pronunciation has changed a LOT over the centuries compared to Sweden and Norway. There are videos on how it differs.

[@cerealgod144]

As a danish aswell, to me norwegian and swedish sound almost the same, because they have this accent sounding like they sing, i dont know how to describe it. Where the danish accent doesnt. Altså det jeg mener er at svensk og norsk har den accent, hvor det lyder som om de synger altså deres tone går op og ned, når de snakker. Hvor på dansk holder vi den samme tone igennem hele sætningen, ligesom mange andre vest-europæiske lande såsom engelsk.

[@zoom5024]

Saying Swedes have a heavy accent is rich coming from a dane 😂

[@jonaslarsen4002]

@@zoom5024 I'm saying it's richer than Norwegian, Danes undoubtedly have the heaviest accent.

[@johanhansson4574]

Well this is how the dane accent sounds to swedes. kzbin.infoyPfKPMs_Kuk?feature=share

[@lindaberg1695]

I am currently learning Swedish and I find this video to be so informative as well as entertaining. Tack!!

[@MrSasquatch135]

Good luck with your studies!

[@Idkdoesthings154]

Yes. And our language is weird

[@lindaberg1695]

@@MrSasquatch135 Thank you!! All is going well!

[@lindaberg1695]

@@Idkdoesthings154 Perhaps a bit but it's the language of both my grandfathers'....I seem to be taking to it like a duck takes to water, perhaps it's in the genes! Tack så mycket!!

[@lindaberg1695]

@Justin X. Jag kommer från Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

[@mathieuscheffers7776]

The written form of these three languages was reasonably well understood by me as a Dutchman, the vocabulary has a lot of cognates in Dutch, f.e. omständigheter in Swedish becomes omstandigheden in Dutch. The spoken languages are far more difficult because of their pronunciation, especially Danish, which is notorious well known for speaking only half of the letters written.

[@johanvandermeulen9696]

Matthieu Scheffers Daarover kan ik meepraten. Ik bezocht Denemarken voor de eerste keer eind september 2017. Ze verstonden mij wel maar ik hen niet. Ik leerde mijzelf deens dankzij Langenscheidt.

[@AudunWangen]

I attended an online course held in the Netherlands as the only foreigner from a remote location. They held it in English of course, but spoke a lot of dutch in the breaks and during exercises, so I got used to listening to it. One time the teacher forgot to switch to English, and I didn't even notice until a classmate pointed it out 🤣 It was in IT, so a lot of English words, but still... I think it wouldn't take me long to learn dutch.

[@thijmen1999]

@@johanvandermeulen9696 Leuk! Heeft u nog tips voor mij als ik een Scandinavische taal wil leren? Ik twijfel tussen Deens en Noors :)

[@thijmen1999]

@@AudunWangen Interessant! Heeft u ook favoriete Nederlandse woorden. Ik ben altijd wel geïnteresseerd welke woorden mensen die Nederlands leren het leukste vinden 😅

[@AudunWangen]

@@thijmen1999 That's so cool. I instantly understood most of that. Here's my translation to Norwegian without using Google translate: "Interessant! Har du også nederlandske favorittord. Jeg har alltid vært veldig interessert i hvilke nederlandske ord mennesker liker å lære mest." Did some guesswork there, but I'm guessing "vinden" is the same as the German "finden". I don't know many words of dutch, but just love the sound of it. Dutch sounds a bit like German as Icelandic sounds to Norwegian, Danish and Swedish. More ancient, pronounced and clear without being harsh. On that note some curse words and insults would be nice to learn 🤣

[@Aaron-ug2rz]

Thank you. This was superb. I learned a lot. The 3 representatives have a very good grip on their languages. 🇩🇰🇳🇴🇸🇪💪❤

[@xXItzDotXx]

What do you Think that was hardest?

[@HauyneX]

...well, of course?

[@zarahandrahilde9554]

I'd like to petition that we change from being called Scandinavia to 🇩🇰🇳🇴🇸🇪. Because dicknose is just objectively funny.

[@johanbjorkstrom4957]

Excellent video. Great job Bahador and team for this! Bra jobbat 👏🏻

[@mariaelenaeritsian599]

Tusinde tak skal du have, Johan ☺️

[@doogerdoes5112]

I speak German and I was able to understand Danish almost word for word. Norwegian I struggled with when I heard it spoken. Seeing it written in Bokmal, made it easier to comprehend. However Swedish left me clueless lol. Great video. Thoroughly enjoyed this.

[@rztrzt]

I watch a lot of nordic noir crime series. Danish is the hardest to follow, Swedish the easiest. The pronunciation of Danish is a lot like German, it sounds mumbled like German as it lacks accentuate/emphasize/stressed on letters.

[@jnmc2498]

Generally Swedish is not difficult for germans though. I know a lot of germans in sweden and they are all very good in swedish. Some of them even told me that the differences are not that big.

[@newguy8222]

@@jnmc2498 Well, Swedish has an awful lot of German loanwords for starters (actually more so than Danish and Norwegian). Had something to do with the large German contingent in Stockholm at some point in time.

[@mar97216]

Might have been because he have a different dialect. Even the part he had written in his dialect made me stop while reading as he uses a lot of different words. I did get it off course but it would be difficult for others.

[@jnmc2498]

@@newguy8222 Agree. Also, a lot of german craftsmen moved to sweden and particularly stockholm. Might have been during the 17th century when the ”empire” was larger than what the relatively small Swedish population by itself could manage. I recall having read about it somewhere.

[@Books-and-coffee0]

These are my favorite languages in the world. Ughhh I wish so much I could understand them! I can't wait to begin lessons in Norwegian.

[@servantofaeie1569]

Same. I can already understand Norwegian to a certain degree just from Duolingo, a Netflix show called Ragnarok, and what I know from sound correspondences between it and English (my native language) + the other Germanic languages, with the small amount of knowledge I have about them

[@NobbiMD]

Thank you Bahador! What a wonderful video. I love the Scandinavian languages. I love all the western Norwegian dialects especially.

[@Benlei101]

Very entertaining to watch! I have Danish, Norwegian and Swedish friends, always find the similarities and differences fascinating! Well done to all 3 of you!

[@hagit33]

The most calm, polite video I've ever seen... And about the languages there is actually no diffrences lol

[@rodrigomontero8258]

I had fun with this one, especially having been an exchange student in Denmark 25 years ago. Both in oral and written form, I would usually understand more standard Norwegian (not Nynorsk) than Swedish. Also, just by listening to Marie's accent, I knew she was from Jutland. I lived 20 minutes away from Copenhagen and, at some point, I swapped host families for only a week in Jutland, and the first days I was slow to catch up with the accent and entonation (and some regionalisms). Also, they would joke a bit with my Copenhagen-like accent. It's true that every region has its own dialect from the same language, so imagine the scale of it all when you put together people from different Scandinavian countries and regions to make them understand each other. Cheers from SJ, Costa Rica! 😎💯👍🏽🇨🇷

[@nordlyselsker]

I am a German living in Norway, and obviously I mostly use my Norwegian to understand Swedish and Danish. But sometimes, German comes in handy. "Avsiktligt" was a good example for this: It doesn't exist in Norwegian or Danish, but it's "absichtlich" in German, so it was easy to understand for me.

[@InglésconRobert2025]

Meine Kenntnisse in Deutsch haben es mir ermöglicht, so viel in Schwedisch und Dänisch ohne Wörterbuch zu verstehen. Das ist eine Eselsbrücke, die meinen Landsleuten aus den USA leider fehlt; sie müssen all die deutschstämmigen Wörter im Wörterbuch nachschlagen, was ein ungeheuerlicher Zeitverlust sein muß.

[@bozmar1]

As a spanish speaker I compare swedish with spanish , norwegian with brazilian portuguese and danish with portuguese from Portugal and finnish with basque … they all are inteligible with the exception of basque

[@stephmontvein8328]

I’m Brazilian and I really agree, I can understand Spanish and Portuguese from Portugal really well

[@zegh8578]

This is a good comparison! I am bilingual, Norwegian and Spanish :D And indeed, it is a good comparison. I'd say - Norwegian + Swedish is similar to Spanish + Italian - where phonetics are similar, despite some vocabulary differences. While Norwegian+Danish is more similar to Spanish + Portuguese or French, in that the grammar or vocabulary *should* be similar, but the phonetics throw you off enough to make things a bit difficult, especially if spoken quickly, or if you lack exposure :D

[@ovekobbeltvedt745]

Well on my opinion and only based in my own experience ( Spanish It is my native languaje. I lived in a spanish speaking country for 30 years and then moved to norway 16 years ago) . I agree If you are talking about writing- then danish is much more close to norwegiand but on the speaking part I desagree. I can watch and understand mostly of a swedish film but almos nothing of a danish. When I listen to swedish is like listening portuguese and when I listen to danish is like listening to italian almost french.

[@bozmar1]

@@ovekobbeltvedt745 yo si escucho hablando dos brasileños entiendo casi todo pero si escucho hablando dos portugueses no entiendo casi nada por esto hice esta comparacion entre danes y noruego . Si ecucho hablando un danes no me entero de nada . Yo soy rumano y llevo viviendo 8 años en Oslo y 16 en España . En la forma escrita entiendo bastante el danes pero hablado nada . El sueco con un poco de esfuerzo lo entiendo hablado . El danes y el portugues de Portugal tienen algo en comun por la forma de pronunciar las palabras de manera muy rara para mis oidos

[@ovekobbeltvedt745]

@@bozmar1 Mi comentario se dirigía al comentario de zegh8578 y creo lo malinterprete. Ahora veo que concuerdo. Al leer el danés es al noruego lo que el portugués es al español. Pero en mi mente instintivamente predomina lo que entiendo al oir hablar a suecos o daneses. Entonces automaticamente siento que el sueco es al noruego lo que el portugués al español mientras y el danés es al noruego lo que el italiano o incluso iría tan lejos como decir lo que el francés es al español. Yo solo entiendo algunas palabras sueltas al escuchar a los daneses y casi de milagro. Asi que al final creo estabamos de acuerdo y no en desacuerdo como erradamente yo creía.

[@nielsulriksrensen9818]

Super. I love the wonderful combination of similarities and differences in the Scandinavian languages.

[@harvoormotors3050]

Hey is the Danish Accent/Vocabulary more Northern than the Norwegian Accent/Vocabulary,I mean more towards the north generally why does it vary?

[@Chachy1337]

I never thought I would see my own dialect! (sunnmørsk) on one of your videos, I live in Ålesund and its really cool to see us "sunnmøringa" represented on these videos :)

[@hellmaze85]

It was! A pleasure that we were represented by a westerner and with good grasp of our language. Sjelden ej høre ei so brei dialekt frå en ålesunder so det va kjekt også. Og so va dei veldig kjekke dissa nabojentene frå Sverige og Danmark. Herleg gjeng 😊

[@andurk]

@@hellmaze85 kjekt å høyre! Ej ekje akkurat ålesunder da, ekte «øying» fra Valderøya.

[@kizombahot4u39]

@@andurk D va fole kjekt å haure Sunnmørsk på YT - ej so e Øying sjøl - Harøya 😊 Du jorde einj go figur på detta 😊

[@andurk]

@@kizombahot4u39 takk for det! Kjekt å høyre!😄

[@willmurphy4073]

Som en norskelev var denne her videoen en fin måt for å teste språkkunnskapen min ved å høre på de andre skandinaviske språkene. Jeg faktisk funnet ut at dansk var enklere å forstå heller enn svensk, men jeg kunne nok forstå den svenske om jeg bremset henne ned. Alt var jo lett å lese. Takk for den fantastiske videoen! Gleder meg til mer i fremtiden.

[@Youtube_Stole_My_Handle_Too]

Som norskelev var denne videoen en fin måte å teste språkkunnskapen min ved å sammenligne med de andre skandinaviske språk. Jeg har faktisk funnet ut at dansk var enklere å forstå enn svensk, men jeg kunne forstå svensken om jeg reduserte hastigheten hennes. Alt var lett å lese. Takk for den fantastiske videoen! Håper på flere i fremtiden.

[@wilhelmhaihambo8986]

This is a good podcast bruh. Thumbs up. I am learning Norwegian and I am hoping more of such exposure.

[@zegh8578]

Not to be biased, but of Norwegian, Swedish and Danish - Norwegian is definitely the biggest bag of weird tricks, since we have so many isolating valleys, and dialects that are SO distinct from each others, that some can seem as if entirely different languages, like just *more* scandinavian languages :D This is often due to geography: Denmark is small and flat, but there are islands and waterways dividing it up - you'll generallt have certain accents. Sweden is large in area, so you will inevitably have northern, central, southern dialects, there are some variants that stand out more than others - in particular, there will be a large difference between the northern-most, and the sourthern-most tongues. Norwegian, though, is a whole different bag - with mountains and fjords cutting the country up into valleys and slices - as a result, we got upto 5-6 main branches - each one as distinct as Norwegian-Swedish-Danish by themselves, and each one divided into hundreds of variants, some count upto 900 dialects, some are SO distinct, even Norwegians sometimes struggle a bit to fully comprehend each others. That said - once you get a bit of exposure to dialects or languages, you will quickly get the hang of it. When I was a teen, I was super-embarassed during a party, because I could not understand a danish guest there, even when he spoke slowly. Since then, I've listened more songs, watched more movies; gotten more exposure! I speak Trønder-dialect, and to many other scandinavians, Trønder will be a bit of a weird curve-ball, but I notice it's the same thing - you listen to it a bit, you figure it out, get some exposure - and then it's just another Nordic tongue :D And when talking about exposure, it is often cultural: Sweden is the "more powerful" country, and will typically have the least exposure to what they would consider "less important" languages, meaning Swedes often have a hard time understanding non-Oslo Norwegian dialects, due to lack of exposure. Norway is, through history, the most dominated country, that were often forced to understand both Swedish and Danish, so traditionally, we usually understand Swedish quite well, while Danish phonetics can be a bit tricky. The one nobody understands, for every reason above, is Icelandic :D

[@i.b.n.w.6600]

Fellow Norwegian here, I agree with nearly everything you've written. But I do not agree with the last sentence. There are people that understand Icelandic. Me being one of them. But in my prosess of trying to learn Icelandic, I have had others (Norwegians) say that "hey, there were some words there I understood..seems it's not as difficult or different as I thought".

[@zegh8578]

@@i.b.n.w.6600 If I read Icelandic, or I follow a calmly spoken interview, for instance - I can follow to some degree, but I can say the same about German, for that matter. I had a neighboring family from Iceland, and I could not understand them when they were naturally speaking about society, politics, technology, these matters. I could understand when they said simple things like "dinner time!" or "nice to meet you" etc.

[@i.b.n.w.6600]

@@zegh8578 Well, we all have different points of origin to draw from when trying to understand new languages, for all I know Icelandic might have more similarities with my Norwegian dialect than with yours. I struggle with understanding German, some words here and there are understandable, but otherwise it's a bit of a struggle for me. But it's fun though to compare and contrast.

[@zegh8578]

@@i.b.n.w.6600 That's an interesting point - what'd be your dialect, if you wouldn't mind sharing? I speak Trønder. I think exposure is the big key here. I know there's been some Icelandic crime-dramas on TV, for example, but I never watched. It probably would have been insightful! I lately embarassed myself watching a Danish film, while not understanding half of what they were saying, after feeling confident I could understand spoken Danish with ease. Whatever the cause - I really struggled, even with mundane conversations! Maybe it was too long since I last heard Danish.

[@i.b.n.w.6600]

@@zegh8578 Totning is my dialect. Sure, I agree that exposure has a part in it too. I guess I had some exposure to Icelandic when my brother went to university studying nordic languages, and he went to Iceland for a month. But I didn't really remember much of that or practice any by the time I met some Icelandic people at camp back in 2008. Some of them are now some of my best friends. But up until 2008 I hadn't really learned much, I had tried to follow a "Icelandic 101" type thing at camp the year before (I think it was), but didn't remember much. And then one night at camp ('08) one of the Icelandic guys had something to tell and asked if it was ok with me that he did so in the way he usually would (I was the only non-Icelandic in the group). I said yes. One of them had me learn one Icelandic word first, skilaru - do you understand. After he was done they asked me, "skilaru?". I said I think I understood most and so I was asked to repeat the story, and apparently I only got one tiny detail wrong. But exposure or not, I don't have a hard time with languages in general. I pick up on pronunciation rather quickly. I've been told it has something to do with me being talented with music. At jeg har musikkøre, gehør, as we would say in norwegian. So I believe that plays a part too. Danish, since you mention it, has never been a problem for me, unless you venture into Skåne, even as a child.

[@bulleranse8323]

This was fun to watch. Well done by all three

[@carle9924]

As a guy from Oslo I actually find it a lot harder to understand the dialects from the west coast of Norway, compared to the Swedish and Danish language. I think it has to do with the fact that the region of the country was so isolated back in the day.

[@boromirofmiddleearth557]

that's funny. I have relatives in Vestland near Bergen. Since Oslo is the capital of Norge and the

[@manorueda1432]

I enjoyed this episode! I know just a few words and sentences in Swedish, and a little bit of grammar, although my vocabulary is certainly quite limited, so this was interesting to me as I could genuinely try to catch something in the other related languages. (By the way, I did it poorly... 😥)

[@TristanSune]

Understanding spoken and written Danish/Norwegian as a Swede: Norwegian: Spoken 8/10 - Written: 8/10 Danish: Spoken 3/10 - Written 10/10

[@SGIMartin]

The feeling is mutual (from a dane) Except skånsk, that gets a solid 2/10 on the spoken scale

[@Eziopct]

@@SGIMartin really, I would’ve thought that you understood skånsk more since it’s closer to Denmark

[@jemsar2]

Talented and fun people! You sound like friends enjoying an everyday conversation!

[@ionut8256]

My mother tongue is Romanian (so no relation there) but I am a beginner in Icelandic, and it's interesting to notice that I can somewhat understand the other Scandinavian languages. I'd say the Bokmal Norwegian was the easiest for me.

[@johanvandermeulen9696]

Ionut Codrin Amariei Vous comme Roumain vous parlez sans doute le français. J'apprend le danois et je vous peux conseiller comme lecture Lars Johansson, Signe (2006), Dancing Charlie (2008) et Ved Ishavet (2018). Hilsner de la Hollande, Johan.

[@robinmangala3536]

@@johanvandermeulen9696 Vous êtes belges?

[@jiros00]

If you know Icelandic, some of the other Norwegian dialects will be even easier for you compared to bokmål.

[@johanvandermeulen9696]

@@robinmangala3536 A peu près. Je suis hollandais, mais belges et hollandais c'est presque pareil. L'existence de deux états néerlandais est un anachronisme, oeuvre de la guerre et de la diplomatie.

[@robinmangala3536]

@@johanvandermeulen9696 Ik praat Nederlands, maar ook Frans aangezien dat onze landstalen zijn. Was willekeurig curieus naar je afkomst. Bedankt voor je toelichting.

[@Wenyfile]

As a Swede, when what the dane said is laid out in text form I understand it well but if the text wasn't there I would be completely lost.

[@PazuzuStalker]

When they slow down, articulate and drops the guttural passages it is understandable. If just going for it, i won't understand anything...

[@polishpsych]

These languages are similar but also there are differences. Good job. I have learnt plenty!

[@EricS-uf9mv]

It blows my mind all three speak English, which is either their 2nd, 3rd or even 4th language, BETTER than many of my fellow Americans. They enunciate CLEARLY and use English words properly which isn't the case in many parts of the U.S., particularly the Southeast, the South, the Lower Plains states, and Boston.

[@chrisoneill3999]

Scandinavia has schools, the US has guns.

[@NkoDmtryPoletv]

The Scandinavians have the highest English proficiency on the latest report. They're amazing.

[@himfromscandinavian5354]

Don't forget we are billingual and sometimes trillingual meanwhile you americans can't even speak one language.

[@granadina48]

Speaking multiple languages is pretty common in most of Europe.

[@beorlingo]

@@chrisoneill3999 guns speak loud and clear!

[@FilterNelkul]

It is so interesting to me as a Hungarian. We don't have any language that is similar to our language 👀 it's so good to see that languages have so much similarity in them. 😍

[@meirung]

Check on Mari language, watched the vid about it recently, and hungarians in the comments said it's something between Hungarian and Finnish in terms of vocabulary and grammar :)

[@blueeyedbaer]

I speak Swedish so I understood Norwegian very well (except his own dialect) but Danish was a bit tough. Norwegian really sounds like Swedish but is written like Danish.

[@ManuelGarcia-gk1pb]

I'm spaniard and I could watch on the video both girls (danish and swedish) could understand what the boy said in norwegian. However, swedish and danish is more intelligible in terms of listening. In spanish, we are more able to understand what italian people says comparing with the portuguese but when you read portuguese, it's practically the 90%, the same vocabulary. Nice video

[@Lallemanden]

I’m from Denmark, and it’s actually crazy I could tell Norwegian and Sweden word for word, just goes to tell how similar they are

[@Clara1717]

Yep det er ret mærkeligt når man høre ved siden af hinanden

[@Lallemanden]

@@Clara1717, haha ja

[@RichardVemvillveta]

Jepp. Jag är från Sverige, Malmö, och förstod också allting. Jag tycker dock att det överlag är lättare att förstå danska än norska, men det är kanske inte så konstigt eftersom jag är skåning :)

[@harvoormotors3050]

Hey,Is Danish more closer to Old Norse and Icelandic or Is Norwegian closer?

[@Lallemanden]

@@harvoormotors3050 I think Norway is closer, but I’m not entirely sure

[@JenaSoderholm]

I speak Swedish..so for me it was easier to understand the Norwegian guy speakin.. the Danish girl was a bit more difficult.. But the written in Danish was easier to understand and off course the Norwegian as well.. Thank's for the great video

[@kristofferholst6053]

This very skewed as the Dane is from Jylland. They usually don’t understand Swedish or Norwegian (nordjyder excepted) that well, as a rule the are better at German. Had the Dane been from Sjælland I suspect the result would have been different. This is usually true for all the Nordic countries the parts that are bordering tend to understand each other more. So there is a lot of variance in how much we understand each other. So this video, although entertaining,is just a minuscule sample of a bigger picture.

[@Serenoj69]

That is always true, since it also strongly depends on personal ability/talent. So this does not mean that all or many others are as good/bad at understanding a similar language.

[@Carewolf]

Though at least she wasn't speaking Århus dialect, that could have made it harder to understand for the two others.

[@tmalone2530]

As an American who wants to visit all these countries, I thoroughly loved this

[@luv8670]

So wonderful. I’m definitely learning Swedish and then will learn Norwegian and danish too👏🏻😊

[@Idonious]

Jag älskar denna video! Jag är engelsman och har lärt mig svenska i mer än tio år. Jag har varit i Svergie flera gånger sedan 2012. Jag har vänner i Stockholm området som jag har bott med och de bor inte så långt ifrån Södertälje. Jag var i Södertälje bara en gång under mitt första besök. Jag tyckte det var en fin stad. Hälsar!

[@andreafranne]

Vad kul att höra! :)

[@maayanhaza6178]

It's a great question because there are many dialects of a language which are less mutually intelligible than these 3.

[@Tramseskumbanan]

The further back in time we look, the fewer differences there was between the languages.

[@causejerseyjustgotcolder]

I am planning on learning the three Scandinavian languages and I decided to start with Norwegian for the same reason Anders mentioned regarding how Norwegian sounds like Swedish and looks a lot like Danish (in Bokmål). It's been fascinating to learn the similarities and differences between these wonderful languages. I absolutely love such type of videos 🤘🏻

[@Dunce...]

Good luck! I think after you learn one of the languages, it will be less difficult to learn the two others.

[@AnneTervoort]

Next you should try to find three Norwegians, one from the North, one from the East and one from the West (specifically indre Sogn, as that is the most distinct dialect) and have them speak their own dialects at eachother 😅 I can guarantee there will be a lot they (from the east mainly) can’t understand from each other

[@oskich]

Like this: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iX2xYqCvaJh8ebM

[@Greksallad]

Yeah and I'd imagine the northerner and westerner wouldn't have any issues at all understanding the easterner :p

[@EthemD]

Thank you and well done you three and Bahador 😊 great knowledgeable guests! I liked how Anders was presenting the variations of Norwegian. Can all Norwegians actually speak them? For a German and Dutch speaker, it was fun to join and see how much I recognize. 😁 Generally, for us the sound and pronunciation of Scandinavian languages is just so different... tonewise Danish sounds the most familiar to German, but then again with everything sort of 'rounded off', while German generally articulates, especially with Hoch-Deutsch. But seeing the sentences definitely helped the most! I feel like a lot of words have the same origin, but changed along the Germanic language continuum, while the more diplomatic/business/academic words remained mostly untouched, as they were easier to recognize for me at least. I was surprised that the word for 'intentional' was not immediately recognized, in German and Dutch we also have both variations 🇩🇪 "absichtlich" "bewusst" and 🇳🇱 "opzettelijk" "bewust". Might as well be the written form that gave it away though. 😀

[@dan74695]

Nynorsk is a written language based on the Norwegian dialects, Bokmål is a written language based on Danish, Bokmål is Norwegian-influenced Danish.

[@rasmusn.e.m1064]

In terms of the sound, you also got lucky that the Danish variety you got was from Aarhus. In my opinion that is probably one of the more German-sounding ones since the Southern Jutish dialects tend to be more directly influenced by Frisian and Low German and dialects from Zealand (including Copenhagen) tend to be less sing-songy and more "potatoey" sounding. For instance, in both Standard German and the Aarhus dialect, when you stress a syllable, you also raise the pitch of your voice, while in Zealandic dialects, the pitch goes down. If I'm not mistaken, this is similar to some Austrian and Bavarian dialects, which is why Arnold Schwarzenegger has a bit of a Danish inflexion sometimes.

[@landersen8173]

Dane here. I almost yelled "forsætligt" or "med forsæt" at the screen. It´s very common danish for intention/ally

[@ragnar0209]

Norwegians generally wouldn't try to speak another dialect than their own, if not jokingly. Most people find it difficult, and if you do a bad imitation, the speakers of that dialect will find it either rude, tasteless or laughable. But some really do it well, and it can really be a great effect in comedy or theatre. People tend to hold on to their dialect somewhat, even if they move elsewhere, but often they adapt and switch out dialectal words to Bokmål forms like in the video, so that everyone understands. Many also try as best they can not to adapt, and that's rarely a problem, because most Norwegians are used to hearing dialects from cradle to grave, especially younger generations. Previously the spoken language was strictly Oslo-centric on TV, in the government and in business circles. Now though, dialectal variation is an integral part of news broadcasts and kids' television, and in the professional world it's mostly not a topic.

[@johanvandermeulen9696]

EthemD That Anders is not looking very Norwegian.

[@BenjaminIstvanCseko]

Beautiful people: so chill and sweet. Great vibe -- I could watch this for hours or hang out with them in a pub. :)

[@tannazmehrdadi8774]

Interesting the literal translation of the Norwegian word for grandmother 'bestemor' is 'best mother'. I like that 🥰

[@keg-bear2910]

Same goes for Danish, we have “Bedstemor” and “Bedstefar”, wich would be grandma and grandpa. I believe we the danes and the norwegians also share specific names for aunts whom are blood related, that being. “Faster” and “Moster”, literal meaning being “Fathers Sister” and “Mothers Sister”, aunt being presserved for women who married into the family.

[@Mycenaea]

@@keg-bear2910 We have faster and moster, farbror and morbror in Swedish too :)

[@andurk]

@@keg-bear2910 On a general basis, Norwegians exclusively say "Tante" and "Onkel". However, I have heard the terms "faster" and "farbror" etc. being used in a south-western dialect (Rogaland). But if this is common there or not, I can not confirm.

[@natej1026]

Despite having become conversationally proficient in Swedish (as an Englishman), I still get wildly shocked when hearing Danish pronunciation, it's just so unique.

[@kilipaki87oritahiti]

As a Norwegian this is so easy, and I learned I understand Danish better than I thought. Of course due to having the written version, and them speaking loud and clearly does help. Normally people speak way too fast, mumble, or talk in some horrible dialect. Then Danish becomes nearly impossible lol. But It also depends on how much exposure you have gotten when it comes to each language to be able to understand better. Even though none of us are fluent in the other as we don't learn it in school, only English as a 2nd language, with enough exposure, especially through pop culture, media etc, the majority of us has grown up with this natural interconnection between the three languages, cultures and countries. But I do know and have met Norwegians who doesn't understand neither Swedish nor Danish which is weird and uncommon. At least for my generation (Millennials) who grew up with Swedish, and Danish kids television, and TV shows, as well as French, German, and Brazilian (besides the generic US, UK and Aussie tv shows) during the late 90's and early to mid 2000's and onwards. As a Norwegian I often take for granted that Swedes understand Norwegian, so when I do meet A swede who doesn't I'm utterly shocked haha. I think the common problem across the board is that because our languages are related, and has so many similar words, it's easy to misunderstand or to think in your own language, when it's usually how you say it that's different, the construction of the sentences, and often tho similar words, it means completely different things. This is why it's important to have actual native speakers from the said culture and countries, because there's just certain things culturally that you won't learn nor understand unless you actually grew up with it.

[@NedransVikingar]

I grew up without hearing Danish or Norwegian very much. I heard them for maybe a total of 30 minutes through my teens. Usually when I walked from my room to the kitchen while my mother watched a Danish crime series on TV. But I myself avoided them, not my type of entertainment and they still aren't. I have met Danes and Norwegians since then several times and each time they insist on speaking their language while I understand absolutely zero and repeatedly tell them again and again that I don't. Why do people insist on speaking their language if I clearly don't understand it? It's like comparing a Chinese language to the Japanese. Just because they're neighboring countries and the people look similar doesn't mean they have to understand each others' languages. I don't and it's probably because I didn't hear it much in my childhood or teens.

[@Mo-zh2sc]

Norwegian Bokmål is an offshoot of Danish since Norway was a part of Denmark for many centuries. That's why it's different from spoken Norwegian nynorsk.

[@0_base1]

I absolutely love these languages! So interesting and beautiful!

[@royalflush8903]

That was very enjoyable. I love it when I'm able to piece parts together and figure out the main point haha I should keep working on my Norwegian haha

[@AutistCat]

I lived in Denmark in the '90s, we had a basic understanding of Norwegian and Swedish, although admittedly Swedish was the hardest. For me, it was access to Norwegian and Swedish TV that gave me a decent understanding of those languages. I wonder if the new generation is less proficient in the neighboring Scandinavian languages, back in the day I'm not sure we would've used English this much, maybe I'm wrong...

[@grummegerda6328]

My adult children's generation, do not understand Norwegian and Swedish quite as well, as when I was a child and youngster in the 1970s - 80s. When they are with other Scandinavians, they speak English to each other. My children are 29, 26 & 24. Almost everything is done in English today. Often Danish youngsters do not know Danish words and concepts, that they know and understand in English. I'm getting old ;-)

[@vanefreja86]

I am 35, Danish and refuse to use English. Would be a shame.

[@beorlingo]

They speak English mostly for the audience. Although the Swede and the Dane might need to use some English alongside between the two of them. The Norwegian would understand and be understood perfectly by the others, and very fittingly he is placed in between on the screen.

[@RoselilDK]

I am from Denmark and I do understand Swedish and Norwegian. We are used to hear both languages in school and TV

[@propercoil3]

Every time my wife and I start watching a Scandinavian series we try to guess which country it is before the 5 minute mark because they will always show you a flag or something related to a flag in the first 5 minutes so you'll know straight up it's not the other Scandinavian countries haha it's so funny.

[@beorlingo]

Funny, although slightly off topic but Still related: Everytime I watch TV, if it's a Norwegian, Danish, Finnish or Icelandic program I will most times guess correctly as to which it is even before they speak.

[@propercoil3]

@@beorlingo Are you European? many west European might catch the lango very quickly.

[@alexanderjohansson8133]

@@beorlingo Finnish isn't related to the scandinavian languages. It's impossible for me to understand and I'm a native swedish speaker. It's a common misconception that Finland is a scandinavian country also which it isn't, it is however a nordic country, but that's a different story!

[@mar97216]

@@alexanderjohansson8133 I’ve noticed in the US that they add Finland to scandinavia. And I think I saw some souvenir or something else where Finland was included. ( Maybe the airport in Minneapolis. Lots of scandi americans there)

[@alexanderjohansson8133]

@@mar97216 Yeah, they are notoriously bad at knowing what's outside of their own region I'll give them that :D I'm sure they just mix nordic with scandinavian.

[@iiAyJayo]

Can you invite them back to do this again? This was such an interesting video to watch. I wish I was smart enough to learn a new language. I'm in awe of people who are talented enough to do that.

[@SKalapishev]

It's not talent but constant, minute to minute curiosity which makes you learn.

[@AudunWangen]

I'm Gen X, so I grew up with 1 Norwegian TV channel and 2 Swedish channels. I watched a lot of Swedish TV shows for kids; Joppe, Pippi, Livet på Saltkråkan, Skrotnisse, Swedish versions of Disney cartoons. Like the saying goes in Norwegian: Fikk inn svensk med morsmelka (translation: got swedish in with the mother's milk).

[@katarinawikholm5873]

Du fick in svenskan med modersmjölken 😆

[@oskich]

My main Norwegian sources as a child were Fleksnes and Flåklypa Grand prix ;-)

[@AudunWangen]

@@katarinawikholm5873 Jajamänsan. Jag bor ochså nära gränsen, så hör mycket värmländska när jag är där.

[@Ahmed-pf3lg]

Swedish has a distinct sing-songy flow to it... almost like Italian or other latin languages.

[@wyqtor]

More like some tonal Asian languages, neither Italian nor other Romance languages have anything resembling tones. Serbo-Croatian has rising/falling intonation for some words, but only Swedish and Norwegian have these sorts of high/low tone patterns in Europe.

[@Ahmed-pf3lg]

@@wyqtor yeah true that

[@AnnaKaunitz]

@@Ahmed-pf3lg It’s a pitch accent language. Not tonal.

[@AnnaKaunitz]

@@wyqtor It’s a pitch accent language. Not tones.

[@whapid437]

@@wyqtor no asian language have that like swedish and norwegian where it go up and down

[@jnmc2498]

I noticed that the languages many times uses different synonyms of a word. Figuring that out, makes it sometimes a lot easier to understand what is being said.

[@NorkelFjols]

When he's "speaking bokmål" instead of his dialect it still sounds almost completely Ålesund to me (as someone from Oslo) because of the inflections and specific way he pronounces words. It's interesting how much of a dialect is just in the "sound". But not that surprising, I guess.

[@goodfortune4317]

Hey there Bahador Jan. Could you do an episode on Balochi and Persian or Dari with the same Baloch guys from the Balochi - Kurdish video. It would be amazing I think these two languages are very close to each other than people realize.

[@arexta153]

One of the Baluchi guys was from Iran so he knows Persian

[@tarunodaysarma9741]

I had worked for danish bank...and I must say Danes are very talented people...and who has not watched the girl with dragon tattoo....loved that swedish series....love from India to scandinavia

[@sara8614]

So Nynorsk is closer to Swedish "skodespelar/valet/mjölk/vatn" and Bokmål is closer to Danish it seems like.

[@andreafranne]

And also ”skillnad” :)

[@MagnsATK98]

That's because bokmål pretty much _is_ Danish, it was based on the Danish language with some added Norwegian aspects. Nynorsk is how the Norwegian countryside spoke less influenced by Danish.

[@herrbonk3635]

26:10 Some are too young to remember that just 60 years back or so, frukost was indeed often what lunch is today. More or less in all three countries. Before the label "frukost" was moved from lunch time to breakfast time, we talked about morgonmål (sw) or morgenmad (da) in the morning, which is still used by many people.

[@Geoskan]

You should have included Icelandic and Faroese - would have been a bit more of a challenge.

[@SamA-bo4tk]

They're not as close though

[@Nekotaku_TV]

Might be too much, should be done separately at least.

[@kilipaki87oritahiti]

Lol not fair, as Icelanders and Faroese has to learn one other Nordic language, and the majority learns Danish, but because they can't pronounce the soft consonants, it just sounds Norwegian anyway. And Icelandic and Faroese are to distinct from the others to be able to have any decent conversation. Farose is closer to Norwegian tho, but still it has too much a Celtic flare. It's would be a hot mess and a waste of time, unless the Icelanders and Faroese spoke in Danish/Norwegian which would defeat the purpose of speaking in your own native language. Also as a Norwegian it is challenging enough to have us converse with a Dane, as none of us really understands Danish!

[@JackCoxMSquirrel]

As a Swedish learner I could understand the written languages pretty easily and only struggled with two sentences: the Norwegian dialect and the Swedish legal sentence. But I couldn't hear much of the Danish without the subtitles.

[@evaskjerd]

Det stemmer👍You’re right👍

[@julianneheindorf5757]

I’m a native speaker of both Danish, Swedish and English. If Swedes and Danes are used to listening to each other and learn a few words, they can usually communicate without many problems. However, I have met both Swedes and Danes who are clueless when they hear the other language like Maria is. Norwegian Bokmål is very similar to Danish except for the accent. Nynorsk is quite different, but people living along the Swedish /Norwegian border understand each other pretty well. Actually, these guys should be able to understand each other off the bat and not have to resort to English. When I was a kid in school we learned about the other versions of the Scandinavian language. This seems to have been omitted in the current curriculums in all three countries. If Sweden, Denmark and Norway had been one country, these languages would only have been major dialects. In fact, around 1300 the countries were united as one country. Later Norway and Denmark were one kingdom until at one point when Sweden captured/grabbed Norway from Denmark. Norway gained its final independence from Sweden in 1905.

[@Greksallad]

I'm 24 and when I went to school here in Sweden we did learn about the other Scandinavian languages. I mean, we weren't taught how to speak them in depth or anything but we were taught about the common history, different dialects as well as the similarities and differences between our three languages. I also distinctly remember being taught how to tell if a text was in Danish or Norwegian, more specifically which words, spellings and letters were the most useful identifiers. This was maybe in year 6-8 and also a bit in year 3 of gymnasiet/highschool when we actually went to see a theater play in Norwegian to write a review on it.

[@JokerInk-CustomBuilds]

Dane here. A few beers and its no biggie... lol Norwegian is slightly easier to understand for me, but I also know more norwegian people so that might be why... Whats funny is that all 3 nations have many different local dialects... even being as small a population and country as denmark there are parts of the population who struggle understanding eachother if they go fullblown local speech...

[@astrid_karj]

Im danish and all that was surprisingly easy to understand. Maybe its because i used to live in Sweden for 7 years lol

[@theturquoiseball1255]

Hello Bahador! We need a Finnish vs Hungarian language! 🇫🇮🇭🇺

[@mytube001]

He's just done an Estonian-Hungarian one. Close enough.

[@shaunmckenzie5509]

I'd like to see Estonian and Finnish, they're much closer

[@AllanLimosin]

They are classified in the same massive Uralic languages yet they are not that much mutually intelligible unfortunately. Maybe Hungarian with Khanty and/or Mansi (if their are subscribers speaking those languages) or Finnish with other Finnic languages.

[@corinna007]

@@shaunmckenzie5509 I'd love to see a video like this one between Finnish, Estonian, and Hungarian.

[@shaunmckenzie5509]

@portable-cimbora To see how close they are, and how much they can understand more complicated passages. I find the videos with closer related languages more interesting than the ones where they're very distant and only doing basic words.

[@ksven]

I would say any Scandinavian can learn to understand the other Scandinavian languages easily with just a little bit of practice and exposure. As a Norwegian I have frequent business meetings with colleagues and customers in Sweden and Denmark, and I've always spoken Norwegian to them, with very few issues, I may need to clarify a word here or there. Sometimes the Swedes and Danes have a bit of trouble understanding each other and so they often start out with English, but if they actually give it a try they understand a lot more than they expected. I try to encourage Scandinavian as much as possible :) I think a big part of it is just training your ears and brain on the differences in pronunciation. Yeah there are some unique words in each language, but you can often infer from context, or adapt a little. I frequently "svorsk" my Norwegian a bit when talking to a Swede as I am aware of some Norwegian words being foreign to them. It's easier for us Norwegians I think because we were traditionally more exposed to the other Scandinavian languages via culture (television shows etc), so we have a bit of a head start. I also think older generations of Scandinavians are better at understanding the languages than the younger. It really would be a great loss for the region if we lost the ability to communicate with each other without English.

[@accaeffe8032]

That's why they say that Norwegian is Danish spoken in Swedish 😀

[@fartreta]

In northern Sweden and the coastal areas of Finland that are partly Swedish-speaking there are some small rural dialects that are really divergent from standard Swedish, so divergent that they range between being very challenging to being more or less unintelligible to other Swedish speakers. Even a Norwegian dialect like the one here (or Danish for that matter) is a huge lot more intelligible. The most well known of these is Elfdalian (Älvdalska in Swedish, Övdalsk in Elfdalian) which recently got recognition from the U.N. as a language of its own, and there are also Skellefte/Pite/Kalix-Bondska and Ostrobothnian dialects in Finland, of which the Närpes dialect probably is the best known. Nowadays the speakers of those dialects are of course also able to speak standard (sort of) Swedish / Finland-Swedish.

[@pierreabbat6157]

About "frokost" meaning "breakfast" or "lunch", in French the three meals of the day are all cognates. "Déjeuner" is "dé- + jeûner" which means "de-fast", but now it means "lunch", so breakfast is called "petit déjeuner". "Dîner", from which "dinner" comes, is from Latin "disjejunare", again meaning "dis-fast", but worn down by two thousand years of people eating later in the day.

[@newguy8222]

That mirrors the Danish understanding of the word frokost, in Swedish it means breakfast, not lunch.

[@yahem9027]

Out of all the languages I know, I like germanic ones the best. I find their pronunciation very interesting and it just sounds beautiful. Next year I'm studying german in university which I'm very exciting for. I also started learning swedish on my own since december 2021 and I love how much I can understand out of the norwegian and danish sentences thanks to my swedish knowledge, keeping in mind it would be way more difficult once I don't look at the written sentences. I'd like to study one of those scandinavian languages at uni aswel but those aren't an option at my school sadly. Definitely planning to study danish or norwegian in the futur. Thanks for the video, it was very interesting to a language lover! from Belgium : )

[@Finnie1203]

Every part of the germanic language family has fun bits. I really like the sound of north germanic languages, the grammar and logic of west germanic and the look of dutch and norwegian

[@yahem9027]

@@Finnie1203 Yes the same for me. I prefer germanic languages over the roman ones even though i really like those aswel. But germanic ones just sounds nice and the grammar is indeed logical and Interesting!

[@element4element4]

Just a comment about a word that means different thing in these languages. As was mentioned, frokost means breakfast in Swedish and Norwegian. Similar to German frühstuck. But in Danish it means lunch. For breakfast we use morgenmad ("morning food"). When used in julefrokost, it means Christmas Dinner. I think that's a cultural shift over time. I think in the past it was more common to have this during lunch but now is more often as a dinner.

[@francisdec1615]

In Swedish lunch is called middag in the countryside and small towns but lunch in the larger cities, while middag means supper in the larger cities. In the countryside the evening meal is called kvällsmat, literally "evening food".

[@erikaeriksson9840]

The old word for "frukost" in Swedish was "morgonmål" (morningmeal).

[@icecoffee907]

I studied Norwegian for almost 2 years. I could pretty much understand everything that was being said in these three languages. But trying to understand the nynorsk was difficult. And only after it was translated into bokmål, could I finally decipher what was being said in nynorsk

[@hassanalast6670]

I have visited Scandinavian countries long time ago having a lot of good memories from them now good to know the languages similarities between Swedish, Norwegian and Danish

[@renee5575]

What would be good is a Swede from Värmland, a Norwegian from Trønderlag and a Dane from Sjælland, with their native dialects!

[@alexanderjohansson8133]

I live in northern sweden and we do use "tur" here the same way that norwegians and danes do.

[@molly702]

I’m from stockholm and i do that too. I have heard other people say it too it’s not like it’s unormal to say it.

[@levuzar4388]

Ja, störde mig på att hon påstod att ingen svensktalande läger till ”tur” i det sammanhanget. Det gör vi! Jag kommer ifrån Malmö.

[@harvoormotors3050]

Hey are Northern Swedish and Western Swedish Dialects more similar to Norwegian opposed to the modern boring Danish??

[@alexanderjohansson8133]

​@@harvoormotors3050 yeah, it's not even close. danish is very different in the spoken language to most swedish dialects. i can read danish but it's almost on the level of german of how hard it is to understand when spoken. i'm overexaggerating a little, but it's very hard to hold a conversation with a dane without adapting a bit and speaking slowly - with norwegians it's normally very little of that needed.