Each Scandinavian Country has its own language. How different are these languages from each other?

Question

I want to know details, please.

For example, does a Norwegian or Danish person understands a conversation in Swedish?

Maybe there's a case where two languages (for example, Swedish and Danish) are very similar but sustantialy different from the other three (for example (Norwegian, Icelandic and Finnish).

There's one language that is more easily understood for the rest of the countries?

Answer 1

Norwegians and Swedes have very little trouble understanding each other, the difference might be likened to British English vs. Ebonics. Danish is not so hard for Norwegians and Swedes to read, but the pronounciation is quite different, the reverse is also true. Finnish comes from a completely different history, the language is closer to Hungarian than any other. Icelandic is the purest most ancient form of all of these, it has changed very very little in the last 1000 years. Icelandic is almost like the parent language to modern English, German, and Norwegian and Swedish.

Answer 2

Norwegian, Swedish, Icelandic and Danish are mutually intelligible. They are all Germanic languages and were the same language not too long ago. Norwegian and Swedish are closest, Danish is a little further away. In other parts of the world, they would be considered dialects of the same language rather than separate languages. Finnish is a completely different language and is unrelated to any of the others. Finland was ruled by Sweden and then Russia. It has been independent only a short while. Many Finns speak Swedish as well as Finnish

Answer 3

Norwegians and Swedes understand each other and Danes understand them, although from what I understand the Norwegians and Swedes would have to work hard at understanding the Danish accent. Nobody else can understand Finnish, which is a language on its own. Officially Finns are bilingual in Finnish and Swedish, but most Finns don't seem to know Swedish, although the Swedish speakers (from the south west of the country) all speak Finnish. Icelandic also stands apart from the rest. It is, in fact, Old Norse, so would have the same kind of relationship to modern Scandinavian languages as Anglo-Saxon does to English.

Answer 4

alright...

lets do this south to north.

danish is more like german than like swedish or norwegian, although of course ALL of them are related. swedish and norwegian are the closest of the bunch. those will probably allow to communicate with each other, though probably not allow to follow a fluent conversation.

now finnish is a completely different language and in fact relatad to hungarian, which in turn is nothing like the languages that surround it. i have no idea how these two idiosyncratic languages wound up in opposite corners of europe... but there you are.

icelandic is remotely related to the germanic languages, but not enough to allow communication.

Answer 5

Norwegian and Danish are completely mutually intelligible. They are simply different dialects of the same language. This might be comparable to American English and British English. Norwegian and Danish are simply called by different names because the people don't want to be like each other.

Swedish and Icelandic are also related to Norwegian and Danish; they are in the same language family.

Finnish is unrelated to all of these languages. It's related instead to Hungarian and the Samoyedic languages.

Answer 6

This hits the weirdness of languages.
Norwegian and Danish are almost the same in speaking, but in writing, one has problem reading the other's language.
Just the opposite in Swedish. The Danes and Norwegians can read it but have problems understanding everything that is said.

Answer 7

I have only been to Denmark once.The languages you named have all 3 changed and developed seperately.While they have a lot in common they are different enough to make understanding each other difficult. It is the same with French,Portuguese, Italian and Spanish.
Finnish is altogether much different.