From: frans@sis.uucp (Frans Lichtenberg)
Subject: Re: Understanding language (Was: Re:  <None>)
Organization: Sheridan College
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1992 12:24:54 GMT

In article <ANDERS.92Jul28005142@lise4.lise.unit.no> anders@lise4.lise.unit.no (Anders Christensen) writes:
>In article <1992Jul27.173931.2526@corax.udac.uu.se> andersa@Riga.DoCS.UU.SE (Anders Andersson) writes:
>> In article <ANDERS.92Jul27023440@lise12.lise.unit.no>, anders@lise12.lise.unit.no (Anders Christensen) writes:
>> > It is a test given by military recruits, performed in the seventies.
>> >
>> >               Understands:  Swedish  Danish  Norwegian  Average         
>> >                      --------------------------------------------------
>> > Swedish recruits               -       23%     48%        36%
>> > Danish recruits               49%       -      69%        58%
>> > Norwegian recruits            88%      73%      -         81%
>> > 
>
>[...]
>
>> > Comments on those numbers?
>>
>> I'd like to see averages calculated by language as well.  Assuming
>> that the number of recruits of each nationality was the same, they
>> might be something like:
>> 				   69%      48%     59%
>> 
>> Perhaps that tells something about which language is easiest to
>                                                       ^^^^^^^
>> understand (even though I admit that the difference is not as
>> striking as for the averages by nationality)..?
>
>Oops ... jumping to conclusions, are we?  :-)
>
>According to these numbers, Swedish is the language most understood by
>people from the two other countries.  But that does not mean that
>Swedish is easiest to understand. I can think of several reasons
>for the high number of Norwegians understanding Swedish:
>
>1) A relative large proportion of the population in Norway lives close
>   to the Norwegian/Swedish border, and regularly can (and do) watch
>   Swedish television.
>
>2) A lot of Swedish terms has been imported into Norwegian, initially
>   often as slang.
>
>3) Radio and TV in Norway don't mind sending music with Swedish text.
>   In fact, Swedish LP/CD/whatever are often sold 'as-is' in Norway,
>   without being translated.
>
>4) Norwegians, when speaking to Swedes, tend to fill in some Swedish
>   words in the conversation, to make it more easy to understand, and
>   thus not 'forcing' Swedes to understand Norwegian. I have seldom
>   heard Swedes do the same thing.
>
>Of course, some of these reasons interact, e.g. 2) may partly be a
>result of 1).  Correct me if I'm wrong, but none of these points are
>generally true about Sweden? If so, that might explain some of the
>numbers. 
>
>This means that Norwegians, in general, have been much more exposed to
>Swedish, both in spoken and written form, than Swedes have been
>exposed to Norwegian. Interpreting that as Swedish is 'easier' to
>understand than Norwegian ... well, that seems to be a bit farfetched
>to me.
>
>I think the most striking numbers emerge when you look at any two
>languages separately:
>
>  1) 73% Norw. understand Danish, 69% Danes understand Norw. 
>
>  2) 23% Swedes understand Danish, 49% Danes understand Swedish
> 
>  3) 48% Swedes understand Norw., 88% Norw. understand Swedish
>
>In 1) the numbers are about identical, in 2) and 3) the number of
>Swedes understanding the other language is about half of the number of
>persons speaking that language who understand Swedish. Why does Swedes
>seemingly understand the other languages less than Danes and
>Norwegians (except from the old unfruitful and flamish arguments about
>being "stupid and arrogant").
>
>-anders

I don't know what the situation is to day but 30 years ago in danish
schools swedish was mandatory in grade 8 and 9. Plus swedish TV was
much better. That could be the reason so many danes understand swedish.

	Frans......