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The home pages for the Usenet newsgroup soc.culture.nordic

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From: Eugene Holman
Subject: Re: Norwegian vs. Swedish
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
Date: 10 May 1996 16:35:11 GMT
Organization: University of Helsinki

> Could someone please elaborate on the fact that native speakers of
> each language are somewhat able to understand the other languages?  I
> have been told that this is possible.  Is the difference accent, such
> as the English spoken in the UK contrasted with the English in the
> States?
> 
> Thank you!
> 
> Jerry

The late Einar Haugen, one of the leading authorities on the Scandinavian langauges, once characterized Norwegian as "Danish spoken with a Swedish accent". The essential difference between the three Scandinavian languages is that Danish and (Bokmål) Norwegian have a long history of shared culture and vocabulary which Swedish lacks, while Norwegian and Swedish have many shared features of pronunciation, which Danish lacks. Actually, the truth is somewhat more complex, since Norwegian and Danish have radically simplified their pronunciation and grammar in a way that Swedish has not, but the pronunciation of Danish has subsequently been influenced by that of German, while Swedish and Norwegian have not.

Here are some of the most salient differences in tabular form. Please note, only the "standard" forms of the languages are being dealt with here (also the Swedish spoken in Finland is omitted). The spoken local forms of the three Scandinavian languages actually form a continuun with no really sharp breaks; the three standard languages are relatively recent cultural artifacts imposed "from above":

    
                                      Danish Norwegian  Swedish
1. Pitch accent                         -       YES       YES
2. Glottal stop ("stød")               YES       -        -
3. Reduction of unstressed vowels      YES      YES       -
4. Retroflex consonants                 -       YES       YES
5. Retention of Old Norse diphthons     -       YES       -
   (au, ei, öy)						     	      
6. Voicing of voicelss stops           YES       -        -
7. Long stressed syllable rule          -       YES       YES

Examples:

1. Pitch accent
   Danish jeg taler "I speak" has a heavy stress accent on the tal. The second syllable is pronounced indistinctly with a reduced vowel. Its Norwegian analogue jeg snakker [the Norwegian verb would in Danish and Swedish mean "chat, banter" rather than "speak"] as well as the Swedish jag talar have less stress on the first syllable, with the second syllable being pronounced distinctly and at a higher pitch than the first syllable - this despite they being unstressed.  

2. Glottal stop (stød)
   Danish hund "dog" is pronounced [hun?], with the stop articulation replaced by a "creaky voice", conventionally indicated by a glottal stop sign [?] in phonetic transcription. The corresponding word in Swedish and Norwegian has the stop pronounced [d] and no creaky voice.  

3. Reduction of unstressed vowels
   Compare Danish/Norwegian kvinden/kvinnen with Swedish kvinnan "the woman". Swedish regularly distinguishes between o, a, and e in unstressed syllables. Norwegian and Danish have reduced these contrasting vowel qualities to a shwa [@] spelled e.  

4. Retroflex consonants
   Most types of Swedish and Norwegian pronounce the combinations /rt/, /rd/, /rn/, and /rl/ as retroflex consonants (articulated with the underside of the tongue touching the front of the hard palate). Danish does not do this, for which reason words like kort "short", hård "hard", barn "child, and karl "fellow" sound quite different in Danish than they do in Norwegian or Swedish.  

5. Retention of Old Norse diphthons
   Norwegian retains the Old Norse diphthongs in words like laupe "to run", bein "leg", høyra "to hear" as do many rural dialects of Swedish. Compare standard Danish/Swedish løbe/löpa, ben/ben, høre/höra.  

6. Voicing of voicelss stops
   Danish has gone a long way towards voicing older voiceless stops and fricativizing older voiced ones:
   Danish bog "book, cf. N/S bok
   Danish sidde "sit", cf. N/S sitte/sitta
   Danish skov "forest", cf. skog  

7. Long stressed syllable rule
   Norwegian and Swedish have preserved the long syllable rule. According to this, all stressed syllables are phonologically long, containing either a long vowel or a long consonant:
   • Swedish man / Norwegian mann ['mann]; Danish mand [man?] "man";
     
   • Swedish bita ['biita] / Norwegian bite ['biit@]; Danish bide ['bi~@] "(to) bite"
     (~ = voiced dental fricative, @ = shwa).

unstressed vowels

    Danish        Norwegian     Swedish
    jeg elsker    jeg elsker    jag älskar     "I love"
    jeg køber     jeg kjøber    jag köper      "I buy"
    tændstikker   fyrstikker    tändskickor    "matches"
    pengene       pengerne      pengarna       "the money"
    cigaretter    sigaretter    cigaretter     "cigarettes"

similar words

    Danish        Norwegian     Swedish
    billed        billed        tavla          "picture"
    jernbane      jernbane      järnväg        "railway"
    lomme         lomme         ficka          "pocket"
    uge           uke           vecka          "week"
    værelse       værelse       rum            "room"

Danish:    Hvad heder dette sted? Her er meget smuk, er her ikke?
           [va~ 'hed@ 'det@ 'ste~  'heR e@ mai@t smuk, e@ heR ig@]

Norwegian: Hvad heter dette stedet? Her er meget pent, ikke sant?
           [va 'heet@r 'dett@ 'steed@   'heer er `´meeg@t 'pennt, `´ikk@ 'sannt]

Swedish:   Vad heter det här stället? Det är mycket vackert här, är det inte?
           [va 'heeter de 'hæær 'stællet   'Dee e `´mykket `´vakkeT hæær, 'e de `´inte]

"What's the name of this place?   It's very beuatiful, isn't it?"

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