What do the pseudo-French speak?

[Knan]

I was under the impression that Swedes and Norwegians (maybe others?) can understand each other's spoken languages fairly well, but to easily read another Nordic variant is a different story.

*cough* ... depends. To me, Norwegian<->Swedish is mutually intelligible when spoken, quite a bit worse when written. Norwegian<->Danish is the other way round, to the point where I have deep trouble conversing with Danes but few misunderstandings in writing.

And Icelandic is pretty much as obscure as Latin. We catch a fascinating old-fashioned word here and there, but the gist of things mostly escapes us.

 

[splicer]

I was under the impression that Swedes and Norwegians (maybe others?) can understand each other's spoken languages fairly well, but to easily read another Nordic variant is a different story.

*cough* ... depends. To me, Norwegian<->Swedish is mutually intelligible when spoken, quite a bit worse when written.

Hi Knan, and welcome to CotI! Glad to know I was at least partially correct.

Norwegian<->Danish is the other way round, to the point where I have deep trouble conversing with Danes but few misunderstandings in writing.

I hadn't considered the reverse situation!

And Icelandic is pretty much as obscure as Latin. We catch a fascinating old-fashioned word here and there, but the gist of things mostly escapes us.

I believe I'd heard something to that effect. I have no direct experience with any of this, so thanks for filling the gaps in my understanding with your real-life point of view. The whole truth is even more fascinating than I had imagined.