| > norse languages "Scandinavian" languages, please. Or even mainland Scandinavian, to distinguish from the (not very mutually intelligible) insular Scandinavian in the Faroes and on Iceland. > I did know quite a few Danes That last word is the explanation. :-) More below. > I assumed the differences between the three big norse languages were roughly equal. Swedes and Norwegians have little trouble talking with one another in their own languages. Norwegian written language looks more similar to Danish (indeed, bokmål is highly similar) in that a Dane would have no trouble reading Norwegian or vice-versa. Written Swedish differs in more than just the last three letters of the alphabet. Spoken Danish is a whole other animal. It works out when people try to speak as standardly as possible. Norwegians and Swedes (except some from the very south of Sweden) will struggle with ordinary spoken Danish, and are even likely to turn on subtitling when watching Danish TV shows (likewise there will be Danish subtitling of some Swedish shows). In some technical settings you'll see more use of English among Scandinavians because there is a non-commonality of terms, and of course it is simply more polite to talk in English when talking someone whose only common language (or indeed only language) is English, and it is especially Danish to do so in order to avoid excluding anyone. That may have coloured your impression. |