The Scandinavian languages are similar to each other, but also differ from each other. Here is an example that illustrates nicely some of the similarities and differences. I came across it in The Syntax of Icelandic, Höskuldur Thráinson (2007). Although Höskuldur Thráinson uses the example to make one specific point about word order, I use…… Continue reading Similarities and differences within Scandinavian languages
Tag: Article
Language sketch: Danish, Swedish and Norwegian
Here is a summary of some things I learnt about the Mainland Scandinavian languages (Danish, Swedish and Norwegian) a couple of years ago, when I was carrying out a self-imposed language challenge. http://languagemiscellany.com/2021/09/scandinavian-challenge-how-did-it-go/ I am commenting here only on those 3 languages, not their relatives, the insular Scandinavian Languages (Icelandic and Faroese). For an…… Continue reading Language sketch: Danish, Swedish and Norwegian
Cabinet of grammatical rarities
A Raritätenkabinett (cabinet of rarities) is a collection of things, living or dead, which are considered worth collecting (and perhaps exhibiting) because they are rare. An online collection of grammatical rarities is available at https://typo.uni-konstanz.de/rara/ The site classifies the items it contains into the following categories: rarum (plural rara): ‘a trait (of any conceivable sort:…… Continue reading Cabinet of grammatical rarities
Into the 2-word stage
When I last reported on my youngest granddaughter’s progress in learning language, she was still clearly at the 1-word stage (at 20 months). She was still there a couple of months later, though maybe just starting to produce 2-word phrases or statements. https://languagemiscellany.com/2022/04/early-words She recently had her 2nd birthday and is now very definitely in…… Continue reading Into the 2-word stage
Doing work and playing roles in Italian
Several constructions in Italian use the verb fare (‘do’, ‘make’). Two of these constructions look very similar on the surface but syntactically they behave in very different ways. A short book Fare: Elementi di sintassi, by Nunzio La Fauci and Ignazio M Mirto (2003) analyses them. Here are 2 examples: (1) Adamo fa il medicoAdam…… Continue reading Doing work and playing roles in Italian
How many cases are there in Hungarian and Finnish?
The Uralic languages are well known for having a large number of grammatical cases. The two Uralic languages with the most speakers are Hungarian and Finnish. Finnish has 15 cases and Hungarian has between 17 and 27 grammatical cases, depending on how some items are analysed. In contrast, looking only at some examples in languages…… Continue reading How many cases are there in Hungarian and Finnish?
So-Called “Pronouns” in English
Pronouns include forms such as I, we, you, he, she, it, they, as well as their inflected forms such as me, him, her, them and reflexives, such as myself, yourself. It is traditional to think of pronouns as replacing phrases containing a noun (noun phrases). For example, consider sentence (1) I ate the red apple.…… Continue reading So-Called “Pronouns” in English
Scandinavian language challenge day 17
Today I worked through chapter 5 of Swedish in three months, covering: asking and telling the timepossessive adjectives and possessive pronounspast tense of strong verbsomitting the indefinite articlerelative pronounsother words and idioms Asking and telling the time Hur mycket är klockan? / Vad är klockan? What is the time? Klockan är ett. / Det är ett.…… Continue reading Scandinavian language challenge day 17
Scandinavian language challenge day 9
Today I worked through the second chapter of Norwegian in three months, which introduces: the genitive;adjective endings: indefiniteadjective endings: definiteinfinitive and present tensequestions and answersother words Genitive Nouns add the suffix -s to form the possessive (genitive). Examples: naboens hage (the neighbours garden)båtens eier (the owner of the boat)landets grenser (The borders of the country)myndighetenes ansvar…… Continue reading Scandinavian language challenge day 9
Scandinavian language challenge day 8
Today I worked through the second chapter of Swedish in three months, covering: object pronouns verbs: present tense sentence building: questions and answers negatives question word: who, what plural of the definitive article the preposition på numbers 11-20 other words Object pronouns MeYou (familiar)You (polite)HimHerIt (common)It (neuter)UsYou (pl. fam)You (pl. pol)They DanishmigdigDemhamhendedendetosjerDemdem SwedishmigdighonomhennedenDetosserdem Verbs: present…… Continue reading Scandinavian language challenge day 8