The Scandinavian
“semi-communication”
SAS1. May 6 th 2016
Two areas
Primary linguistic
community (core area):
• Scandinavia
• Swedish-speaking Finland
• defined by the closeness of the spoken and written languages: dialect
continuum
Secondary linguistic community (outer circle):
• non-Scandinavian Nordic countries
• widely different languages
• Danish and Swedish influence → large proportions of the
populations are able to communicate in these lang.
• A Scandinavian language is
compulsory as second or foreign
language
Heinz Kloss
Abstandsprache/
Abstand-language
(‘language by distance’) Language as distinguished by its linguistic distance from other languages
Ausbausprache/
Ausbau-language
(‘language by development’)
Language as distinguished by its degree of
standardization (or
development) as a written
and spoken code
The Pan-Scandinavian Level
• Pan-Scandinavian meeting of 1869
– Goal: to bring the Scandinavian languages closer together.
– Knud Knudsen – Henrik Ibsen
• From Gothic alphabet to Roman characters
• Ambition: a more uniform orthography
• Consequence: some minor changes
The question of harmonizing ä/æ and ö/ø.
Same vowel – dissimilar sign Sweden: ä and ö
Denmark, Norway: æ and ø
What would the advantage be in practice..?
Alphabetical order:
Sweden: - å – ä – ö
Den./Nor.: æ – ø - å
Post WWII: renewed insight into the limitations of nationalism. Collaboration in many fields → increased mobility across the Nordic borders
New goal of inter-Scandinavian language planning:
to stop the languages from drifting further
apart.
Idealistic argument
Scandinavian linguistic unity is the basis of the
Nordic community, so everybody in the Nordic
region should be able to understand and use a
Scandinavian language.
Language teaching in schools
The Scandinavian
“semi-communication”
“The trickle of messages through a rather high level of ‘code noise’”
Einar Haugen (1966)
Code noise = differences in the linguistic codes concerned which hamper communication
without positively barring it
Three factors involved in “understanding”
another language:
1. linguistic closeness vs. difference
2. motivation (on the part of both speaker and listener)
3. experience and training (also on the part of
both participants)
Einar Haugen 1952: Respondents’ own assessment of their language comprehension
Question: Do you now understand X speech without difficulty?
Figure 1: percentage
of “Yes” answers
Øivind Maurud 1972
Task: Retell the content of a story and
explain some “difficult” words in isolation
Mauruds’ test confirm other surveys
• the most difficult language is spoken Danish
• the nation with the lowest overall comprehension rate is Sweden
• Norwegians consistently achieve the best
scores
Ulla Börestam Uhlmann 1991:
Comprehension patterns in the secondary community
• 76.3% of the Finns are able to understand Scandinavian very well (i.e. Finland-Swedish)
– numbers dropped to 55.2% when asked about Sweden-Swedish, Norwegian 18.9% and Danish 4.7%
– Scandinavian language community does not seem to be a realty to Finns
• Icelanders view Scandinavian as a single entity
– 74.2% understand Danish very well, Finland-Swedish 68.2%, (Swedish spoken by Finns 60%,) Norwegian 54.8% and Sweden-Swedish 41.9%
– comprehension of Icelandic Danish (with Icelandic accent and Norwegian pronunciation) are generally high
• The Faroese are the best linguists!
Høgni Hoydal
In Faroese:
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mX_1VdlXa4
In Faroese-Danish:
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-p5BHTT0jo In Danish:
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14oIUzV6NC8
Icelanders speaking foreign languages
Björk speaks English with Icelandic accent:
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWAHr6wuByU
Steingrímur J. Steingrimsson speaks “Scandinavian” (a term exclusively used in Iceland) 1:37
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJ7D86lJSTU
Nordisk Kulturfond
INS-projektet, Lunds universitet
INS
Internordisk språkförståelse i en tid med ökad internationalisering
2003-2004
• En presentation av undersökningens uppläggning och resultat finns i projektrapporten Hållet språket ihop Norden?
Man kan läsa och/eller beställa den på: http://www.norden.org/pub/sk/showpub.asp?pubnr=2005:573
Nordisk Kulturfond
INS-projektet, Lunds universitet
Research questions
1. How well does Scandinavians understand each others languages?
2. How well does immigrants in Scandinavia understand the other Scandinavian languages?
3. How well does people in the other Nordic countries understand the Scandinavian languages?
4. Does the understanding of the other Scandinavian languages increase with age?
5. Does young people (16-19 years old) today have a better
comprehension of the neighbour languages than young people had 30 years ago?
6. How important is contact with the neighbour countries for language comprehension?
7. How well does people in the Nordic region understand English?
Nordisk Kulturfond
INS-projektet, Lunds universitet
How well do we understand
each other in the Nordic region?
• De röda staplarna är beräknade på två grannspråk, t.ex. svenska och norska i Danmark. De blå staplarna är beräknade på alla de tre skandinaviska språken. Skandinavernas förståelse av det egna språket är alltså inte medräknad.
• Det danska videotestet är klart lättare än det svenska. Om det räknas bort klarar sig danskarna lite bättre än svenskarna.
• Se rapporten, avsnitt 4.3.1 och 4.3.5.
3,86
4,39
6,14
4,60
Denmark Sweden Norway Åland Finland-Swedes
2,14
7,01
4,03 4,19
Finland Faroese Iceland Greenland
3,73
Nordisk Kulturfond
INS-projektet, Lunds universitet
Results from each Nordic country
Denmark Norway Finland Faroese Iceland Greenland
3,53 6,21
3,24 5,75
3,34 2,23
Swedish
Sweden Norway Åland Finland-Swedes Finland Faroese Iceland Greenland
3,80 6,07
4,05
1,54 8,28
5,36 6,61
Danish
3,09
Denmark Sweden Åland Finland-Swedes Finland Faroese Iceland Greenland
4,18
4,98 5,14
1,63 7,00
3,40
Norwegian
3,73 4,37
Faroese
The Faroese are highly competent in Scandinavian languages, they are even better then Norwegians. Why?
• they have a Nordic language as their mother tongue, and they share a lot of the vocabulary with the Scandinavian languages. They are relatively open to loan words (through Danish)
• they have great knowledge of one Scandinavian language, namely Danish, which they also use as a teaching language. They have a higher score on the Danish test than Danes themselves in all three test types, but not in all five subtests.
• they have a great interest in the Nordic region. The language area is that
small that they need to find support in other languages for information,
knowledge and entertainment. The Faroese are the only one in the Nordic
region that would rather move to Scandinavia (particularly Denmark) than
to England or the US.
Nordisk Kulturfond
INS-projektet, Lunds universitet
4,5%
43,2%
52,3%
yes Just a bit No
Have you read Danish/Swedish/
Norwegian at school? (Question asked in Scandinavia)
• Diagrammet redovisar svaren från de tre skandinaviska länderna. Vi har frågat om de två grannspråken; exempelvis har vi i Danmark frågat om undervisning i norska och svenska, o.s.v. Se rapporten, avsnitt 5.3.
Nordisk Kulturfond
INS-projektet, Lunds universitet
How well do we understand
English (red/blue) compared to the neighbour languages (grey)?
• Diagrammet redovisar resultatet av engelskundersökningen (röda och blå staplar) i jämförelse med grannspråks- undersökningen (grå staplar). Se rapporten, avsnitt 4.4.
3,86
4,39
6,14
4,60
Denmark Sweden Norway Åland Finland-Swedes
2,14
7,01
4,03
Finns in Finl Faroese Iceland
5,70
7,08 7,09
8,39
5,94
7,60
7,17
3,73 7,21
Nordisk Kulturfond
INS-projektet, Lunds universitet
Parents vs. pupils
5,93
6,62
3,59
4,54
Parents Pupils
Sw Sw No No
Denmark
Parents Pupils
7,26 6,86
4,96
5,55
Da Da No No
Sweden
Parents Pupils Parents Pupils
7,92
6,73
7,98
6,88
Da Da Sv Sv
Norway
Parents Pupils Parents Pupils
• Föräldrarna är genomgående bättre än barnen. Skillnaderna är störst i Danmark och minst i Norge.
Se rapporten, avsnitt 6.2 och 6.4.
Nordisk Kulturfond
INS-projektet, Lunds universitet
Development the last 30 years
6,13
7,90
3,41
4,64
Maurud 1972 INS 2003
Sw Sw No No
Denmark
Maurud 1972 INS 2003
6,43
Da No
5,17
7,42
3,87
Da No
Sweden
Maurud 1972 INS 2003 Maurud 1972 INS 2003
Da 8,33
6,62
9,10
8,05
Da Sv Sv
Norway
Maurud 1972 INS 2003 Maurud 1972 INS 2003
• Diagrammet bygger, för jämförbarhetens skull, enbart på infödda pojkar i huvudstäderna; se rapporten, avsnitt 6.3.4.
• Skillnaden är särskilt stor i Danmark. Se rapporten avsnitt 6.3 och 6.4.
Nordisk Kulturfond
INS-projektet, Lunds universitet
Swedish Norwegian English
46,0 50,5
62,6
Danes
Language attitudes
Do you think Danish/Swedish/Norwegian/English is a nice language?
Danish Norwegian English
27,8 53,1
63,5
Swedes
Danish Swedish English
28,9 66,6
62,5
Norwegians
Danish Swedish Norwegian English
37,7
50,0 47,8
Finns
69,5
Danish Swedish Norwegian English
49,3 47,6 47,5
Icelanders
75,3
• Diagrammet visar inställningen till testspråken. Indexvärdet ligger alltid mellan 0 och 100, där 100 betyder att alla kryssat för det högsta värdet på finhetsskalan. Se rapporten, avsnitt 5.4.2.
Nordisk Kulturfond
INS-projektet, Lunds universitet
Swedish Norwegian English
43,4 53,9
73,2
Danes
Language attitudes
Do you think Danish/Swedish/Norwegian/English is easy?
Danish Norwegian English
33,5 58,4
83,0
Swedes
Danish Swedish English
35,5 77,4
84,9
Norwegians
Danish Swedish Norwegian English
13,5 49,5
18,5
Finns
81,0
Danish Swedish Norwegian English
51,7
33,2 37,0
Icelanders
85,9
• Diagrammet visar testpersonernas värdering av hur lätt språket är. Indexvärdet ligger alltid mellan 0 och 100, där 100 betyder att alla kryssat för det högsta värdet på lätthetsskalan. Sambanden mellan attityderna och resultatet på testen är mycket tydliga. Se rapporten, avsnitt 5.4.2.
Nordisk Kulturfond
INS-projektet, Lunds universitet
Back to the research questions
Some brief answers
1. How well does Scandinavians understand each others languages?
- Norwegians are clearly performing better than Swedes and Danes.
- Danes are a bit better than Swedes.
- The reading competence is clearly better than the listening competence.
2. 2. How well does immigrants in Scandinavia understand the other Scandinavian languages?
- Immigrants perform clearly worse than natives.
- Norwegian immigrants have a better understanding of the other Scandinavian languages than native Swedes and Danes.
- There are marked differences between immigrant groups.
Nordisk Kulturfond
INS-projektet, Lunds universitet
Back to the research questions
Some brief answers
3. How well does people in the other Nordic countries understand the Scandinavian languages?
- Faroese does clearly have the best language understanding in the Nordic region.
- Finns have the poorest language understanding.
4. Does the understanding of the other Scandinavian languages increase with age?
- Yes, parents have overall better results.
5. Does young people today have a better comprehension of the neighbour languages than young people had 30 years ago?
- No, they perform clearly worse in Denmark and Sweden.
Nordisk Kulturfond
INS-projektet, Lunds universitet
