Trying to speak Swedish and Norwegian - Language Challenge with Rebzen 

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Ja

They sure are, but as soon as you go far off in both Sweden and Norway, the similarity goes whaaa? :)

From a purely linguistic point of view, I would argue that you could call them the same language. The only reason we think of Swedish and Norwegian as different is really just because of national identity, but the border that divides the countries is really just a political one, not a linguistic one.

@Ginnungagap In that case, you could say that Norwegian isn't a single language either because some of its dialects are very different from others. And remember that the dialects of Norway and Sweden are all part of the same dialect continuum. There isn't a sudden break from Norwegian to Swedish or vice versa once you move across the border. The dialects gradually change from region to region, and so, from a purely linguistic point of view, there is no point where Norwegian ends and Swedish begins. We have a land border, but we don't really have a language border.

@Ginnungagap If the dialects aren't different enough to be considered different languages then I don't see how Norwegian and Swedish could possibly be considered different languages. There is plenty of variation within both languages, and you can find many examples of extreme differences within Norwegian dialects that exceed those we usually see between certain dialects of Norwegian and Swedish. A person from Oslo would probably have an easier time understanding someone from Stockholm than someone from Valle in Setesdal, for example. Swedish and German is not a fair comparison. They are way more different. It's nearly impossible for a Swede and a German to have a meaningful conversation using their respective languages if neither person is familiar with the other language. With Norwegian on the other hand, even a Swede who has never heard a word of Norwegian in their life can most likely understand nearly all of it if they try. The level of mutual intelligibility is so high that Norwegians and Swedes typically converse with one another in their respective languages. In my experience there are also certain Norwegian dialects that are more difficult for me, a Norwegian, to understand than certain Swedish dialects, so if we use mutual intelligibility as a criterion, there is no strong basis for calling Norwegian and Swedish separate languages. I still stand by my statement that the only reason they are considered separate languages is because they are spoken in two different countries.

@Ginnungagap I think you're missing my point. I'm not saying that mutual intelligibility is the only way to divide up languages. There are other factors as well, and in the case of Swedish and Norwegian, it's especially important to consider the historical and socio-political divide between Norway and Sweden. I'm not denying that. In that sense, you could of course call them different languages. However, as I've said before, if we just compare the two languages while ignoring all the external factors (borders, national identity etc.) they are very similar, and flow into one another to form a larger dialect continuum with no sharp divide that neatly aligns with the national border we have today. If Norway and Sweden was just one country, I'm sure we'd just consider it one language with lots of diverse dialects that wouldn't necessarily align along an east-west divide. It doesn't matter that one is descended from Old East Norse and the other from Old West Norse. Just because two ways of speaking belong to different branches of the same family, that doesn't necessarily mean they are different enough for us to consider them different languages altogether. Norwegian can also be divided into similar categories. It's common to divide Norwegian dialects into two basic groups: Western and Eastern. It's also common to divide them into the four groups Nordnorsk, Trøndersk, Vestnorsk and Austnorsk. However, just because there are some differences and they stem from older branches of Proto-Norwegian, that doesn't mean we need to start calling them different languages. They are just different dialect groups, although I'm sure there is a parallel timeline out there where Norway as we know it is split in two and where the people of either country consider their dialects of Norwegian to be a separate language from the dialects of the other country, just like what happened between Norway and Sweden in our timeline. The dialects spoken in Sweden don't always fit neatly into the category of Old East Norse anyways, and there are plenty of dialects that are quite tricky to categorize, and yet, we usually just refer to them as "Swedish". For example, what would you say about dialects spoken in various territories of Sweden that previously belonged to Norway. Would you consider them Swedish, Norwegian, a mix of both or something else? On a related note, two speakers living right next to one another on opposite sides of the border might speak two almost identical dialects, but still be said to speak different languages. I know we disagree about this, but I'll say it again. There isn't traditionally a sharp divide between a Norwegian language and a Swedish language that neatly aligns with the national border we have today. There is also a deeper point I'm trying to make here, which is that it's tricky to divide related groups of dialects into languages. Usually, we just use national borders, but this is not a perfect method and usually doesn't tell us the full story.

ha ha

Michael Scott would be proud

Har du høyrt nordnorsk?

@@dan74695 no but I’m guessing it’s harder than the Norsk that is taught in Norwegian lessons though... actually I’ve never had the pleasure of talking or meeting someone from Norway... Norwegians must Love Norway and don’t immigrate to other countries.

@@redwelder5296 Actually, I think my dialect would be easier for you; a lot of words have fewer forms(infinitive and presens are usually the same), and the intonation would probably feel more natural, because it's almost always falling instead of rising. Eastern Norwegian is ↗️ and ↘️↗️, but northern Norwegian is ↘️ and ↗️↘️.

@@dan74695 my biggest problem is the sentence structure in English i say “I’m going to the market, in Norsk i believe i would say “går til markedet jeg er....i think, it’s a little confusing because i don’t speak that way.

@@redwelder5296 It's "Jeg skal til markedet." "Går" is usually "walking".

I've realized lately, that I really enjoy doing a few extra things with the clips, especially when it's so easy-going as this was with Rebzen and Ella.

@@TheSwedishLad definitely continue!

Challenge: find easy-going people! :)

Kva! Er du ikkje fra Bergen?? Korfor!? Ha ha I used to live in Bergen, so I know.

@@TheSwedishLad Ja, jeg vet det, I'm watching your videos for a while. And may I say that this girl is så vakker og karismatisk, she should also make her own youtube channel. :D

Verkligen

Norwegians always sound cute.

We would probably say gör ditt bästa, do your best, but you want to be literal in these on-the-spot moments.

I once had a German-Swedish dictionary, and kind of 80% of the words were the same, only differently written.

No onw in Germany would say "Versuch so hart du kannst". That sounds more like Google Translate from English "Try as hard as you can". "Gib/versuch dein Bestes", "Streng dich richtig an" would be idiomatic. But I agree that you can derive a lot even with a literal translation.

Yeah but " Schmetterling " is also a German word !

@@davidkasquare Yea there is a lot of common Germanic vocabulary, but I find the Scandinavian languages to have quite a bit of that Nordic wordbase that makes it closer to English sometimes (or in fact English to it, since it borrowed that vocabulary from Norse).

Do it!!! Välj bara rätt norska :)

@@TheSwedishLad vilken är rätt norska?

@@TheSwedishLad Lol-sier du som kommer fra Skåne😅. Kan ikke akkurat si at det er «riktig» svensk.

It was without a doubt one of the most entertaining videos I've done in a long time. Rebzen rocks!!

he he!!

TheSwedishLad care to share? Hihi

Fick is sort of a verb for making babies in Germany.

@@eck2x ficken = to fuck It sounds funny to Germans how much people talk about "fika in Sweden.

Don't get the Italians started on Fika, ha ha.

Go for it!!

Ayşenur Özdemir Same here. But learning to many languages right now😭😭

Why? If u know Swedish youll know Norwegian and vice versa, the once that dont are fucking morons with an IQ of 10. Sorry for being rude, but its the truth.

@@daginn896 that isnt true at all lol, for a non native of either of the languages it sounds very different, and even natives have a hard time understanding each other, trust me on this one... as a Norwegian living in Sweden youll have to repeat ALOT (and no, people are not morons for not understanding me)... and even if you understand a language it doesent mean you know it, i understand Danish and somewhat Icelandic, that doesent mean i know the languages, at all... so no, its not the truth... and no people are not morons because theyre not understanding a different language, if you think that... why dont you learn Spanish and tell me in Portuguese about your progress

@@Rule-zc3md Det er lettare å forstå svensk viss ein kan nynorsk, det liknar meir på svensk enn bokmål gjer. Eg tykker norsk og svensk er like nok til å bli kalla det same språket.

It's my blue eyes. It's always been my blue eyes. ;)

@@TheSwedishLad Makes perfect sense to me!!! The thumbnail says it all. Two strong good looking kids, two bright healthy lives, in front of two beautiful Nordic cross flags. A match made in heaven!

You had me at kids.

@@TheSwedishLad I don't know if that was a slip or not. Well...to me you guys are. I'm retired !!!

@@gizmogoose.2486 Love it!!

Difficult to say, as (some) Norwegian is very close to Swedish.

Very similar in difficulty level. I think Norwegian spelling is a bit more regular, but Swedish spelling is a little closer to German in some respects.

Yup ;)

you should add danish and icelandic too...

Oh god you are a mad man.

If you ask Ella (who filmed) she would say it was below average amount of references. But then again, she sees me almost every day.

True story, ha ha

Lmao

Över en viss ålder stämmer det generellt, men yngre norrmän brukar inte vara riktigt lika bra på svenska. Tjejen här är så bra på svenska att jag tror hon kan hantera korta situationer utan att den hon pratar med ens misstänker att hon är från Norge.

Hva?

@@dan74695 3:59

@@jatojo Jeg vet når de sier det, men ikke hva du liker med det.

And what a great day it was.

Eller "i lomma di".

Just wait for the Swedish vs Latin language challenge, ha ha.

Kommer du från något av de områdena? Lägg gärna upp ett litet klipp med länk till här, om du har tid och lust? Jag skulle gärna vilja testa hur mycket jag förstår.

Don't I always, ha ha

Hmm.....now that you mention it. What about Bornholm....? ?

he he

It will probably be easier, esp. if you add a distinct accent :)

@@TheSwedishLad Haha! Great tip, thanks! :)

@@KiralearnsNorwegian I like Norwegian and Swedish equally. Danish feels like torture to me

@@wereldvanriley7 :) why?

ha ha

That's the reward of studying a language.

However this video focuses on the fact that norwegian and swedish is so similiar that they can be understood by each other with prior studying. Now let's see if any west-germanic language is this similar to each other.

Og hvor er du fra? :p