{"id":2051,"date":"2015-04-30T23:55:21","date_gmt":"2015-04-30T23:55:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/?p=2051"},"modified":"2015-05-01T01:18:53","modified_gmt":"2015-05-01T01:18:53","slug":"sweet-brother-jokes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/sweet-brother-jokes\/","title":{"rendered":"Sweet Brother Jokes"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Border<\/a>

Border crossing. (Photo by Karin Beate N\u00f8sterud at Wikimedia Commons<\/a>, CC License.)<\/p><\/div>\n

– Vet du hvorfor svenskene st\u00e5r opp n\u00e5r de skal sove?<\/b> (Do you know why Swedes are standing when they\u2019re going to sleep?)<\/p>\n

– Nei!<\/b> (No!)<\/p>\n

– De regner med \u00e5 falle i s\u00f8vn!<\/b> (They think they\u2019ll be falling asleep!)<\/p>\n

Svenskevitser<\/b> (Swede-jokes) like that are quite popular in Norway. In fact, nordmenn<\/b> (Norwegians) love joking about their Eastern neighbours so much that the comedy band Tr\u00f8ste & B\u00e6re reached the 4th spot of the 1990 Norwegian hit list with their song Jag \u00e4r inte sjuk (Jag \u00e4r bara svensk)<\/i><\/b> <\/i>(Swedish: I\u2019m not ill (I\u2019m just Swedish)).<\/p>\n

\"Norway\u2019s<\/a>

Norway\u2019s flag during the union with Sweden. The union \u201dblotch\u201d was jokingly called sildesalaten<\/strong> \u2013 the herring salad.<\/p><\/div>\n

Why such an obsession with svensker<\/b>? I\u2019d guess it has something to do with history. While Sverige<\/b> (Sweden) was busy being a European stormakt<\/b> (Great Power), Norway was in a union with Denmark, which only ended in 1814, after about 400 years. As soon as the ties to Denmark were cut, Sweden became Norway\u2019s dominant storebror<\/b> (big brother) in a new union, which lasted until 1905, when Norway finally became fri som fuglen<\/b> (free as a bird). Just look at Nobelprisen<\/b>, which originated during the union (in 1895). Yes, Norway chooses the winner of fredsprisen<\/b> (the peace prize), but all those fancy prizes of literature and chemistry and medicine and \u2026 are bestowed upon the world from no other place than Stockholm, the Swedish capital! Add the fact that there are about dobbelt s\u00e5 mange <\/b>(twice as many) Swedes as Norwegians, and you\u2019ve got a good reason to fight back with a dash of humour\u2026 \ud83d\ude42 Funnily enough, Swedes also make jokes about Norwegians\u2026<\/p>\n

Outside of vitsene<\/b> (the jokes), the relationship between Norwegians and Swedes is excellent. They share the same peninsula and forst\u00e5r hverandres spr\u00e5k<\/b> (understand each other\u2019s languages \u2013 well, mostly, that is!) In fact, a Norwegian nickname for Sweden is s\u00f6ta bror<\/i><\/b>, which means \u201dsweet brother\u201d in \u201dNorwegian-Swedish\u201d (in actual Swedish it would be s\u00f6te bror, <\/i>or so they told me!)<\/p>\n

Because of oljen<\/b> (the oil), Norway has somehow become Sweden\u2019s rike lillebror<\/b> (rich little brother). L\u00f8nningene<\/b> (the wages) in Norway are much higher, and many Swedes have gone\u00a0to Norway to work, often taking jobs that Norwegians themselves don\u2019t care about (for example in hotels or kiosks). Norwegians, on the other hand, cross the border to go on harryhandel<\/b> in Swedish towns like Str\u00f6mstad. Harry- <\/b>comes from the name Harry, which has become a negative expression in Norwegian. (\u201dFor en harry kjole!\u201d<\/b> means \u201dWhat a kitschy\/unstylish\/cheap dress!\u201d) So, harryhandel<\/b> is that kind of handel<\/b> (shopping) where Norwegians go to Sweden just because alkohol<\/b>, kj\u00f8tt<\/b> (meat) and tobakk<\/b> (tobacco) is so much cheaper there!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

– Vet du hvorfor svenskene st\u00e5r opp n\u00e5r de skal sove? (Do you know why Swedes are standing when they\u2019re going to sleep?) – Nei! (No!) – De regner med \u00e5 falle i s\u00f8vn! (They think they\u2019ll be falling asleep!) Svenskevitser (Swede-jokes) like that are quite popular in Norway. In fact, nordmenn (Norwegians) love joking…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":2053,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3668],"tags":[5490,8033,362406,3683,2354,362699,3442,362701],"class_list":["post-2051","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-norway-and-the-world","tag-harry","tag-jokes","tag-nobelpris","tag-norway","tag-oil","tag-svenskevitser","tag-sweden","tag-troste-baere"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/76"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2051"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2051\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2055,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2051\/revisions\/2055"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}