Dutch, Scandinavian, Finnish

The Rev Gaston wrote:

On 2005-06-13 19:56:16 +0200, "B=F8rre Stokke" =
said:

People from Norway, Denmark and Sweden understand each other without=
great
difficulties.
Dutch may be understood if you have some knowledge of German.

I keep hearing this, but I get by understanding Dutch on the basis of
very shaky Swedish, and many things in Dutch seem more similar to
Swedish than German.

If I have another drink I may even remember some examples...


Have three more drinks and you might be able to carry on a conversation i=
n a
language you don't even know.

wrote:

[]
did you buy a chiwawa yet.

What the heck is that? Some kind of chinese brass mute?

--
David Horne- www.davidhorne.net
usenet (at) davidhorne (dot) co (dot) uk

Absolutely. Norwegians pronounce hey like Mallory's boyfriend in
Family Ties. Only more so.

I had a good time entering shops and what not while in Oslo. Was rather
shocked, however, when it was convincing enough that people though I
spoke Norwegian. (The only other word I knew was Nie (no) from
Norwegian girls I met in Sweden.)

Sam

Immigrate to Canada... or not:
http://www.geocities.com/merdealorsen/immigration.html
(Warning, in a desperate attempt to increase traffic, I've added
topless pictures of young movie stars)

"Henry" wrote in message
...
No Spam wrote:

"Børre Stokke" wrote in message

Icelandic is Old Norse,

Icelandic is NOT Old Norse. It's the closest of all modern
languages to Old Norse, but it's not Old Norse.

That is correct. However, even today a literate Icelander (and, of
course, that's everybody) can read the ancient texts without too much
difficulty. Contrast that to the situation of English, where most
native-speakers today find Shakespeare 'hard' and Chaucer opaque, while

Properly educated English speakers have no trouble
reading Shakespeare. Without specialist training.


Old English texts (contemporaneous with the Old Norse that little
bothers modern Icelanders) are quite incomprehensible without specialist
training.

cheers,

Henry

"No Spam" wrote in message
ink.net...

"Henry" wrote in message
...
No Spam wrote:

"Børre Stokke" wrote in message

Icelandic is Old Norse,

Icelandic is NOT Old Norse. It's the closest of all modern
languages to Old Norse, but it's not Old Norse.

That is correct. However, even today a literate Icelander (and, of
course, that's everybody) can read the ancient texts without too much
difficulty. Contrast that to the situation of English, where most
native-speakers today find Shakespeare 'hard' and Chaucer opaque, while

Properly educated English speakers have no trouble
reading Shakespeare. Without specialist training.


Old English texts (contemporaneous with the Old Norse that little
bothers modern Icelanders) are quite incomprehensible without specialist
training.


You don't need to be that educated at all. And Chaucer is by no means
'opaque'.
It's only the pre-Norman English that can become 'unintelligible' and even
gists of that can be gained.

Surreyman

"Henry" wrote in message
...
a.spencer3 wrote:

"No Spam" wrote in message

"Henry" wrote in message
...
No Spam wrote:

"Børre Stokke" wrote in message

Icelandic is Old Norse,

Icelandic is NOT Old Norse. It's the closest of all modern
languages to Old Norse, but it's not Old Norse.

That is correct. However, even today a literate Icelander (and, of
course, that's everybody) can read the ancient texts without too
much
difficulty. Contrast that to the situation of English, where most
native-speakers today find Shakespeare 'hard' and Chaucer opaque,
while

Properly educated English speakers have no trouble
reading Shakespeare. Without specialist training.


Old English texts (contemporaneous with the Old Norse that little
bothers modern Icelanders) are quite incomprehensible without
specialist
training.


You don't need to be that educated at all. And Chaucer is by no means
'opaque'.
It's only the pre-Norman English that can become 'unintelligible' and
even
gists of that can be gained.

What did I say? I said 'most native speakers'. 'Most native speakers'
includes school leavers in Brixton for whom the Daily ****ing Mail is
opaque; hoe-boys in Haxatoochie, Alabama who've never even _heard of_
Chaucer; etc., etc. Just because you have had a decent education, don't
presume to project what you take to be self-evident upon society in
general. Indeed, I would wager that a majority of native English
speakers alive today throughout the world could neither identify who
Geoffrey Chaucer was with any degree of accuracy at all, nor be able to
understand his verse without an extensive gloss.


Calm down!
What do you know of my education anyway?
I first saw Chaucer & Shakespeare at the age of 11 having had, up until
then, the same primary education that every kid had at that age in the UK.
The beauties of language, etc. naturally had to be forced down our throats.
But Shakespeare was absolutely understandable, and Chaucer needed the
occasional explanation.
As understandable texts they were/are within the range of any natural
English-speaker.
Whether they are appreciated and enjoyed is entirely another matter.

Surreyman.

On Wed, 15 Jun 2005 16:13:27 +0300, (Henry)
wrote:

No Spam wrote:

"Henry" wrote in message
...
No Spam wrote:

"Børre Stokke" wrote in message

Icelandic is Old Norse,

Icelandic is NOT Old Norse. It's the closest of all modern
languages to Old Norse, but it's not Old Norse.

That is correct. However, even today a literate Icelander (and, of
course, that's everybody) can read the ancient texts without too much
difficulty. Contrast that to the situation of English, where most
native-speakers today find Shakespeare 'hard' and Chaucer opaque, while

Properly educated English speakers have no trouble
reading Shakespeare. Without specialist training.

Shakespeare is not Old English.

It's not even Middle English.

************* DAVE HATUNEN ) *************
* Tucson Arizona, out where the cacti grow *
* My typos & mispellings are intentional copyright traps *

On Wed, 15 Jun 2005 13:39:13 GMT, "a.spencer3"
wrote:


"No Spam" wrote in message
link.net...

"Henry" wrote in message
...
No Spam wrote:

"Børre Stokke" wrote in message

Icelandic is Old Norse,

Icelandic is NOT Old Norse. It's the closest of all modern
languages to Old Norse, but it's not Old Norse.

That is correct. However, even today a literate Icelander (and, of
course, that's everybody) can read the ancient texts without too much
difficulty. Contrast that to the situation of English, where most
native-speakers today find Shakespeare 'hard' and Chaucer opaque, while

Properly educated English speakers have no trouble
reading Shakespeare. Without specialist training.


Old English texts (contemporaneous with the Old Norse that little
bothers modern Icelanders) are quite incomprehensible without specialist
training.


You don't need to be that educated at all. And Chaucer is by no means
'opaque'.

But it's not exactly transparent, e.g.:

And fro this forth tho refte him love his sleep,
And made his mete his foo; and eek his sorwe 485
Gan multiplye, that, who-so toke keep,
It shewed in his hewe, bothe eve and morwe;
Therfor a title he gan him for to borwe
Of other syknesse, lest of him men wende
That the hote fyr of love him brende,

It's only the pre-Norman English that can become 'unintelligible' and even
gists of that can be gained.

Eh?

þam þe unrihte inne gehýdde
wräte under wealle. Weard ær ofslôh
feára sumne; þâ sió fæhð gewearð
gewrecen wrâðlîce. Wundur hwâr, þonne
eorl ellen-rôf ende gefêre
lîf-gesceafta, þonne leng ne mäg
mon mid his mâgum medu-seld bûan.
Swâ wäs Biówulfe, þâ he biorges weard
sôhte, searo-nîðas: seolfa ne cûðe,
þurh hwät his worulde gedâl weorðan sceolde;

I'm seaching for a gist.

************* DAVE HATUNEN ) *************
* Tucson Arizona, out where the cacti grow *
* My typos & mispellings are intentional copyright traps *

Martin schrieb:
On Sun, 19 Jun 2005 15:48:06 -0700, Hatunen wrote:

I'm seaching for a gist.

You will find it in real

Yes.

Dutch

No.

beer.

SCNR ... Martin

Dutch and german are very similar. If you can read those two languages, you can read Swedish also (a little). Finnish is very different from dutch and swedish.

grts Jootje