The Nordic language Project Thread

[Deleted]

It's for a personal Nordic language project I have (you can see an example of it in the signature. Yes, it's work in progress so it doesn't look super right now).

If you're fluent in any other Nordic language you're free to join in too on the project, but so far it's fairly small-scale, I'm just doing this as a hobby.

[Deleted]

I'm no scandinavian, but try to stick to the latin alphabet. Just think of us poor foreigners trying to learn your languages. Accents are okay, as long as you don't do it vietnam-style (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnamese_language).

[Seiken3]

I'm Norwegian. How can I help?

[Deleted]

I'm no scandinavian, but try to stick to the latin alphabet. Just think of us poor foreigners trying to learn your languages. Accents are okay, as long as you don't do it vietnam-style (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnamese_language).

I've been trying to streamline the language so that it becomes easier for foreigners to learn, but also introduced new letters borrowed from Icelandic and Scandinavian Futhark (aka runic) to replace otherwise confusing wording (such as the sh/sj-sound in Swedish, where kitchen is called kök, but prounounced shoek, or hospital which is called sjukhus, but is pronounced shukhus).

I'm Norwegian. How can I help?

Bring some Norwegian into the language. I only have myself as a source, and I'm only fluent in Swedish and semi-fluent in Danish, so a lot of my wording is very Swedish.

[Deleted]

Well, it would be extremely difficult to include Finnish in there. The rest I could imagine!
Interesting project

Exactly. I don't want to leave out my Finnish brothers, especially since they have a language from an entirely different language family, which could bring some very interesting elements to the Nordic language.

[Deleted]

I've been trying to streamline the language so that it becomes easier for foreigners to learn, but also introduced new letters borrowed from Icelandic and Scandinavian Futhark (aka runic) to replace otherwise confusing wording (such as the sh/sj-sound in Swedish, where kitchen is called kök, but prounounced shoek, or hospital which is called sjukhus, but is pronounced shukhus).

Well that's nice, but we all live in an anglo-saxon dominated world - a world where letters are either capitals or not, no further modifications. If it's not on the keyboards, it's ain't a good letter (if you don't believe me, just ask the chinese what their keyboards look like). Can't you use letter combinations, like the sh in english ? H tends to be a good candidate for letter combinations.

[Inferis]

Scandinavia: Denmark, Norway, Sweden
The North: Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland

Interesting project, but leave the Finns out, their language is all messed up

[Deleted]

Well that's nice, but we all live in an anglo-saxon dominated world - a world where letters are either capitals or not, no further modifications. If it's not on the keyboards, it's ain't a good letter (if you don't believe me, just ask the chinese what their keyboards look like). Can't you use letter combinations, like the sh in english ? H tends to be a good candidate for letter combinations.

It's not as interesting to simply have another latin letter, then it's not a true Nordic language. Besides, I think a Nordic keyboard would look more like the Icelandic keyboard.
http://www.buypcsupplies.com/images/...ss_ndo4316.jpg, like you press a Num Lock-like button and you have Nordic language activated instead. Since I've removed some letters (such as C and Z) these buttons can be replaced by a runic letter.

[Azutael]

I've been trying to streamline the language so that it becomes easier for foreigners to learn, but also introduced new letters borrowed from Icelandic and Scandinavian Futhark (aka runic) to replace otherwise confusing wording (such as the sh/sj-sound in Swedish, where kitchen is called kök, but prounounced shoek, or hospital which is called sjukhus, but is pronounced shukhus).

What exactly is this project ? Attempting to construct a new language, based on Nordic ones, current and past languages even ?

With all due respect, I do not think that is feasible. Danish and Norwegian (at least the official languages) are very similar, Swedish not to far behind. But the other languages are very different. Finnish isn't even part of the same language family, and the Icelandic language is still rather similar to old Norse.
Runes do not support many of the sounds in the modern language, so you would need to add new ones.

Not to mention grammar would need a truly massive overhaul for it even to work slightly well.

[Deleted]

It's not as interesting to simply have another latin letter, then it's not a true Nordic language. Besides, I think a Nordic keyboard would look more like the Icelandic keyboard.

Not as interesting is a euphemism for not as complex. Do you want something simple to learn for all scandinavians or not ?

[Deleted]

What exactly is this project ? Attempting to construct a new language, based on Nordic ones, current and past languages even ?

With all due respect, I do not think that is feasible. Danish and Norwegian (at least the official languages) are very similar, Swedish not to far behind. But the other languages are very different. Finnish isn't even part of the same language family, and the Icelandic language is still rather similar to old Norse.
Runes do not support many of the sounds in the modern language, so you would need to add new ones.

Not to mention grammar would need a truly massive overhaul for it even to work slightly well.

It's a hobby project, not a political movement.

However, yes, I did realize that I couldn't have pure Runic letters, so I decided to come up with own sounds for them. So far the only Runic letter I have is Sowilo for the sh-sound, which is the Runic equalivent of S, so I thought it'd be fitting. I was trying to find a Runic replacement for "ng", but everything looked out of place with the exception of Fehu, but I'm saving that for another occasion, instead I use Thorn for the "ng"-sound.

As said, I'm not going to give up on Finnish and Icelandic, I do believe they can be, albeit limited, implemented. I've used Icelandic as the model for the new Nordic alphabet, and as stated, I think that adding Finnish would be very cool just because of it's entirely different origins.

And yes, grammar would need a massive overhaul, which is what I'm trying to streamline, thus why I use acute letters to differ between different pronounciations.

Not as interesting is a euphemism for not as complex. Do you want something simple to learn for all scandinavians or not ?

The simplifying of the language lies in streamlining of words and making the grammar follow the pronounciation precisely. If you learn the alphabet to 100%, you shouldn't have a problem with the spelling.

[Deleted]

Interesting project, but leave the Finns out, their language is all messed up

Hey! I'm taking that as an insult :P But I'm Finnish, is there something special you want me to do?

"Hei! Otan tuon loukkauksena :P Mutta minä olen suomalainen, onko sinulla jotain erityistä mitä haluat minun tekevän?"

[Deleted]

Hey! I'm taking that as an insult :P But I'm Finnish, is there something special you want me to do?

"Hei! Otan tuon loukkauksena :P Mutta minä olen suomalainen, onko sinulla jotain erityistä mitä haluat minun tekevän?"

PMed you.

Still no Icelander out there that wanna give it a shot?

[Woebegone]

... So write it in phonetics? Phonetic alphabet is pretty much only way to accomplish that.

Finns accomplish this just fine without phonetics. We barely ever need to ask how something is spelled or pronounced because they are the exact same thing.

[Reeve]

Finns accomplish this just fine without phonetics. We barely ever need to ask how something is spelled or pronounced because they are the exact same thing.

English is phonetically horrible when it comes to our spelling, yet it has somehow managed to become a world standard.

On a side note, I've spent too much time around Spanish speakers. My first impulse was to say "orthography" instead of spelling.

[kivipää]

Finns accomplish this just fine without phonetics. We barely ever need to ask how something is spelled or pronounced because they are the exact same thing.

Our language is handy, indeed. One of the most flexible, if not THE msot flexible language in the world.

F: Juosta
E: To run

F: Juoksennella
E: To run about aimlessly

F: Juoksentelisinkohan
E: I wonder if I would run about aimlessly

Also, this;
F: Järjestelmällistyttämättömyydelläänsäänkäänköhän
E: I wonder if he would have had even without his unsystematicalization (direct translation impossible, here's the closest one I'm able to provide)

[Azutael]

Well I wish you the best of luck, I think you are going to need it :O

Oh and perhaps you should include Sami ? it's closer to Finnish, and they have some interesting letters etc that might help you out.

Our language is handy, indeed. One of the most flexible, if not THE most flexible language in the world.

From an outsiders view it's horrible though, trying to pronounce Finnish words is a nightmare :P

[Brytryne]

Finnish isn't a language it's a code.

[Deleted]

Oh and perhaps you should include Sami ? it's closer to Finnish, and they have some interesting letters etc that might help you out.

Yes, I've been thinking about adding Sami, Kalaallisut and Faroese if possible, but for my "first edition" of Nordic I'll just start out with the major Nordic languages.

Our language is handy, indeed. One of the most flexible, if not THE msot flexible language in the world.

F: Juosta
E: To run

F: Juoksennella
E: To run about aimlessly

F: Juoksentelisinkohan
E: I wonder if I would run about aimlessly

Also, this;
F: Järjestelmällistyttämättömyydelläänsäänkäänköhän
E: I wonder if he would have had even without his unsystematicalization (direct translation impossible, here's the closest one I'm able to provide)

Are there other things about Finnish that are handy or "culturally important"?

[Woebegone]

English is phonetically horrible when it comes to our spelling, yet it has somehow managed to become a world standard.

Heh. When I watched American television shows as a kid, I just could not understand spelling bees. It didn't make any sense to me that someone could not spell a word that he just heard.