I have no idea. Norwegian was very much like Danish (when Norway was a part of Denmark), so the languages are very similar. (Norwegian and Danish is veruy somilar to Danish as well - the thhree Scandinavian countries basically shar a language). Norway and Denmark are the only countries that still have the three letters a, o and a. After the liberation, the Norwegians tried to restore the original old Norwegian language - Ny Norsk (New Norwegian), which was actually the old, pre-danish Norwegian language. Rather unsuccessfully, I'm afraid. Today Norwegian is still very similar to Danish, with small differences, especially the spelling. Basically we do understand each other very well. Both are of course Germanic languages, which share the most common words (with Germany and England); like hand, finger, eye, man, arm, boat, house, way, see, hear, ear, feel, friend etc. etc. I guess the people on both sides of the North Sea did understand eachother very well a thousand years ago. During the dark medieval ages the languages in each country changed - evolved in different directions, so to speak.
It seems that the spelling changes significantly when ever a new state is officially formed. This may be the explanation for the proposed Euro-English language. EU even tried to agree on a shared EU constitution some time ago - unsuccessfully as you all know. I believe Euro English will eventually share the same destiny. Regards Jens Bladt Arkitekt MAA http://hjem.get2net.dk/bladt -----Oprindelig meddelelse----- Fra: Bob W [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sendt: 4. september 2005 23:52 Til: [email protected] Emne: RE: EuroEnglish (Was: Same lenses ...) > The Norwegians are even better - they spell everything just > like it's pronounced. Does everybody have the same accent, or do people with different accents spell things differently to suit their pronunciation? -- Cheers, Bob
