Learning Swedish?

[Meanspark]

What I know about finnish is that they dont have the same roots than swedish.

Finnish have uralics roots. Swedish have german roots. Swedish/Danish/Norwegian are very similar (grammar, nouns, verbs).

Finnish is a very old language, it's the one and only language that is not listed as a part of a family (romanic, slavic, germanic...)

Im just surprised you guys (most of you native) think swedish is close to finnish. Totally disagree.

 

[Rivfadír]

What I know about finnish is that they dont have the same roots than swedish.

Finnish have uralics roots. Swedish have german roots. Swedish/Danish/Norwegian are very similar (grammar, nouns, verbs).

Finnish is a very old language, it's the one and only language that is not listed as a part of a family (romanic, slavic, germanic...)

Im just surprised you guys (most of you native) think swedish is close to finnish. Totally disagree.

I speak quite a bit of Finnish, and I do know that it is not linguistically connected to Scandinavian languages, but I can tell you, there are a lot of words that are similar or at least related to Germanic words.

 

[Blind Guardian]

Wait...
In a way, that really doesn't make sense. Some of us go to Norway to work for better money. I was offered to drive truck for both Sweden and Norway, but I turned it down. Maybe I should have concidered the job-offering? Driving truck would be great, one of my biggest passions.

Yeah i´ve actually worked in Trondheim for six months,the money is clearly superior to the Swedish wages but then again it´s more expensive to live in Norway,best thing if you´re gonna work in Norway is to live close to the border in Strömstad or something.

 

[Thidrek]

I speak quite a bit of Finnish, and I do know that it is not linguistically connected to Scandinavian languages, but I can tell you, there are a lot of words that are similar or at least related to Germanic words.

Yeah, Finnish has alot of loan words from the bordering languages. Even words that are thought to be Proto-Germanic (spoken around about 500-50 BC) like "kuningas" or "ringu" (is that right? "king" and "ring"?) and thus the language is quite interesting for historical linguistics.

 

[tobz]

Im just surprised you guys (most of you native) think swedish is close to finnish. Totally disagree.

Not Finnish as such, but the way Finns speak Swedish. And also, I hear Swedish is required studying in Finland.

Yeah, Finnish has alot of loan words from the bordering languages. Even words that are thought to be Proto-Germanic (spoken around about 500-50 BC) like "kuningas" or "ringu" (is that right? "king" and "ring"?) and thus the language is quite interesting for historical linguistics.

Ringu is also the same in Japanese... Do we smell a conspiracy..?

 

[Rivfadír]

Yeah, Finnish has alot of loan words from the bordering languages. Even words that are thought to be Proto-Germanic (spoken around about 500-50 BC) like "kuningas" or "ringu" (is that right? "king" and "ring"?) and thus the language is quite interesting for historical linguistics.

Yeah, exactly. If you look at the plain words, without all the suffixes, you'd be surprised at how much you actually understand.

 

[Defiance]

This is a very interesting thread, I'm a linguist so I like reading these types of topics .

But I guess that in general, Finnish would end up being quite different from Swedish, right?

I'm asking because all I know of Finnish is "kiitos" and "jää" .

And to the one who said Swedish is more difficult than German... well you are wrong . I know German, and believe me, I can tell it's more difficult than Swedish. Damn inflections.

 

[Meanspark]

I speak german too, few swedish and a bit finnish, Im not linguist but I know these languages developed similar words.
german 1-2-3 : ein, zwei, drei
swedish 1-2-3 : en, två, tre
finnish 1-2-3 : yksi, kaksi, kolme
It's possible that many swedish words are in the finnish vocabulary but imo, finnish is closer to estonian and hungarian than swedish.

Anyway, they both rocks!

 

[Rivfadír]

It's possible that many swedish words are in the finnish vocabulary but imo, finnish is closer to estonian and hungarian than swedish.

It's got nothing to do with your opinion, friend. It's true.
I'm just saying that a lot of Germanic (and particularly, Nordic) words have been incorporated and "Finnified".
When my ex-girlfriend (who is Finnish) and I couldn't quite translate the word we were looking for, we would just say the word in our native languages, and a lot of the time, we would understand what the other one meant.

 

[Defiance]

I speak german too, few swedish and a bit finnish, Im not linguist but I know these languages developed similar words.
german 1-2-3 : ein, zwei, drei
swedish 1-2-3 : en, två, tre
finnish 1-2-3 : yksi, kaksi, kolme
It's possible that many swedish words are in the finnish vocabulary but imo, finnish is closer to estonian and hungarian than swedish.

Anyway, they both rocks!

Hehe "yksi, kaksi, kolme," not really close to the others or to Spanish "uno, dos, tres" (obviously, I just wanted to put those words there hehe).

 

[Meanspark]

It's got nothing to do with your opinion, friend. It's true.
I'm just saying that a lot of Germanic (and particularly, Nordic) words have been incorporated and "Finnified".
When my ex-girlfriend (who is Finnish) and I couldn't quite translate the word we were looking for, we would just say the word in our native languages, and a lot of the time, we would understand what the other one meant.

Interesting! and you are lucky to have a finnish girlfriend.
In fact I dont speak very well any of these languages, you are the right person to know how different or similar are those languages.

 

[Svarthjärtad]

I would like to learn Ancient Swedish. I don't even know where to start to learn - I don't actually know how it sounds. I could go to Johan AKA: Arckanum. I could be wrong, but I am pretty sure that his text is in Ancient Swedish. It would really serve no purpose in learning it, for maybe fifty people know it throughout the world.
By the way, did anybody hear the new Arckanum release? I haven't yet. I heard a lot of stories about it though. Such as it will not be released on CD, just as vinyl - and there was only 500 copies printed - and it is only possible to order the album from a Swedish webpage. I don't know if these are true, I haven't tried buying it yet or even looking for it to even download as MP3 file. But, the reviews I have read, it sounds like a great album - almost as good as if a mix of Fran Marder and Kostogher.

But yes... I would love to learn Ancient Swedish!
YES! YES!

 

[Thidrek]

You should go ahead and learn Old Norse. "Ancient Swedish" in fact is the Old East Norse dialect and was spoken in nowadays Sweden and Denmark.

 

[Svarthjärtad]

I would really love to, but where would I start? Where would I learn even? As I understand, there is a difference between Old Norse and Ancient Swedish. Old NOrse is older and spoke throught the lands, where Ancient Swedish was discovered or like uhhh... invented once Sweden became its own little place. Because, what we learned in school - was that wayyyyy back when, Scandiavia wasn't really devided into countries - moreso territory like colonies almost. Colonies... like USA started out as. So Old Norse would be an older dialect, I would think it would be more difficult to learn. And as well... as I understand that Old Norse is more so like a Norwegian-bassed language.

 

[Defiance]

You should go ahead and learn Old Norse. "Ancient Swedish" in fact is the Old East Norse dialect and was spoken in nowadays Sweden and Denmark.

Interesting, I really want to study Old Norse, but I'll do that after Old English and Gothic .

Ahhh so many extinct languages to learn, so little time :Smug: .

 

[Thidrek]

I would really love to, but where would I start? Where would I learn even? As I understand, there is a difference between Old Norse and Ancient Swedish. Old NOrse is older and spoke throught the lands, where Ancient Swedish was discovered or like uhhh... invented once Sweden became its own little place. Because, what we learned in school - was that wayyyyy back when, Scandiavia wasn't really devided into countries - moreso territory like colonies almost. Colonies... like USA started out as. So Old Norse would be an older dialect, I would think it would be more difficult to learn. And as well... as I understand that Old Norse is more so like a Norwegian-bassed language.

No, Ancient Swedish IS Old Norse. It's a variety. Back then there were no standardized forms of the 'rural' languages such as Norse, Old English, Old Saxon or whatever. Old Norse can be devided in Old East and Old West Norse. Those are the dialect groups where nowadays Scandinavian languages come from.

 

[Meanspark]

Svarthjärtad: Interesting. On my side, I would love to learn ancient french, it's a new level of difficulties.

 

[Thidrek]

I (re-)discovered a website that contains lessons for ancient Indo-European languages. It's not very friendly for laymen but still better than nothing.

Svarthjärtad: learn Old Norse

Meanspark: learn Old French

Have fun!^^

 

[Defiance]

^ Toll! Vielen dank!

in Swedish people say "verstoch itte" right? There was this woman telling me some phrases in Swedish because she heard me speaking German . Funny that it's quite similar to Norse's "ikke."

I went to a conference by a famous woman here about Cultural and Linguistic Diversity in Asia, it was immensely interesting! I sure learnt a lot.

Thenb I got to my German class and flunked a written test :Smug: . I didn't study, so I think it went pretty well anyhow hehe.

 

[Thidrek]

^ Toll! Vielen dank!

Nichts zu danken!

in Swedish people say "verstoch itte" right? There was this woman telling me some phrases in Swedish because she heard me speaking German . Funny that it's quite similar to Norse's "ikke."

Do you mean "Förstår inte" (Don't understand)? ^^