danish is terrible

[ZEGH8578]

have you ever heard spoken danish?
as non-scandinavian speakers, what does it sound like to you?

theres something about it... that sounds very forced. like when your taking a shit, and trying to talk at the same ting.
i notice a slightly similar thing with japanese and korean, the sensation that theyre forcing air out while talking "hhhhello-nrrgh!"

danish is similar vocabulary and structure as norwegian and swedish, but when they talk, it all just... reduces itself to a series of strained exhalations "huuuuuah! ahagaaaahh!"
and its always embarassing, cus we're "nordic brothers" and _presumably_ interlingible, and therefore, norwegians danes and swedes will traditionally never switch to english, instead just talk our native languages to each others.

but with spoken danish, that becomes a challenge :I
ive allready had the misfortune to be all "what... ? uh... come again... sorry, i still dont get it... ahuuuuah? wtf's ahuuuah "

i feel sorry for greenlanders and icelanders who have to learn that shit in school, and i feel pain whenever i see poor foreigners in denmark, some italian, going "habbahooooouh" making a total ass of himself :I

danish is terrible...

a little sketch about it from norwegian tv

[Squidusa]

Oh fuck me he's possessed by razorpubes. 


 

[ZEGH8578]

Oh fuck me he's possessed by razorpubes. 


 

razor was a little uniqum, i challenge you, ask any other scandinavian what they feel about the spoken danish language
oh and, the link should also be a hint, it elaborates on it - and is from the national norwegian channel :]

[Binty]

its always embarassing, cus we're "nordic brothers" and _presumably_ interlingible, and therefore, norwegians danes and swedes will traditionally never switch to english, instead just talk our native languages to each others.

It's the same with a lot of Slavic languages.  When I went to Prague, I spoke Polish to the people there and they talked Czech back at me.   Unfortunately, a lot of Czech sounds really funny to the Polish ear so that was a bit embarrassing as I kept either misunderstanding or trying hard not to laugh   They use way too many diminutives.

Like a bra is stanik and they have cycková výhoda (which sounds like boobie comfort)   There's a website with a whole list of these but I'm not arsed to translate them all.

[ZEGH8578]

its always embarassing, cus we're "nordic brothers" and _presumably_ interlingible, and therefore, norwegians danes and swedes will traditionally never switch to english, instead just talk our native languages to each others.

It's the same with a lot of Slavic languages.  When I went to Prague, I spoke Polish to the people there and they talked Czech back at me.   Unfortunately, a lot of Czech sounds really funny to the Polish ear so that was a bit embarrassing as I kept either misunderstanding or trying hard not to laugh   They use way too many diminutives.

Like a bra is stanik and they have cycková výhoda (which sounds like boobie comfort)   There's a website with a whole list of these but I'm not arsed to translate them all.

ah, i bet, i am curious if other countries also share this sensation of the sound itself tho.
like, swedish has a vocabulary that is often more different than danish, from norwegian, but it is a lot more pleasant to listen to, and most importantly, their pronounciation is - to a norwegian - very clear and orderly, lacking this... what we register as excess exhalation :S
danish is clearly much much more... demanding to understand, than swedish.

i knew czechs, slovaks and polish were interlingible, and from what ive heard, the interlingibility is very similar to that of the scandinavian languages, in that most average people can understand it well, while there are also a handful of dumbasses who suddenly cant understand anything.
ive had swedes go "uhhh... english?" and ive also seen that made fun of in movies

[Binty]

Ah wait, the cyckowa wygoda one is a spoof 

However this one is an actual Czech word haha: broken in Polish is zepsuty and in Czech poruhany - ruchac in Polish is to fuck so the literal translation of that is "fucked"

Also we have the same thing in terms of how our related languages sound.  Russian to my ear sounds incredibly pretty due to the fact that they have a lot of "jjjj" sounds.  Czech just sounds funny.  Croatian also sounds quite amusing.  I can't remember Ukrainian or Slovenian but I must have heard either at some point in my life. 

[Binty]

Probably only funny to Slavic people but what the hell:

[Binty]

English subtitles:

[ZEGH8578]

im assuming theres some sort of play-on-words or puns going on there :I
i like the eager guys dancing :I

[Binty]

That guy is amazing.

Oh yeah, your curling Olympic team has cool pants 



I like his serious business face.

[Osensitive1]

Maybe it's only your danish that's terrible.

[Queen Victoria]

I thought this was going to be a post about pastry and my response was going to be that I don't think cheese danishes are terrible.  Ah, well.

None of the Scandinavian languages sound particularly harsh to me.  Maybe it's from hearing Northern Midwestern speakers in the movies who's ancestors came from various parts of Scandinavia.

I love the words  interlingible and interlingibility.  I've never heard them before and they sound perfectly delightful to me.  (Sorry, I'm a word geek/nerd.)

I remember reading in the novel, Hawaii, that one of the ways the Europeans kept the Chinese out of their private schools was to tear a piece of paper at the interview and ask the applicant what they had done to the paper.  Evidently the Chinese idea for this came across as "broken."  The powers-that-be would then say that the Chinese applicant didn't have the necessary mastery of the English to be admitted.

[Squidusa]

Oh fuck me he's possessed by razorpubes. 


 

razor was a little uniqum, i challenge you, ask any other scandinavian what they feel about the spoken danish language
oh and, the link should also be a hint, it elaborates on it - and is from the national norwegian channel :]

Zegh I'm pulling your leg , I don't really think you are are like Razor  .

['andersom']

Oh fuck me he's possessed by razorpubes. 


 

My thoughts exactly.

[odeon]

Of the Scandinavian languages, Danish sounds the most harsh. Spoken Danish can be very hard to understand--I've had a few business meetings with them where English was not an option.

Come to think of it, I attended a conference a few years ago with a guy from the Danish defence holding a presentation in English. Didn't help. It sounded like Danish and I couldn't understand a word. All things considered, I think the enemy won't have to jam their radio communications so it's a cheap country to invade.