#nordic languages

[corvid-language-library]

Trying to track down the history of why Norwegian and Danish use æ and ø while Swedish uses ä and ö and all I'm getting is "Norwegian and Danish use æ and ø while Swedish uses ä and ö" and I'm like YES. I KNOW. BUT WHY. WHY DID THIS HAPPEN. WHY IS SWEDEN THE REBEL CHILD.

[nordic-italian-german]

Lovely illustrations made by Minna Sundberg

[chiara-klara-claire]

Fact: 🌙 is m and ☀️ is f in germanic languages, while in romance languages it is the opposite! I can tell why :)

[pvffinsdaisies]

[nuelangblr]

Swedish listening practice “Godnatts fästningstorn - Ett ljus i mörkret”

en fyr (-ar) - lighthouse en vippfyr (-ar) - bascule light, basically a prototype of a lighthouse en fyrvaktare (-) - lighthouse keeper en kust (-er) - coast en verksamhet (-er) - work area, activity en trygghet (-er) - safety en stenkol (-) - coal en bostad (-er) - house, accommodation en uppfinning (-ar) - invention ett fästningstorn (-) - fortified tower

att återvända (-er, återvände, återvänt) - to come back att elda (-ar, eldade, eldat) - to light up, to set ablaze att driva  fyran   (-er, drev, drivit) - to power a lighthouse att se till (-er, såg, sett) - to look after sth att kliva (-er, klev, klivit) - to stride att bevittna (-ar, bevittnade, bevittnat) - to bear witness att skena (-ar, skenade, skenat) - to gallop att bestå (-ar, bestod, bestått) - to remain, to endure att vidga perspektiven (-ar, vidgade, vidgat) - to broaden horizonts att vara på väg - to be on the way

hemlig - secret märklig - particular, remarkable synlig - visible, ocular öde - still, dead, barren ödmjuk - humble uppkäftig - cheeky, arrogant nyss - just now, lately

~link to the Quizlet flashcards set~

[snowsmoked]

Language textbook: Translate this paragraph, full of words you'll have to use context clues to figure out. No looking it up!

Me: Cool, no problem. Got it. I'm fluent

Textbook: Now put it all in past tense

Me: . . . you know, I prefer to live in the present

[vikinglanguage]

why is it people insist on using Nordic or Scandinavian for the north Germanic languages. Both those terms are imprecise. The only good one is north Germanic because:

-scandinavian excludes Icelandic and faroese

-scandinavian could imply that saami is part of the family though it is not a language tied to any one of the Scandinavian countries

-nordic should include finnish as Finland is a nordic country and by that extent saami again

-denmark is only part of scandinavia for historical reasons, we're not even on the Scandinavian peninsula

-technically when saying Scandinavian you could argue that Faroese comes with Danish, but then you'd have to argue the same for Greenlandic

-saying Scandinavian also technically excludes Finland Swedish or which some dialects are practically unintelligible to speakers of more standard Swedish

I'm begging of everyone to please just say North Germanic

Situations where it's good to say Scandinavian languages:

- when talking about the dialect continuum formed by Danish, Swedish and Norwegian (though again, the does ignore the reality of saami)

Situations where it's good to say Nordic languages:

- when you want to include Finland because they are a good friend of ours even though all of their linguistics friends are in Estonia, Hungary and Russia

Edit: I forgot the saamic languages are also related to Finnish and those are, as previously pointed out, also spoken in Sweden and Norway

[nordic-language-love]

Old Norse | Can Norwegian, Danish and Icelandic speakers understand it?

Conclusion: Icelandic speakers can with ease, but Danish and Norwegian speakers struggle.