Danish, Norwegian, Swedish - all the same?

As you would expect from countries who share so much history and are in such close proximity with eachother, the languages of the Scandinavian countries are all very similair and of course stem off the same Northern Germanic section of the language tree.

While Swedish, Norwegian and Danish are all mutually intelligible (relatively), Icelandic and Faroese are much less so, despite also being North Germanic languages, they maintain much closer relations to Old Norse (the 'original' Nord language). Finnish, of course, is completely different to all of these, as a Finno-ugric language it is much more similair to Estonian or Hungarian.

Norwegian today has been heavily influenced by both Danish and German, from the Denmark-Norway times of the 1500s (all the way up until the early 1800s) when Danish was the written language used and taught in Norway, and from the presence of the Hanseatic league in Bergen.

Written Norwegian today still very closely resembles Danish, although spoken is completely different, the accent with which Danish is spoken is often the point of many jokes.

As touched on previously, Norwegian has two written forms and many spoken dialects which differ enormously to written Norwegian. Bokmål is the more common form of written Norwegian and is the version which developed during their times under Denmarks rule, and therefore written Norwegian is extremely similair to written Danish, while Nynorsk (spoken by about 10-15% of the population, at a probable over-estimation) was the newly independent Norwegian governments attempt at revitalizing the language and separating itself a little from Denmark. Interestingly, most spoken dialects are probably closer to Nynorsk than Bokmål.

Anyway, have a look at a basic phrase from the three languages:

Swedish - två svarta katter

Norwegian - to svarte katter

Danish - to sorte katte

The word for 'cats' is almost the same across the board, while the word for 'two' also shows similarities, although Swedish shows a larger difference here to Danish and Norwegian. You can see that the word for 'black' is a little different for each one but still very similair. This is only one example to show how it would be relatively easy to understand eachother despite being three separate languages. I suppose the main difference is in inflections and sentence structure - for example in Norwegian you would be more likely to say (correctly) "the car mine" while in Swedish you would say simply "mine car":

- Bilen Min (Norwegian)
- Min Bil (Swedish)

Anyway, this entry is somewhat boring and a little all over the place, I just felt like mentioning that there are similarities and differences between the languages.

It was proposed once that there should just be one language for all the countries, and in Iceland when they teach Danish as a language they just call it 'Scandinavian' - do you think there should be a merger language for simplicity sake?

Stavanger

This is going to be the first part of a little series of posts about a few of my choice towns and cities in Norway...

Stavanger:

Stavanger is one of my favorite cities in Norway, not only is it beautiful but it holds a lot of history and is in one of the more mild areas of Norway, in terms of weather. Home to the oldest cathedral in Norway (even older than the one in Trondheim), Stavanger is also the centre of the oil industry in Norway, and it is because of this that Stavanger went from a relatively small 'city' into what is currently the fourth largest in Norway, and growing.

History:

Stavanger considers its date of foundation to be the year that the cathedral, Stavanger Domkirke, was completed, 1125, however has a history of settlement said to date back up to ten thousand years. During these times it functioned as a market town for the surrounding areas.

Stavanger Cathedral

It wasn't until the late 1800s, after the end of Danish rule, that Stavanger had any real industry, while it was primarily a fishing and boating town, the herring industry provided much for the towns economy. Stavanger experienced great economic downturn during both World Wars (as did much of the world) and remained relatively slow in growth until the late 1960s with the discovery of off shore oil. As a coastal town, the discovery of oil led to great economic growth, both directly in Stavanger and of course all around Norway.

What to see:

One of the reasons I like Stavanger so much is because it has a very intimate town centre - a large lake straight in the middle, the cathedral, large open spaces down to the waterfront and only a short walk to Old Stavanger (Gamle Stavanger) which is a host of well maintained houses from the 1700's and 1800's. The narrow cobbled streets lead through interesting and beautiful shopfronts and stores all around the city, and it has just that perfect mix of old and new.

Some of the buildings and narrow streets of old Stavanger

Stavanger is also very conveniently located to some of South Norway's most beautiful fjords and hiking areas, most famously Priekestolen and Lysefjorden, which you can either drive to, or take a boat or ferry. Stavanger is also noted for its nearby sandy beaches (although for some it may be considered a little chilly, even in summer, to be going for a swim). 

A view of Priekestolen over the Lysefjord

Stavanger is also home to a number of museums, notably the Petroleum Museum, and the city has become one of Norway's popular tourist destinations due to the availability of things to see and do in and around the city.

Follow up: May 17th

It's a little late (nearly a month) but I thought i'd quickly post up some pictures of 17th may around the world :)
you don't have to be in Norway to celebrate, there was celebrations in Australia, Singapore, America and even Brasil!

May 17 - Norwegian National Day

Syttende mai (17th of May) is nearly upon us, in other words, Norwegian National Day!

This is probably one of (if not the) biggest days in Norway, filled with parades and alcohol, flags and food. It celebrates the signing of the Constitution of Norway on May 17, 1814. It is the second oldest single-document constitution in the world (and first in Europe). In Oslo, the parades go past the Royal Palace where Norwegians see the King (Harald V) and the Queen (Sonja) of Norway.

Children's parade in front of the Royal Palace in Oslo

The day is primarily focused by parades, though typically has no military marches, the parades are citizens, dressed in the national outfit (the bunad) and waving Norwegian flags. Marching bands play music and the National and Royal anthems (Ja, vi elsker dette landet and Kongesangen respectively) are usually sung, childrens marches tend to occur in the morning followed by speeches, and so on. There is even a march from the Royal Guard. The celebrations can go all day, with vendors selling food along the street for the hungry Norwegians running around waving flags all day.

The day is commonly ended with family celebrations, sometimes including the extended family, for large dinners and perhaps, drinking. It is a big celebration and some towns have their own changes to the celebrations, but one thing you can be sure of is that Norwegian flags will be present everywhere.

I told you it was a big day