Is the common Nordic language understanding about to die out? – NRK Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
“Do you want me to judge you?”
I looked a little confused at the lady behind the counter in the interior shop in central Stockholm. Wasn’t that exactly what she had done?
She had actually scanned the barcode on the two boxes of drinking glasses that I had placed in front of her. I was ready to pay and could not in my wildest imagination understand why she asked about it.
«Yes, thank you …» I said a little expectantly, but still politely.
After all, she had to put them in the till for me to pay. I understood that. Was it some kind of permission she needed? A confirmation that I should have the goods?
Not at all.
Shot for the bow
Before I knew it, the lady had slapped on change notes and wrapped one box in light green and pink paper with a white bow on top.
Here in the interior shop, my self-proclaimed good knowledge of Swedish had received a significant boost.
I couldn’t let her continue. It wasn’t just the people standing behind me in the queue – jI really didn’t need to go home looking for yet another gaudy, wrapped gift for myself. It had to last with one.
I explained the misunderstanding and we laughed a bit about it.
“What’s it called in Norwegian then?”
“Package inn.”
“I’ll try to remember that next time one comes norrbagge“, she saw.
And laughed a little again.
Tired of “glamour girls”
The Scandinavian languages are almost like dialects. Or to put it another way: the budget for interpreting services at NRK’s Nordic office is extremely low.
Our linguistic community is perhaps the strongest bond between us Scandinavians.
Nevertheless, English is becoming more and more common. English takes over in everyday speech and is used as a common language in the Nordics. The Finns have to a greater and greater extent put aside their Swedish, for example.
It is partly a political issue that several parties, including Sannfinländarna, want to remove compulsory teaching in Swedish.
But many Swedish speakers in Finland also report that they have experienced threats from more or less nationalist organizations and private individuals because they speak Swedish – not Finnish.
Still, about half of the country’s population can carry on a conversation in Swedish. But there are still fewer who want to.
In Iceland, it was not until 1999 that English took over from Danish as the first foreign language in school. But students still have to learn Danish, Norwegian or Swedish. Nevertheless, Icelandic young people are the ones in the Nordics who are most happy to speak English.
In one of his many short stories, the Swede wrote under the pseudonym Kar de Mumma about English in the Swedish language.
He worried that young people could not speak Swedish without mixing in English words such as «weekend», «make up», «pullover», «sandwich», «cocktails’, ‘party’, ‘shopping’, ‘show’ and ‘glamour girls’.
But what upset him the most was the acting Robertawhich took its victory lap at the Oscar Theater at Norrmalm in Stockholm, was pronounced “Robørta” by the city’s youth.
By the way, the Kåserie was written in 1946, so the issue raised here is anything but new.
But it points to something symptomatic.
Norway best in class
In 2021, the Nordic Council of Ministers investigated this. They asked 2,000 young people between the ages of 16 and 25 about how they came to understand the Nordic languages:
- 65 percent of black Swedes and 57 percent of Danes use English in a meeting with someone who speaks another Scandinavian language.
- In Iceland, the corresponding figure was 82 percent, in Finland 79 percent.
- That the Scandinavian language understanding is best in Norway is clear, because 36 percent of the Norwegians in the survey answered that they use English in Scandinavia.
Then it’s a good idea to tell another story. From last year’s election campaign here in Sweden.
Slightly irritated Minister of Science
Education Minister Tonje Brenna was in Stockholm to talk about different Norwegian and Swedish funding models for schools. Since the theme was quite current in Sweden, because some parties wanted to remove the possibility for Swedes to exchange from operating independent schools, Brenna had to be interviewed by phone by a Swedish newspaper to explain the Norwegian model.
«The Norwegian school system is based on not allowing … ah … what is it yield called in English now again, then?»
The last one, in Norwegian, is a little annoying in itself.
The reporter in the other had insisted that the interview must be in English. The person claimed that he or she did not understand Norwegian. The Minister of Education stopped in his reasoning.
“It must be better if we speak Norwegian and Swedish, just a little slower?” she suggested.
That’s how it turned out.
And maybe that’s how it should be?
The Dane can, the Norwegian can
Of course we face challenges when we communicate in different languages, including Scandinavian languages.
Who knows how many more Danish-Norwegian marriages there could have been if the Norwegians had not bluntly refused the Danes’ request “can I come along?” with the extremely disarming «no, no, you must not follow along at all!».
For the record: The word «må» in Danish means «can» in Norwegian, and is often a source of misunderstanding between Norwegians and Danes. “Follow” here means “follow” … for example home from the city.
If we put it a little more to the point: Imagine a person from Trønder who doesn’t understand everything a parishioner says. Had they started speaking English?
If you hadn’t asked “what do you mean?” And rather than using another language, rather created better conditions for understanding each other better next time.
Safer in the mother tongue
Because it is possible to overcome the language barriers. I myself have gone a long way in learning the Scandinavian languages, but you don’t need to know grammar and all the idioms to make yourself perfectly understood.
Last fall, Queen Margrethe of Denmark received the Nordic language prize. In my acceptance speech, I talked about exactly how we can preserve the language community in the Nordics:
So you might think that this is a small matter. That it might not be so dangerous if English takes over, neither at home nor in the Nordics. But where does that leave us? This corner of the world, which the Nordic Prime Ministers set their sights on back in 2019, should become the world’s most integrated region by 2030.
Without the language, it may soon be that the Nordic community will remain as a regional cooperation. Similar to what many countries have with their neighbours.
Then it is perhaps better to occasionally tolerate going home with a neatly wrapped box of drinking glasses. Or without a possible future spouse.
It usually comes with a good story regardless.