this post was submitted on 19 Feb 2025
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Which language is the best: Norwegian, Finnish, Swedish, or Danish?
Danish. Swedish and Norwegian are just failed attempts at speaking Danish, proving once and for all that Norwegians have better language skills since their attempts are closer.*
Finnish is mainly good for swearing away bears and complaining about a lack of saunas.
*(Jk, in case there's any doubt)
OMG I feel sorry for that poor bear...
Best for what purpose? Norwegian is best for understanding Swedish and Danish (Swedes have more difficulty understanding Danish than Norwegians do) Swedish and Norwegian are essentially a dialectical continuum.
Oslo dialect is heavily influenced by danish because back in the day if Norwegians wanted a decent education they went to Denmark. The more commonly used written form of Norwegian (bokmål) is still very similar to Danish (only as it's written though, danish pronunciation is fucked up). The other form (nynorsk) was created from several rural dialects as part of a nationalism movement and more closely resembles Swedish (not in terms of spelling but pronunciation) it's not as close as bokmål is to Danish though.
Finnish is a completely different language family but is very similar to kven which is spoken by very few people on the Northern coast of Norway. It's a nice sounding language though and a good way to sound like you're going to stab someone.
The correct language is the one that is spoken in the country you're most interested in. I live in Norway so for my purposes Norwegian is obviously best. And I don't need to revert to speaking English in Sweden or (most of) Denmark, which is nice.
If I had to learn a second north European language, I'd choose either northern Sami, Faroese, Icelandic, or Greenlandic.
Was going to say if you speak Norwegian you can converse and read in Denmark and it's seamless.
Nynorsk is interesting. Dialects are hard.
They only teach bokmål in the language courses for foreigners, even if you live in a nynorsk area. Until relatively recently school children were expected to learn both and if you were expected to reply to letters/emails in the same language as they were written in. That doesn't happen as much now.
Finland and Türkiye: We're going to create a script that unambiguously follows the phonemes of the language so any word you can read you can say.
Norway: Hold my "I am going to create a script that is so Swedish chef noises" Sue Sylvester meme
I guess I'm most interested in Finland. Hypothetically, If I were to come into possession of an obscene amount of cash I would immigrate there asap. Norway would be a close second however, followed by Germany in third.
The thing i like about the Finns is that most of them spend their first year sleeping in a cardboard box.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maternity_package
That's pretty rad actually.
They ought to have that in Norway. But Norwegian businesses are parasitic on parents.
It be a nice thing to have in the US too. If that was ever proposed by a US politician they'd be called a commie. Apparently wanting the basic shit other countries have makes you a commie.
Finnish, though I may be biased. We have the best curses (English swear words are soo boring and really don't have the same power.) and it's so easy to just make up bew words.
We all agree regarding where Danish sits: https://youtu.be/ykj3Kpm3O0g
Danish is Swedish without opening your mouth and if it's half open, you get Norwegian
Clearly Icelandic is best.
Finnish, hands down
Perkele