Comments:

1. 

    

   Kenia:

   The languages may be similar, but these danish numbers are a real pain! It’s not only the 20-based system but the archaic expressions and reformulations, and even the mess with the spelling what makes them so pesky to learn. It was fun reading the explanation you suggested though.
   French numbers can be also quite strange and unnatural in the beginning, since a number like 97 would be “4*20+17”. BUT, danish wins! =)

2. 

    

   Nancy Edwards:

   Hello,

   I am a US citizen and descendant of Swedish immigrants, and I’m trying to solve a mystery regarding the original, correct pronunciation of my ancestor’s last name:

   I had heard—-but it was never 100% confirmed—-that when certain individuals came to the United States, the U.S. authorities would provide their own interpretation of the correct spelling and pronunciation of certain Scandinavian last names. So instead of writing down, letter by letter, the correct, given surname of the individual, they would write down something else and, going forward, that would be their last name. Period. (This happened in the 1800s).

   My question is, does anyone here know what the original spelling was of the name “Oaks”? Because I don’t believe that it was “Oaks” when my family was in Sweden. I believe it was something else—-perhaps it sounded the same but was spelled differently. The reason I’m suspicious is because I cannot, for the life of me, find records of my family before they came to the United States. And I know they came here from Sweden.

   Thanks so much for any insight you can provide.

   Nancy Edwards

3. 

    

   BM:

   C’mon Kenia, when it comes to expressions, there are no cows on the ice. Hang on, I’ve got to reboot, there’s a cock in my computer.

   —

   @Nancy Edwards:

   That could be a variety of names. Some suggestions below:
   Ek – A translation of “oak”, an apprentice tradesman’s surname
   Ox – An old noble name [does not mean you are nobility] also Oxenhufwud, Oxenstierna, amongst others
   Åkesson – Patronym, son of Åke. Possibly also Håkansson

   If I had to pick one, I’d pick Åkesson, based purely on probability, nothing else.

4. 

    

   Tibor:

   Dear Kenia!

   I agree but whenever I let go and do not concentrate too much I understnd Danish well. I think people block their brains somehow saying..”God I do´t understand it, I won´t..” Yes Danish wins big time.

5. 

    

   Tibor:

   Hi Nancy!

   I have to agree with BM on this one..I am thinking something with Åke-, Åker, But I really think when you say EK and maybe you add that is a tree oak is the first thing I am thinking of since Ek means Oak.

6. 

    

   Alison:

   Thank you for this interesting post! I’ve often heard from friends that Danish, Norwegian and Swedish are very similar, but I wonder if I went to Norway or Denmark and spoke Swedish would the locals be more likely to be impressed, or annoyed that I wasn’t just speaking English?? (I’m about lower elementary level in Swedish).

7. 

    

   Tibor:

   Well, it is very individual. But I think if a Danish and a Swedish speaking person having a conversation each of them in their native language, there is always an easier way to express yourself than through English. However there are many “false friends”..like avi in Dk means tidning in SWE means bill or check. I think for someone who speaks fluent Swedish but has another language as native language Norwegian is understandable from the beginning, takes only a little bit of practice and learning some major verbs and nouns that differ, while Danish can take up to 2 years of extra studying.

8. 

    

   BM:

   @Tibor

   According to this (http://www.norden.org/sv/publikationer/publikationer/2005-573/at_download/publicationfile) study, (particularly tables 4:6 and 4:11), Swedes understand Danish worse than the understand Norwegian, and their understanding of Norwegian is still less than 5/10. Norwegians, on the other hand, score better than 6/10 in understanding both Danish and Swedish.

   This should be quite unsurprising when one considers the diversity of Norwegian dialects and the tolerance shown towards these dialects by Norwegians. Even Norwegian immigrants out-perform immigrants to Sweden/Denmark in understanding the other two languages. Heck, Norwegian immigrants even do better than Danish and Swedish natives at understanding Swedish and Danish respectively!

   Swedes from Malmö understand Danish about 1,5 times as good as Swedes from Stockholm, but what Malmö gains in understanding Danish, they loose in understanding Norwegian (compared to Stockholm, of course). Oslo Norwegians, who speak an Eastern Scandinavian variety, are a star-turn at understanding Swedes, compared to Bergen Norwegians, who lean more to the Western Scandinavian varieties.

   Over all, we can say with certainty that Norwegians are best at understanding the other two languages. Next comes Swedes, and finally Danes. Both Swedes and Danes score less than 5/10. Norwegians do slightly better at around 6/10.

9. 

    

   Tibor:

   Hi BM!

   True, I read a resarch on this a few years ago. People from färöarna and Finland-Swedes were the bests at understanding/communicating in Interscandinavian. My experience is that Danes understand Riksvenska better than Malmö-dialect. While people from Malmö understands Danish better. People from Stockholm area have usually harder time to understand Norwegian and Danish. But of course it is very individual. No wonder that people understand Norwegian better here in Gothenburg..it is so near, besides the prosody is very similar. Värmland is also a good example when it comes to similarities with Norwegian. Another interesting thing is the Danish island of Bornholm where you understand Danish so well if you are a Swedish speaking person, but if you Danish you find that dialect harder and strange. The locals call “bornholmska” Allingesvensk sometimes.