The make up one of the three branches of the
Germanic Languages , a sub-family of the
Indo-European Languages , along with the
West Germanic Languages and the
East Germanic Languages . Derived from
Proto-Norse and
Old Norse , they are spoken in the three
Scandinavia n countries (
Denmark ,
Norway , and
Sweden ),
Finland , the
Faroe Islands ,
Iceland and to some extent
Greenland as well as by immigrant groups mainly in
North America and
Australia . The language group is often also called either the '''Scandinavian''' or '''Nordic languages'''. The latter term is the most commonly used by both scholars and laymen in the
Nordic Countries and is often favored by these when writing in English.
There are two main branches, ''West Scandinavian'' and ''East Scandinavian'', derived from the western and eastern dialect group of
Old Norse , respectively. The eastern branch is heavily influenced by especially
Middle Low German and consists of
Danish and
Swedish along with their various dialects and varieties. The western branch includes
Norwegian ,
Faroese and
Icelandic . There is another way of classifying the languages that focuses more on
Mutual Intelligibility than historical development that classifies Norwegian with Danish and Swedish as ''Continental Scandinavian'' and Faroese and Icelandic as ''Insular Scandinavian''.
As a result, Danish and Norwegian may in reality be somewhat more similar to each other than either is to Swedish. Due to the long political union between Norway and Denmark, the Norwegian Bokmål/Riksmål shares much of the Danish vocabulary. In addition, due to Danish pronunciation, Swedes usually find it easier to understand Norwegian than Danish. One
Witticism about Norwegian that expresses the basic similarities and differences between the languages is that "Norwegian is Danish spoken in Swedish." The relationships between the three languages might be summarized by the diagram on the right.
The relationship can be very asymmetrical. One source claims that while Norwegians understand almost 90% of spoken Swedish, Swedes understand only about 50% of spoken Norwegian. These results could be due to the fact that Norwegians generally are more accustomed to Swedish language and culture, than what Swedes generally are to Norwegian. The lowest degree of interlegibility is between spoken Danish and Swedish. Danes understand approximately 45% of spoken Swedish, but the Swedes can only grasp about 25% of what the Danes are saying.
For written material, the comprehension percentages rise to 70-90% for all language combinations. Of course, these numbers are highly dependent on exactly where in the dialect continuum the speakers are from.
The North Germanic languages are often cited as proof of the
Aphorism "A Language Is A Dialect With An Army And A Navy." The differences in dialects within the countries of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark can often be greater than the differences across the borders, but the political independence of these countries leads continental Scandinavian to be classified into
Norwegian ,
Swedish , and
Danish in the popular mind as well as among most linguists. This is also due to the strong influence of the
Standard Language s, particularly in Denmark and Sweden. Even if the language policy of Norway has been more tolerant of rural dialectal variation in formal language, the prestige dialect often referred to as "Eastern Urban Norwegian", spoken mainly in and around the
Oslo -region, can be considered to be quite normative. The creation of
Nynorsk out of dialects after Norway became independent of Denmark in
1814 was an attempt to make the linguistic divisions match the political ones.
All North Germanic languages are descended from
Old Norse . Note that divisions between subfamilies of North Germanic are rarely precisely defined; most form continuous clines, with adjacent
Dialect s being mutually intelligible and the most separated ones not.
Beside the two ''official'' written norms of Norwegian, there exist two established ''unofficial'' norms: ''Riksmål'', similar to, but more conservative than Bokmål, which is used in different extent by a large number of people, especially in the cities; High-Norwegian ''(Høgnorsk)'', rather similar to Nynorsk, used by a very small minority.
