Learning one of the Scandinavian Languages

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.

Unilang Mini Course This is the basis for the early exercises.

Norwegian Language Resource Page

Common Verb List

Grammar Resource Page

Lessons from the Sons of Norway

P.P.S: Font Codes

Code for Norwegian Computer Fonts (PC)

Code for Norwegian Computer Fonts (Mac)

Edited by King John - 19-Jan-2008 at 17:44

Sarmat, are you a speaker of any of these languages or do you have any familiarity (training) of some sort in said languages?

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. 

Edited by Justinian - 18-Jan-2008 at 03:23

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.

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.

Originally posted by hugoestr 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.

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.

Edited by King John - 18-Jan-2008 at 04:12

Hey, I found a quick one here:

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

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.

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...

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.