Learning one of the Scandinavian Languages
Printed From: History Community ~ All Empires
Category: Scholarly Pursuits
Forum Name: Linguistics
Forum Discription: Discuss linguistics: the study of languages
URL: http://www.allempires.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=23252
Printed Date: 29-Apr-2024 at 13:37
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 9.56a - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Learning one of the Scandinavian Languages
Posted By: King John
Subject: Learning one of the Scandinavian Languages
Date Posted: 18-Jan-2008 at 02:08
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Over the course of the past year I have taken up the study of Old Norse and am intrigued by the idea/prospect of learning one of the modern Scandinavian languages. My question for those who are so inclined to respond to this thread is: which of the following languages; Danish, Norwegian, or Swedish, is the - dare I say - easiest to learn? I personally am leaning towards learning Danish or Norwegian. Another question that I have is does anybody know any good books or audio CD/Book combinations that would more easily facilitate the learning of one of these languages?
PS: Links/Resources for those who want to try to learn Norwegian with the group here that is attempting this same endeavor. http://static.unilang.org/resources/courses/learnnorwegian_en.php - Unilang Mini Course This is the basis for the early exercises. http://employees.csbsju.edu/tnichol/norwegian.html - Norwegian Language Resource Page http://norskklassen.ce-service.biz/commonverbs.htm - Common Verb List http://www.stolaf.edu/depts/norwegian/grammar/grammar.html - Grammar Resource Page http://www.sofn.com/norwegian_culture/languagelessons_index.jsp - Lessons from the Sons of Norway P.P.S: Font Codes http://norskklassen.ce-service.biz/norchar.htm - Code for Norwegian Computer Fonts (PC) http://norskklassen.ce-service.biz/macchar.htm - Code for Norwegian Computer Fonts (Mac) |
Replies:
Posted By: Sarmat
Date Posted: 18-Jan-2008 at 02:25
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They are basically very similar, the grammar is almost the same. Though the Danish pronunciation is considered the hardest. Bukmol the official Norwegian dialect is even more similar to Danish than to Swedish. ------------- Σαυρομάτης 
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Posted By: King John
Date Posted: 18-Jan-2008 at 02:37
| Sarmat, are you a speaker of any of these languages or do you have any familiarity (training) of some sort in said languages? |
Posted By: Sarmat
Date Posted: 18-Jan-2008 at 03:05
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Yes, I intensively learned Danish for 1.5 year ------------- Σαυρομάτης
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Posted By: Justinian
Date Posted: 18-Jan-2008 at 03:22
Good luck to you. I was going to take a norwegian course this past semester, (sentimental reasons mostly; family background etc.) but it costed like 1500 just for enrollment in that one class. So that died quickly. ------------- "War is a cowardly escape from the problems of peace."--Thomas Mann 
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Posted By: King John
Date Posted: 18-Jan-2008 at 03:22
| Would you care to share what book(s) you used for your intensive studies? It would be greatly appreciated if you would. |
Posted By: Sarmat
Date Posted: 18-Jan-2008 at 03:53
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The thing is that I learned it in Moscow and the book was specifically designed for Russian students. So, that textbook would probably not work for you in the US. ------------- Σαυρομάτης
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Posted By: hugoestr
Date Posted: 18-Jan-2008 at 03:56
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Swedish is very easy for English speakers. It has one of the most regular grammars, and many of the words sort of match with English. I studied it, but I couldn't do it right because there were personal issues going on at the time.
Norwegian is supposed to be very close to Swedish. According to my Scandinavian Studies instructors, it is as close as U.S. English to Australian English. Since I don't know either language, I will have to go with their word. And Sarmat says Norwegian is close to Danish, so maybe Norwegian is the best bang for your studying time bucks :P So, is there any interest in forming a small Norwegian study group? We can try working through one those free online courses all together on the forum, and see what happens.  ------------- |
Posted By: hugoestr
Date Posted: 18-Jan-2008 at 03:57
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Another idea, King John,
If you know Old Norse, I heard that Icelandic is very close to it. Maybe you can give it a look as well. ------------- |
Posted By: Justinian
Date Posted: 18-Jan-2008 at 04:04
I'd be up for that, let me know if anything ever develops there. ------------- "War is a cowardly escape from the problems of peace."--Thomas Mann
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Posted By: King John
Date Posted: 18-Jan-2008 at 04:08
Hugo, that's a good idea I think. I even think that I have seen some Norwegians floating around here, who might be able to help as well. This, I think, might be worth pursuing. I want to stay away from Icelandic, although it would be nice to know, because my interests are in England and the North Sea not so much the North Atlantic. With that said I have been bouncing around the idea of trying Icelandic. PS. So far it seems as though there are three people interested in such an endeavor (you, Justinian, and myself). Let me know if you actually want to pursue this, so we can try and organize some sort of group/thread. |
Posted By: hugoestr
Date Posted: 18-Jan-2008 at 05:25
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Sure. As I said, we can start with an online free course in Norwegian and try to cover it. If it works out, then we can think about getting a textbook and working through it.
We can each look for something and then pick the best one. Oh, my mother-in-law (Norwegian-American) will be so thrill when he hears the new about this...  ------------- |
Posted By: hugoestr
Date Posted: 18-Jan-2008 at 05:29
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Hey, I found a quick one here:
http://static.unilang.org/resources/courses/learnnorwegian_en.php%20 - unilang mini course in norwegian Very short, which is very good because it will give us a sense of accomplishment quickly 
We can use it while we find a longer course online ------------- |
Posted By: Sarmat
Date Posted: 18-Jan-2008 at 05:33
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I think you made the right decision guys. Studying Norwegian is much more easy and practical than Islandic, which is indeed very close to Old Norse that in fact makes its grammar very difficult.
IMO Scandinavian languages are among the easiest to learn for English native speakers. ------------- Σαυρομάτης
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Posted By: hugoestr
Date Posted: 18-Jan-2008 at 05:36
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I finished lesson 1!
Jeg er Hugo. Du er King John. Han er Justinian. Hun er Dawn. Vi er Hugo og King John og Justinian. Dere er King John og Justinian. De er Paul og Rider. ------------- |
Posted By: King John
Date Posted: 18-Jan-2008 at 05:51
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I just finished Lesson 1 myself. I hope all of it is that straight forward.
Jeg er King John Du er Hugo Han er Justinian Hun er mor Vi er King John og Hugo og Sarmat og Justinian Dere er Hugo og Justinian De er Justinian og Hugo Lesson 2 tomorrow? PS I keep wanting to put in und instead of og. |
Posted By: Flipper
Date Posted: 18-Jan-2008 at 07:25
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I may be a native speaker of Swedish, but i have to say, judging from how fast foreign people i know learned, they are easy languages. Maybe the pronounciation can be hard, especially in Dannish but generally if you get familiar with one of them you shouldn't have a problems learning very fast another. Just for the info, one of my best friends, started having conversations after 6 months... -------------  
Så nu tar jag fram (k)niven va! |
Posted By: gcle2003
Date Posted: 18-Jan-2008 at 13:47
You learn two sentences and you're already disagreeing!
Now that's much better.
 Do they still count that old-fahioned way in Denmark? Incidentally, my experience that the foreign nationals who speak the best English are the Norwegians, who manage to get the intonations right, I think because intonation plays a big part in their own language.
(Actually jeg er Graham, du er King John og du er Hugo, but you're right about han.) ------------- |
Posted By: Styrbiorn
Date Posted: 18-Jan-2008 at 14:00
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I'd suggest Swedish or Norwegian. I suggest you to avoid Danish, of one single reason - the pronounciation. Danish is all guttural sounds (it's the Dutch of the north-Germanic languages) - you'll have a much easier task with Norwegian or Swedish. Besides, with Swedish or Norwegian, you'll get around in Norway, Sweden and Denmark (and with Swedish, in many parts of Finland as well). With Danish, you won't be that much understood in Sweden, Finland or even Norway. Written Danish, Norwegian and Swedish are almost identical, so in that regard you'll understand more or less everything if you know one of them. |
Posted By: King John
Date Posted: 18-Jan-2008 at 16:02
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I just finished lesson 2:
Bestemoren har en katt En hund er et dyr Bordet har en bok Bestemoren og bestefaren har en hund Moren har en hund og faren har en katt Vi har et bord De har huset |
Posted By: hugoestr
Date Posted: 18-Jan-2008 at 18:41
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Finished lesson two as well.
I had to do some research, but here it is, one of the most important words in any language, used in a sentence. Jeg har let. If we were in college, this thread would contain the Scandinavian club members . ------------- |
Posted By: hugoestr
Date Posted: 18-Jan-2008 at 18:48
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I found another:
http://employees.csbsju.edu/tnichol/norwegian.html - Norwegian Language Resource Page ------------- |
Posted By: King John
Date Posted: 18-Jan-2008 at 18:52
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Good sentence, Hugo. These exercises are really giving me a sense of accomplishment. Good find! |
Posted By: King John
Date Posted: 18-Jan-2008 at 18:53
PS Never-mind I found it on my own. ------------- |
Posted By: King John
Date Posted: 18-Jan-2008 at 20:13
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I have found a grammar guide, as well:
http://www.stolaf.edu/depts/norwegian/grammar/grammar.html - Here it is Here is a verb list: http://norskklassen.ce-service.biz/commonverbs.htm - Verb list |
Posted By: Northman
Date Posted: 18-Jan-2008 at 20:37
Oh yes - we still count 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10, how do you do it?
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Posted By: gcle2003
Date Posted: 18-Jan-2008 at 21:18
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I meant the five and half-three-score (instead of fifty-five) and stuff like that. Or whatever it comes out as.
It's over thirty years since I spent much time in Denmark working, though I've been back socially occasionally. My wife's fluent in Danish, having been married to a Dane for 20 years or so.
PS I like the farfar, mormor, morfar, farmor constructions. It makes me a farfar five times over, showing what a far far better thing I must have done. ------------- |
Posted By: Suren
Date Posted: 18-Jan-2008 at 21:20
| Det er en god leske. Jeg prover a erfare norsk. |
Posted By: hugoestr
Date Posted: 18-Jan-2008 at 21:38
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Here is the url. There was an extra space in the other one, and that threw the link off. I will see if I can fix it. In the mean time, here:
http://employees.csbsju.edu/tnichol/norwegian.html ------------- |
Posted By: King John
Date Posted: 18-Jan-2008 at 21:47
You should join us in this topic if du prver a erfare norsk. (Though this phrasing probably isn't right since this is a conditional statement and probably has special rules for verb forms; like using the subjunctive or something). |
Posted By: King John
Date Posted: 18-Jan-2008 at 21:48
I found it about an hour ago, so no worries for me. However, it is good to have the url too just incase the link doesn't work for somebody else. |
Posted By: hugoestr
Date Posted: 18-Jan-2008 at 21:54
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Hmm, I believe that we should start gathering our online resources on the top of a single page. Here is a series of "lessons" from the Sons of Norway. I would say that they qualify more as vocabulary, so we might as well use them after we finish our current course.
http://www.sofn.com/norwegian_culture/languagelessons_index.jsp http://www.sofn.com/norwegian_culture/languagelessons_index.jsp - Sons of Norway Lessons It was also very cool to realize that I can become a Son of Norway! In their application, I qualify by having a connection to Norway by marriage. If it were less money, I would get one just to see the expression that my wife will give me when I showed her the card ------------- |
Posted By: King John
Date Posted: 18-Jan-2008 at 22:00
| Putting the online resources together at the top of a single page is a good idea. I think a better idea might be to even put the as a post script to the original post for this thread. I will edit that post so that people can join our little group. |
Posted By: Northman
Date Posted: 18-Jan-2008 at 22:06
I know what you meant - just playing goofy here.
Every Dane are using those numbers multiple times a day, but only a few know the origin. They know the words and what they mean. They only apply to increments of 10 between 40 and 80 (both inclusive), and actually, when you know the origin, they make perfect sense. Yes, the expressions for grandparents are quite unique for Scandinavia as far as I know, unfortunately they don't carry over to the great grandparents.
Do you know if they are used in other parts of the world?
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Posted By: Justinian
Date Posted: 18-Jan-2008 at 22:14
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Lesson 1:
Jeg er Eric
Du er King John
Han er hugestr
Hun er Dawn
Det er Northman
Vi er Eric og King John og hugoestr
Dere er King John og hugoestr
De er gcle2003 og Northman
Sons of Norway, I completely forgot about that. Isn't it also like an investment group or something? My family were big on the norwegian pride thing... so of course they were members.
 *So how do we plan on doing this? Decide on a course and write our results in this thread? (like what we are doing now) ------------- "War is a cowardly escape from the problems of peace."--Thomas Mann
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Posted By: King John
Date Posted: 18-Jan-2008 at 23:40
| Right now I think the plan is working from the first website (to be found in my first post). |
Posted By: Suren
Date Posted: 18-Jan-2008 at 23:40
I'll try my best to catch up with you guys. |
Posted By: hugoestr
Date Posted: 19-Jan-2008 at 02:31
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Go ahead, Soren. We are only up to lesson two, and one could finish the whole course if you have a spare afternoon.
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Posted By: Suren
Date Posted: 19-Jan-2008 at 07:19
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Ok Lesson 1: Jeg er Suren. Du er Hugo. Han er konge John. Hun er dronning Dawn. Det er Norsk sprak. Vi er god folk. Dere er Hugo og Konge John. De er Hugo og Northman. Du er en far. Hun er ei mor. Jeg har en bestefar og ei bestemor. |
Posted By: King John
Date Posted: 19-Jan-2008 at 08:13
| Nice to see that you are all caught up, Suren. |
Posted By: gcle2003
Date Posted: 19-Jan-2008 at 12:53
I've never come across them. I might open a thread in the tavern. Someone here would know. ------------- |
Posted By: hugoestr
Date Posted: 19-Jan-2008 at 17:36
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King John,
I found this page. http://norskklassen.ce-service.biz/norchar.htm http://norskklassen.ce-service.biz/norchar.htm - Writing Norwegian on PCs Alt Sequences Char 3-digit 4-digit 145 0230 146 0198 --- 0248 --- 0216 134 0229 143 0197 ------------- |
Posted By: King John
Date Posted: 19-Jan-2008 at 17:42
| Ah, I came upon that page yesterday when I was looking for more links. I will add it to the first post as a post post script. Thank you Hugo. |
Posted By: hugoestr
Date Posted: 19-Jan-2008 at 17:50
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I just finished the 3rd lesson. I realized that I couldn't do the lesson without entering the special characters, and I thought that it may be useful to others here.
Jeg liker hjelpe. ------------- |
Posted By: King John
Date Posted: 19-Jan-2008 at 17:56
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Here is Lesson 3:
Snnen prver snakke Norsk Hunden spiser isen De liker lese boken Bestefaren og datteren ser en katt Broren prver hjelpe katten Faren og snnen snakker et sprk. (Det er norsk) Dere er bror og sster |
Posted By: Suren
Date Posted: 19-Jan-2008 at 20:23
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Lesson 2: Han er en bestefar. Han er bestefaren. Hun er ei lrer. Hun er lrera. Det er et bord. Det er bordet. Bestefaren er hjemme. Han leser en bok. Hunden og Katten er dyrer. katten er p Bordet. Hugo er en intelligent bardun. Han lrer Norsk kvikk. Du har et stor hus. Huset har seks soveromer. Albert har ei jente og en snn.(I don't know if I can use ei for jente in this sentence or not.) Han er en god far. Han er en doktor. Han leser en engelsk avis. Han snakker engelsk og norsk. Han er en intelligent menneske. Barnet har en hund og en katt. |
Posted By: King John
Date Posted: 19-Jan-2008 at 20:45
| Well done Suren. Introducing new vocabulary too. |
Posted By: Suren
Date Posted: 19-Jan-2008 at 21:28
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Lesson 3: Moren skrive brevet. Datteren leser brevet. Faren og moren snakke inn tysk og engelsk. Barna snakke engelsk. Faren hjelper barna lre tysk. Barna liker spise isen. Bestemoren kjoper tre iser for barna. Jeg liker snakke og skrive inn Norsk. Norsk er et interessant sprke. Kan du funn et god (online) ordbok? |
Posted By: Northman
Date Posted: 19-Jan-2008 at 21:56
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Sorry to disturb guys, but here is an http://www.freedict.com/onldict/nor.html - online dictionary
Allow me one little comment. The correct term for "learn" is "lre" - not "erfare" which has a related meaning, but is normally not used in this connection.
Usage of learn/lre:
to learn Norwegian = at lre Norsk ~ He is learning = han lrer
"Erfare" is normally used in the sense: I have learned that this guy was xxxx - It was brought to my attention that xxx, and so on.
In Denmark the word is a bit outdated (but still valid), and I believe that applies for norwegian as well - you only rarely hear a young person using it. ------------- |
Posted By: Suren
Date Posted: 19-Jan-2008 at 22:23
Thank you for Correction. That Dictionary is not good for verbs. |
Posted By: King John
Date Posted: 19-Jan-2008 at 22:25
| Thank you Northman for the online dictionary. |
Posted By: King John
Date Posted: 19-Jan-2008 at 22:32
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Suren,
http://www.websters-dictionary-online.org/definition/Norwegian-english/index.html - her er et ordbok |
Posted By: Justinian
Date Posted: 21-Jan-2008 at 08:07
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Yikes, I'm already falling behind. So, are we going to have like a day or two for catching up once a week? ------------- "War is a cowardly escape from the problems of peace."--Thomas Mann
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Posted By: Suren
Date Posted: 21-Jan-2008 at 10:03
Dakk |
Posted By: King John
Date Posted: 21-Jan-2008 at 19:31
Sure we can do that. Do you want to set up a specific day for that like Fridays or something? |
Posted By: King John
Date Posted: 21-Jan-2008 at 21:11
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Here is lesson 4:
Mdre liker barn Hundene ser bordet Han har mange ider Bestefedrene kjper to katter En gutt ser tre jenter Snnene og dtrene liker faren Gutten besker foreldrene |
Posted By: hugoestr
Date Posted: 22-Jan-2008 at 03:25
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I finished lesson 4 as well.
Jeg funn sangen og skrev en lite. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_ODkgvk-kQ&feature=related - Norsk l sang Jeg har to barn: en jente og en gutt. Jenten er Isabella og gutten er Alexander. Datter leser boker. Snnen liker sangen. Jeg liker sangen og lese boker. ------------- |
Posted By: hugoestr
Date Posted: 22-Jan-2008 at 03:46
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What language group is complete without its members worshiping the country where the language is spoken?
Here is a beautiful slide show with the modest name called, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJ1jIcJVu_4&feature=related - Norway: The Most Beautiful Country in World If you look around on the related videos, you will find one called, "Norwegian Beauties." I thought it was going to be about the beautiful architectural and natural sights of the country. Instead it is what I would have called, "Norwegian Cuties." ------------- |
Posted By: King John
Date Posted: 22-Jan-2008 at 04:04
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Jeg sag sangen og hva du skrev. God funn, Hugo, det er et interessant funn.
(I hope Northman comes on here and corrects my butchering of Norwegian in the above sentence) Hvordan gammel er dine to barn? |
Posted By: Justinian
Date Posted: 23-Jan-2008 at 03:08
Yes, that would work for me. I guess whatever day is best for everyone. ------------- "War is a cowardly escape from the problems of peace."--Thomas Mann
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Posted By: King John
Date Posted: 23-Jan-2008 at 03:13
| Ok, Justinian, we'll start a review this Friday. |
Posted By: King John
Date Posted: 24-Jan-2008 at 01:50
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Here is lesson 5:
Kattene ser oss Bestemdrene liker ham Han liker det Vennene besker henne aldri Morten og Anne, kan jeg hjelper dere? Snnene og dtrene glemmer den alltid Bestefaren leser med dem |
Posted By: Adalwolf
Date Posted: 25-Jan-2008 at 21:19
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King John, where did you find resources on learning Old Norse?
------------- Concrete is heavy; iron is hard--but the grass will prevail. Edward Abbey |
Posted By: hugoestr
Date Posted: 25-Jan-2008 at 22:13
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Hi, Adalwolf.
Here is one good book that you may find on Old Norse in bookstores. OR You can join the yahoo group on it and do their online Old Norse course. http://www.hi.is/~haukurth/norse/ http://www.hi.is/~haukurth/norse/ - http://www.hi.is/~haukurth/norse/ And since you are at it, you may also want to join us learning Norsk. ------------- |
Posted By: King John
Date Posted: 25-Jan-2008 at 23:55
Gordon, An Introduction to Old Norse it's like $65 on Amazon. I am learning Old Norse through a Grad Course at my University. |
Posted By: Anton
Date Posted: 26-Jan-2008 at 00:57
Astrid Lindgren and Selma Lagerlf are good textbooks for extreme learning of Swedish. This is how I learned it :) ------------- . |
Posted By: King John
Date Posted: 26-Jan-2008 at 01:03
Do you know any good textbooks for Norwegian? That would also be greatly appreciated. |
Posted By: hugoestr
Date Posted: 26-Jan-2008 at 02:21
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I believe I have Gordon too. I haven't had time to learn it though :) ------------- |
Posted By: Anton
Date Posted: 26-Jan-2008 at 19:25
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Well, probably the best known Norwegian author is Knut Hamsun. I read him in Russian, he is brilliant. ------------- . |
Posted By: King John
Date Posted: 26-Jan-2008 at 19:35
| I take it that Hamsun is not a text book but rather a writer of fiction. Would you care to share a good textbook with us, that is if you know of one? |
Posted By: Anton
Date Posted: 26-Jan-2008 at 23:52
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That is what I mean, mate :) After you learned 200-300 words, start to read actual literature instead of textbooks. ------------- . |
Posted By: King John
Date Posted: 27-Jan-2008 at 00:12
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But do you know of any text books to teach the grammar before we get to actual literature?
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Posted By: Anton
Date Posted: 27-Jan-2008 at 12:32
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No, not for Norwegian, sorry. ------------- . |
Posted By: hugoestr
Date Posted: 27-Jan-2008 at 14:42
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Hi, King John,
I checked out from the Library, "Teach yourself Norwegian." The book seems to be available in most places, and it is relatively inexpensive. And if one doesn't want to pay for it, one can always just keep checking it out from the library. With 4 lessons under my belt, the first chapter was a breeze to work through.You may want to explore that. Now that I have some time, I will go ahead and finish our current course
We can have review while we pick our new learning material ------------- |
Posted By: hugoestr
Date Posted: 27-Jan-2008 at 15:26
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Okay, I am done with the course. As we finish the course, it would be nice to let the authors know how we appreciate their work. Maybe this will prompt them to make a second part
A brief email thanking them would be a nice. contribute@unilang.org Now for Review: What we have learned is: The verb To Be Present tense Article in Gender Plural of nouns Personal objects Do people want to discuss them, or should be tag quiz? How do you guys want to do it? ------------- |
Posted By: King John
Date Posted: 27-Jan-2008 at 18:42
| We can discuss them and have a quiz of some sort. That works for me. |
Posted By: King John
Date Posted: 27-Jan-2008 at 18:47
| The "Teaching Yourself Norwegian" book that you found is that the one that is by Ingvald Marm and centers on Riksmal? |
Posted By: hugoestr
Date Posted: 28-Jan-2008 at 01:42
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No, this one is by Margaretha Danbolt Simons. The copyright for the one that I have is 1997. The "new" version, which a modern cover, costs $25 with audio available if you wish to get it.
The older versions cost $19 dollars used. Ironically, their value have gone up  Maybe the extra 5 dollars is worth not having pages with ketchup on it.
http://www.amazon.com/Teach-Yourself-Norwegian-Complete-Courses/dp/0340887559/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_k2a_1_txt?pf_rd_p=304485601&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-2&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=084423818X&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=10SJYRCPSSHPME5G2ZQW http://www.amazon.com/Teach-Yourself-Norwegian-Complete-Courses/dp/0340887559/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_k2a_1_txt?pf_rd_p=304485601&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-2&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=084423818X&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=10SJYRCPSSHPME5G2ZQW - Amazon link to Teach Yourself Norwegian. ------------- |
Posted By: King John
Date Posted: 28-Jan-2008 at 02:07
| Ah, I just checked out the Ingvald Marm version. I found the Simons one on ABE Books for like $10 + shipping and handling. |
Posted By: King John
Date Posted: 28-Jan-2008 at 03:19
| I also found another book that we could possibly use. It is more of a grammar that doesn't seem to have exercises. It is entitled, Norwegian: An Essential Grammar by sa-Berit and Rolf Strandskogen about $30 on amazon ISBN: 0415109795. http://www.amazon.com/Norwegian-Essential-Grammar-Grammars/dp/0415109795/ref=sr_11_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1201490273&sr=11-1 - Here is a link to "Norwegian: An Essential Grammar" on Amazon |
Posted By: hugoestr
Date Posted: 28-Jan-2008 at 12:17
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I just did a search on Marm, and discovered that that was the previous author of the "Teach Yourself series." I haven't seen it, but I know that the older versions were more heavy reading-translation books... which is okay with me I am sure that anyone who has learned an ancient language is not going to be scared by that.
The 1990s books is closer to what modern language instruction is today: some grammar, some conversational elements, and a few cultural points here and there. You may be able to get a good look at it in a B&N or Borders before we decide on anything. I believe that I have the essential Grammar for Swedish. That was one nice handy book. If the Norwegian version is anything like the Swedish one, it would be a good resource. ------------- |
Posted By: King John
Date Posted: 28-Jan-2008 at 15:16
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Personally I am a fan of learning a language by reading/translating books or stories. This affinity, though, could be ascribed to how I learned Latin and Old Norse.
I am going to investigate the Essential Grammar today. Marm seems to be out of date it focuses on the spelling reform of 1938. I believe I read somewhere that there was another spelling reform sometime in the 1960's. But, the redeeming quality for Marm is that there is a ton of translating exercises at the end of each section. This is probably true for the new version as well, am I right? |
Posted By: hugoestr
Date Posted: 28-Jan-2008 at 15:41
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The exercises are different. There are dialogues, true and false answers, and readings. It is more conversational oriented. ------------- |
Posted By: King John
Date Posted: 28-Jan-2008 at 15:56
| Yeah, I like translating passages since that is the way that I have learned most of the languages I can read. But conversationally oriented work could work too. |
Posted By: Justinian
Date Posted: 04-Feb-2008 at 07:59
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Sorry about the leave of absence, I'll try and keep up to date but its looking like that will be difficult. ------------- "War is a cowardly escape from the problems of peace."--Thomas Mann
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Posted By: hugoestr
Date Posted: 04-Feb-2008 at 19:34
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No problem. If you need to catch up, we will wait :)
We are still trying to decide what should our next move be. Should we find another online course? ------------- |
Posted By: King John
Date Posted: 04-Feb-2008 at 21:06
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Are there any other free online courses out there? I haven't been able to find any. I think we should go with the Teach Yourself book/course.
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Posted By: Reginmund
Date Posted: 04-Feb-2008 at 22:07
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As a Norwegian who's read a lot in Swedish and Danish as well as talked a lot with Danes and Swedes, I can say right away that if you know basic Norwegian you'll have an easy time communicating with Swedes and reading Danish, but a hard time communicating with Danes and reading Swedish. The Danish pronounciation makes the language hard to comprehend, especially for a non-native speaker, and even I have to focus to catch what they're saying sometimes. Written Danish is almost identical to written Norwegian, but the spoken language suffers from what I like to call the French syndrome; very little is said the way it is written and even words that are written differently are pronounced the same. In fact, a study has shown that Danish children are on average among the slowest in the world to learn their own tongue due to this, so in a way even the Danes are struggling with the Danish pronounciation. Just look at this video (Norwegian parody on Danish language): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-mOy8VUEBk - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-mOy8VUEBk Spoken Swedish is far easier to comprehend for a Norwegian speaker, whereas written Swedish is less similar to Norwegian than Danish, even so this obstacle is far easier to overcome than the Danish pronounciation. Could I ask what your motivation for learning a Scandinavian language is? Seeing as I spend most of my time at the University of Oslo I meet a lot of international students, and their motivation is almost always either Scandinavian ancestry (Americans), fascination with the Viking Age (these are people from all over the world) or Black Metal (usually Europeans). ------------- |
Posted By: King John
Date Posted: 04-Feb-2008 at 22:28
| My interest in learning a Scandinavian language falls into two of the reasons you put forth. I am interested in studying the Vikings in England and I am also a fan of many Scandinavian Power Metal bands like Hammerfall. |
Posted By: Reginmund
Date Posted: 04-Feb-2008 at 22:44
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Cool, I'm a big fan of power metal myself, but I prefer the south European bands (Rhapsody, Fairyland, Dark Moor and White Skull to name a few). As for Viking age England, I actually attended a course about this topic a few semestres ago, called England's Viking Inheritance. I suppose you've read Julian Richard's book "Viking Age England"? Lately I've been reading a bit about Viking Age Russia; the Viking achievement there has been largely overlooked in the west but was in many ways greater than in the west, and crucial to the birth of Russia. ------------- |
Posted By: King John
Date Posted: 04-Feb-2008 at 23:11
| Yeah I've read the book. I've also read the book by Henry Lyon. |
Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 16-Feb-2008 at 08:35
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I'm actually studying Norwegian right now at my University. My reason is because I had not yet taken a North Germanic language (being a speaker of English and having studied German for two semesters, I had West Gmnc covered; and East gmnc now as well as I'm taking Gothic this semester as well). Although I do enjoy my Dimmu Borgir, I am not of Scandinavian descent Norwegian textbooks are hard to come by, but I would take a look at these: http://www.lulu.com/settigang These are the textbooks that we use, and I think they're pretty good. It's more conversationally based, but the grammar is covered well. ------------- |
Posted By: King John
Date Posted: 16-Feb-2008 at 17:59
| Olme, do you go to St Olaf's University in Minnesota? Thank you for the Setti gang suggestion. |
Posted By: Tore The Dog
Date Posted: 16-Feb-2008 at 18:13
There is a University in Seattle Oregon who teaches Scandinavian languishes , i think they are teaching on the webb to.
And there is more such shools that you can learn a Scandinavian languish if needed.
BTW Tack s mycket fr ett bra forum.
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Posted By: King John
Date Posted: 16-Feb-2008 at 23:03
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Tore, could you post the Universities that teach Scandinavian languages other than St Olaf's College? I think you are talking about Washington (state not DC) not Oregon.
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Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 17-Feb-2008 at 01:44
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I go to UW Madison in Wisconsin. We do mention St Olaf now and then, since they are also one of the few that teach Norwegian. UW Madison offers Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, occasionally Icelandic (but they do teach Old Norse in two semesters).
I too would be interested to know what Unis teach the Scandinavian languages. It's sort of a dying department.... it used to be huge because everybody wanted to read Ibsen in Norwegian, but since he's not as big anymore it's mellowed out to the Norwegian-Americans, the Viking-lovers, or (like me) the language nerds.
I believe UW Eau Claire teaches Norwegian, I think our professor used to teach there..... ------------- |
Posted By: Justinian
Date Posted: 17-Feb-2008 at 01:58
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University of Minnesota has I believe courses in all the scandinavian languages; for sure Norwegian, Swedish and Danish. As of ~ two years ago you could major in scandinavian languages. ------------- "War is a cowardly escape from the problems of peace."--Thomas Mann
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Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 17-Feb-2008 at 03:36
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There is similarly a Scandinavian Studies major here..... I'm not doing it, but they also have it as a graduate program, with emphasis on philology, literature, or area studies (not sure what that is?). Scandinavian studies are fascinating, and it's a shame that they're not incredibly common at universities. It's really great that you here have the ambition to try and do it together! I'll try to stay in it a lot as well, sounds like fun. I forgot about this forum for a while, nice to be back....
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Posted By: King John
Date Posted: 17-Feb-2008 at 05:47
| I found a few Unis that do Scandinavian languages as a major. Surprisingly there is a bunch in Washington (state). I will post the sites sometime tomorrow. |
Posted By: hugoestr
Date Posted: 18-Feb-2008 at 15:17
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So are we still pondering the next course to study :)? ------------- |